Happy Birthday Vance!

Happy Seventh Birthday Vance!  My how the years have flown by.  We are grateful to have Vance in our family.

Christmas Fun

On Tuesday we read "Bear Stays Up for Christmas" and did activities centered around that.  We love those books and the Christmas one it real cute.

 One of Tanner and Porter's favorite activities to do together (aside from playing on the computer) is Tanner reading to Porter.  It is just too sweet not to take pictures of sometimes.

 I have loved Alfie Boe ever since I saw the Les Miserables 25th anniversary concert.  When I found out he was going to be performing at the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert this year I knew I had to attend.  I mean, my favorite singer performing with the most outstanding choir in the world and it is only a half hour a way from me?  Yes, thank you.  Of course, getting the tickets wasn't an easy task.  I had to register to potentially get them and I begged some of my family members to register for me and let me have them if they were chosen.  Well, I didn't get any, but Stephen's sister, Mandy gave us two tickets and for that I am so grateful!  Then we ended up needing other babysitters than my in-laws and my sister willingly volunteered to watch the boys so I am so grateful for that too!  The concert was amazing.  Alife Boe was amazing.  He sang "Bring Him Home" from Les Mis. which got me all teary eyed.  The choir was amazing.  Tom Brokaw was also there and he told an amazing story about a man known as the Candy Bomber.  Check the full story out on that link.  That made the tears spill over because they brought him on stage and he spoke for a moment. I wish we could have gone to a the signing they had at Deseret Book and gotten Alife Boe to sign a cd of his I own, but that was Friday night when Stephen was working.  Anyway, Vance took a picture of Stephen and I  before we left.

 On Friday we did preschool activities centered around "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".  We made green grinch cookies.

 This little puzzle ball thing entertains little boys and big boys.  :)  I don't even know the name of it, but it keeps Vance and Stephen entertained.

Sickness hit our house Saturday night and continued through Sunday.  Not fun.  Tanner was the only one to miss out on our fun.  Those are the days there isn't much to take a picture of, but kids lying around...

One of Vance's favorite Christmas books is "Snowmen at Christmas".  He read it to me today and wrote a letter to his teacher about it.

Christmas Activities

 We have been having fun with Christmas activities the past week.  On Tuesday Tanner, Porter and I did gingerbread activities and they decorated gingerbread houses.

 Vance finished up the little village we had on Wednesday.  He was creative with his decorating.  Watching him reminded me of how grown up he is getting.  I was just going to do graham cracker gingerbread houses, but I found this village for a good price and I figured that would be cheaper than buying all the candy separately.

 On Thursday we did preschool activities based around candy canes.  I found this fun idea last year where you stick candy canes in the oven and then you are able to bend them.  I worked spelling out the boy's names and Tanner had fun just playing with them.

 On Friday we did reindeer activities and since Vance gets out early on Fridays he was home to do a little reindeer craft.  Don't I have cute reindeer?

 Here are two different kinds of origami trees we have around the house.  They add some extra fun to our Christmas decorations.

On Saturday we were at the Sears that is near my in-laws and it is closing so they have everything in their store discounted.  We got shoes for all the boys since they all needed some sort of shoe.  Then I saw the angry bird ties and couldn't pass them up so they wore them to church on Sunday.

 And here is a picture of my Tanner boy.

It's December!

Stephen's been letting a beard grown.  This is a picture of him after a 30 day growth.  He has since trimmed it and gotten a hair cut so he isn't nearly has hairy!  :)

 

 Vance started begging to put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving and so we finally (in his eyes) got the tree up. 

 Vance admiring the tree.  The first thing he does when he comes downstairs every morning is turn on the Christmas tree lights.  He loves looking at it. 

 Vance had crazy hair day at school.  I attempted to make his hair more crazy, but it is always kind of crazy, let's face it. 

 Our stockings were made by my mother-in-law and I think they are wonderful.  My favorite one is probably Tanner's, but I do enjoy looking at all of them.  The Merry Christmas below goes with the nativity advent calendar I do with the boys each day.

 If you have ever been around Stephen much you have probably seen him folding these stars.  We have quite a collection and since we have so many I thought they'd be fun garland for the tree so I strung some yesterday. Boy, my finger and thumb are sore.  Maybe someday we will both be ambitious enough to do bright foil paper with it...

 Here is our Christmas tree.  It actually has candy canes on it now and will soon having gingerbread ornaments on it as well.

Thanksgiving

Vance making a book about 5 little turkeys.  Gearing up for Thanksgiving.

 Vance was still gearing up for Thanksgiving by writing and drawing on the white board.  It says "Thankful.  I am thankful for mom because she is nice.  I am thankful for turkey."  Then he drew a picture of himself and a couple of turkeys.  Then he wrote No a bunch of times and tried to write "No erasing this turkey".

 Thanksgiving day we spent at our place with my parents, Rose, Holly and her family.  Here are all the Porter grandkids enjoying their pie.

 Here is our thankful tree all finished.  You can see the post below to find out more about what the kids were grateful for.

 Saturday we went to temple square to see the lights.  Boy, was it packed.  We had an enjoyable time riding the train and seeing the lights though.  The boys did great!

 Sunday morning we said good bye to my parents and Sunday evening we said good bye to Rose, but I took a picture of her hanging out with the youngest two first.

