Sunday Dinner and Ice Fishing

We have recently taken up making Sunday dinner as a family.  A while ago Shane decided we should eat at our house with just our family a couple of Sundays a month.  I agreed as long as he cooked.  I do not want to cook when there is a warm meal available to me that I did not have to cook at my mom or Grandma's house.  It has been so much fun.  We always have a smoothie and that makes it really special in the boys' mind.  They are learning to read a recipe, crack eggs, choose meal plans.  All of which I usually do on my own.  This particular day, Cam was in charge of the smoothie, Dakota the dessert, and Braxton the bread and helping Shane with the meatballs.  It all turned out delicious.  It is great having helpers and we are all enjoying the learning process.

On Martin Luther King day Shane took Braxton and Dakota to Pineview fishing with Brent, Rebecca, and Cody.  They caught a TON of fish, enough that the boys hardly noticed how freezing cold it was.  Me and Cam stayed home and got a ton of errands ran.  The boys even did a fish dance that was so cute to attract the fish.

This was Dakota's fish dance, the movie is so cute that Shane took.  

Sleeping Children

I love every night when Shane and I go to bed stopping for just a few seconds to watch my boys sleep.  On this particular night I felt like I should take a picture of what I see each night.  They are so peaceful, so quiet, so still.  They are rarely peaceful, quiet or still so this is a great time for a mother to reflect on all the things I love about being their mom.  I read an article yesterday about "normal", how so much of normal frustrates us as mothers.  Normal messes, being ignored, having to get after children, dishes, vacuuming, being ignored, etc...  It is all so frustrating sometimes, but we should be thankful for our normal.  Here is a quote from that article that I really liked...Vacuuming is beautiful. It’s a representation of normal, and normal, my dear friends, is an absolute gift. Celebrate normal. Celebrate those vacuuming the kids’ floor who made a huge mess but are sitting in your home playing moments of life.

Keep perspective. Savor today. Love the little things.

*Tonight at scripture study, which we read off the IPAD, Cameron said "wouldn't it be cool if we could just say prayers with the IPAD too. Shane said "I'm sure there is an APP for that". Funny kids.

Today

Today I am thankful for my nice warm house.  I look outside and see all that snow, and my boys and I shovel the driveway together and I am thankful that after spending an hour or so out there, I can come into this nice warm house that has a nice heater.  I am thankful that I can spend that time with my boys out working, really working.  Some children in our home are better at endurance work, some not so much, but as we are almost finishing up I am thankful that everyone tried their best.  Everyone has a different best and I appreciate that about all 3 of my boys.  They are great!

Funny Cam

"Mom I have been wanting this cannon for years!"

Final Post 2012

Well this is going to be my final post for 2012 to sum up the year and so I can start the task of gathering everything into a book.  

I gave up scrap booking   I feel guilty.  It just wasn't on my priority list anymore and I often did it in a social setting and that stopped so I stopped.  I used to tease all those ladies whose pictures just sat on their hard drive and never got printed, well now I am one of them.  Last year we went to California...last thing printed so far.  It is strange the eb and flow of life, somethings seem so important one moment then another they just are not.  Well this blog is how I have replaced my cute scrap books, and it is much easier and much less cute, but it makes me happy anyway.

2012 has been another fast, fun year for the Weston family.  Boys playing many sports, attending scouts, and loving their electronic devices.  I am turning into the family bus driver constantly going from one lesson or practice to another and I really do love it.  My heart still aches for primary but I am getting used to going to the adult classes and actually enjoy the learning.  I still love my job at Bella's and the friends I have there.

Shane is still loving his job and hoping that 2013 is the year they decide to pay him for being the work lead instead of having to volunteer all year.  He is really good at what he does and there are often shops on Base who request him specifically to fix their machines.  He has a knack for figuring out why the machines are broken and has really good follow through to get the job done.

Braxton and Dakota are both doing well in school this year.  They both are slow readers, which Shane constantly assures me that they will be fine (I am the mom I have to worry about this stuff right?).  They are both also great at math, it comes quickly and naturally to both of them.  Dakota is very quiet and rarely makes a peep in class.  He is best friends with Denim his cousin and that is who he sits by at lunch and plays with at recess.  Braxton is a bit distracted in class and is struggling with the noise level in his classroom.  The other kids finish their tests and are not quiet, and it is quite hard for him to stay focused.  He asked me the other day "Why do I get distracted mom?"  I had to tell him that different peoples brains work differently and he just needs more silence than some others. (If only we could get the smarty pants kids in his class to realize this too).

Cameron is loving joyschool and his computer school.  He is learning so much.  Now we just have to worry about the sitting still and leaving your neighbor alone.  Such a struggle for 5 year old kids.  He is now is CTR5 and way excited about that.  Shane has had a lot of time off lately and Cameron is becoming quite spoiled getting to spend so much alone time with Mom and Dad.

