One more Christmas Story

The Monday night before Christmas we were having family night. I always give my primary lesson which works out great! So we were talking about the birth of the Savior. At the end of the lesson we were talking about gifts that we could give Jesus since we are celebrating His birthday. Matthew hadn't really taken a nap that day so he was really cranky and didn't appreciate me asking him questions. So I was trying to help him. I was suggesting that we could be nice to others and Jesus might think that would be a good gift. Then I was trying to get more specific and I suggested that maybe we should be nice to Brayden and share our toys. So I said, "Matthew, do you think that is a good idea?" And before Matthew could answer Brayden (who up until this point had been running in circles around the room) came around the couch and shouted, "YEAH!!!"

Really Long Christmas Post!

Sorry this post is so long but I haven't had much computer time but I can't use that excuse any more...Nate got me a laptop for Christmas! It was way out of the budget we agreed on but he said it is for my B-day, anniversary and any other holiday that is coming up! I am excited and trying to break it in! (I am kind of computer illiterate so it may take a while!)

So Christmas really started on December 17th! The day it snowed at our house in Henderson! Here are a lot of pictures (I know not exciting for you all who live where it snows but very exciting for us who endured 115 degree heat all summer).

Not too bad a little accumulation!

Even better, we could make a few good snowballs with this stuff!

Holy sweetness! I feel like we are back in Montana now!

This is Matthew's lawn mower, he was pretty upset that it had snow all over it! He cleaned it off multiple times!

Our house!

Sledding at our park and in front of our house. All of the neighbors were out and we had a great time just pulling each other up and down the street.

It was a great day! I couldn't help but smile all day. We put on Christmas music and made Christmas cookies. It was wonderful! Call me crazy but I miss the snow!

Brayden is our cookie dough tester. I go through about 5-6 spatulas for just one batch because every time I turn around Brayden has a spatula in his mouth, one time it only had butter on it. Yuck! Although he thought it was great!

Santa came to our house and both Matthew and Brayden were on his list. Matthew was excited but Brayden was a little scared. The missionaries came too and gave us a little spiritual message too.

These are from Christmas morning. Matthew got a train which he has been attached to ever since. We went over to my cousin's house for Christmas dinner and after about 2 hours or so Matthew came up to Nate and told him that we needed to go home because he missed his train and his train missed him too. Brayden loves his dump truck and drives it all over the house!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Way behind

Here are some random pictures from Thanksgiving (I know it is almost Christmas but I haven't had a lot of computer time and our computer is being really slow so it is hard to be motivated to sit and wait for pictures to be uploaded, I know I am lazy)

It was my sister's birthday and she got a lamb cake. I know it looks a little funny but my Grandma Gooch used to make these for all of our birthdays so it was fun to have it!


Brayden in my parent's little red wagon. He loved it we could hardly keep him out!



Having fun with cousins.

Having fun with Grandpa and his cool truck!

We also had a wonderful Gooch family reunion. It was way fun! And we haven't had an official Gooch reunion since before I was born! It was fun to see everyone together and let the kids play!

Also, Nate and I ran another 10k. I beat my last time by about 5 minutes or so. So I was happy. Of course I don't have a picture, again. Oh well, I really did run it even if I don't have proof!

Lots of other cool things have happened like; playing in the snow, making cookies and a surprise visit from Santa but I will have to post about that later. I am tired and going to bed!

Twilight, sleeping and Christmas Trees

A little update of what has been going on in our life:

Had a wonderful girls night out to go and see the movie Twilight. It was fun to eat dinner and chat and to be excited like teenagers for a movie :o) Nate was wonderful and didn't complain. The boys were in fed and in bed by the time I got home, it was great.

The movie was ok, the book was much better (as usual). It was still entertaining. And I have found that my criteria for a good movie has changed. If it doesn't have any sex, swearing, and can keep me awake it is classified as a good movie!

Our group!

Lately Matthew has been fighting us on nap time. So on Sunday I didn't make him take one (we have 1pm church and it is hard to get him down at 11am). He seriously fell asleep mid sentence. He was telling me that he wasn't tired :o)

This year we are headed to AZ for Thanksgiving, so we decided to get a head start on our Christmas decorations. So for Family Home Evening we set up the tree. The boys already broke 4 ornaments and I lost count how many times Matthew has rearranged the ornaments!

Life in the Desert

So we went to my parent's house in Arizona last weekend and my dad kindly offered to watch the boys while Nate and I ran a few errands. We came back to find the boys in the pool in November (my parent's pool isn't heated). It was a nice 60 degrees in the pool. Matthew of course thought it was great and Brayden was trying to enjoy it but it was a little cold, not that I blame him.

Shortly after I took these pictures my dad convinced Matthew to jump all the way in the pool. As soon as he came up he looked at us and said, "I'm all wet" and then his teeth started to chatter. My dad then tried to convince him that he needed to stay in and then he would be warm. Matthew looked at him like he was crazy and we to get a towel :o)

Haircut

I cut the boy's hair last night. I almost cried cutting Brayden's. He has the cutest curl in the back of his hair and I love it. I have only cut his hair a couple of times but Nate has been asking me to cut it for a while now as it was getting really long. I kept ignoring his requests until a little boy across the street from us asked me if Brayden was a boy or a girl, that is really when I decided it was time. I am not a good hairstylist so the option is short if it is going to be anywhere close to being even. (it also doesn't help that Brayden cries like he is being abused and shakes his head the whole time, so please don't look too closely as it isn't even!)

I forgot to take a before picture of Brayden, this is the best I could find of his cute hair :o)

Halloween 2008

It was very scary this year!

We started off our celebrations by going to carnival at Thanksgiving Point (I know a little out of the way but we were in Utah for a football game!)


Matthew was a little scared to get on the horse but once he got on he told me that he was a real cowboy!

Matthew got to spend time with his 2 favorite Aunts! And I don't know why we bother trying to get a family picture any more. I guess I really need to learn photoshop :o)

Much to his father's dismay Matthew had a great time making himself a Halloween bracelet..it was very manly.

With the help of our neighbors we carved pumpkins (ok the boys got distracted and had fun sawing off the stem of the pumpkin, little boys and knifes what can I say?) Matthew and I also made Halloween spiders to hang in our spiderweb by the front door.

We got to go trick-or-treating twice! Once at our ward trunk-or-treat and then around our neighborhood. The boys did great and loved every minute of it. Brayden walked up and down our street just saying "tank-too!" (thank you). By the way can you tell what Brayden is? I had a few people ask me and I thought his costume was quite obvious!

Checking out their loot! After we were done Matthew told me, "I love Halloween, lets do it again" In fact on Sat night he came to me with his Thomas costume telling me it was time to go trick-or-treating, he wasn't real happy when I explained that Halloween was all over. Actually today he has been throwing up. Too much Halloween candy + Daylight savings time = bad news for little kids.

PS. I really will post some more pictures from Aruba soon. I keep forgetting to go and get our underwater camera developed, digital has made me lazy!