Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we went out to my parents' house for hors d'oeuvres and Christmas Eve activities.

The kids colored pictures of the nativity. Some didn't last very long.

 

 

They opened their Christmas jammies from Grandma and Grandpa

 

 

These guys know the routine now, they would say things like, "I wonder what our pajamas will be like this year." or "I can't wait to open our pajamas from Grandma."  Little stinkers. ;)

 

Back at home we had to get our yearly pics in front of the tree.

Ready for Santa to come:

Catmull Christmas Party

This year the theme for the Catmull Christmas party was The Polar Express! We came in our pajamas and had breakfast for dinner. Now that's my kind of party!!! Nate's cousin did an amazing job, there was every kind of cereal imaginable on the cereal bar, as well as all the traditional breakfast foods.  I really do need to take better pictures of her work. We got our tickets punched and boarded the "train" headed for the North Pole, and guess what? Santa was there!!

Braiden:

 

Santa should have brought one of these for all the kids so they don't fight over it during church. ;)

 

Hudson:

All things Ninja Turtle for this kid!

 

Brody:

 

Brody got a Boise State football.

 

No tears this year!!

 

 

Joslyn is saying, "I wanted this!"

 

Such a fun evening, and a fun tradition!

Trick-or-Treat

 

How did August turn in to November??? I feel bad that I have neglected my blog for so long. 

I've been working on Hudson's baby scrapbook lately (when I can find the time) and I realized something, this blog is very valuable!! There is a ton of journaling to do but he was born 5 almost 6 years ago!! There's a lot that I don't remember, little details you know (which is sad.) So I turn to my blog, I love, love, love, looking back and reading and watching my little munchkins grow and change!

 

We made it through football season, 3 boys on 3 different football teams, it was pretty wild! They love it, and I love it when it is over...I mean when it is over I can look back and say, that was fun! :) My 11 year old knows more about the sport than I do. He knows the calls the refs on TV are going to make before they make them!! eiyiyi! I'm glad they love it and I'm glad that they can share that with their dad.

 

I am enjoying my new calling, I am learning so much! It really makes me study and rely on the spirit.  2 weeks ago my lesson was on How Can I Develop Christlike Love?  I fell in love with the talk by President Uchtdorf The Merciful Obtain Mercy I read that talk over and over I even made handouts to go with the lesson.  Well, Saturday night rolled around and I was putting together my lesson, organizing all of my thoughts and not one part of that talk made it into my lesson, I even threw the handouts away. I ended up doing my whole lesson on President Monson's talk: Charity Never Faileth.  It was the Lord's way of telling me, "Yes, you needed to hear, The Merciful Obtain Mercy. But the girls need, Charity Never Faileth. I am so grateful for the spirit to guide me though this, I could not do it with out!! I showed this video, I bawl and bawl every time I watch it.  This Church is amazing!!!

 

Little Joslyn is in dance and she is loving it!! Her first performance is tomorrow!! I can't wait to watch her. She asks me just about every day if she has dance. If I say no she gets mad at me and says "you always say no dance today!!"

 

Hudson is in kindergarten and is doing so great! I am amazed at the stuff they are learning!! WOWEE! But they get it, those young minds are little sponges soaking it all in.  I help in his class on Tuesdays for 30 min.  It is so funny to see those little kids, they are always excited to see me (I'm not sure why... ;) ) "Hi, Mrs. Catmull!!!" They say, so cute!

 

 

Here are my kiddos on Halloween:

 

 

I made Hudson be Peter Pan, he was OK with it in the end.  Joslyn was Tinkerbell & we had that awesome costume from when Braiden was Peter Pan hmmm 6 years ago (?) When he was 5.  So he had to! At first he'd say everyone is going to think it's dumb! :( But when it all boils down, all they want to do is dress up! Mom and I bought Brody's costume the day before at Target, it's pretty much all they had left. He is out growing the cartoon character or super hero costumes, so this was our choice.  I don't care for the disgusting mask but there again, all they really want to do it dress up & he thought it was fabulous! Braiden was a Hobo. He is at the age where you have to be creative with costumes.  He came up with the idea, I made it happen! I'm all about that!! I guess on Halloween his school is on the 1:00 bell schedule and then at 1:00 they have a Halloween dance in the gym.  Imagine my relief when he told me that he forgot his activity card and $2.00 and didn't really care to go.  So he and his best friends went to his Advisory teachers room and watched The Croods. Fewsh!! I'm glad we're not there yet!

After school we went over to Nate's grandma's to trick-or-treat and the kids found her GIANT leaf pile! I've never seen them have so much fun!! I love this pic of them smiling so big and having fun together! Brody is off to the side raking the leaves into a bigger pile.

