Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandpa Vaughn and Grandma Gwen's. We had dinner and played games. It was a lot of fun!

Nutcracker - Men In Tights

We had another great night at Desert Star Theater! Grandpa Vaughn, Grandma Gwen and McKall's friend, Kierra came with us.

Marshall got this hat for his preschool sing-a-long and wanted to wear it all day. It was a hit!

So was the chocolate milk that was almost as tall as he is.

Santa

I really thought Marshall would be scared of Santa, but he wasn't. He hopped right up on his lap and told him everything he said he was going to. "I want a Spiderman, and a Batman, and a Robin, and a Joker and that guy with the scary eye." It was so cute!

Happy Birthday Marshall!

Marshall turned 4! I can't believe he is so big now! He woke up to 3 big Transformers on his bed. I don't know who was more excited about them, Scott or Marshall. Then we went to Grandma Gwen's for his birthday party. Marshall got to open lots of presents. It doesn't matter who's birthday it is, Kendrick gets more excited than the birthday boy. I wish I had a good picture of him. He's such a doll! It's a great birthday when you are totally exhaused from all the fun! (and you get to sleep in mom's bed.)

Sweet dreams little man! We love you!

Ornaments

I think this is the first year that Marshall really understands a little about Christmas. It's certainly the first year he's been excited about it. Its been really fun to watch him. He has had a special interest in the ornaments. He can't leave them alone and has quite an imagination with what he wants to use them for. I thought he would like the 'toy' ornaments, but these icicles are his favorite ones. He's been using them for sword fights, but other things too. Marshall had 'camping week' at preschool last week, and his favorite activity was making s'mores. Today when I found him, he was using the icicle ornament like a roasting stick and putting marshmallows on the hook part of it. When I asked him what he was doing, he gave me his normal Marshall response...just looked away and ignored me.

Of course he popped the marshmallows in his mouth before I could take it away from him.

Where are this kid's parents?

Today I was completely immersed in decorating for Christmas and although I thought I was watching Marshall, it became apparent that I clearly wasn't aware of what he was doing at all. When I was done putting all the boxes and the mess up, I noticed a trail of tiny pieces of Styrofoam peanuts throughout my house. I followed them into my room and this is what I found. This picture doesn't do it justice! They are stuck to my walls, my dresser, my clothes, and just about everything else in the room. They were everywhere!!! Where was the little stinker who made this mess?

On the other side of my bed...in a laundry basket...fast asleep. How can you get mad at that sweet little guy?
Besides the point, but how uncomfortable does that look?

Thanksgiving Day!

We had Thanksgiving at my parent's house this year. Everyone was there, including Great Grandpa Hulme, and it was wonderful! Here's the whole fam!

My parents have an apartment in their basement that is vacant and it works out perfect for big dinners and get-togethers. It has a big long room that we can fit several tables in. There's the extra kitchen, so that means: 2 stoves, 2 sinks, 2 microwaves and most importantly, 2 dishwashers.

Who needs 2 dishwashers when you have Rob? He was a dishwashing maniac! He was doing dishes upstairs and downstairs. Thanks Rob! You're the man!

The men talking about serious stuff.
The women looking for serious deals.
The Leishman's hogging the entire front room to watch football.

Another great year with lots and lots to be thankful for!

Got Giggles?

When mom gets the giggles, there's no stopping them! The more she knows she shouldn't be laughing at something, the more she does. I can't remember why she was laughing so hard, but it's always more funny when she's telling the story because she can't get control of herself. She's clobber me if she knew I posted these, but luckily she doesn't have the Internet anymore.

Happy Halloween!

Marshall's Halloween Performance! Do you see him? There's a reason for that. He's attached to my leg. He didn't want a thing to do with it.

Here he is! He wanted to be Batman. We looked on the Internet for the perfect costume and ordered it. By the time it came in the mail, he changed his mind and wanted to be Spiderman. He was so disgusted with the Batman costume that he wouldn't even try it on. So I put in under my bed in a plastic bin. A couple days before Halloween, I thought I better get it out and make sure I didn't need to modify anything. It wasn't there! The girls and I looked everywhere we could think of to find it but couldn't. I ended up buying him this costume. Of course, after he had already wore it, we found Batman hidden deep in his closet. Imagine that!

At Marshall's preschool the employees from the hospital line up and give out treats. The kids go on a 'parade' through all the preschool rooms and go trick or treating.

This is Marshall and is girlfriend, Gwen. They were really embarrassed that I wanted to take their picture together. Their teacher, Gwen's mom, and I laugh and joke that they fight and boss each other around like they are married. Their teacher will sometimes tell them they need to stop playing together if they can't get along. Then they look at her all confused and respond, "But we are friends!" It's so cute!

I had a Halloween pizza party this year at the Paradise Fire Station. Here's some of the characters who attended...

My sister-in-law Lindsey and my darling nephews, Kendrick and Stetson.

Stetson was a snow monkey. I think this is the cutest picture ever!

Josh, my sister Natalie and their kids, Tug and Stone.

Here's the happy couple again. I think they look as happy as the recently divorced Hulk Hogan and his x-wife. Way to play the part guys!
Aunt Susan and Uncle Mike. She's Fancy Nancy (that cute little book) and I'm not sure who Mike is, but it looks great!

Our friends Brad and Angie with their kids. Ang, I know that's you in there, but it still freaks me out! Kylen's costume was great! He had blood that squirted! Oh, and nice mullet Brad!

Uncle Lynn, Travis and kids.

Scott's brother, Greg and his daughter, Marie.

Superheros! Marshall, Tug, Stone, & Kendrick. You guys are tough!

My friends Jamie and Nicole and their Families!

This costume is so random! Good job Scott! He's supposed to be a blacksmith.

We had a couple pinatas. The kids loved them!

Yes, this is a real metal bat! Yes, we are only a foot away from the wall!

This is why pinatas are scary!

One they break, it's mass chaos!

Thanks to everyone who came! I had a great time seeing you and your darling kids all dressed up!

Love and Peace Dude!

We've been going through the Halloween boxes to see what we want to dress up as this year. Marshall found the Bob Marley wig. We think he makes a darling little 'Jamaican Mon'. But don't let him know that...he thinks it's an octopus costume.

Desert Star Theater

One thing that we enjoy doing as a family is going to Desert Star Theater in Salt Lake. They perform musical comedies that are spoofs....James Blonde - Agent 7 -11, My Big Fat Utah Wedding, Home School Musical, American Fork Idol, and more! The theater is pretty small and it's stacked seating, so there's not a bad seat in the house. Everyone sits at a table. There are waitresses and you can order pizza, popcorn, drinks, dessert, etc. during the show. The first time we went with the kids, we were worried that the girls would think they were 'too cool' for it and we thought Marshall would be bored, but they loved it! Marshall really likes the audience participation part. He gets into 'booing' and 'cheering' and apparently the kissing part too! We bought season tickets for everyone last year for Christmas. It's been a fun gift that we've enjoyed all year. The kids are begging us to get season tickets for next year too.

Happy Birthday Melissa

For every one's birthday, Melissa does a little blog about how awesome they are. I wanted to do the same for her. Shout out to Melissa!

She is absolutely gorgeous.

She is the cutest little pregnant thing I've ever seen.

She is a sweet heart.

All her nieces and nephews adore her.

She is going to make a really fun mom.

She makes yummy desserts.

She loves jewelry almost as much as I do.
She likes to take funny pictures of people.

She has a great group of sisters she loves to do things with.

She's going straight to heaven for putting up with Steve. (Love you Steve!)

Happy Birthday! We love you Melissa!

Ragnar - Las Vegas

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.