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Christmas Card

Here's the best idea that I've had (well, I stole) - but it turned out so great. Here's our picture for our Christmas card this year. So - We Wish Everyone a Silent Night and a Very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Card Pictures

Last year I had this great idea - the best part, I remembered the great idea and actually am using it this year. I couldn't show you the 'actual' Christmas card picture because it is fabulous (and Monica made me promise not to post it). So, if you're on my Christmas card list, you'll be getting one soon. If not, I'll post it closer to Christmas. I do have to mention that it contains duct tape - the staple of life with boys.

So, here's the other pictures of the kids, they turned out pretty good! They're all hams and love to have their pictures taken.

Looks who's 5

This birthday was a big one for Ryker. We talked about it for days, counted down, and then he asked several times, "Will you tell everyone to wish me a happy birthday?" Or, "Is everyone going to sing to me today? Tell them to sing good." That comment is really for his dad, who likes to sign off key. If you've ever been at our house for a birthday you know that the birthday song gets really off key, really fast. No matter how loud I sing and try to keep everyone on key, dad can sing louder and way off key. I guess it's a memory for my kids. They won't know how to really sing the birthday song. Turning 5 was pretty great!

Football

Jaxon and his team played on Saturday to see who would win the championship. Their team played well, but didn't win. Jaxon had a wonderful time playing football and seemed to enjoy every minute. He can't wait until next year. I missed this game, due to training in Salt Lake, but Jaxon got quite a bit of support from Grandma and Grandpa Cressall. They came out to see his game! He was thrilled. Grandma and Grandpa even treated the kids to McDonalds that evening. Couldn't ask for anything better!! It will be sad now I won't have games on Saturday to go and see, but I'm sure I'll find a few games on TV - have I mentioned how much I love FOOTBALL!! I just need a little more time to give it my full attention.

Halloween

Halloween is one of the best times of the year for the kids. You would think that it is all about the candy - but oddly, that is not their favorite part. They love dressing up, but one of the best things is handing out candy at the door. Wierd, huh? They love to answer the door and give out candy. Sometimes we even end up giving out the candy that they've got from trick-or-treating. It's actually really nice, I monitored to make sure Cannon didn't escape outside, which he tried several times, I'm not sure if it was the cool costumes or just being outside!! I loved dressing Cannon up as the 'baby dinosaur' since Ryker told everyone that he was the 'big' dinosaur. I think he really was a dragon, but hey, on Halloween you can be anything you want. Luckily we were able to find costumes in our stash to fit everyone!!


Seriously, the cutest costume EVER!!


All the kids in their costumes. Cannon was really mad that he had to come in from outside. He really wanted to walk around the neighborhood with all the kids.

Eyelashes

Cannon was blessed with exceptionally long eyelashes. WOW! They especially seem long when they're wet. I've been meaning to take a picture and show them off for quite a while. Usually Cannon showers so taking a picture is a little harder - he's started liking the bath. Wierd that he likes the shower more than the bath, but hey, he's going to love the rain!

Carving Pumpkins

Carving pumpkins is not my favorite thing to do. I hate pulling out all the guts and I really hate all the mess. This year was extra exciting, since Jared was busy leveling the garage floor and we invited (maybe they were just there) friends to help us. We had Gaven, Logan and Ryan join us this year with Jaxon, Gunnar, Jerrick, Ryker and Monica. Hmmmm too many knives . . .

Overall it was a fun time had by all, well, except the party pooper in the group named mom. We ended up carving eight pumpkins, well, I carved most of them and gutted most of them too. The kids had a great time! The best was checking to see how many 'guts' each pumpkin had. Who knew things like that were so important. The pumpkins all turned out great! I'm glad that's over for a whole year!! Below are pictures of the excitement. I didn't even think about getting picture during the process since I was elbow deep in 'really cool' pumpkin guts and there were too many knives and too many kids to worry about pictures!!!

