Family

My brother and his family are currently in Indiana. Before that they were in China. Who knows where they'll be next. Needless to say, we don't see them nearly as often as we'd like. When they're in town we try to get the whole family together at least once. Sunday was our day! Everyone was there...my WHOLE family. It was wonderful! Mom and Dad made a great dinner and we had fun chatting. I've never seen my brother laugh so hard as he did when Jen and the guys were talking about a stupid movie.

Since we were all together we took some photos. I couldn't get Jeff to be serious, but thought this was a cute picture. My sister-in-law, Kathleen is beautiful and the lighting was great!

THE BOYS!

Starting with Tyler and going to the right

Tyler (4), Liam (5), Dallas (7 months), Dylan (2), Collin (1)

The Reece Family

mom, dad, Collin, Mike, Jeff, Nate, Me

Jenifer, Kristin, Kathleen, Tyler

Dylan, Dallas, Collin

I LOVE my family and am so glad we're all such good friends.

Merry Christmas

This was our first Christmas staying home. It was nice and relaxing to be home with the boys in the morning. Dylan and Nate woke Tyler and I up at 6 and we went to see if Santa came. It was so much fun watching the boys' excitement! Santa brought a hotwheels race track, some games and movies and stockings. Dylan was most excited about the chocolate! It took them forever to get through their stockings. From us Tyler got a camera, a leapster game and a Book of Mormon

I told him the leapsters were out so we'd get him one later.

He LOVES his camera!

Dylan gave Tyler a Clifford and Tyler said it was his favorite present!

Dylan got a vacuum, a sit n' spin, and a book.

From Tyler he got a glow worm.

His favorite present was his vacuum.

I got Nate a spinning electric tie thing and he got me a scanner/printer/copier that I am SOO excited about.

We had breakfast, changed clothes and let the boys pick 1 thing to take to Logan.

Tyler chose his camera

Dylan chose his stocking full of chocolate

We went to Great Grandma and Grandpa Merrill's house first.

They had gifts for the boys:

they each got a fishing pole

Tyler got a tackle box that he LOVES

and Dylan got a little bike that he's soo excited about

Nate and I each got a special gift from them with a poem.

Then we headed over to Nate's parents house so we could talk to Elena who's serving a mission.

It was fun to hear her voice, but SO hard to keep the boys quiet and settled down.

We opened presents there and had fun visiting with everyone.

Tyler got a remote control truck and a pack of hotwheels

he is so excited about his remote control truck...it's all he's been asking for for the past month

Dylan got tools and a Mr. Potato Head kit

he doesn't think he's dressed for the day until he has a tool in his pocket!

Nate got a new suit and I got a GPS for my car!

Greg, Sarah and the boys and Mark and Linda were all there. It is so loud when everyone's there and the kids were all so excited, but it is so much fun to visit and the boys have so much fun with their Aunts and cousins.

Grandma and Grandpa got both sets of grandboys a tool bench. As soon as they were put together and the boys saw what it was they were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited.

*the red on Dylan is from his Bug Juice that he spilled in his carseat*
We loaded up and headed to my parents house.

Everyone but Jeff, Kathleen and the boys were there for dinner.

The boys weren't so excited about eating and doing dishes. They wanted more presents.

Tyler got his leapster and I wish I would've recorded his reaction.

First he didn't know what it was.

when I told him it was for his game he went to Grammy and said,

"you are so cool! how did you know I needed one of these?"

It was SO cute.

Way to go Grammy!

Dylan got the Timberland GeoTrax and he LOVES it!

So does Dallas :)

Nate got the one thing he really WANTED: a Cabella's gift card

I got a certificate for a Silhouette. You have to check it out...it's AMAZING!

Dylan helped Mike and T make some gingerbread houses.

Tyler played his leapster.

Nate napped.

I looked for a Silhouette.

We had such a great day! Thanks to everyone for making our day wonderful! We have wonderful families!

Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas Eve! The boys were so good all day while I cooked. I had so much fun cooking our dinner. I really enjoy cooking. I'm starting to feel the need for a bigger kitchen so my 2 little helpers don't drive me crazy. I also, for the first time in my life, see the reason people have 2 stoves in their kitchens. Eventhough my kitchen is tiny and I have 1 stove, I still had fun cooking. The boys helped cook and set the table nice and fancy.

I took breaks and we played games and ate candy and read books.

When Nate got home from work we had dinner, then the boys took baths. They opened their 1 present....PAJAMAS!

We tracked where Santa was and even got to call him!

Then, we went and looked at lights until the boys fell asleep.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Party

AT&T had their Christmas party at Hollywood Connection in West Valley. The boys had a blast!

There were a few rides.

Then we attempted roller skating! Dylan loved skating on the carpet and on the rink as long as someone was holding onto him. Tyler went around once and cried the whole time. I tried, but was fond of the boys pulling me down.

