Merry Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Sledding

Kaden and Saige went outside to go sledding and they were having sooooo much fun. Jake even went out and shoveled a walkway up the hill and made a sledding path. Anyhow...I decided to go outside and take a little video of the kids having so much fun. Well I can honestly say I didn't expect this.....it's like watching those accident shows on TV. Luckily it ended well.

Ward Christmas Party

Tonight was our Ward Christmas Party. I thought I would take some pics to show what we did rather than just type it. It's just easier to show and then explain so here we go.....

The night started with the missionaries leading us in some caroling.

If you can tell by Aspynn's face she wasn't impressed!!

Then we had a little skit about the Saviors birth.

Then the Primary sang a few songs. It was beautiful!!!

Afterwards we had dinner and put together care packages for some of the Veterans in the area (the Bishops son is working on his Eagle Project). And then SANTA CAME!!!

Kaden told Santa he wants a T-Rex Robot for Christmas

Saige said she didn't care what he brought her.

Aspynn ask for a brown dog.

Isn't she cute?!?!?

Kaden's Christmas Program

So I just LOVE the music teacher here!!! She divided up the school in two so there were two different Christmas Programs (k-3 in one and 4-8 in the other). On top of that she had ALL of the students sing together. It was sooooo nice!!! They sang about 4 songs all together, then they sang as grade levels (so K-2 sat quietly and listened while 3rd grade sang) each grade sang 2 songs. Then they finished up by singing 3 songs together. It turned out sooooo nice. There was a line of people just to tell her how well she did. She is very young, but obviously very talented. It was a beautiful program.

This is Montana City School's Music Teacher. She did such an awesome job!!!

Kaden was soooo cute....he never took his eyes off the music teacher. He is soooo funny. He doesn't want to miss a hand signal or a word so he watches her like a hawk.

This is the kids putting their hats on for "Merry Christmas to the Red, White and Blue" it was a very cute song.

Aren't they all so cute saluting?!?!?

Now how cute is he in his hat?

Christmas Cards

Ok so I was so excited to get our Christmas Cards done this year because I decided to do one of those picture Christmas Cards back in like August and I had all these great ideas too, like, an outdoors photo in the snow and I knew what everything would look like, well then I ran into what people mean when they say "MONTANA WINTER". Yeah....when it started snowing here it was already in the negatives and there is NO way you can take a family with little children outside and get any kind of a decent picture so anyhow....we dealt with the weather and put something else together. I thought it turned out well and was excited to get them in the mail...little did I know my kids were just as excited and wanted to help. So...I put a smile on my face and gave them all jobs. They helped put the return address stickers on, the cute little Christmas stickers on and stuff the envelopes. They thought it was so much fun. Who knew kids would be so excited about such simple little jobs. Anyhow...it was fun doing the Christmas cards as a family.

Lunchtime

I just thought this was pretty cute....Kaden and two of his buddies sitting down for lunch. This is Kaden with Tate and Drew. He is one of 3 kids in his class that take cold lunch everyday. In a way I feel bad because I don't want him to feel left out, but at the same time I know I make his lunches for a lot less than the school offers them for. Anyhow....I thought this was kinda cute so I had to post it.

Kaden's Class Christmas Party

On Thursday I was ask (now...when I say ask, what I mean is there was a letter sent home and it said that they were having a Christmas Party and the kids bringing stuff were so and so and they were bringing such and such. Now this wouldn't have been so frustrating if (1) there weren't only 5 names of kids doing things and (2) it wasn't the one thing I CAN NOT make!!) to make and bring sugar cookies to Kaden's class for the kids to frost and decorate. So took Gingerbread Men and Candy Cane Sugar cookies in. Kaden was so excited because he got to pass the cookies out to everyone (the class rule is that if your Mom is the Helper Mom or if your Mom makes something for the class the child gets to be first or pass out whatever was brought). I was AMAZED at how grateful the kids were. I even got hugs and thank you's from the kids with no prompting (granted most of the kids know me because I help out in the class at least twice a month and Jake was their Basketball Coach) it was amazing. Anyhow....they all had a lot of fun!!!

