It's the most wonderful tiiime of the the year...

Well, we've been having sooo much fun! My parents and sister came and it was a wonderful Christmas together! My boys just love the contant attention from their doting Vanatter grandparents and aunt. Christmas is even more wonderful with children. And I've decided (along with Ryan) that it's totally the best holiday...in part because of getting to celebrate just one holiday for so long!













Here are this years Christmas highlights...

• Ryan's last week of school we had lots of classroom fun. Both me and my mom got to volunteer in Ryan's classroom at the same time. I didn't want to just give her my spot since it was on a Thursday and I usually volunteer on Friday's...and Thursdays are more academic. So I wanted to check out the reading groups and get a feel for the levels of the kids, etc. My mom had wanted to check out his Kindgergarted too, so we both got to go. Then I was super bummed that I'd gotten a friend to watch my younger boys so that I could sit on the floor and play candy memory with the kids. Apparently that day not all centers were academic! I did get a feel for the reading groups from my center and my mom's report and was pleased with Ryan's learning so far! Prior to centers, my mom read, "Twas the Night before the Cajun Christmas" to the class. The book is written phoenetically for a Cajun accent...making it really tough to read...but my mom has it mastered and is hilarious to listen to...the Kindergartners didn't disappoint. They were hysterically laughing.

• My kids know the true meaning of Christmas... Ryan said something like... "Christmas is my favorite holiday because it's to celebrate when Jesus was born and he's so important."

• After putting the kids to bed on Christmas Eve, we continued to hear some shuffling for a while...knowing it was from Ryan since Sean was asleep the second his head hit his pillow... Scott went to check in on Ryan and found Ryan kneeling in the windowsill - between the window and blinds - feet sticking out. So Scott asks him what's up and Ryan said he saw a flash of light up in the sky and thinks he saw Santa! (I wish I had walked in on this scene too!)



• Their excitement and reaction to gifts is unparalled. These aren't even the best portrayals of their reactions! Phrases such as these were said many times Christmas morning...
  

..."I'm so excited....I know what it is!" (so did not)


..."Just what I've always wanted!"

..."I've been begging and begging for this!" (referring to toys or bunkbed which he'd not mentioned or was even ever aware of previously).

...which were followed by many spontaneous thank yous.

(above we are finally looking at the Calendar Ryan made at school for us...he wrapped it at school and it was sooo hard for him to wait until Christmas for it to be opened...he wanted us to open it pretty much every day before Christmas came. He painted a picture for each month. Thank you Ryan!)


• My favorite funny thing this year...

Don't know about your house...but Santa always brings PEZ for our stockings. Well, this year he brought Star Trek PEZ...for all 8 of us! Poor Santa must have been either been really tired or running low on PEZ this year!

• Making gingerbread (graham cracker) houses.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Annual Dovewood Court walk...every house uber decorated.

• Kyle is determined to crawl(for real-he's tired of army). He's been hard at work!
  

• Grandpa and Grandma projects...

...ocean in a bottle and bead candy canes for the tree (after reading The Legend of the Candy Cane with Grandma).

There was so much more goodness...how do you fit it all in? We took an amazing trip to Calaveras Big Trees that deserves it's own post, visited Grandma Lee and sung her Christmas songs (she smiled lots at cute little boys - especially Kyle...she's always loved the babies), Ryan had a school dance performance where he was a cowboy, we had a dance party, ate yummy food, read good books, played some games, ate clam chowder in a bread bowl in San Francisco, laughed at my funny boys, and enjoyed each other's company.


























And now...cheers to a Happy New Year!









I think 2009 is going to be a good one!

Christmas Card

Merry Christmas Everybody!

We did sent out cards this year, but switched computers mid year and our list was not so complete this year...so if we missed you, Merry Christmas!

here's our letter...

2008

3rd son Kyle was born April 24th - 12 days late! (9 lbs. 12 oz) He loves his brothers and lights up whenever they are around. His many talents include raspberries, really cute babbling noises and army crawling after his ever moving family (he's getting very close to real crawling). Having a baby around adds a little bit of heaven into our days as he makes us all melt inside with his smiles, noises and laughs.

Sean (3) loves to play with Ryan and Dad. He is great at hitting a Dad pitched baseball, and loves to kick around a soccer ball too! His favorite day is Wednesday when he gets together with some friends for mom led activities and crafts (and the only day he doesn't miss Ryan when he's at school - his words). Always the goof and chatterbox, he is so much fun to have around!

Ryan (5) started Kindergarten and Soccer this fall! I think his favorite part of each is the friends. It's awesome to see him learning how to read and write. He is such a sweet and thoughtful boy. This year he learned how to ride a bike, skip and SNAP (he's better than mom...and snaps all the time), and he continues to love to play sports and wrestle with Sean and Dad.

Carrie loves all her boys and her job of taking care of them! The new Kindergarten and sports schedule has been a really great addition to our lives (she's even teared up at different school or soccer events!) She's enjoyed volunteering in Ryan's classroom and for school functions. Not wanting to forget any part of this wonderful life, she journals our experiences on her blog so we will always remember the Joy in our Journey as a family!

Scott has enjoyed his busiest year yet! In addition to his heavy work schedule, he is the 2nd counselor in our ward's bishopric and Ryan's soccer coach. The boys love when he's home. We are thrilled his blood tests show a cancer free man!

It sure has been a full and crazy year in so many ways! We are grateful for this time of year when we get to focus on our blessings and what's most important! We pray you have had a healthy and happy year too!

From our home to yours!

 

Merry Christmas from my home to yours! ...with a tag!

