The Twelve days of Christmas

We were so blessed to be given the twelve days of Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Cheney this year! Coleton had so much fun opening one each night or during Brandons lunch break! We got ornaments that had a little thought with each and a little toy for both boys to enjoy which they did. There were little balls for them to play with, stickers of the manger, stuffed animals, and of course Coletons favorites were the candy! We knew it must have taken alot of preporation to get it ready but we loved it and are grateful for thinking of us!!

Walking!

While we were in Kaysville for Thanksgiving, Hayden began attempting to walk and when Brandon walked in to the house after being gone for four days, Hayden took his first steps right to him. It was adorable and since then he has been doing really good! Coleton didnt walk exclusively until he was a week over a year but Hayden has definately beat him. He took his first steps at nine and a half months and by ten months doesnt even crawl anymore. Everyone that sees him is quite confused at the fact that he is already walking but i am pretty sure that he started walking to keep us with Coleton, crawling for him was to slow (considering he only crawled for two weeks or so). Here is a video of him walking a few weeks ago. He is doing, so much better and we are hoping that by Christmas morning he can walk out to see his presents but we will see!! Enjoy!

Lights go out!

For the past four days it has been raining which is really unusual for Hurricane! We rarely get rain and so the landscaping has been having a hard time adjusting. Major flooding has been happening in St. George and we are now in a state of emergancy. Well last night about 6:30 our house became very dark. All of Hurricane lost there power for about and hour and a half and though many people were a little annoyed by it, I Loved It!! It was so fun! We got our candles out, sat in the living room, and just enjoyed the quiet (except Coleton panicking yelling "mommy turn on lights, turn on lights mommy" over and over again) but it was really fun to sit there with our candle light. Now i have to admit i liked it for an hour and a half but i dont know how long i could have gone but it was one of those moments were i finally started to feel like it was Christmas which for some reason this year took me a while to get but none the less i got it but it was a fun little evening for us!

Decorating for Christmas!

Our neighborhood is really great about decorating for holidays which can often make us look like slackers. No matter the holiday, they seem to have a great decor so we figured it would be a good idea for us to put up some outside lights. Since we dont have any, and they are dang expensive, we decided to ask Brandons parents if we could borrow some of there old lights and reindeer. They even came down to help string them up!! When Brandon went out to finish the lights Coleton went out to help him, it was raining but neither of them seem to mind! On the inside of the house we went very simple!! We had our snow globe collection (one for each christmas so we are up to 4), our nativities (which of course Hayden kept stealing baby Jesus), we had our stockings and our new christmas tree which my older brother gave us. The decorations were not as much as usual but it was very fitting this year!!

Happy 24th Birthday!

This year my birthday fell on a Sunday so though it was relaxing, we still had to be up early, get dressed, and ready to go for nine o clock church! After church, we got our favorite Sunday afternoon nap, then had Brandons parents over for dinner. Our camera battery died after three pictures so we didnt get very many but it was really a great day. Brandon and the boys got me a Snickers birthday cake which was amazing and the WAVE program. I am now one year older and the day was wonderful!!

The Christmas Nativity

With Christmas coming, we figured it was time to get some decorations up. We recieved a little peoples nativity the first year we were married, so it is one of the first items i get out. As i pulled each piece out, i tried to expain who each person was to help teach Coleton the Story of Christ birth. As I got each out, i began to realize that Coleton wasnt paying much attention. Understanding that he is only 2 years old, i figured waiting another year to really explain it would be best.

A few days later, we got a phone call from an older lady in our ward who had an extra nativity she was not wanting and asked if we would be interested in it to which i replyed YES!! She brought it over and quickly we put it up. Since this one was alot more fragile then our little peoples nativity, i made sure to tell Coleton many times that he was not to touch any of the peices because they were so special. As Coleton watched, i took each peice out of the box placing the person or animal where it was suppose to be Coleton excitingly ran to his little people and brought me over the corresponding person. His little nativity was one that both the boys were free to play with but after explaining how special each of the items of our new nativity he began to realize that his nativity also needed to go up high for them to be safe. As i stood there thinking that it would look a little silly to have this beautiful nativity with the plastic people mixed in, i wondered if i should tell him to place his somewhere else but as that thought came to my mind i then realized what was happening. He had finally understood, at that moment, how important baby Jesus was in a small way and I was in fear of hurting that thought. So with each person, he was so proud to place them in their spot and though it may look a little rediculous it was a moment that I realized how important those little teaching moments are and how important it is to taking them.

Welcome Santas Little Elf!!

Well, today we got a little visitor. As Brandon was headed out to go get some dinner for the family, we heard the doorbell ring and Santa dropped something off to us!!

Coleton was so excited that Santa dropped off a present to him he could hardly hold still for a picture with Heber the elf. I tried telling Coleton why Heber was at our house but i dont think he understood that Heber would be reporting back to Santa about how good or bad he was but Coleton didnt seem to care, Santa had just been at our house!!!

Thanksgiving Break

This year for Thanksgiving, we headed up to Kaysville to spend it with the Cheney side of the family! We headed up the weekend before to go see the Hurricane vs Juan Diago State game. On Sunday Brandon had to head back to teach for a few more days while i stayed there with the boys! Coleton loved the chance to stay and cook with Grandma Cheney and boy was he excited to see all the treats she had for him. We went shopping while we were there made gingerbread house cut outs and of course started making food for the Thanksgiving Dinner.We were lucky enough to have my parents, Bradley, Caralee, Cristeen (and family), Curtis (and family) and then Brandon came back!We had some activites during the weekend like building gingerbread trains and houses, playing out in the snowand after the kids went to bed the adults stayed up and chatted, ate, played games it was such a great time. We all headed home on Saturday afternoon because huge storm were going to be coming for everyone that was heading home and thankfully we left early because when the storms his many roads were closed and alot of accidents happened but thanksfully we all got home safe and we all really enjoyed our Thanksgiving weekend with family! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope the holiday was as great!

Early Thanksgiving!

This year we were lucky enough to be able to spend time with Brandons family for an early thanksgiving. Brandons Aunt Deanne and his Uncle Perry with both of there families were able to come and spend a few days in Cedar with us. We had a great time as the three kids played together (though there was a little age difference) Coleton was loving life! Of course, we ate, played some games, singing some chirstmas music, and enjoyed a evening by the campfire. It had been a while since we had all gotten together and it sure was great we are hoping to be able to get together more often with people living closer!!

(From Left to right: Mark, Landon, Deanne, Joleen, tom, Grandma Wiser, Grampa Wiser, Perry, Mikayla, Dawn, and then us up front) It was a great early Thanksgiving and we are so blessed to have such a great family!!

My little cowboy!

For Halloween this year, i was hoping to have Coleton be Woody from Toy Story but some how it seems like the costume did not come together like i had planned. He didnt seem to understand why there was a horses head on a stick that you kind of sit on with a hat that never stayed on and jeans that were just to tight so of course we switched to the Incredibles but Hayden sure didnt let the items go to waste. The horse is one of his favorite toys and he loves....
The Cowboy hat!! Who would have thought!?! It doesnt fit so great but he will be crying and i will put that cowboy hat on him and a huge grin comes from him! Hopefully this is a good trend, i love hats but Coleton and Brandon both wont wear them so maybe this is my lucky break! Ride on Cowboy!!