Kaden, Ryan and Tate decorating frosting their cookies

Kaden putting sprinkles on his Gingerbread Man

Kaden had a lot of fun decorating cookies with his classmates!!

Family Portrait

Jake's Mom has been asking me to take a picture of the entire family for the past couple of years and it finally worked out for everyone. It was really funny though because I like to take pics outside so when I told everyone where I wanted to go a lot of mouths dropped open. It was kind of humorous. I think it turned out pretty well. It is just sooooo hard to get the kids to all look at the camera when no one is looking at it and even harder to know when to take the pic when you can't see what anyone is doing (I was standing in the back). Anyhow....I am somewhat pleased with the photo even though most of the kids are "being kids". Anyhow....here is it.....

The Jenkins Family November 30, 2008

Our New Family Picture

Well...for anyone who knows me when it comes to taking pictures you will know that I HATE taking "mantel" photos in the house, but when it is -20 degrees outside you don't have many options. Anyhow...I think this turned out pretty well. There are a few things I would like to change, but I will give my family a few months recovery time before we do.

Our Family December 14, 2008

Happy 32nd B-day Dad!!

Wednesday December 10 was ALSO Jake's Birthday. We didn't really have time to celebrate so after Saige's performance we ran over to Costco and picked up his FAVORITE cake and ran home and had a quick celebration (I told him I would take him out to dinner later). Anyhow...here are some pics of the tiny little celebration poor Jake got.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Jake and the kids took a little while to realize I had spelled DAD in the cake because I didn't have enough candles so they were talking and laughing at my little idea.

Jake warming his hands on the candles. Silly Guy!!

He did it!! He blew the candles out ALL BY HIMSELF (that's pretty amazing the kids usually help). Afterward I lit them back up and let the kids blow them out.

Saige's 2nd Dance Performance

Wednesday, December 10 was a CRAZY day at the Jenkins house. I had to be to a Presidency meeting in the morning, afterward I had to help out at Kaden's school, then I had to take pictures for some of the kids on Kaden's Basketball Team, then Kaden had practice and before his practice was over Saige had to be in Helena at a dance performance at one of the nursing homes. It was CRAZY to say the least. Anyhow...this was her second performance (the first was at the Festival of Trees). She did sooooo good this time (the first was hard because they combined two classes and the kids had never performed together or anything so that was strange. One girl freaked out and cried through the entire performance etc.) it was amazing!! She remembered her dance routine and she did really well. I videoed it so I will have to see about getting it off my camera and putting it up on here. Anyhow...here are some of the pics I took. She performed a dance to Frost The Snowman (which she LOVED dancing to that song).

Kaden was a stinker the WHOLE time Saige was performing (this is no fun, I want to go home kinda stuff) anyhow....the only time he smiled all night was when I took this picture STINKER!!!

It's Hard Keeping Up....

Saige is soooo funny. She spends all day trying to keep up with Grandpa. The other day she got up and helped him with the wood outback, then she helped with rotate the tires on the truck, then she helped him go through tomatoes and eventually she just tuckered out. What a sweet girl that loves everyone so much that she will give it everything she has to help out. You can't help but just love her to pieces.

We turned her on a movie while we were playing cards and Aspynn was sleeping and this is what we came downstairs to find= )

A Montana Heat Wave

It has been REALLY cold lately!!! And when I say cold I mean I have NEVER in my life been outside in these kind of temperatures before especially not for several days at a time. Anyhow...We have been lingering between -5 and -20.5 degrees for the past few days. Maybe that's why I haven't posted anything new to my blog lately (I'm too cold to leave the fire). Anyhow...Kaden & Saige had finally had enough of being told they couldn't go outside and play in the snow because it was too cold. So, at -16 we bundled them up as best as we could and sent them out. They had a blast for about 20 minutes. I thought it was really funny when I first sent them out and Saige came back within about 1 minute and was half crying saying "Mom, my face is too cold" so I went and found Jake's face cover and put that on her. After that she was able to go out for about 20 minutes. They were soooo cute. The rolled in the snow and made snow angels they had a blast. When it warms up a tad we will have to go out and find the sleds because Kaden is BEGGING for them. Anyhow....just thought I would share what it's like to have a Montana Heat Wave (I know....you're all jealous ;)

Saigee after I got the face cover for her. She was THRILLED!! If you could see her mouth I am sure she was smiling for ear to ear.