It's no secret that I love Christmas trees and ornaments (you can see last years evidence ~obsession~ here and here. ) Not only do I love my own (which I really, really do in sooo many ways)...but i love looking at other people's trees too! So I'm creating my very own tag.



I tag all my fellow blogging friends!



Rules: Post a picture of your Christmas tree and favorite ornament or decoration.



I'm not limiting the number of people I tag because I would love to see them all! You then may tag whomever you want:)

My favorite decoration this year are my stockings because I just finished Kyle's today and seeing them all hung by the chimney with care is very satisfying.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I can't wait to see who plays along!

p.s. Here's a snapshot of our day...After returning from church(and the GREAT Christmas program)...The boys played Lego's with Grandpa, read with dad and grandpa, watched some football together and after reading The Nutcracker we've been listening to the enchanting Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite (have you listened lately? if not...you totally should) and Scott's now making a fire. Kyle was mesmerized with his new toy too:)

...I know the Real Christmas isn't until Thursday...but we had an early Christmas with Scott's family.

What a great day:) The Christmas season is awesome!

Walkin in a winter wonderland...

This beautiful place is Yosemite. We were in the neighborhood and I wasn't sure if it was going to be worth going since it was to be snowing...and we wouldn't be able to see anything since it was so cloudy. Well we took our chances, and got to experience one of God's greatest creations in a heavenly state! Scott gave a talk on Sunday on reverence and as we drove through the valley we felt a reverence for our surroundings.

We waited around in this area so the clouds would part so we could see our favorite...Half Dome. It's an amazing sight. I do think it looks bigger in the sunshine. We couldn't see the backside, only the face so it had less of an intimidating impact than usual. The beauty however was unmatchable. We loved seeing the falling snow. Though...if there was snow everywhere but a sunny sky it would be the best because then we could have seen everything else too.

The valley was deserted and there was a stillness all around. It was just breathtaking.

If I wasn't trying to talk...this would be really cute...bummer.

This is the entrance into Yosemite from Merced. We'd never gone through that entrance and it was cute.

Just rain here...no snow yet!

I'm so glad it turned to snow instead of just rain.

The Grizzly Giant.

He really is huge. The 5th largest tree in the world!

The big limb on the right is 6 feet in diameter...larger than any non-giant Sequoia tree in the same forrest. The tree leans 17 degress and is super old.

The California Tree...carved out for horse carriages in the 1800s. Tree is still alive and healthy despite the large walkway!




Spending time in nature amidst God's magnificent creations with our family is awesome.

Feelin the love.

Quote of the day

"I think Heavenly Father picked a good baby to come to our family." - Ryan

Camryn's blessing weekend

Last weekend we got to go our first niece's blessing. It was a great weekend! The icing on our cake was getting to see Scott's oldest sister's family who couldn't make it to Thanksgiving celebrations...my boys played with their cousins. Of course we packed in as much fun into 36 hours as we could! AND my baby Kyle did awesome on our 8 hour drive each way...we were nervous after he was not too fond of recent driving jaunts (after posting reflection...the drive down and back might deserve more description...the MULTIPLE bathroom breaks were quite hilarious...poo stops that didn't produce any poo, gas stations that were closed except allowed grandma and Sean into the restroom because the attendant believed Sean was going to have an accident and he ended up not even going, but grandma was thankful he was her ticket in...but then I still had nowhere to go!...movies for the boys to watch with headphones...pretty great (we even got to see Kung Fu Panda and my eyes were open for lots of it..but not all).

Quick rundown...

• Saturday morning, Sean prayed for breakfast and thanked Heavenly Father for Uncle Ryan 2 times in the same prayer (they became new BFFs when said Uncle Ryan played Hide and Seek with the boys over Thanksgiving).



• The big boy cousins all got to take Nugget (the favorite cousin dog - of Erica and Ryan) on a long walk with U. Ryan.



• Visited a small petting farm that makes really yummy chocolate milk.

• Headed to the park for free play. Kyle loved the swing!

• Next up: Temecula Children's Museum. Super Fun.

Big favorite: Black light room (found when you go through a secret door in a fireplace) - before entering...nice museum lady drew skeleton bones on boy's arms.






















This was a science experiment they conducted with the kids.





Did you know that few kinds of soap float? IVORY is one of them and it is because of the small bubbles inside. Look what happens when you put it into the Microwave for a minute. Ryan had a front row seat to watch through the microwave glass and was thoroughly amazed at the process. Afterwards they got to rip off a portion and wash their hand with the spongy soap.

• Grandpa gave each kid $2 to spend in a candy store - however they wanted!
  

* And the crowning event of the weekend was the blessing of this sweetie! The pink blanket and silk blessing dress were fun for a family with 8 grandsons! She was just beautiful.

I just love blessing days. I love the sweet baby all dressed in white, so innocent and angelic. I love the family gathering around in celebration of new life. It's super special.

Thank you for such a great weekend Erica and Ryan!

Zepher Cove's 3 hour tour

We are Mountanieers! We explored this mountain, trying to find a look out to Lake Tahoe...and found it! Then we kept going and ended up circling this huge hill/small mountain to return to our starting point. It was really far for the boys and they were in heaven. They did awesome. There was no trail (except for a short portion) and someone had recently cleared the forrest, but didn't clean it up...so we were going over and around chopped down logs and branches, etc.
The kids were playing some sort of army/knight game with pretend enemies. Pinecones were bombs they launched off big boulders...they would sometimes shout, "Crouch down!" If I didn't comply, they warned me the enemies would see us!

Wahoo! We made it to the other side and could see our starting point below...and knew we'd make it back before dark.

Gorgeous views!

It was such a fun adventure, I hope our kids will be able to remember it when they are bigger...we all had a great time!