 I gave in and let Stephen buy a Wii U.  He and the boys are enjoying it.  I guess that takes care of Christmas for Stephen and his birthday and whatever else I want to make it good for.

 Stephen decided to grow a beard for a bit.  Today was his 30 day no shave growth so we took a picture of it before he trimmed it down a little.  His beard comes in red.  Funny, huh?

Thankful

We had a gratitude tree up this year for Thanksgiving that and the boys each added a leaf a day with someone they were grateful for.  Vance and Tanner wrote on their leaves and I helped Porter out with his. 

Here is what they came up with. In no particular order.

Vance
school
beds
Mom
Aunt Rose
Numbers
dogs
Tanner
home
Porter
Grandpa Jeppson
movies
Dad
Jesus
Star Wars
food
games
tvs
leaves
his room
kittens
Grandpa Porter
alphabet

Tanner
church
games
kittens
Vance
Roary
movies
Star Wars
his eyes
alphabet
stuffed monkey
Mom
toys
Grandma Porter
home
Aunt Rose
Grandma Jeppson
Porter
Aunt Mandy
Aunt Holly
Dad
Skylanders
states

Porter
cars
grandmas
Heavenly Father
Aunt Kimmy
Mom
stairs
Vance
diamonds
his cape
phones
dogs
computers
grandma's house
monkeys
Aunt Rose
grandpas
triangles
Jesus
Tanner
water
Dad
his frog

Another week

Looking over the pictures for this past week I am realizing that we didn't have an overly exciting week.

Since Vance and Tanner write down the things they are grateful for on their leaves each day Porter was feeling left out so I give him a pencil and a leaf each day for him to "write".  Then I go back and write what he said down so we know for the future.  He is funny though because he ask, "How do you spell that?"  Sometimes he'll even start naming letters.

 Tanner drew this picture and wrote "This is Batman" by himself.  I thought Vance had done it at first, because I didn't realize that Tanner knew how to write sentences on his own.  So there you go,  little smarty pants.  I think it's funny that he wrote "This is batman" but who the heck is the other guy?

 Tanner reading to Porter.  He was reading a booklet that came with the movie "Brave" that we bought this week.  My boys weren't scared at all of the movie even though there is a scary bear.  However, Tanner got emotional to the point of tears at a couple of emotional parts. It was bad enough I had to turn of the movie at one point and talk things out with him.  He has a sensitive side.  Reading the book actually helped because he realized everything turned out alright in the end.

 Tanner playing on the Wii.  His latest favorite game to play has been Batman 2.

 This is a lousy picture, but these are some mini stars Stephen has folded lately.

 Sunday night= movie and muddy buddies or as Porter calls them "money buddies".

 Tanner doing some Thanksgiving activities.

Birthdays, Snow, and Stuff

We have a "Give Thanks" tree and leaves that the boys put up each day of things that they are grateful for.  We have done the gratitude leaves for several years now, but this is the first time we have a tree to go with it.  I tried to make one and it looked terrible so this tree is one that Stephen made for us.

Porter just looks so sweet when he is asleep.

 This kid practically lives in his cape lately.

My little sister turned 20 on Friday and we celebrated with her on Saturday.  Here is Vance working on a sign for her on Friday.

Rose at her birthday party.

 We went to Stephen's parents house on Sunday evening to celebrate his dad's birthday which is today.  Porter and Grandpa were sitting on the couch playing with phones.  It was fun.

 Just a little picture of Tanner hanging out after getting up from a little nap.

Happy November

I have let myself get behind on blogging.  Oops.  Here is Tanner reading "The Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything" while Porter put visuals on the flannel board for it.

 Leaf rubbings Tanner did.  Actually the red one I did to remind him how to do it but the other two were his.

 It snowed one night/morning and on and off throughout the day.  Thankfully it didn't stick for more than that day.  Vance was super excited for it though and was ready to go in his winter gear well before he needed to catch the bus.

 Porter loves his super hero cape.  He will wear it all day long for days at a time.  He also loves chips... :)

The boys in their costumes.  My mother-in-law was kind enough to sew a bunch of things for us.  Here they are at Mandy's house for a Halloween party.

 Stephen found some directions for these fun skeleton hands, pumpkins, and bats.  They are all super cool.  The bat's wings flap too and the pumpkins have little jack-o-lantern faces.

 Tanner wanted to talk about witches and wizards for preschool one day.  I couldn't find too much about wizards that didn't have to do with the Wizard of Oz or Harry Potter, but he did enjoy this coloring sheet and we watched Sword in the Stone.

 Porter has learned how to control the mouse for the computer.  I admit this makes life easier for me.  I have some educational child-friendly sites favorited on the internet and he knows how to pull them up.  The downside is that whenever I am at the computer he will come over and say, "Hey, you're in my seat!"

 Halloween!  We went to my sister's trunk of treat with her again like we did last year.  I think I have the cutest super hero, vampire, and bat ever in existence.

 Vance came home sick from school this day.  We let him relax and even play a little on the Wii.  It only took about two minutes of being home for him to perk up and feel better.

 Cute Porter.  Do I need to say more?

 Apparently I can't get enough of Porter's cuteness.

 Tanner all ready for church.

 I thought the sky looked really cool around 5:00 this evening especially against the fall looking tree so I took a picture.