Candy Dipping 2012

Katie and Shannon showing off Tic Tac (the baby in her belly). 

Shane's whole family came over on New Years Eve to dip chocolates.  It was so much fun.  This is the 2nd year that we have done this, but I was sure to get photos and plenty of them this year.  We love all his family and have such a great time together.  It is amazing how well they all get along, something we are very blessed with on both sides of our family.  Becky got all the chocolate and dipping stuff and I fed everyone sweet pork tacos with help of everyone bringing something to go with it.  There were pretzels  fondant, cherries, caramels; dark, milk and white chocolate----sooo yummy.

Cody (left), Bernice, Cade  Grandpa Russ (background)

Cameron, Dakota, Geana, Medora

We burnt the white chocolate to begin with, Cade is trying to revive it.

Braxton spent most of the time entertaining Ryder his 2 yr old cousin.  I couldn't convince him to dip anything.

Dakota and I had a great time putting rolos on pretzels.  He is always such a good sport when it comes to joining on whatever we are up to.   

Shane is always the Toffee Man.  He had a hillarious moment this year where he did not cook it long enough and it turned into a huge ball of goo!  Justin is holding it in his hand after we realized it would never get hard.

Bernice, Justin, Cade, cutting up carmels

Medora (Justin's Daughter)

Alan, Alisha, and Michael.  He spent most of the night asleep, but joined in for a while.

Grandma Becky made a huge mess of herself after she leaned way too far over the table.  She ended up with blood on her collar later from Ryder getting a bloody lip.

Justin and his family are moving to Japan for 2 to 5 years for a job next month so it was the last time we will do this with everyone for a while.  My kids are sad, we are sad too but excited for them and their new adventure.  Justin's kids are the ones my boys play with so they are not looking forward to the change.  Becky cries a lot, she tries not to talk about it to hold back the emotions.  I am sure Shane will miss his brother and know we will all miss them too.  I suppose that is why we make memories now right?

Christmas Day 2012

Cookies we set out for Santa   He ate almost all but the sugar cookie was still there with a bite taken out.

This picture does not really do justice to the fact that it was 2:52 AM when Braxton woke us up to do Christmas.  Lets be honest I couldn't sleep anyway so it didn't matter to me one bit what time it was, but that is insanely early in the morning.  Santa barely escaped before they were already awake.  I remember when I was a kid we would go out and sort all the gifts into piles, fall asleep on the living room floor, and wait and wait for mom and dad to wake up.  Well Shane's rules are that Christmas has to be done in the dark.  For years we woke up the boys about 6:00 so it would still be dark.  Well, now that the true excitement is inside everyone, there is no protesting from anyone.  We get up when the first kid comes in our room.  It is early, but we had the whole family back to bed by 5:00 so it wasn't too bad.  Then Mom, Dad, Tara, and Troy came over for the annual Christmas Breakfast.  Yum!

The theme of this Christmas seemed to be sharing and getting along.  Each kid got one toy and the rest of the gifts said family.  It was also an electronic free year for us.  Santa said that we are spending way to much time "nerding out" as we call it, so everyone got toys, games, KNEX, and a new pool/basketball/ping pong table to put upstairs.  Many necessities were received this year also: Coats, Jackets, Shoes, Clothes, Socks, Undies, etc. 

I guess Santa knows Cameron's obsession with Avocados because he got one in his stocking.

Yeah, we got snow for Christmas.  We haven't had any this year so far, we are so happy that we got some to play in and go sledding in.  It is a little dry for snowmen yet, but hopefully later in the year.  The temperature around here has been in the single digits, SOOO COLD, so I am hoping for more snow to force out the freezing temperatures.
Shane was able to have off the entire Christmas break this year.  We spent some great time together as a family.  We had lots of parties with both sides of the family, went sledding two times, went to Toads to play Laser Tag, had breakfast at our favorite joint Bella's, played lots of board games, and got a couple of Red Box movies.  Shane snuck out for his annual Playstation fest with his brothers.  Out till 2:30 am, crazy but they have a good time.  So I snuck out to a movie Les Miserables with the sister-in-laws and Tara.  It was a lot of singing but really good show.  I love making memories with those that we love!

Handsome Boys

Braxton (10), Cameron (5) Dakota (7).  

My mom got the boys new Christmas church clothes.  They all looked so handsome. Braxton said "I better put on my glasses or I will look just like Dakota only with a different color sweater.  He is right they are looking a lot alike these days.  I love how excited they all get at Christmas   We did the 12 days of Christmas to a family in our neighborhood and they loved running up to the house every night.  They were very concerned about being sneaky and hiding in the bushes.  I loved seeing their faces when they came back to the car.  Priceless.

Our little family that is not feeling so little to me anymore.  We are starting to feel like a family with big kids, kind of weird, yet really fun at the same time.