Family Fun

We have been able to do a couple of really fun family nights this year. The first was when we took the kids to see "Jonah and the Great Fish". This is the newest of the "Liken It" series. It was a stage production that was put on at the Scera theater in Orem. It was amazing! We all enjoyed it very much....even Jason! :)

My kids absolutely love the 'Liken It' movies. They watch them every Sunday without fail. And we have had some of them for a couple of years now. The kids never seem to tire of them. And to tell you the truth, I don't either. If you have never seen a "Liken It" movie, you need to. I have them all if you want to borrow any, just let me know!

We also had the opportunity to take the four older kids to "Disney on Ice". All I can say is that I LOVE Disney on Ice--probably more than my kids. I actually go every year and take a different kid with me each time. It's kind of a special date night with mom. This year we got a great deal on tickets so we were able to take the whole family. Watching any ice skating is fun for me, it brings back all sorts of great memories from my ice skating days as a kid. But, pairing skating and Disney....that is just pure genius! Who wouldn't love that? (Actually, Jason wasn't so sure that he was going to enjoy it, but.....he finally admitted to being pleasantly surprised).

Sabrina stood the entire time. She didn't want to sit down at all. Her eyes never left the rink. She was completely captivated. Her favorite part was Tinkerbell of course!

Birthday Blog

We have had several birthdays in our family in the last couple of months. I did get a post up about Belle's, but need to do something for all the others. I figured that I better do this before Isaac's birthday in a couple of weeks. (Or maybe I should just wait and do his with everybody else's?) Anyway, I'll start with Johnny. He is now 6 years old. He has never had a friend party and was begging for one this year. It's hard because his birthday is already on a holiday, and during such a crazy time of year. But this year I figured I better try. So, the week after his birthday, he invited a couple of little friends and we went to 'Jump On It'. Jump On It is a big warehouse full of trampolines and bounce houses. The kids loved it! Afterwards we went to the kid famous McDonalds for lunch. Instead of coming back to the house for cake and ice cream, we sent home Costco cupcakes with each of our guests. I loved having the party away from home. It was so much easier than trying to clean my house, decorate, buy party favors, make a cake, clean up my house afterwards, etc. Easy for mom, great fun for birthday boy....maybe I'll do this every time!

Displaying the new birthday present. Anyone who knows Johnny knows that he is obsessed with video games. The Game Boy was a HUGE hit.

Johnny is so much fun! He is always so full of energy and life. I love that he doesn't think anything is hard--he truly believes that he can do anything. He'll try anything, and has the best attitude about life. He is 'super smart' as he likes to say, and his kindergarten teacher even agrees with him on that.

Last summer Johnny taught himself to read. When I took him to his kindergarten evaluation his teacher was having him read her a book. I knew he could sound out all of his letters and could read a few sight words, but I had no idea he could actually read! When I asked him who had taught him how, he simply replied, "Well, I kept waiting for you to teach me mom, but you never did. So, I taught myself!" I found out later that he had been taking books to bed at night and asking Isaac to help him sound out words. And the kid has been reading chapter books since Christmas. He really is 'super-smart' and we are so proud of him!

Johnny has also been begging to do gymnastics since last summer. I finally enrolled him a few months ago and he is enjoying it so much. He is getting ready to start piano next month and is very excited about that too. He thinks getting to do all these things makes him 'big' like Isaac. I wish he wasn't in such a hurry to grow up. We love you Johnny!

Jason's Birthday was next. His was a bit more low-key. We didn't call it a birthday party, but we did get together with some of our awesome friends and go to his favorite restaurant 'The Mandrin' and then to the 'Sherlock Holmes' movie. We had a great time. And hopefully Jason had fun turning the big 35!

My birthday came next. And Jason went above and beyond....kind of like last year. He surprised me by planning a little weekend get-away. He called me on his way home from work and told me that I had 20 minutes to get ready, we were going out! Of course I hadn't showered or gotten ready that day, so I resisted. I gave him a really hard time, refusing to go anywhere. So, he ended up having to tell me what he had planned for the weekend so that I would hurry and get ready. Even though I ruined the surprise, he still took me to the cutest bed and breakfast up on capitol hill. We had such a good time hanging out together, going to dinner, watching movies, planning our family vacation, etc. It was really nice to get away without all the kids and just spend some time together. Thanks for the birthday surprise Jason, it was fun! (And thanks to Crystal and Jerel for taking the kids!)

I am so blessed to have such amazing family and friends. Between my parents, sisters, and girlfriends, my birthday lasted several days. With all the fun lunch dates, dinners, movies, and girl's nights out, I just might keep having birthdays! Thank you to all of you for making my birthday so great. I love you all!

Now, Sabrina just had a birthday, but I am going to post about that after I get my March post up. Besides, her birthday pics were all taken with my cool new camera that I got for my birthday and I still don't know how to upload anything from it to my computer yet. So, that birthday post will be coming soon.

Holidays 2009.....Part 2

Wow! Could it take me any longer to post about Christmas?!? I know, I know....it's SAD right? You know how the old saying goes... 'better late than never'? Well, here's my attempt at it:

Christmas 2009

Yeates Family Christmas Party--As always, the Yeates Family Christmas party was awesome! Mom and Dad were in charge of planning it this year...(It was suppose to be mine and Jason's turn, but due to the new baby and all, they offered to take over. Thanks mom and dad!) My parents took all of us to dinner and for a ride on the Polar Express! It was SO fun! My kids were SO excited and are still talking about it. They want to do it again next year. I thought the whole experience was amazing. It was so much like the book. Hot chocolate, cookies, elves, singing, story telling, Mr. and Mrs. Claus.....the works! Everyone even got a silver bell to bring home as a souvenir. The bell, along with their ticket that was personally punched by the conductor, were favorite Christmas presents for my kids. Thank you Mom and Dad so much for such a wonderful gift! And the bonus was that Sara and Ryan got to be home for the holidays with their darling kids that we don't get to see enough of! So glad you were here Sara!

Ward Christmas Party--As always, the ward Christmas party was great! Good food, great company and yes, the big man himself--Santa! This year we actually got Sabrina to sit on his lap. She was still a little unsure of the whole thing, but when he gave her a candy cane, they became instant friends. After that, all she wanted for Christmas was a 'present' and a 'candy cane'. So easy to please. If only it would last! :)

Lights on Temple Square--It's a tradition to take the kids down to Temple Square and look at the Christmas lights. This year was no different. I love the Christmas lights downtown...they remind me of when I was a little girl and my parents would take us to SLC to see the lights and the window displays at the mall. We would always go and visit my grandparents that lived near Temple Square too. I love those memories! This year we got to go with Jason's sister Crystal and her family. It was so fun. All the cousins had such a great time together. I wish that my camera had gotten a better picture of the kids, but this was the best there was.

Christmas Day--Here's pictures of the big day! Enjoy!

This year, the #1 gifts were the nerf guns. If I had only known how popular they were going to be, I wouldn't have bothered getting any other presents. Who knew?!?

New Years Eve--We headed up to Mom and Dad's for New Years. We all hung out and ate, played games, watched movies and just laughed a lot! I love getting together with my family. We always have such a good time together. I seriously have some of the funniest brothers and sisters. They never fail to make me smile. :) I sure love them and had such a great New Years Eve with all of them! We even got to celebrate Johnny's birthday with the whole bunch--it was great!