Noah's birthday

Noah turned 9 this year. I can't believe he is already that age. It just seems like yesterday that he was this cute, cuddly baby boy I was bringing home from the hospital. His birthday was the 6th of this month. It was on a Tuesday and I asked him where he wanted to go to dinner and he said, "Iggy's". I love Iggy's. I think the only downfall they have is that they serve Pepsi products. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a Diet Cokeaholic. I asked Noah why he wanted to go there and he said it was because they have the huge TV that you can watch sports on. After dinner I asked him if he wanted to go to a movie and he said that he wanted to go bowling. We have probably only been bowling once together so I'm not sure where this came from. Anyway, thats what we did and it was actually really fun. We went to the All Star lanes in Sandy. I didn't do very well. It's been way too long since I played. I wish I would've brought my camera to get some pictures. Saturday, he got to have a party with his friends. I let him do a friend party every other year. We did it at the West Valley rec center. We had a room reserved off the side of the pool. The kids got to swim and we had pizza and cake. It was a really fun time.




Sunday, we had my family over for dinner and cake and ice cream. It was fun but quite chaotic to have everyone in my little condo. After dinner, we played the Wii for a little while. I'm still cleaning up confetti that I scattered all over the table trying to decorate. Anyway, Noah had a good time and a good birthday. Don't ya just love the big cheeser smile??

Christmas

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We had a wonderful holiday filled with lots of yummy food, family, friends and fun activities. Noah and I attempted to put together a gingerbread house but it didn't turn out very well. The frosting was kinda crappy so we couldn't get it to do what we wanted it to. It was still a fun time. On Christmas eve, we went to my parents house for a nice ham dinner. It was great. We really missed the Thompson family. They were at Raleigh's parents this year. We did white elephants and I ended up with a cute welcome wreath for my front door. Thanks Kristi. All of the kids brought a stocking and then each family put a small treat or toy in their stocking. The kids totally loved it. For about the last 4 years, we have had a tradition of having my parents wrap a gift over and over with packaging tape so that it is really hard to open and then we play a game where you roll two dice and if it totals seven, you get a chance at unwrapping the gift. The trick is you have to unwrap it with oven mitts. Some of my siblings get pretty aggressive but it is always fun to play and watch. The present is usually a gift card to a restaurant or store. Fun times. We also had a talent show by the grand kids. Noah did some magic tricks. Who knew my son was a magician? (: Siera sang a song and surprised us all with how great of a voice she has. Harmony also sang and also has such a cute voice. Abi danced and wore the most adorable costume. Caleb played a song on the piano that he learned off the Internet. He is definitely a chip off the old block. I truly have the cutest nieces and nephews. I had Noah this year for Christmas eve and Christmas morning. Noah got an MP3 player, basketball, DVD's and some books. We went over to my parents Christmas morning and they gave us a Wii for Christmas. It has been so much fun. We are still learning how to play everything and I recently just purchased the Wii Fit so I'm starting to use that. Noah also made me a gingerbread house for Christmas (which he still won't let me throw away) and he gave me one of the seasons of King of Queens on DVD. It is one of my favorite shows. Anyway, here are some of the photos I took.

Breakfast with Santa

I know this seems a little late but I am still behind on blogging. I'm going to try and get caught up. This year we went to Hogle Zoo for a breakfast with Santa. It turned out to be really fun. A girl at work told me she had taken her kids and how much fun they had so I told Noah about it and he wanted to do it. They had a really good breakfast. Then the kids got to sit on Santa's lap and get a photo with him and make a Christmas ornament. Later after everyone was done eating, some of the zoo workers brought in different animals for the kids to see and touch if they wanted to. They brought in a couple of different kinds of birds, lizards and they even brought in a snake which I stayed far away from. It was a fun experience and something different to do at Christmas time.