Winn Christmas 2010

2011 HAS ROCKED...no reason, it's just been a great year so far.  But, since I'm behind again on my blogging, we'll start where we left off.  

Christmas Eve we were lucky enough to spend with good friends, eating great food, and we even acted out our first Nativity! woo woo.  When we got home, the boys put on their new p.j.'s and crawled into bed. Kade was so afraid that he would cough in the night and Santa would think he was awake and skip over the house.  cutie.  But Santa came and all was great.  

The boys particularly loved their DS games.  I have been astounded the past few weeks at the rate technology is being developed.  It's CRAZY and amazing.

And Garrett particularly loved when we left the room and he opened his puffs that santa gave him. He was all sorts of excited to be surrounded by them when we came back in :)

Right...coolest picture ever huh!  Melodie gave the boys the coolest soft spiky rubber balls and fortunately for us--they fit over Jess head.  Good times!

New Years Eve we spent as a family playing outside, playing the Wii and having an awesome Uno Tournament.  CARI WON!  SUP!  This particular face of Lukes was when Kade gave him a draw 4. Now try to imagine the guttural 'grrrr' that went with it. That Luke--he kills me.

January 1st, Luke learned how to ride a two wheeler.  WOO WOO!  He has been riding with the training wheels elevated for awhile, and on New Years Day he asked me to take them off.  He literally just rode away.  It was amazing!  I took my sister Christy's idea and had him start in the back yard on the grass, he fell once or twice and then we took to the streets. YAY! Now he totally fits in with the crew that rides in the cul-de-sac. Stud!

Snow-snow--but mostly ice.  We recently had a few inches of snow and 2 1/2 snow days from school because of it. ha ha--but in Georgia's defense--it was really icy!  We have video of Lucas sliding down the icy hill and Kade trying to do a snow angel. ha ha.  It was pretty awesome...and really cold.  I'm such a woos now that I've been away from Utah for 5 years.  I'm ridiculous!

Here's our icy front lawn.

Playing Catch-up Fall 2010

I know it's been on everyone's minds...What HAVE the Winns been up to in the past few months?  Well--tons of awesome radical stuff. 

Let's begin!

Rhett has been on the move. He's walking along all the furniture and holding onto moms legs all the time.  He's so happy lately too.  YAY!  He waves (mostly to dad) with the cutest little fist--most of the time towards himself which we love.  He's super fun--the boys are adorable with him and hold his little fists while they walk down the hall with him..they carry him--which is hilarious because he's not that much smaller then them.  He has some great big brothers!

I love this picture--it makes me think of how excited he is to be a big kid and do the big kid stuff.

Kade got really good on the tramp for awhile--he was doing back flips and everything!  I'm just glad he didn't get brain damage--he landed on his poor little head so many times!

We love washable markers in our family!  After the boys (Jess included) got all covered in markers, I thought to myself, "why have we not drawn on the boys faces while they were sleeping before?"  I mean--that's awesome!

On Veterans Day, Kade's school had a celebration for all those who were or are serving in the military. It was INCREDIBLE!  All the kids had their flags waving, there were so many service men and women there in uniform, and it made me so grateful to live in this amazing country, but more so that my KIDS are living in a free country where they're safe and have so many opportunities because of so many selfless individuals.  I love my husband!

"It's cause I don't have 100% vision"

Okay--this was my favorite thing EVER!  The we all went to see Mega Mind in 3D for Kade's birthday. Luke kept the glasses and wore them for like 4 or 5 days EVERY WHERE WE WENT...I loved it.   When anyone would ask why, he said, "It's cause I don't have 100% vision"

On his birthday Kade wanted doughnuts for his class and for me to read them a story.  He asked me a few weeks prior and it made me smile.  PLUS!  Now for real--this is really cute!  For his birthday he wanted to make school kits (that you donate for Humanitarian Aid).  He even said, "I can't wait for School Kit Day."  FOR REAL!  He's a good example for us.  Here's Kade at school on his birthday.

Here's the kids in their costumes from Halloween.  Rhett's a lion.. just in case you're wondering.  He was a good one too.  At the trunk or treat he just hung out in the trunk with me and smiled at all the kids.  I love him!

Kade was a Ghost Buster. He had a big pack to go with his costume but I totally forgot to take pictures until the end of the night.  Thanks Chris for the costume!

Luke was excited to be a ninja-turtle.  He rocked at it.

Our good friend was born Oct. 1980, so for his birthday he had all of us dress up in 80's clothes for the party.  A.MAZE.ING.  Everyone looked awesome.  Jess shyly wore zebra spandex pants...he's more of an introvert that one really.

And really--Rhett is growing up so so fast. He's already 8 1/2 months old!  It's gone by so fast!
I love family!  MMM My heart is just overflowing.  I'm just so grateful for goodness and smiles and laughs.  I'm grateful for health and a comfort. Life IS beautiful.

That's the last few months in a nut shelll!  Now on to Christmas!

