Christmas Day!!!

Now that Christmas has come and gone...I better post some pictures!  :)

We had a wonderful Christmas!  Every year we give the boys (and Lacey now) pajamas on Christmas Eve.  I usually make them, but sometimes things just don't work out, so you go with plan B which is to buy them. :)  Every year all the kids sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve.  The rule is: you are not allowed to wake up anyone Christmas morning.  I don't know if any one followed that rule or not, but we try.  We all have to eat breakfast before any one can leave the room (unless it's a bathroom break of course).  We eat homemade cinnamon rolls, navel oranges, and deviled eggs.  We all look forward to that!  Then we all go to the front room together and Ben hands out the presents to everyone one at a time.  All day we keep busy visiting family.  This year we talked to 2 missionaries: my brother, John, and Ben's brother, Jordan.  Christmas is definitely my favorite time of the year.  I love everything about it, the christmas lights, songs, treats, but most especially the feelings of peace and celebration of our Savior's birth.  What a wonderful time of year!

Christmas Eve Animal Attack!!!

Well, I've heard of people being "heart attacked", but never "animal attacked"!  Christmas Eve we heard a knock on our door and when we opened it up we saw that we had stuffed animals everywhere in our front lawn, on our cars, and even one on our roof!  Our good friends surprised us with goodies and animals.  They boys LOVED it!  They kept saying how this was the best Christmas ever!  Even though Christmas didn't officially begin yet!  What a fun idea!  Thank you for making such a fun night for us!!!

Nativity with the Bears

I know that I am really late on posting this, but that is how life has been for me lately.

Every year, all the Bear's get together before Christmas and act out the Nativity.  Aunt Betty made some wonderful costumes and the kids did great!  Caleb was Joseph, Carson was a shepherd, Calvin, Ashton, and Devin were angels.  The rest of the pictures are of my cousins and my neices and nephews.

Temple Lights

During the Holildays we always like walking around the Temple lights.  Here are a few of the pictures.  Ben came straight from his OB rotation.  I think he was on call that night so he had to be ready go deliver a baby.  And then there's one of Carson.  Before we went to the see the lights we stopped by Great-Grandma and Grandpa Richardson's house and had a little visit with them.  Then we ate at Pete's.  We love that place!  It was a fun night!

Puppies for Sale

My parents have 4 more puppies for sale. They are the cutest little things! Let me know if your interested.

Click on the link for more pictures!

http://reedsranch.blogspot.com/2010/02/puppies-for-sale.html

Gorilla! Gorilla!

After our Thanksgiving meal at the Reeds we all got together and played Gorilla, Gorilla!  What a blast!  The boys were begging us to teach them how to play this game for weeks after Grandpa Reed was telling us about some of the games that he use to play as a kid.  So we told them that when everyone came down for Thanksgiving we would play!  These are not the most flattering pictures of anyone, but we sure had alot of fun!  If anyone doens't know how to play, let us know and we would be so happy to teach you!  ;)

Caleb-Student of the Month

Caleb was Mrs. Salitore's Student of the Month!  He was so excited and he actually had no idea!

This is what she said about him:

"This month I have chosen a truly deserving young man.  He has many impressive qualities that I admire in people.  Caleb is a self-driven person, which is a rare find.  He knows what he wants to accomplish and does all he can to meet his goals.  He wants to be a doctor and knows what it takes to get there.  He works hard, is dedicated to his studies, does all his homework, helps out in the classroom at recess, participates in class, he meets his AR goal, and he helps out with Student Council fundraisers and activities.  He is not technically a member, but I consider him one.  He is extremely polite and soft-spoken and he has many friends.  Caleb has what it takes to succeed in life and I am glad to have had the chance to get to know him.  I look forward to seeing what else he will accomplish this year and throughout his life."

Happy Birthday to Ashton!!!

We celebrated Ashton's birthday on November 7th.  I know that his birthday hat says the 6th, but that is the one that the school gave him.  The Miner Family was visiting that weekend, so we had a little party.  Ashton loved every minute of it!  He is now 6 years old! 

We absolutely love Ashton!  Some of his favorite things to do are:

1.  Spend time working with his Dad.  Ashton loves to work in the garage building things with Ben. 

Even if Ben is cleaning and organizing, Ashton is right there.

2.  He loves doing math in school.  Especially his "mental math".

3.  He loves us to read his scriptures to him every night and he will remind us if we forget.

4.  He loves to practice his drums that Uncle John is letting us borrow while he is on his mission.

5.  He loves to eat eggs every morning! 

6.  He is a great student!  His teacher told me how thankful she is for Ashton because one of the kids that gives her trouble is now being great all because Ashton talked to him.  Ashton just told him to do his work and pay attention.  The influence of others...:)

7.  He loves to run around and play with his brothers.

8.  He is great at holding and taking care of Lacey.

9.  He gives the best hugs and always makes sure I get a hug and a kiss on the cheek before he goes to school.

10.  Ashton is thoughtful, silly, full of energy, loving, caring, good at building, fun to be around and a great kid!  We love you Ashton! 

Catch Up-Halloween

Here are a few pictures of our Halloween Costumes:

Me-I was a punk rocker.  I had fake Eyelashes on and boy were they heavy!

 I just wanted to close my eyes and fall asleep!

Caleb-a rodeo clown, and a good one at that!

Carson-a circus clown.  Another night he dressed up as a doctor.

Calvin-a dragon

Ashton-a ninja of some sort.  Another night he dressed up as a mad scientist.

Devin-a nice shark.

Lacey-a pixie fairy.  So cute!

Ben-he was a rocker with a mohawk, but there are no pictures.  So sad...

(5 boys + 1 girl) x 2

I know that some people think that it is crazy that we have five boys right in a row and so fun that we now have a girl.  But my cousin, Janelle, did the exact same thing.  She had five boys and then within months of me having Lacey, she had a girl as well!  So we had a Reed dinner a few weeks ago and decided to take a picture of all the kiddos, moms and dads. This was last minute, so we are not dressed up in any way.  (In fact, our family just drove straight to the dinner after going camping, so we were flithly!) 

What a good looking group of boys...and girls!

"Ashton is Smart"

Ashton brought home a paper of work he did at school.  It was an addition paper.  At the bottom of the page there were "counters" you could cut out to help you with the adding.  Ashton didn't cut his out and just did all the math in his head.  On the paper his teacher wrote "Ashton did it all with mental math"  and "Way to go Ashton!".  Well, he was so excited that he had to show everyone and tell them that he did mental math and finished way before everyone else, and then he put it on the refrigerator.  Later, he came up to me and said "Mom, why didn't Mrs. Adolph just write on the paper, "Ashton is smart"?  Haha!  The confidence of a child!

We love Camping!

Last month we went camping as a family.  We went to Pickett Post and had a great time!  This was Lacey's first real camping experience.  She did really good, except for the close call from a scorpion!  Yikes!  She was sitting on a blanket just playing and Devin was next to her when he started yelling that their was a big bug.  Ben ran over there and found a scorpion about 2-3 inches long crawling to her.  Scary!   Other than that, we were good!  :)  Carson was the photographer, so these pictures are all from him.  Unfortunely there are no pictures of him.  But you will see Ashton, Calvin, Caleb and Devin.