Here I think Tinkerbell is throwing leaves at the two boys.  She really is a rotten little stinker in the movie.  In the Tinkerbell movies she is sweet and creative and friendly but in Peter Pan she is a naughty little fairy.  We're going Secret of the Wings here! :)

Happy Fall Y'all!!

More in June

The kids begged to set up the tent in the basement:



 

Braiden earned his Arrow of Light:

June= baseball every night of the week.:

And swimming every morning. Braiden and Brody were on the swim team, it was a great routine to be in, and they really improved their swimming. Hudson and Joslyn each did 2, 2 week sessions of lessons. I was one happy mama when they were done! Swim Team practice continued every morning (M-F) through July!

Here's Hudson:

I finally joined the 21 century and got a smart phone. The first app I downloaded was Instagram, LOVE IT! Maybe Instagram is to blame for my absence here. :}

Playing catch with dad in the back yard.

 

Hudson's t-ball game:

I snapped this picture of the outside temp on the way to a baseball game. GAG! That is too hot!!

Finishing up with baseball (the week after the 4th) Braiden's first year in live pitch baseball.

Brody's team played in the championship game and they got creamed! It was a hard loss. They were undefeated all season. :(

 Second Place:

 

 

Somehow in between all of that I managed to find time to read. (I can always find time to read)



 

 

Son was the last book in Lois Lowry's Giver series and it was such a good book!!! Loved it!

 

The best day of the month:

♥♥ June 30th- Nate and I celebrated our 13th anniversary! ♥♥

 

First Days of Summer Break

 

Here are Hudson's hands after 4 days:

 

 

Those blisters are huge! I put Silvadene on them and bandage them morning and night.  One night after I got done fixing him up he started to sing, "I feel better, so much better, thank you Doc for taking all the ouchies away." It's the little song they sing on Doc McStuffins. So cute! It made me tear up!

 

Here's his hands after 7 days! Looking much better!

 

He missed his first T-ball game, we didn't think that would be very fun for him, swinging a bat and such.

 

Baseball starts full force this week, so for the next 4-5 weeks we will be at the ball park every night of the week! Braiden and Brody's games are Mon/Wed and Hudson's games are on Tues/Thurs.  It should be an interesting year, it will be Brody's first year of pitching machine (and that takes some getting used to) and Braiden's first year of Live Pitch, so we will see how it goes.

 

So if our evenings are spent at the ball park our mornings might as well be spent at the pool.  I signed the older 2 boys up for swim team this year. They are not quite sure about it yet, so far it has been pretty chilly at 8:00 a.m. low to mid 50's , good thing the pool is heated right? It will be SO good for them!!

 

We got signed up for the summer reading program at the library and have already checked out a good stack of books.  Joslyn picked Barbie and Disney Princess, go figure. :) It is part of their daily routine after swimming it's home, shower, chores, reading, lunch then free time.  Mean ole mom!

 

 

 

This is the tree,

This is the tree that Joslyn looks out the window and says, "OH CUTE!"

This is the tree that Braiden says is "infested with bees."

This is the tree that STINKS to high heaven!!

Every year for the first few days it's in bloom I walk around the house and I wonder what is that smell? Then I realize it's coming from the tree which is surprising because a tree that is that "cute" should not smell like that! :)

 

Only 5 days until the relay!!! Holy Smokes!!!

We got our start time the other day...2:45 a.m. It's gonna be a party!!!

Our shirts came in on Friday, you just wait until you see them, they are awesome!!

The forecast is looking very promising (knock on wood) YAY!

I've revamped my playlist a bit. (it's about time) It needed it bad.

I am running the down hill portion of the race. Lets see... I loose 1,401 feet in elevation and gain 0 ft. in 6.02 miles, YIKES! I had my mother in law drive me up Pomerelle mountain 6 miles then I ran down to the car, just to see how I'd do. I think down hill is my thing!?!  I think I should do fine, time will tell. My second leg should be easy, that is if I can move after my first leg. 

Wish me luck! On the bottom of the page I put up a playlist of a few of my favorite running songs, what do you think? What's your favorite workout song?

 

 

Braiden's 5th Grade Graduation

May 24: Braiden's 5th Grade Graduation

AKA: My boys last day of elementary school,  say whaaaa?

 

Here he is marching in

 

Receiving The Principal's Award which is like a "diploma" for the fifth graders that are leaving.

 

And here he is marching out

 

 

Ok...so I held it together pretty good, but when we got home I started bawling...ok sobbing. :(

I have been ok with my kids moving on the next stage of things but I am not ok with THIS. I am not ready to send my boy to middle school, I am not ready to throw him to the wolves I. am. NOT. READY. Well, I have a whole summer to prepare myself, but I am afraid that even after that I still will not be ready.