Baseball game, School, teeth...you know..stuff like that

A few weeks ago we took the boys to a Green Jacket's game for Family Home Evening. It was so so fun! We both thought the boys would be bored after 5 minutes but they surprised us! They got exceptionally happier though when we added a few baseball treats in the mix. In fact that was almost they're favorite part. Every foul ball that was hit Kade was hoping he could catch it...but they never came our way. About 30 minutes before we left the nicest man that was sitting on the opposite end of the stands from us, walked up, handed us a foul ball, and walked away. HOW NICE WAS THAT! The boys were thrilled! And since we had some players sitting right next to us, we had it signed. SCORE! I just love nice people!
Rhett was so happy the whole time and then just drifted off to sleep. This one has been a dream pretty much! We like that!He's so so so cute huh! I may be partial.... Every time I drive him to school he sings

"today is a wonderful day, for I am going away.

Not to the circus, not to the pool! Can't you guess I'm going to school."

It was my favorite little song when I was little and I LOVE that he sings it!

Lucas started Pre-School! He's a champion at it too! He goes three days a week for 4 hours. The things I hear about everyday, is who he did centers with (the time when they move from station to station, playing, and learning in small groups of 2 to 3) and what he did at recess. Since it's so hot here, they have a gym in th center of the building where all the kids are able to ride bikes and those little red and yellow cars. This way he doesn't have to play in the heat and almost die, but he gets to play. I LOVE IT! His favorite part of pre-school for the longest time was the fact that he got to ride with his friends to school for our carpool (one of my favorite parts too!) He's so rad though. We love the kid!

If you paid a dollar on a particular day at Kade's school(to help the hospital in our area) you got to wear a hat to school. Kade suprised me when I asked him if he wanted to, and he went straight to Jess and aske him if he could wear his Cowboy hat. The thing was HUGE! And adorable. So that's what he wore to school. He said people he didn't know were calling him cowboy all day and he loved it.
Here are the boys with their friends Tucker and Hudson at the bus stop--they're fun kids!

Notice anything missing? Kade's been wanting to loose a tooth for YEARS now! And a few weeks back at church, it finally came out. We were in sharing time and he walked up to me with the biggest grin to show me what he had in his hand. His teachers were all excited for him too--they're great! And since it was so ready--there was no blood--that was my favorite part! I'm not a big fan of wiggling teeth and all that stuff--so it was perfect!

As for everything else. Rhett is sitting up now--and pulling his knees under him while shaking his little bum back and forth (so so cute) getting ready to crawl. So that's cute!

Quote from Lucas when I picked him up at the family Y childcare, "I thought I'd missed snack time, and then BOOM-no" he he ooh, and also when he has to go to the bathroom, he'll run from the room most times saying, "Potty Alert, Potty Alert"

Jess is in school and trying to prepare his mind for the idea of Law School. We're looking around for a LSAT prep course that he can take before the real thing. And I'm just getting used to 3 kids still. It's nice that they come one at a time so that the decrease in time you have for everything and everyone doesn't seem so drastic..but it does take some getting used to. Life is great!

Wyoming

Our trip out West was amazingly awesome. We love our families so so so much! Our first stop was Wyoming! We played Frisbee and baseball and just hung out in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. It was great cause--turns out-- out there you can go outside and not become drenched by the humidity--there was even a nice cool breeze that made it "enjoyable" to be outside. hip hip hooray!!!

Lucas is one for being silly--and naked...so playing in a little mud and then getting hosed down by dad was perfect for him!

awwww....
We got some KFC and ate it in the park by their house...saw Dispicable Me --which was hilarious ("it was accidentely destroyed maliciously" ha ha). Kade learned that going grocery shopping with Grandma is WAY cooler then shopping with mom..and that she gets you tons of stuff.

We wanted to go swimming, and since we missed the hours to go to the Y, Aubrey brought us to her hotel pool which was so fun and we all had a blast. Plus I hadn't been in a hot tub in FOREVER and well...I love hot tubs so AWESOME!

One night we had a party! Andrea's boyfriend Andrew came up, and one of Jess' best friends drove up and we played 500 (that game scares me like I'll be trampled any moment..but it was fun to watch :), roasted marshmallows, had fireworks and played one of my favorite games--Balderdash--a fantastic time was had by all!

This is a champion picture for so many reasons..strange expressions, Jess is holding an ax...okay--maybe just 2 reasons. But here's the 500 group after they were done.



We even got to drive out and see Jess' grandparents in Tooele one of the days. Melodie (Jess' sister) taught the boys all the stellar games they used to play as kids--like High Ho Silvio--the just of this game from their youth sounds like you jump off the ledge of the retaining wall...say, "High Ho Silvio" and then run around and do it again--Jess says his sisters would do it for hours! LOVE IT!

I love Jess' grandparents--they are so so sweet and hilarious!

Also here is a beautiful picture of Melodie as she was playing with the boys! (she's a hoot!)

