I was tagged by my friend Deb to come up with 5 Christmas things.

Here they are:
5 Favorite Christmas Movies:
1. White Christmas
2. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
3. Home Alone
4. Santa Clause
5. It's a Wonderful Life

5 Things that happened yesterday
1. wrapping presents
2. Martineau family Christmas party
3. cleaned the house
4. finished making some gifts
5. Ate a few(!) carmels

5 things to look forward to
1. Spring--warm weather
2. Christmas
3. completely healthy kids and husband
4. nap time
5. ????

5 things on your wish list
1. obedient children
2. clean house
3. smaller body
4. desire to exercise
5. no more debt

5 things I love most about Christmas/Winter
1. Christmas morning with the kids
2. Christmas treats
3. Christmas music
4. helping my kids understand the reason for the season
5. It's a nice way to end the year!

Play along if you'd like!

I'm Dreamin' of a WHITE Christmas!!!

Well, we got some snow...just a little! It really snowed ALL day yesterday. The kids loved it, me--not so much--I had to shovel! I really need to learn how to use the snow blower. Merry Christmas everyone!

Here's a couple of pictures today.

Hannah had her very first piano recital on the 18th. She played "Up on the Housetop". She was very nervous (can you tell in the picture?!), but did a fantastic job. We are proud of her! She is doing so well.

Christmas season fun!

These first pictures are of the annual Thayne Family Christmas party in Pleasant Grove. I think this is the first year Hannah actually sat on Santa's lap. Everyone always gets an orange as well-compliments of Great Grandma Thayne.

Logan wasn't too thrilled. He's wearing a blinking necklace he won in the bingo game!

Jacob loved it!

I think it's funny that Alex is giving him a very interesting look. He isn't too sure about the red-suited guy. He does know how to say Santa, however!

Our home teachers gave the kids a candy cane. Logan loved his a little too much! I even had to clean the back side of his head! He did eat the whole thing!

For FHE we decorated a gingerbread house. The pieces were all pre-made, which made the decorating much more enjoyable!

There seemed to be a lot more eating than decorating!!!!

Our finished masterpiece!!

I couldn't resist putting these last two pictures in! Logan is so cheesy!

I love Alex's BIG blue eyes!

8 more days!!!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Here's our annual "Kids in front of the decorated Christmas tree" picture. Enjoy!

We love Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great! We were so happy to see Uncle Ephraim, Aunt Heather, Max, and Ezra. We have missed them so much and glad to have seen Ephraim before he leaves for a year! We ate Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The food was great, as usual, and we had a wonderful time. We have so much to be grateful for!

Flying Eagle--aka Jacob


Hannah was an Indian in her Thanksgiving 3rd Grade Program. Pilgrim Jacob had a Thanksgiving Feast in his class!

Thanksgiving Day!

I asked to take Max's picture--he dropped to this pose every time. Isn't he so cute!

He's also a whiz on the guitar!

Rich and Ezra--he was sure smiley!

Heather and Logan

Hannah and Ephraim.

We love Uncle Ephraim and are proud to have him serve our country! We will miss you!!!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Our Jacob is now six. What a great day we had! His birthday started last week with a cake from Grandma!

It continued all week with cards in the mail, outings with Grandma and fun days at school being the VIP. It took a lot of effort to convince him he wasn't six until today!!! Today started with his favorite breakfast--cold cereal--HoneyNut Cheerios. Then there were presents!!! (One of his favorite parts!)
Hannah made him a special birthday hat from the tissue paper. He's thrilled--can't you tell!

Then lots of playing with his new stuff. Next, we were off to Chuck E. Cheese. He loved it. Grandma and Grandpa stopped in for a bit and everyone had a good time and got LOTS of tickets for prizes!

(Sorry about the fuzzy picture--he was still in motion on the ride!)

We ended with a birthday dinner--foil dinners from the fire pit--Jacob loves the fire pit--and a great cake decorated by Hannah. Usually I bake a fancy cake of their choice, and believe it or not, this was his choice--a square cake with Happy Birthday Jacob written on it. He is easy to please!!!

We love you Jacob and are glad you had a great birthday!!!

Primary Program

Our Primary Program was last Sunday. It was extra special because Hannah was asked to give a talk about when we went to Bountiful Temple to have Jacob sealed to us. She was very nervous, but had been practicing for a while. She did a fantastic job talking in front of a VERY large audience. She has become so confident lately. We are so proud of her. Jacob also had a part that he memorized and did so well. We loved the singing and we love our kids!!!

I love how Logan is looking up at Jacob and Alex is standing just like him!

Glorious Day

Gas at our closest gas station is $1.99 a gallon today. FINALLY!

DISNEYLAND!

Well, be prepared for lots of pictures. We had a fabulous time. The kids love it--even the babies got to ride on lots of things! We were so grateful that Grandma Lillie could come with us. She was a big help, but we hope she had a good time as well! The weather was perfect, the Parks were not very crowded and we can't wait to go back...someday!!

We left on Sunday, the 19th. The kids really liked the airplane. We thought they would be REALLY interested in looking out the window, however, we soon discovered that the glare from the window interrupted their TV watching, so the window stayed closed most of the trip. Oh well, at least they were occupied!


When we arrived, we went to the beach. Here is Balboa Island. We walked out on the pier before spending time in the water.

The kids loved the water!!!

Sand...everywhere!!!

Day 2--Let the fun begin!!!

We are here at LAST!!!!

The Halloween Decorations were fun!

Jacob and the Sword in the stone.

Our first ride!

Logan in line for Dumbo.

Jacob on Dumbo

Can you see the rest of us? Hannah, me and Logan, then Grandma and Alex in front of us!

The Teacups! By their faces, Disneyland is the Happiest Place on Earth!!

Toontown--Mickey's house

More Toontown

Jacob and Goofy

Day 3--California Adventure

I loved how they used candy corns as "A's"

Logan was so excited to see Minnie, he kept reaching out and tried to kiss

her nose. It was so cute!

Bug's Life Land

The babies got to ride on lots here. They really had a good time.

Mr. Potato Head at the Toy Story Ride. Way cool!!

Last stop before going back over to DisneyLand.

Hannah started getting a little braver about the characters.

Nice, cool ice cream treat!

Pirate's Island--of course there are some random people in the back! We found the treasure after searching through lots of caves!

Shopping!!

Day 4--We're ready for the last day of our trip!

Yes, Jacob HAD to get the Mickey hands!

Since we went on most everything the kids wanted the 2 days before, they wanted to get autographs of the characters. They got lots before we had to leave and catch our plane. The next pictures are of them and the characters.

Alice

Minnie

Snow White

Jasmine

Cinderella

Mickey!

Our last picture before we left the Park!

What a wonderful trip we had!

Hannah's favorites from the trip:

California Screamin' Rollercoaster--she rode twice!

Autotopia Driving Cars --3 times--she even got her driver's license

Princesses

playing at the beach

Jacob's favorites:

Space Mountain

Matterhorn

Indiana Jones--he covered his eyes and ears the whole time!

Pirates of the Caribbean