Saige was the gopher who came to ask for the sleds, but we aren't positive where they are and unless you are 10 or under you don't want to go out when it's this cold!!!

This is the temp right now. Mind you it's only 10pm so by morning it will probably be -20 or so. I will have to check it and post again. I feel horrible about sending my son out in this weather to go to school, but I am told that they pretty much never shut the schools down here.

The Carousel

So my Mom and Aunt Kari came up to Helena this last weekend and we had A LOT of fun!!! We went to Kaden's Basketball Game, then the Saige's performance at the Festival of Trees, then to lunch, then to the Stake Center to see all the Nativity Scenes they put up, then to The Carousel and finally to dinner. Well...I don't have any of the video off my camera to put on here yet, but I do have pictures of the kids at The Carousel. Just some background....The Carousel is a little ice cream shop with a really big Carousel inside. It has lots of different animals on it (not just horses) and it's really pretty cool. The kids were really excited but we knew we wouldn't be able to stay long because the rides were $1.50 per kid per ride. Anyhow...I went up to ask the guy about buying some tickets and he told me that if I could just wait about 10 minutes the rides would be FREE!!! Can you believe it?!?!?! Nothing like this EVER seems to happen to me. Free rides. Anyhow...we decided to stay and let the kids ride as long as they wanted. The free rides went from 5-7 so the kids started at 5 and went until about 6:30. I will tell you what....it's a TON of fun when it's free = )

Aspynn LOVED the frogs!!! As you will see they are pretty much ALL she wanted to ride one
Saigee went traditional getting on a horse with Grandma Yearsley by her side.

Kaden settled for an Otter. There are many other animals he wanted to ride on, but we talked about "First Come First Serve"

Second time in a row going traditional

This time Kaden & Saige were creative. Kaden was very excited to get to ride on the WOLF and Saige thought the Otter was pretty cute.

Kaden liked the dinosaur because they are studying dinosaurs at school and he can't get enough

Again on a frog.....

And Again.....

Saigee liked this sea horse. She thought it looked a lot like something out of Little Mermaid

Finally Aspynn chose something besides a frog. She thought this was a deer but we were so excited she picked something else we didn't correct her.

NO MORE DIAPRES OR PULL UPS

Well...I am really excited so I just had to post and tell EVERYONE that after 6+ years we finally are done with diapers and pull ups at our house.

~Kaden has been done with night time pull ups for about 3 weeks now
~Saige has been potty trained day and night for what seems like forever
~Aspynn has been out of diapers for about 2 months now and has been wearing pull ups to bed but hasn't had an accident in about 2 weeks so I think I am going to just try her in underwear and see how that goes

I am sooooo proud of my little munchkins. They are really growing up and doing it fast! Anyhow...just thought I would post a little blurb to tell everyone how proud I am of my kiddos!!!

Hangin' Out With Grandpa

Grandpa is Saige's new best friend. They are constantly together helping each other out. Grandpa calls Saige his little helper because she is always tagging along beside him. If he is in the garden harvesting something she is right along beside him. If he is sorting ripe and unripe tomatoes she is right there helping him. If he is making Grandpa's Famous Brownies she is there unwrapping the caramels. If he is in the hot tub so is she. No matter what he is doing his "helper" is right there at his side. It is sooooo cute. I really appreciate his involvement with her. I know how important a Grandpa can be in a little girls life so I am glad that my Saigee has her Grandpa.

Saige going underwater. Grandpa is always coaching and helping the kids learn to feel more comfortable going underwater. And the best part is that he is A LOT more patient than I am!!
Saigee hangin' out in the hot tub waiting for Grandpa to come back from the bathroom

Saigee and Grandpa talking and laughing in the hot tub.

Saige warming up (don't forget it is only 18 degrees outside right now and she is only in a swimsuit). Look at all that steam = )

Happy to be alive!!!