Grandpa Dick was in a parade for being a veteran of World War 2. He bought a few hats to try and pick which one he wanted for that day and let the boys pick out a hat from the ones he didn't use--He's so so rad! For real--I like him lots--I also love this picture of the boys with him. He's such a neat man!



Evanston has the coolest rec department ever! One of the days we were there they had a golf clinic for kids. The boys really liked it. AND--having gone miniature golfing since--they have improved DRAMATICALLY. So--good job Evanston!

Jess' mom's birthday was while we were there so we threw her a surprise Princess birthday complete with streamers, pinata and a Princess Ribbon! Woo woo! Even though it was one of those pull string pinatas, we decided to whack it with a bat anyway--Andrea was super brave to hold it on the broom for us.
I love how in this picture Aubrey, Andrea and Julie look all beautiful and Melodie has on the crazy eye and Justin looks like he kills babies...ha ha--craziesCute!

Also while we were there we went to Seven Peaks; ONE OF THE GREATEST PLACES ON EARTH! We didn't get any pictures--but for real...i love that place! Every time I go on one of the free fall rides I get so giddy--Jess, Aubrey and I did them and...just yay! So fun!

Utah

Here's a video of right before we left, and while we were out West!

After spending some time with Jess' family we drove down to PG to hang out with mine!

The first night we were there it was the 24th so we had a bbq with mom and B.J. and Kara, did some fireworks with the boys, and after they were in bed climbed the roof to see the rest in the valley.

Monday morning, we all got ready and went hiking up the mountain by my parents house. Scott and my dad took us all repelling/beleying once we got up to a waterfall. So so fun! The boys were all sorts of excited (but maybe probably mostly me...maybe :) We got them all set to go. (Cute right?--look at those little helmets!)

Kade started getting a little nervous. Jess pulled him off to the side and said some words of wisdom..and courage and all that good stuff, and Kade was ready to go!

If you watched the video, you heard how the boys were feeling before going and how Kade felt after--I loved those parts!

AHHH! Awesome--he did so so great!

Luke got suited up next.

He got down most of the worst of it by himself (with grandpa hooked up next to him on a parallel rope) and right when it was about to be just a ride down to the bottom he got super nervous. So he climbed back up. He did so so good though. I can't wait for him to try again next time!

This was right before Jess went....he's pretty cute I think!

I went after that! I got to go in-between 2 waterfalls. It was AWESOME! I love that my dad and Scott had all this gear! So fun!

That night we all headed up to Gavin's family birthday party. It was fun to all hang out and see Jared's side of the family! The next day we saw Toy Story 3 (good, but I really think Despicable Me was funnier) We spent the night at the Holmbergs one of the nights--and stayed up way too late talking-they're fun. Then we went to sleep--which is when we found out that mom and dad's air mattress does indeed have a gigantic hole in it..leaving you sleeping on the floor around 2:00--ha ha--good times.



Here's a picture of dad while eating some Pina Colada Cake--BEST CAKE EVER!!! Notice how he's eating it like they do on t.v. mmmmm...(it really is that good)

We went to good ole P.G. pool a couple of times and LOVED it!

Here's Christy with the boys!

Mom and Rhett
Christy and Luke going down the waterslide! We even got to go to Seven Peaks AGAIN! and loved it the second time all over again! Kaden tried all the rides that he was big enough for (and was bummed he couldn't go on the bigger rides) and Luke, after being so so scared to go on one called Flash Flood (almost to tears) said he would ride it later. Later that day--he decided it was time, and marched right up there with no problem and loved it. We learned a lesson in waiting for it to be the right time for Luke.


ANYWAY--When we got to PG pool and it had a big waterslide as well, he was so excited and would have spent the whole time doing that if we would have let him. ("again, again, again!")

Dad and Rhett

We love playing croquet in our family. For Dad's birthday we all played in the backyard. Sometimes while you wait..you think of new things to do with your mallets right? Well, we were trying to see who could balance it the longest on one finger. (this may have been staged for the picture though...in our real contest mallets were flying everywhere--we couldn't so much stand this close...)



Jess meanwhile...was watching the kids...and saving them all from certain destruction..due to mallets and falling children...

While we were there we met up with the Bush family at Gateway Mall and the kids played in the water fountains there! It was short but so good to see them again!

Lucas, lucas, lucas. I'm actually unsure of the whole story for this picture. We just looked outside..and found him dressed in nothing but his undies and a white shirt..used as shorts..sliding down the slide. I love that kid!

Here's dad playing soccer with the boys...and I'll tell you what, that's a pretty darn good high kick for a 58 year old man!

Me and Jess with B.J. and Kara--they're so cute!

Being in the military you make friends and then get spread around the country again...it's so so crazy that 2 of my best friends I've made out here (and have since moved to Vegas and Virginia), were actually in Utah while I was as well! And Tiff was having a baby! YAY!!! So we got to go up and visit her in the hospital. I love her!

Jess giving Scott a backyard haircut...he was really excited....it turned out real nice!

Luke loved this spot in the yard where a hammock was set up..he would just go out and swing all sorts of relaxed for a long time. It was cute.