Towards the end, Tyler added a few bumps and was trying to catch some air while sledding. He had a great time.
Jim won a digital video camera at his work Holiday party last night. I have had a bit of fun playing with it today, so I thought I would try my hand at uploading videos to blogger.
This is a video of Abigail and Daniel serenading us with Christmas songs. She loves to sing and he loves to do anything she is doing...
I love how she has started to bow when she is done performing. I am not sure where she picked this up at, but it is just too cute. And in typical Daniel fashion, we get a little push at the end. I hope you enjoyed the video and look forward to more fun videos of the kids.
Here are a few shots of the kids playing in the snow yesterday after the huge snow storm. They had a good time, but were dissappointed that they could not make very good snowballs to throw at each other. They found other ways though.
The boys climbing the "mountain" of snow from shoveling off the driveway. 
Princess Abigail finding her way in all this snow. She had a hard time as most everywhere she went it was to her armpits. 
Sunshine enjoying a nice comfy seat just the right size for his small frame. He had a great time also, but like Abby became quickly overwhelmed at the amount of snow. It was hard for these little guys to do much more than just walk on the shoveled sidewalk as the snow was just too deep for them.
Jacob and Noah trying to rescue the sleds from the jungle gym. They were pretty buried, but never fear, mommy came to their aide and pulled them out. Jacob then became frustrated as he "tried" to sled down the small slope in our backyard, but failed. Again, just too much snow. We will have to go out there next week and build a little sledding hill of our own for them to enjoy.
Putting Sunshine to work. He is a great little helper. Notice Abby in the background in the safety of the house. She got too cold and too tired of trying to climb over all the mounds of snow. She did the smart thing and went inside to stay warm. 
Some icicles off the back of the house. The kids had a great time throwing snowballs at them to knock them down with plenty of warning from mom to stand back so they don't get impailed, followed by a lengthy discussion on what it means to get impailed and then stories from the boys about guts falling and etc, etc, etc...
Jims car is under there somewhere. We dug him all the way out and got him about 100 feet down the street before he got stuck. Good thing some neighbor guys were out snowblowing and shoveling. They came and helped us push the car back. Jim called the store and they are closed today, so we all get to enjoy a rare "snow day" together. I think we will make cookies and stuff. Should be fun. If anything, the snow has given us some time to spend together as a family.
Our back porch. 
Jameson, Daniel, and Abby had fun watching Daddy outside shoveling the snow. 
Here is what they saw. As you can see, it is still coming down.
Anyway, that is our Winter Wonderland. We will enjoy the day off and see what the weather brings us tomorrow.
What more can we say. We are so very proud of Jacob on this day. He was very adorable and very nervous, but he did great. He was a bit scared about the whole "getting dunked" issue. We practiced and practiced at home, but Jim said that when they were getting dressed he was a bit shaky and awkward. TOO CUTE.
Jacob enjoyed his day and said that he feels happy about the whole thing. It was a Stake Baptism, so there others from the Stake getting baptized at the same time. We all met in the chapel first where we had some talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost. There was also a great musical number by 2 of the Young Women. It was very well put together. The Glenrose Ward was then excused to go do the little girls baptism and we waited for a few minutes for that to get done. We then went to the Relief Society Room and did our Wards baptisms, which was Jacob and Cameron.
Our family did okay during the whole thing. We had to get up at 6 in the morning to get everyone breakfast, dressed, and up to the Church by 8:30 for pictures. It was hard and Jameson and Daniel were both very tired. Jameson was taken by a wonderful lady from our Ward who fed him and put him to sleep. That left Jim and I able to deal with Daniel who was so very grumpy. Abby ended up with a family friend as well drawing pictures and stuff. It is nice to have so many friends willing to help out so that we could enjoy the day with the kids. They did good though, considering they had to get up so early.
Here is a pic of the whole family at the baptism. I cant believe we were actually all able to squeeze onto that couch. LOL. Not for too much longer when all these boys grow up.
Here is a pic of all 3 of the children getting baptized with Jacob. I cannot remember the little girls name, but she is from Glenrose Ward. Cameron Johnson is on the end and he is from our Ward (6th Ward). He is in Jacob's class and they are friends.
