Aunt V's Wedding

 

I'm posting this years later, but didn't want to forget to include Aunt Vanessa and Uncle Brian's wedding in our family journal.  It was a 2 day party right after Christmas!  They had an open house in Mendon one night and the next day was the wedding at the Logan Temple, luncheon at the Bluebird and then a reception in Layton.  It was a blizzard that day and driving to Layton was super scary but we made it and had a fun party!  The kids loved dancing and Rylee caught the bouquet.   So many fun pics....  These are a few I took....

Avery and Rylee made friends with Brian's nieces

She looked pretty cute toddling around

We tried to get a nieces and nephews pic,,,,

It was pure chaos!  

Dancing with Daddy

Rylee dancing with my cousin Rikki's little boy Ben.  They were pretty cute

Rylee and my cousin Rikki's kids - Maddie, Ben and Bella

Rylee loved dancing with daddy

Logan busting a move

Avery and Uncle Jeff being crazy!

Sparklers to send off the happy couple.  The kids thought those were so fun!  

These are pics from the photographer...

Family Photo

Siblings

Lots of different group shots....  We had to get creative and do indoor pics because it was a blizzard at the temple!  

Rylee and the bouquet!  

Dancing the night away!  

It was SO cold and rainy at the temple!  And then turned to a crazy blizzard.  Not the best weather but a great wedding day.  

The photographer also took individual shots...

Five...and a HALF

Why am I so bad at this??? I started this post in December and just because I had finished it in my head, I assumed it was posted! Well... I never quite finished it. So here is it... a little late! He is SIX in a couple of weeks! SHEESH!

Logan was SO excited for Christmas not just because it was Christmas and he REALLY wanted a Kinect, but because at Christmas time that meant he would officially be five...and a HALF! A lot of his friends are already six and he is dying to be six, too. He likes to remind me about that HALF! How do they grow up so fast? Here are just a few things about him at five...and a HALF!
Here are some of Logan's favorites as a Five and a Half year old....

Favorite Food: Chicken! Logan LOVES chicken and meat in general. Sometimes he says that he is a carnivore (since he LOVES dinosaurs so much). One night we were eating something and he asked, "Mom, is this carrion?" Really??? What 5 year old says that! He is also always asking if the chicken is boneless or not - He doesn't like bones in his chicken! He also loves all the other foods a 5 year old should - Chicken nuggets, corndogs, mac n cheese....all those super nutritious foods!
Favorite Treat: Hershey's and ice cream. I'm not sure where the Hershey's came from... He likes plain old Vanilla ice cream, just like his daddy!
Favorite Color: BLUE!!! Aggie blue, of course! Do you even need to ask???
Best friends: His daddy, of course, and Rylee (and I should probably include Avery, too) and Carter, Gracie, (also his first crush! So cute!!!) and Morgan and his cousin Mason and probably his uncles too...
Favorite TV Show: Wipeout! (He LOVES this show and laughs so hysterical the whole time and even builds his own obstacles around the house thanks to my couch cushions!) He also loves Dinosaur Train and has recently discovered the old school Transformers cartoon and he really likes that, too.
Favorite Movie: Cars (which has been his favorite movie since he was about 2) and Star Wars! We won't let him watch the 3rd movie though and that makes him crazy!!!
Favorite Book: Any book about dinosaurs - Logan LOVES dinos and knows so much about them. He seriously corrects me just about every time I read with him about how you say the dino names.
What he wants to be when he grows up: Paleontologist or a basketball player
Favorite Sport: Changes daily!!! Usually soccer or basketball, but he goes through football and hockey phases, too.
Favorite things to do: Go to Games (especially Aggie games), play Kinect and Xbox, Play sports
Favorite Places he has gone: Disneyland, Disneyworld, Sea World and Yellowstone
Favorite Toys: Star Wars action figures and his new Leapster
Favorite Stuffed Animal: Buffalo
Favorite Song: At night, Logan always requests "I am a Child of God" - all THREE verses! And if you skip one, he lets you know! He also loves listening to Michael Jackson and some of the other songs his uncle teaches him and he has some SA-WEET dance moves!!! The kids remembers the words to just about EVERY song he hears and is always singing.

One other funny thing.... Logan talks really well and even uses a lot of big words all the time. However, he has one word that he uses that just cracks us all up. Instead of aren't I, he says amn't I? I guess he has made up his own contraction! I love it!!!

The biggest change for Logan in going from a five year old to being five and a half is that in those months, he has started school! This is his cute Kindergarten picture - I love it! It is SO my Logan! Notice he has spiked hair, but there are parts of it there are not too spiked because he probably smooshed them down - He hates when I spike his hair!

He is doing great in school and LOVING it! It is hard to have him gone everyday, but I am glad it is only a few hours. I don't know how it will go next year! I will miss him so much. I am so grateful that he is so happy about school and has such a wonderful teacher who he adores! It has been great to see him grow so much and make new friends. Logan is so smart and learns so quickly and has such an enthusiasm for learning and just for life in general. I love having him in our family! He keeps us all going! Logan is a GREAT reader! He can pretty much read anything we give him. He amazes me. He goes to the 2nd grade class to bring home books and he always brings home books about science. His favorites have been shark books! He LOVES those!!! He has also brought home lots of other animal books and some about volcanoes and tornados and things like that. He loves learning about that stuff and remembers so much of what he learns.

