Christmas Morning

We are building traditions at the Wood family. This is the first year we spent Christmas alone at our own home. Some of the traditions we have started are

1. Reading a childrens version of the birth of Christ before bedtime.

2. Tracking Santa with the NORAD "Google Earth" internet site.

3. Baking cookies and placing them on a special plate for Santa

Placing the cookies with a glass of milk by the couch for Santa to rest and snack

4. Once the kids were fast asleep Emma and Rob found themselves cuddling in front of a beautiful fire watching "The Three Tenors" sing Christmas songs on TV.

Santa came in the night and ate most of the cookies and drank all of the milk.

The kids were THRILLED to see he had come.

5. When Emma and Rob knew Santa had come, they placed wrapping paper up in the hall to prevent the kids from going in prematurely. They woke up at 6:15am and all together tore down the paper.

This is the sight they saw first, then found their stockings full of toys and candy on the couch.

Spending Christmas together developing traditions and lasting memories in our house was wonderful and more fun than we could have imagined. The kids have been so wonderful with each other and we have had the chance to relax and reflect on the reason for the season.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Pre-Christmas Fun

Emma and Rob had the wonderful opportunity to have a short but long awaited vacation. School finished up and we were exhausted. We were able to leave Cosette at a friend's for a few days while Grandpa Wood cared for Isaac and Ethan. He did a wonderful job and we are indebted to him and Darlene. Below is a picture of the boys at Grandpa Wood's

The week before Christmas Rob took off so have some festive fun. We all took a road trip to Salt Lake City. On the way we stopped to see some friends, the Woll's, both families had fun for a few hours. After that we went to temple square to view the lights. OUCH it was cold!

We attempted several times to get 3 wonderfully crazy kids to look in one direction. This was the best we got.How can we ignore the beauty?

This may become a tradition.

Knock Knock

Thanksgiving was nice with Ken and Darlene Wood. The food was great. We just finished the leftovers.
Decorating for Christmas. We don't waste much time changing holiday decor. This was done the day after Thanksgiving.
We invited our friends, the Clayson's, over for dinner and a movie. We watched the Polar Express. Here are our 6 kids hanging out together.

Isaac and Ethan love to trade knock-knock jokes.

Turkey Time

Where did the month of November go? Ethan's birthday was November 3rd, and today is December 3rd. What happened?Ethan decided his truck would taste better with peanut butter on it.
Isaac loves preschool. If you ask him whether he has school or not, he says, "No! Preschool!"
Here's Isaac's fantastic potato turkey with toothpicks. Colored marshmallows were supposed to be the feathers, but he ate the marshmallows faster than he could put them on the toothpicks.
Ethan had a late nap this day. While Emma was working on school stuff, Ethan entertained himself by stacking drink mix containers and jello boxes.

Happy Birthday Ethan

Ethan's birthday was November 3 It was a lot of fun. Cosette and Isaac put together a "red carpet" of sorts from all the blankets and pillows in the house. it goes all the way down the hall.
If you can't tell Emma made cake balls for Ethan's birthday Hurray he is 2 years old. No party, just US for the night.
Ethan got a few gifts but this one was Rob's favorite.
Here is another look at Cake Balls. They are like lollipops on a stick. In a few pictures you may notice Ethan is not wearing a diaper... he has decided to be potty trained and does exceptionally well for a 2 year old. Underwear was his choice.

Hurray for Candy!

Halloween treats from Grandma
This is Halloween morning. Rob was trying on some old masks and Ethan just had to wear one with his bat costume of course. they wore their costumes ALL DAY.
So who is the one in the middle? This picture was taken as we were leaving to knock on doors all the way down to the church, then "trunk-or-treat" at the church, then knock the opposite side of the street on the way back.
Oh my goodness look at all that candy. Just looking at it is making my tummy hurt. How are we ever going to stop ourselves from getting sick everyday till it is gone?

So this is Halloween night. After all the fun was over the kids sat on the front porch and gave candy to all the "older" kids who came knocking. We closed shop at around 8:30pm. See our tree in the front yard? It is wrapped in orange lights.

It's almost Halloween!

It's the week before Halloween and time to carve up the "punkins" Notice the look on Ethans face.. "ewww".
Rob helped Cosette and Ethan while Emma helped the wild one (Isaac).
Here is the finished product, nothing fancy like the last few years, just normal faces but tons of fun.