Along with turning 8 and getting baptized, Jacob is very excited to have started Cub Scouts. He has watched Tyler go for the last few years and he is excited to finally have his chance to join in the fun. The first thing out of both of their mouths was "You are going down at the Pinewood Derby." LOL. Not that we encourage competition, but how can we help it with 5 boys. So begins our double duty in Cub Scouts. Soon Tyler will be in Scouts and Noah will be following Jacob into Cub Scouts. Fun and busy times are starting.
Notice the pillows lined up. This is our attempt to keep Jameson off the fireplace and from attacking the bigger nutcrackers. "Attempt" is stressed. They kept him at bay for a while, but he soon figured out how to get around and attack when he wanted.
So this is everyong sharing in putting all the ornaments on the tree. We have put the tree up on boxes for the last few years. It provides a taller base so that little hands cant get to the tree/ornaments. Anyway, you can see Daniel on a chair to put his ornaments on. Also notice that he is in only a diaper. He has learned how to undress himself and spends most of everyday naked. Refer to future pictures and see him in zip up pajamas that I have strategically put on backwards so that he cannot take them off as it is freezing lately and can get chilly in the house sometimes. My attempt to keep him warm during these cold winter months.
Anyway, back to decorating. Noah had a chance to put the Angel on top of the tree this year. Here he is with daddy holding him up smiling big as he holds up the Angel. It is a special treat to be the one to put the Angel on. Good job Noah.
Here is all the kids under the newly decorated tree. It is impossible to get them all looking happy or at the camera all at the same time, so you get what you get. Cute kids anyway and awesome looking tree. They did a great job.
After decorating, we enjoyed some hot cocoa and cookies with Grammy and Poppy and talked about what each of us wanted for Christmas.
It was a fun night and one to be remembered, especially having Grammy and Poppy there. I am glad that they were able to join in our fun this year.
So Jacob, on your birthday, I wish you a very Happy day and I love you so much kiddo. Keep up the great job. Cant wait until next month when you get to be baptized.
I did not get the picture of the mess that they made with the cookies afterwards. They only ended up eating the icing off the cookie and then crumbling the cookie all over the floor and smearing left over icing across the bookcase. Oh well! It was tasty while it lasted.
Tyler is in 5th Grade this year. He has been very excited to get the chance to make some friends here in Spokane. Since I am posting this very late, I can already tell you that he has become friends with a boy who is in both his class at school and also at church. He is a triplet with a brother and sister in the 5th grade also, so he has made some good friends and I cant complain too much. He enjoys walking home from school with them every day. It is great to see him growing up.
Jacob is in the 2nd grade this year. Wow, I cannot believe it. He is getting big so very fast. Jacob is very excited to be reading and getting to a point where he can keep up with Tyler a bit better. He is learning and growing and becoming a great student. We are excited for the progress he has made.
Noah is our big Kindergartener. His big day is finally here. We are so proud of him and all the work he has put in the last year to get to this point. The school we are going to this year has all day kindergarten, so he is at school all day with his brothers. This is so great for him (as well as for Mom). He enjoys school very much, but it does wear him out by the end of the week. I am excited to see him start his school career and begin all the fun stages we have started with the older boys. It is amazing that he is at this point already. Yeah Noah.
I am so very proud of all 3 of my school boys. They are doing so well and enjoying school so much. I wish them all a good time at school this year.
We even had the opportunity to see the moon rise. It was really quite fun to watch. I saw the glow of the moon over the mountain first and over a 20 minute or so period we watched it rise right over the mountain. The kids were amazed at that one. Here is a picture of it, only because the kids kept begging me to take a pic. It is far away, but you can see it rising up from behind the mountain. God really did create a beautiful world for us.
After what seemed like forever, the light show finally started and the kids all say it was well worth the wait. It is a definite stop for us each summer, I think. We sat down on the grass below so we were able to see all the lasers as they were passing over our heads. It was fun to see the kids reactions to all the fun designs and to share something with them, that I did as I was growing up. 
Before leaving, we purchased just a small inflatable row boat. Daddy enjoyed taking all of the kids for rides around the swim area. It was quite a workout really.
The kids also tried their hand at rowing themselves around. Unfortunately, circles was about the only thing they accomplished. They had fun trying though.