Happy Birthday Cannon

A whole year . . . where has the time gone. We celebrated by eating cake - well, we let Cannon destroy his cake. We made him a cool dinosaur cake and a mini cake for destruction!! It was hard to buy a gift for the 5th boy - what could he possibly need! He was lucky enough to get a package of diapers, an outfit and a toy! Our neighbors brought him over a bath toy (his older brothers had a lot of fun with it - maybe tonight he'll get his turn to play with it!) Cannon's probably destined to always be on the losing end of presents!! Maybe he'll have an interest in something we don't have . . .

New York Skyline

This is my favorite picture of all the pictures that I took this last week (the lighthouse is a close second). This one is actually three pictures combined to make the New York skyline. I changed the photos background color and grain and came up with this . . .

New England Cruise

Our New England cruise was fantastic - well there was the rain in Saint John . . . that was interesting. We took a photography tour - ideas to make our photos turn out spectacular. I learned quite a bit - but mostly, I learned how to take pictures in the rain with a camera that can't get wet. Basically, I got really wet while keeping my camera dry. On the cruise we did a lot of eating, sleeping, wandering around and mostly just hanging out together.

We stopped at Boston, Portland, Saint Johns and Halifax. We even brought the kids candy from Canada. If you don't know about Smarties - you're missing out. They're like M&M's, sort of. The cruise was a nice de-stresser, although about day 4 I really started missing my kids. It was wierd to be gone for so long . . . now that I'm home and the laundry has started, maybe it would be nice to be back on the ship where everything is done for you - they even turn down your bed at night and leave you a little chocolate. It really can't get any better - Gunnar even asked about his favorite part - 24 hour ice cream. We might have seen the ice cream a few too many times. Ahhh - it was great! Now back to the real world! Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

New York

Today was an eventful day! We walked, saw sights, walked some more, saw more things - realized we were only a street or two away from the other things that we wanted to see - but had no idea . . . learned that New York was the first capitol of the United States. Saw the place where George Washington was inaugurated. Saw the Hello Deli from David Letterman, lots of tall buildings, several beautiful churches, the LDS temple, ground zero, the Statue of Liberty, we also saw part of central park, the naked cowboy (not really naked) in Times Square, the Dakota (the place where John Lennon lived and was shot), the flat iron building, rode the Staton Island Ferry, took my picture with SpongeBob Square Pants, went to the M&M and Hershey's Store, walked down Wall Street, saw the New York Stock Exchange, went to the top of Rockefeller Center . . . WOW! It was great - probably too much to fit into one day, but we tried. I think we could stay for a week and still not see everything - but today was worth it. New York is an amazing city. So here's a picture summary of our day . . .

Haircuts and Football

Cannon had his first haircut. It was tramatic for him and me. I am sad to see the curls go. When he falls asleep in my arms and his head gets all sweaty, his hair curls, it is so dang adorable. Too bad, those curls are gone. We had a bout with head lice (not exactly my highlight as a mother!). Because I thought that there might be a possibility that Cannon had them, we shaved him. Jerrick had already had a haircut, but then decided to take the hand trimmer and trim up the top of his head. So he had this nice bald spot. It's all fun and games until mom wants to 'fix' your haircut!! At least it helped to tell him that he was twins with Cannon.


Football season has started. Jaxon, Gunnar and Jerrick are playing football this year. Jaxon is in a league where they wear full pads and tackle. Gunnar and Jerrick are playing flag football. Everyone is having a great time - especially Jaxon. He loves it when he plays defense so he can tackle people. He had been playing offense lately and he is a little bummed - he says that he just can't tackle people the same way! Gunnar and Jerrick like the first part of football. By the third quarter, they are ready to be done. I'm trying to bribe them by telling them every flag they pull, I'll pay them a dollar. So far, I've only paid out $2 - but I know when they figure this out, I could be poor. We've been spending about 3 hours on Saturdays watching games. So far, Jaxon's team has won both games. Gunnar and Jerrick's team only plays against one other team and they have lost every game. The other team is stacked with some pretty good (and fast) players. We keep telling them that everyone is a winner - but Gunnar is too smart - he keeps track of the touchdowns.

Since we have cool football pads and helmets, everyone has to try it on . . . (no wonder they all have been exposed to lice). Our washer and dryer have been on overload!! Everyone had a great time with Cannon in Jaxon's pads. Mostly they just laughed at him when he couldn't move. The fun things you can do with a younger brother!!