VanderToolen Christmas Party!

December has been a busy month for us. It started off with our camera breaking(which I didn't mind because I wanted a new one anyway.) So I am behind on blogging. I will start with the first of the month and show you how our month has gone. Crazy, but tons of fun. The holiday season started off the week before Thanksgiving. Our niece Kara got married in the Draper Temple. So great to go up and see so much Buttle family. Lots of fun. Darrin took the two older boys and went with Ron, our amazing brother-in-law and awesome nephews: Juston, Mason, and Brad to the BYU football game. The boys had a blast.

Two weekends later we went up North again for the VanderToolen Family Christmas party. So fun each year. My sister RaeAnn was the host this year. She cook TONS of food. It was lots of fun, everyone brought their favorite ethnic food. I am so blessed to have all my family close that we can get together often.

Caleb loved the tables. His cousin Marinda put candy at every table.

Boys had fun playing basketball. Lots of boys to play with.

The favorite part of the night. The pinata. The boys always have fun hitting it. This is Jared and Dallin(they were baptized on the same day) waiting for the candy.


Dallin, Wyatt, Drew, Devin and Gid waiting for candy.


Caleb and his cousin kid. They are one year apart in age, but the same size. Caleb is a small fry.

Caleb got a couple good hits.

Drew hitting the pinata.

Jared gave it a beating and made candy fall out.

This is the "Big Kids" pinata. My brother makes it each year for the adults. It is a box in a box re-enforced with steel. All who want to beat on it as hard as they can to try and break it. We beat it until the candy turns to powder, then open and dump the candy out.(the "big kids" love it.)


Collecting their treasures. They had way too much candy.

By the end of the day the kids were ready to go home. Lots of fun. I love my family.

Football Fun

This year we put Jared in football for the first time. He wanted to do tackle but his Mom said he had to do one year of flag football. I wanted him to get the rules down. He LOVED it and can't wait for next year. We had a great coach that had all the kids play all the positions every game. They learned a lot. Darrin got to help out with a couple of games and found that he really enjoyed it.


Drew and Caleb had fun coming to the games. They loved playing football too. This was my favorite game they played. Caleb saw Drew kicking the ball.


Caleb would tackle Drew, sit on Drew,

take the ball and RUN! They had so much fun with this game. It was too funny. They did it over and over again.

They boys loved watching the game in the back of the car.

Caleb showing Drew who is boss.

Jared and his team playing.

Coach, Jared and his team.

Jared throwing the ball. That is all he does now.

Haircuts by Caleb

Isn't that a cute boy. Caleb is such a fun boy. Caleb decided he wanted a change so he cut some of his hair. Story goes like this. Caleb and Drew were taking a shower. They got out and were drying off. Drew come to me and says "My tummy is bleeding" I ask him what happened. He said: "Caleb did it." I thought that he meant with his finger nail. Caleb then come in and Drew says "and Caleb is bloody too." I am looking in his mouth all around till I see a tiny bit of blood on his head were hair should have been. I asked Drew what happened. He tells me I don't know. I finally got the story out of him.

He said him and Caleb were in the shower and my razor "fell"(or his brother got it down for him) and Caleb touched Drew with it and then "combed his hair." I guess I am lucky that it was only a small spot. I buzzed his hair in hopes that it would blend in better. It is on the left side of his head.

It is about 1/2 inch by 2-3 inches.

Gotta love boys. PS. Drew finally fest up and said that it was him, but it was an accident and Caleb turned into him. I guess we will see how the story ends.

Halloween FUN

I will start off by saying sorry this post is so long. I couldn't choose what pictures to show you all. So I choose a few of my favorites, which turned out to be a lot. We had a fun busy two days. Friday started off with the school parade. So fun.

Jared wanted to be a hobo. He made his own costume and loved it.

Drew wanted to be a football player again. I didn't mind at all.

This is Drew's 1st grade class. I got to go to it and help with the party. Kids this age are so fun.

I helped them make scare a crow cookies. We had fun.

After school we went to the High School. The teachers and students do trick or treating for the kids. The boys loved it but kind of a pain for Mom. It took 45 minutes, but the kids had fun.

