December 4-10th 2016

Jaxton had his last Basketball game on Saturday. He scored 2 goal, 1 right at the buzzer! I should have gotten a picture but it was utter chaos trying to get everyone their medals and Justin was in such a hurry because he was in charge of a shooting activity and was already late. Dang, that is a fail. But the kids and I stayed and played in the play place at the Rec, so made up some Mom points there!

  

   

I don't know if you can tell, but Jax and Rod are fighting in the above pictures. No one would pose for a picture, so this is what I got...:)

   

 Cal is usually good for a picture and wanted some of him on the slide. And Jax is in one! Yay!!

That night, despite pouring rain, we went (as planned) with our friends ON THE FRONT RUNNER up to see the lights in Salt Lake. It was CRAZY. We will not be doing it again any time soon. Claustrophobia, in a word. Also, we accidentally paid $44 instead of the $15 it was supposed to be! (We have since gotten a refund--but we were freaking out for a sec.) 

It seemed everyone had the same "go see the lights" idea, and were equally undeterred by the rain. What is wrong with us? Why don't we listen to mother nature? Anyway, the kids LOVED the train, which was entirely why we were doing it in the first place. So that was a win. The win. Calvin was in heaven.

 

 Look at these cute kids!! Almost makes you want to do it again, ALMOST. 

 

Calvin's heaven. 

 

My cute Jax!!

We were SO soaked walking from the front runner to the temple that we sped walked through the lights (which are getting less and less impressive every year! I don't think we will be going back, very underwhelming for the insane effort of getting everyone up there!) and went immediately inside the Memorial building and got hot chocolate. Thank heaven. And can I just say, that building, nor it's staff, were ready to contain our many crazy kids. 

As we found out later, "We put up the black tables in front of the stage because we don't want people on the stage!" Because that makes sense?? Our bad. Maybe try a sign?? It was actually the 2 really docile walking children that got on the stage with their supervising parents at their side that actually got in trouble in the end. It made us feel really guilty because our kids were being SO much worse... Also, are we the only ones with crazy kids? I saw very few children, or maybe just misbehaving children...

These are my awesome friends we went with. I love them.

 

CUTE!

And this is the only picture I have of the kids outside at the lights. Because It was freezing and wet, and we were basically only using the lights as a walkway to get from the train to the hot chocolate, and then from the hot chocolate back to the train.

 By some MIRACLE, we barely caught the train back to Provo, just in time! Saving us an entire HOUR waiting in the cold, wet, dark, with all our kids. We thought the train wasn't leaving until 8:11pm, but it was actually 8:03pm!! We happened to be 9 min. early and just caught it!! THAT, was the best part of the whole thing.  I cringe when I think of what would have happened if we missed that train...!!

It was a fun train ride back that was way less squishy then on the way there. We even had seats!

I saw this moment with Justin and Cal and had to take a picture. This kind of thing happens a lot. Cal loves Justin. He loves me too, but he loves Justin. 

He still can't pull his face away!! It was so fun for him. Too bad we will never do it again...! ;)

 

 Okay, so there were some fun times... :) But i would not recommend it...!

Calvin has started emptying the dishwasher! He does such a good job and loves to help! In case you haven't caught on by now,  this is him saying "cheeese!"

 Another thing I want to remember about Calvin at this stage is that he is so polite. He always says, "Tane-tu!" (thank you!) I LOVE IT!! And if he is eating something he likes, he will say, "mmm, dis berry dood!" (this is very good!) It's one of my favorite things he says right now. Also, he will say "Hi Mommy!" or "Hi Daddy!" perfectly. And he says it a lot. He says it in a way and at times when it's like he is saying "I love you."  He will say it when I come get him in the mornings. And just randomly throughout the day. It's very sweet. He is good at greeting people. Also, he will say, "Loud! Teesimo!!" (Loud! Fortissimo!) He learned it from Little Einstein's. He screams like a siren, but talks so sweetly. He is my loudest screamer and cryer by far. He almost always prefers to not feed himself. And is disinterested in eating unless he is starving. And by that point he is usually pretty darn cranky, and super hard to feed. He can't seem to connect that eating helps him feel full which helps him be happy. And helps his mom be happy...! I love his haircut now.

I love these faces he makes! 

 

 

 

Thats about it. :)

Starting December

This last week we were invited to a friends to do "Chocolate houses." These are like Gingerbread or graham crackers houses, except 20x's better.  She has 3 molds, (1 roof, 1 side, 1 front) and then you double that to make each house. To assemble you use almond bark. It dries super quickly and the house is SO sturdy!! It was SO cool. Here is our before and afters of our chocolate house. 

Before:

  

After:

 

 I think I might never make anything but chocolate houses from now on. AND they smell really nice...

 Here is a picture of Rod at karate. I can't get over any of it, he is so cute! It's interesting because it's all very formal and different, like the things they say and their strict things. Ex. They bow to some flags before and after they leave the mats, they have these chants they do, and they have these titles you must use, that are so hard for me to say, much less remember. Way harder for Rod to say/ remember. But it is SUPER fun to watch them do their little things. I love the loud exclamations when they kick/hit. I can see the kids feel powerful when they do it. Rod seems to be in his element. He pretends he doesn't like to go, before we are there; but I can see on his face while he is there that he REALLY enjoys it...so I keep making him go...I hope it is a fun thing for him. 

I took my ACE exam to be a Personal Trainer on Thursday. And I actually passed!! It was such a relief. SUCH A RELIEF. That darn certification has been weighing on my conscious for almost 4 months. I'm so glad it's over. That is very exciting for me. 

 Jaxton had his 2nd recital on Thursday! He did SO well. And he is super cute. He has had those songs memorized for a long time! He surely has a knack for piano. It flows easily through him and makes him so happy. 