3 Peas in a Pod

This is Ethan... SO CUTE! He is wearing his bat costume. Halloween was still weeks away.
All three hanging out in a box. What shall we do with them? Ship them to CA or TX?
Not sure what Cosette is doing here... playing dress-up I am sure.

Fall has arrived and hence all the leaves have fallen. Remember the days when we played in leaves?

It's October!

Isaac is very proud of his work he does in preschool. He's such a big boy. Of course he would not be Isaac without a dirty face.

Slumber-party in Cosette's room. Occasionally we let them sleep in the others room. Most of the time they do not sleep and end up going back to their own room. This night they all fell asleep.

Watching a Disc Golf course be set up in the backyard. We always wanted to live on a golf course. Emma doesn't like the foot traffic but Rob doesn't think it is so bad.

Hogle Zoo Babies

We all went to the Hogle Zoo this past week in Slat Lake City, Utah. It was baby season so here are a few of the pictures from Rob's cell phone of the babies (and others)...

Obviously up above you an see the Wood babies getting ready to ride the train (super cheap)

This one is not a baby but there were some there, they all look the same. One mama was sitting on an egg keeping it warm.

These two furry animals were so cute and tiny. Must be friends or siblings, just wait till they grow up...

Rob thinks this was the highlight of the whole zoo (he loves elephants). This is a baby elephant playing around and running non-stop. He was no bigger than a mastiff dog.

Last but not least is the baby long neck getting a drink. Other babies we saw was a baby howler monkey, and a baby colobus monkey (tiny things). Hogle zoo is open year round and with a zoo pass from another zoo you get half off admittance fee at hogle.

October

This is what happens when boys are left to play! They filled up the Thomas the Train tent with all their toys, then took the tent off the pile...
Here's our veggie haul for the year. We canned 16 pints of carrots...made 3 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 6 quarts of salsa, and have the potatoes sitting in a box ready to be eaten.
Most mornings we wake up to find Ethan lining the counter with bowls. What do you think he's really trying to tell us???

It's been a while since we've made a post. It's about time for an update.

We have snow on the ground. It rained during General Conference this weekend, and snow all day today.

Cosette and Isaac are still very excited about school. They love going.

Ethan is starting to talk. The best thing he says is "horrible hair". It comes from a CD we listen to all the time...Songs of the Letter People. Mr. H has horrible hair.

Emma is enjoying teaching. It's a new challenge that she's facing head on.

Robert has a week-long Interpreting Workshop this next week and a couple trips to Boise right after that. He'll be busy.

Pass For Cash

Rob was selected to participate in the "Pass For Cash" half time show of the ISU football game. He had 10 chances to throw a football through an 18 inch hole. He was to start throwing at 5 yards and if he made it he was to step back 1 yard. Each yard was worth $100. He won $400 which means he made 4 out of 10 throws. The picture below is from the cell phone Emma used to take the picture. They handed him the $400 right on the field and he waved it in the air like he just won a million bucks. Congrats Rob.

Preschool

All our great intentions of taking a picture of Isaac his first day of PREschool in his school were thwarted... the camera was forgotten. We did get this picture at home waiting for school to start though.

If you asked Isaac a week before school...he was going to preschool...not school. Isaac really enjoys music time and listens to his teacher pretty well.

Labor Day Reunion

Every other year, Labor Day Weekend, we have a family reunion at Uncle John's in Shingle Springs, California. Our excursion for the year was a trip to Gold Bug Mine. Here's my treasure I dug up!

This sign was in the gift shop at the mine. The family thought I should have purchased it since it fit me so well. I don't know what they're talking about! But I have to say, I've been trying to keep up better with the house and kids now that I'm working. That's why I haven't blogged so much in recent times.

Mom and Grandpa were helping Ethan walk up to the Stamping Mill.
This swing was the toy of choice for the weekend. Maybe we have a swinging chair in our future, if only there was a tree to put it in.
Family pictures after church. This is what we got. I knew I had packed Isaac's church clothes, and I thought I had Ethan's too. Obviously, I forgot one.
Here's the family infront of our tent. We really enjoyed sleeping in the trailer.
You may notice Rob isn't in any of the pictures, that's because he had to work Friday and it's a 12 hour drive. Coming for the weekend would have been a long, hard trip. Rob was sorely missed.

A friend from ISU, Karen, made the trip with me. I don't know how she did it, but she managed to escape my camera. It was such a nice thing Karen did by coming. Thanks!