After the High school we went grocery shopping. Drew loves to sit in the cart. This time we had lots to buy, so he got buried.

Friday night we went to trick or trunk at our church. Boys had a ball and we didn't see them most of the night. We had dinner there. The young women did carnival games for the kids and the young men did a spook alley. Jared and Drew had a blast, and of course trunk or treat.

Caleb kept playing under the car. Weird, because he never does.

Caleb and his best friend Tanner. They didn't want to take pictures. Thus Caleb kept going under the truck.

Caleb was a cow. He was so excited for Halloween. He kept telling everyone he was going to be a cow, that cows said MOOOOOOO, that he would say trick or treat and get candy, then say thank you. What a good boy.

Jared at trick or trunk
Drew at trick or trunk.

Caleb looking at his loot.


On Halloween day we carved our pumpkins.(I loved it and will always do it on Halloween Day.)


This is Caleb because his mean Mom wouldn't let him use the knife.(Such a tough life)


His friend Tanner came over and they rode skateboards. I told them they had to have helmets to ride. They found helmets in the Halloween stuff. Now every time they ride the skateboards they HAVE to wear the football helmets.

Drew's mummy.

Jared's finished pumpkin.

So they have opened up this new park about 1 1/2 miles away from us and the boys(and I) have decided that it is our new favorite park. It is called Firehouse Park(across the street fro the Fire House) It has everything we love in a park.

They love to see who can go the highest.

The swings were a little tall for Caleb, but he still got on them.

Drew's favorite thing at any park. The monkey Bars. He does them at recess everyday.

Jared's favorite thing at the park. These cup things. You sit in them and move your body and it spins you.

Drew and Caleb loved the this. I love how they have tires under them. The kids are able to climb on them themselves and us them to push themselves up and down. Smart idea.


Caleb will climb ANYTHING.

Jared having fun swinging. He was so happy because he went really high.

As you can tell this is Caleb's favorite thing at a park.



Man they are so cute.

Darrin's New Ride

Darrin and I both own big vehicles. We LOVE them and need them for work and carpooling reasons, but they are gas hogs. One day Darrin was doing a delivery to a customer's house and he saw a motorcycle for sale. He got a great deal. It has been so nice to have it for Darrin to do service calls and run errands.

Caleb and Darrin. Caleb loves to go on rides all the time.

Drew and Dad. He loves to get rides too. Rides are fun(from Drew). Wish I had gotten a picture of Jared.

cowBOYS

This picture has nothing to do with this post. It is just cute. Caleb has his own back pack and loves to wear it. He thinks it makes him a big boy like his brothers.

A couple a weeks ago I took the boys to the rodeo they have in town here each year. We always go on Thursday because kids get in free. Since Darrin was spending some time with his Mom in Provo, I took the boys myself plus a friend. Silly me, 4 boys and one Mom. Good thing they were good(I guess bribing them with ice cream helps.) This is Jared sitting with his friend watching the rodeo.

Caleb in the cowboy hat. He thought it should be his and would share it with his brothers.

Drew, the cutest cowboy. He was so excited to dress up like a cowboy. He has been waiting for a year to go to the rodeo dressed up.

The boys talking to Jared's friend. Before the rodeo, they let anyone who has a horse come ride in the arena if they want.

Highlights of the night.
1. cotton candy
2. boys were good
3. Drew saw his teacher
4. Jared saw his 1st grade teacher.
What a fun night.

One a different note. The day before the rodeo I got a call from the boy's school. I always hate getting calls because the 1st thing that always comes to mind is" Oh great, what has my child done?" When they say this is the school counselor, you think: "Wow, they must have done something REALLY bad." Anyway what he told me was that Jared was playing with some kindergartners and he slipped and fell on the ground. One of the kindergartners jump on him and bite him. He told me Jared was OK, but that the bite was going to leave a bruise. He just wanted to call and let me know what happened. All I could think of was "Man I am glad it was that and not something my child did." It had so much effect on Jared that when he came home from school I asked him if anything happened at school. He said No. I asked him What about someone biting you. To that he said, "Oh yea, I forgot about that" Funny how kids don't let things bug them, wish we all could be like that.