 This little cutie made 3 baskets in his game on Saturday. He came down the stairs before his game and was very proud of his basketball outfit. He loves to show his muscles. What a doll. 

I got Justin tickets to see Jim Gaffigan for his birthday. It's a gift that is nice because I couldn't just send him by himself, that would be lonely, so I had to buy myself a ticket too. :) Getting there and parking, and then getting out of parking and back home was an absolute NIGHTMARE. We left our house at 5:30pm for an 8pm showing thinking we would have plenty of time to eat and maybe run a couple errands. Not at all; We didn't get back until midnight; we ended up inhaling our food and driving the entire time through stand still traffic and hopelessly searching for a parking spot (I finally just ended up moving cones and  parking in a spot they were blocking) and arriving late to the show! But luckily, they started late. And Luckily, IT WAS SO GOOD!! We loved it. He has a gift. We were laughing for easily, 90% of the show. And it was a whopping 1 hour and 30 minutes! So fun. And then the happiness ended when we had to try and drive home. It was almost as bad as getting there. Anyway, Jim Gaffigan is the coolest.

Also, the Haight Christmas Party was on Saturday night and it was so great to be with everyone; such a nice time. We love them. I have video of the talent Justin and I did with Natasha, Steve, Jerica, and Gabe. It was super silly and fun. We sang "Once there was a snowman" on our husbands shoulders and then "melted" at the end of the song. It was fun. The Haights are great.

Thanksgiving week!!

 The kids had a little art show at their school on Monday. It was fun to see their work and to see how proud they were. Jaxton is pointing at his, Rodriks is the one with more red around it, on the bottom. He didn't want to point.  

   

  The kids made Thanksgiving hats, here is Rodriks. He loved it, and it looks amazing, who could blame him? Also, the necklace he is wearing his friend Makayla made him and he made hers. I thought that was a cute detail. Also, Makayla is the probably the opposite of Rod in class, she is a little crazy; so it's cute they are such good "friends," wink wink.

 

Cal and Justin, forever. :)

 

And here is Jaxton's turkey hat. Cute kid.

Natasha had a birthday (30!!), and we celebrated on Wednesday afternoon, luckily Clarissa and Zach were in town. It was tons of fun to just hang with everyone all day!! She requested pizza for lunch, it was SO GOOD!! My mom is SUCH a great cook and host. Also per Natasha's request, I made her that chocolate tart that hasn't failed me yet...! :)

Last minute Natasha and I signed up to do this 5k Thanksgiving morning run with a bunch of awesome family. Here we are after the race! Love them!

This weird picture is just our family winding up to do a "jump..." It's too good...! HAHAHA!!

Love it!!

 AND I ran a super fast time for me, 24 min. 7 sec. for a 5k!! That is faster then I have ever ran! AND I got 2nd place in my division! I was REALLY excited. The whole thing was so fun!! 

Also, my mom got 1st in her division! She is a boss! The whole experience was a highlight of my Thanksgiving break. Also, I didn't mess up on ANY of the food I made later that day. It was a blessed day... hehe!:)

 

 

In my  fist draft of this post I left out the Thanksgiving meals! Yikes! I have no pictures (which is why they were left out...my bad.) They were super great! We did Thanksgiving with my mom on Thursday with my family that was in town and Lisa's family and Grandma and Grandpa Haight, it was DELICIOUS!! Family and food! We loved it. And the leftovers were excellent...!!

We did Thanksgiving with the Gause's on the Saturday directly following. It's extra nice because we were able to get together with ALL the Gause's (except the NY fam) and we don't get to see them all very often. It workout out perfectly and was super relaxing and yummy. But it was very nice to chat with family we haven't seen in a long while. It makes Thanksgiving extra special.

 We have always done a red and gold Christmas tree. But the last couple of years I could see my kids wanting more color, so I have been collecting a couple of colorful decorations. I decided this was the year to make the colorful switch. I had to make a last minute stop at the store for some more decorations, but the finished tree is really fun. Rodrik was in for the long haul. I always forget setting up the tree takes a million years. Those poor kids get so excited and then have to watch mom and dad assemble the tree (they help, but can only do so much--and it takes a while,) and then they watch mom and dad do the lights (which take FOREVER- pre-lit trees are NOT overrated) and then they have to wait while I put on the fuchsia sparkly ribbon, AND THEN they can put on the decorations. And then they had to wait for me to go get more decorations. It was torture. Rod hung in there and helped with all the decorating. He was my little helper.  The lighting is weird, but it's a cute tree.

 

 Here is some documented proof that my kids still always just eat toast and chocolate milk for breakfast every single morning. Since birth. They are SO cute.

 

Calvin has turned into quite the violent child. Though I'm sure a lot of it is his natural tendency, his brothers have molded him VERY recklessly. And then they act shocked when he throws a metal toy at their head. Everything is about power and hitting and physical force for this one. It's best to be aware when you are around him, at all times; you never know when he will strike. It's usually not too bad, just occasionally...:)

  

He always say's "Cheeeese!" for the camera! :)

Following suite behind his brothers, Calvin LOVES to watch Cars, and Planes. Best purchases I ever made. He is always captivated. He loves them the most. :)

 

 Rodrik is helping to vacuum at Maimai's, He loves it!  It's extra cool because her vacuum is just his size. 

These next pictures are just cute. The kids had to walk to school in the snow this morning and Clavin wanted to go with them. He is wearing a backpack, gloves and boots just like his brothers. He wants to do what his brothers do. I love all their cute faces. My heart melts.

 Here is a cute little picture of the kids that walk to school together. Some older girl neighbors (Marin and Kate) sweetly walk with our boys and my other neighbors little boy (Kai). Those poor girls suffer a little from these crazy boys. It's so nice of them walk with them. :)