 

 

Braiden's Birthday

 

 

Braiden turned 11 earlier this month!!! WOW! He had a fun and exciting birthday weekend! Friday after school we picked up him and all of his friends from school and took them swimming to 1000 Springs.  Those boys had a blast and swam for 2+ hrs. the only reason they got out of the pool was because they were hungry! We stopped in Twin and took them to Chick-Fil-A for dinner, yummy! That just might have been the most fun and relaxing birthday party I've ever done! hip hip!

 

Saturday, his actual birthday, we got up early and headed to Pocatello for Bella's baptism, and then hit Costco before heading to Idaho Falls for Ashlyn's baptism.

 

 

 

Here's those two sweet girls on their special day!

Special day for all three...The birthday boy and the baptism girls.

I had to do this...on Ashlyn's blessing day I took a picture of these three who are so close in age Dec (Brody) Jan (Bella) and Feb (Ashlyn)

Ashlyn           Bella                Brody

Now here they are...8 years later!

Ashlyn Brody Bella

All the girls

Regan, Kailey, Ashlyn, Bella, Emily

Joslyn, Lillian

 

* just a little side note of one proud auntie, my two nieces (Kailey and Em) did the music for Ash's baptism and I was BLOWN away!!! Kailey has passed me up on the piano, as in she played a song that I had to practice to death to be able to play. WOW!  Em lead the music, and they are so young, think of how great they are going to be when they are older!!! 

After a little Chuck-a -Rama and some sledding we headed for home, we stopped at Dick's Sporting Goods and Braiden got to pick out a new pair of shoes for his birthday.

Home at last...at about 10:00 he got to open the rest of his birthday presents...

Since 2 days of partying is never enough we went up to gma and gpa Catmull's after church on Sunday for dinner and cake...and more presents. :)

 

Make a wish!

I think he had a great birthday, as for the birthday party, we'll be doing that again! It was the perfect activity for a late winter/early spring party.

Will You Be My Valentine?

Here's my little Valentine, well one of them any way.

 

We had a fun Valentine's week, I got the kids little mailboxes and put little surprises in them all week long.  I think I had just as much fun leaving them as they did finding them each day!

The 5th grade classes had a Valentine box contest, Here's Braiden's box...

 

We got on pinterest to look for ideas and this is what he chose.  He had to make the box himself "with very little help from a parent." Which was hard for me! We had a great time working on this together, (you know, me gathering the proper supplies and talking him through it. ;) ) It turned out great!

 

The kids got Peter Pan for Valentine's Day they have loved it! Hudson especially, he begged me to get the costume box down because there is a Peter Pan costume in it.  Well, he has been wearing the Peter Pan hat everywhere we go now.  It's great to be 5!

Brody is SO funny, he is my "What If..." boy Oh the things he comes up with! Sometimes the entire dinner conversation consists of What ifs, and when he gets rolling it gets everyone else involved too, even me..."what if we all ate our dinner?" (yeah I'm a grouch like that.) Here's an example, I think from watching a little too much Peter Pan. Brody- "Mom what if we could fly to Disneyland?" or another popular one is "what if our house was made of__________________?" (insert any number of foods here)  (fruit loops was a recent one) You name it, he has what if'd it, money falling from the sky...yup! Food falling from the sky...yup. A Disneyland ride in our backyard...yup. He has an imagination, I'll give him that!

This is Joslyn on Sunday...(you might wonder why all the pics I take of her are in the piano room...Well whenever I say, "let's go take your picture" that's where she goes. And it has the best light. Anyway I spent more time on her hair than I did on mine, she was sooo good about it too!

Pretty Baby, she is still my baby, I think I'll call her that forever!

Speaking of Sunday...I watched the season finale of Downton Abbey Sunday night...all I can say is OH Season 3 you make my heart ache!!! Too bad it's over, it went sooo fast! Now we have to wait another 10.5 months for season 4 to start.  Never seen Downton Abbey? Well you have plenty of time to get caught up!! (I have seasons 1 & 2 on DVD if you need to borrow)  I think I'm going to watch season one of Call the Midwife (I've heard it's great!)before season 2 starts at the end of March, that should tide me over for awhile!

The boys have been playing basketball for the last month and a half, they love it and I really enjoy watching their games and Nate is wondering what the heck he got himself into coaching both of their teams!!! There is only a week left though, I never take pictures because the lighting in that gym is horrible!! But they are having fun, and when that is over we will get a little break until baseball starts!

I had a brief lapse in judgement when I sent in my registration for the Sawtooth Relay again...eyeyiyi! Natalie is on our team this year, we are so excited that she agreed to do the race with us!! Let's pray for better weather this year!!!