Last, we tried playing miniature golf. It was very time consuming with the boys, but we all had fun!

sewing

I made this skirt for myself

and matching ties for the boys

Sunday Dinner

After church we all change our clothes and work together to clean up the house. Then, I make dinner while the 3 boys play. I love Sunday dinners. It's one of the only days we all eat dinner together. It's fun to talk to the boys about what they learned at church. Dylan always tells us he colored and played with "the kids". Tyler always tells us he doesn't remember and then during the week he'll almost recite the whole lesson. We were eating this Sunday and the boys had all taken their turns and

Tyler said, "mom, how was your lesson?"

Me: "it was good. I didn't teach, though."

Tyler: "what was it on?"

Me: "talents"

then we had a discussion about talents.

Tyler informed us that he his talents are fishing, running and being smart. :)

Tyler: "what'd the girls say?"

I talked a bit about this.

Tyler: "So, do you teach next week?"

Me: "yes."

Tyler: "what's your lesson?"

Me: "I'm not sure yet."

Tyler: "is there anything I can do to help?"

Sometimes I forget he's 4! I love him so so so much!

a day in the life

7:00 a.m. - Dylan came and cuddled in bed with me

Dylan drove his airplan all over my face and smiled about it the whole time

Dylan played in the coat closet and got everything out of the coat closet looking for

the perfect Santa hat

7:30 am - Dylan cleaned up his mess

Dylan pulled all the wrapping paper off the roll so he'd have something to saw

Dylan tried sawing a branch off my tree

8:00 a.m. - Tyler got up and gave me a hug. First thing every morning he finds me and gives

me a hug

Spent 20 minutes breaking fights up about the empty roll

Breakfast: dry fruit loops because neither of my boys like milk in their cereal.

Fought over whose side of the table Dylan's elbow was on

Talked about what it means to get our feelings hurt

Sang our favorite Christmas song over and over and over and over

8:30 a.m. - Tyler was SO sweet and helped Dylan take his jammies off when he was stuck

Dylan put Tyler's jammies away

Watched Dinosaur train and learned abotu dinosaur poop

Dylan came to me and said, "I'n poopin in Buba's undies." I checked and he wasn't

The boys played tag around the rug9:30 a.m. - Vacuumed

Boys watched Saturday morning cartoons

Dylan took the bag of Frosted Flakes and gave a bag of Fruit Loops to Tyler

10:30 a.m. - The boys took all the cushions off the couch and used them to sit on while watching

cartoons

Dylan pulled all the unmated socks out of the basket and flung them all over the

front room

Dylan begged Tyler to play tag so they cleaned the socks up

Dylan hid the nose sucker from me

Tyler called Dylan names like "chair", "poo-poo head", and "monkey lips"

Dylan yelled, "I'n Buba!" over and over and over

Vacuumed up all the dry cereal

Another game of tag

11:00 a.m. - fought over who got to put the vacuum away...I won!

Dylan dumpled a glass of water in his boot

Friends came over. My family away from home came to visit. They brought the

boys each a gift and Nate and I a treat! They are amazing!

Dylan got little plastic animals

Tyler got a Transformer

12:00 p.m. - Dylan unrolled a WHOLE roll of toilet paper

The boys colored in their coloring books that the girls gave them

1:00 p.m. - The boys wouldn't stop to eat lunch

1:30 p.m. - Made cinnamon rolls...TONS and TONS of cinnamon rolls

Tyler told me that moms are more amazinger than dads

Dylan used my pastry brush to paint...not the dough this time...EVERYTHING

Dylan pretended making things with the extra flour2:30 p.m. Dylan took all my pans out. When I asked him what he was doing he said, "I make a

mess." the boys played 'fight'

I finished the cinnamon rolls

3:00 p.m. - Dylan cleaned out a cupboard in the kitchen

Dylan took apart the toaster and put it back together and it still works

Tyler played with his new transformer that he loves Laundry. Dylan went with me (our laundry is outside behind our building) and Tyler

stayed in to play.

Vacuumed up the flour mess

Got the mail....Dylan went with me. put his boots on himself, grabbed a tool (a salad

tong) and the keys. We ended up playing outside in the snow for 1/2 an hour. Dylan's

'tool' was great for digging up snow!

Tyler came running outside wearing 2 of Nate's mismatched socks (yes, the one's that

have been on the couch all day) He needed me to help him fold the head of his

Transformer

Played in socks (I'm a bad mom) for a few minutes. Ellie and Dylan love trying to keep

up with tyler.
Boys played ball and giggled

Dylan found a screwdriver and stuck it in his pocket

Tyler played more with his Transformer

3:30 p.m. - Dylan figured out how to fold the ironing board up...this is trouble

ate cinnamon rolls4:00 - ironing for church while Dylan folded the board up on me over and over and over

boys found a measuring tape and had so much fun measuring EVERYTHING

Dylan broke an ornament while trying to fix it with his hammer

4:30 p.m. - I finally showered

The boys cleaned up

5:00 p.m. - We went grocery shopping

On our way to WalMart I bought the boys some chicken nuggets because I knew

Dylan would fall asleep and I wouldn't want to wake him

Dylan fell asleep on the way home

6:00 p.m. - home

Sat by tyler's door until he fell asleep

6:30 p.m. - put groceries away

finish laundry

for the rest of the evening:

sew 2 ties

do more laundry

sit and do nothing

Tomorrow....start all over again. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a mom!