Some of his favorite things about school are his friends and going to the library (which he only brings home Froggy books that were his favorite when he was little or planet or dinosaur books) and RECESS! Whenever I ask Logan about his favorite part of his day at school it is always recess...unless they didn't have recess and then that is his LEAST favorite part of the day! Darren and I take turns volunteering in Logan's class once a week and he LOVES when we go in there. He will always give me a big hug and kiss and I am so happy that he is not embarrassed to do that in front of his friends. He is a sweetheart!

Logan has had 2 parent-teacher conferences since the year started, which I meant to blog about at the time, but never did, so I guess I will just add them into this post since it is all about him anyway....

In October, his report card looked pretty good. He had a couple things that were marked Progressing instead of satisfactory, but they mostly had to do with taking pride in his work and taking a little more time on things....and using scissors! YIKES! I don't know if I ever remembered to blog this but one of the first weeks of school Logan came home with a HUGE chunk cut out of his eyelashes! I almost started bawling! I love his eyelashes and I wasn't sure if they could grow back. He informed me he got bored and cut them with the scissors! That is why I never let my kids use them at home!!! And why he has a hard time cutting now at school... Luckily they did grow back...

All of his other scores were perfect or darn close and on his district testing he did awesome! His teacher said "I love Logan! His personality and curiosity are endearing! He is a very bright little boy. We all love him!" His goal was to keep reading and to start a journal, which he has done and I love it! It is so cute the things he writes and the funny pictures he draws....he hates to draw though so they are always very quick!

In January, we had another conference. This time all his scores were satisfactory (the hightest of the 3 marks)...except for takes pride in his work which we are still working on... All his test scores were perfect again and some of his district test scores were off the charts, which his teacher said might mean that he was the highest in the district! His teacher wrote," I love Logan so much! His interesting insights, his questions and his personality have added so much to our classroom. He is great!"

I am so proud of Logan! He is such a good boy and so smart and is growing up so fast! He is so tender sometimes and really tries hard to be nice to others. There is a little boy in his class who has some learning problems and Logan is so nice and sweet with him. He is so funny and keeps me laughing all the time! Sometimes I think he is a 50 year old in a 5 year olds body with the way he talks and his funny habits, like reading the sports page everyday. He keeps our life interesting! He is the BEST big brother ever and so kind to his sisters. He has a great imagination and loves to learn about how everything works. I also love that he still loves to snuggle and he still sucks his thumb and rubs my thumb. I kind of wish he would stop sucking his thumb, but sometimes I secretly love it because it makes him seem like my little baby! We are so happy he is part of our family and that he can say he is five...and a HALF!

Our December Family Adventure, part 2

So, our little family adventure continued for the next 2 days with even more fun and surprises. (If you don't know what I am referring to, you missed my last post...) We woke up Friday morning (Dec 10) to this gorgeous view out our hotel window!

Avery was loving the window. She wanted to sit there all day. Darren went and grabbed us all some breakfast at McDonald's while I got things ready for the day and then we hit the pool for a quick swim before check-out.

Avery was much happier about the pool in the day light. She had a lot more fun and loved splashing us! The pool was so fun. It was snowing really lightly and I always think it is fun to be out swimming in the snow.

Logan and Rylee chilling in the pool

Ry loves to float on her back

Logan loves to swim. In case you are wondering, Logan has a Band aid in all these pictures because he had a laser removal treatment in November for a blood vessel growth on his face (another post I haven't finished...) In all of the packing craziness, I forgot his band aids and his got really wet from swimming the night before. He had a bit of a meltdown when we took it off, so we got one from the front desk. He didn't really like this one because it was so noticeable. He was pretty self conscious about it and hated telling people over and over about his band aid and what happened.

All my cute monkeys in the pool with Dad. It started to hail, which was fine at first, but then it really started coming down hard and the kids didn't really like it, so we packed up and headed out.

We were able to meet our good friend's, the Barker's, for lunch. Well...at least Jenn and her kids. Dean had to work. We hardly ever get a chance to see them, so we were really excited. We decided to try Kneader's - I always see them on Good Things Utah and everything they make looks so yummy! It was delicious! The only problem was it was SO packed and a little crazy with all the little ones, but we still had fun.

Logan loved his cool Santa cookie that came with his meal. They had such yummy desserts!

Logan and Drew - I wish I would have gotten a picture of the 2 babies in high chairs. Their baby is named Avery, too and is about 2 months older than our Avery. It was a little crazy though, so I didn't get any... After lunch, the kids were grumpy and there was a bit of a storm, so we decided to make the drive to Salt Lake and let them take a nap. While they were asleep, we drove around for awhile, and Darren drove past his old house. Kind of funny to see all the changes! We hadn't really planned what we were doing, but while the kids were asleep, we made a plan. Once the kids woke up, we had another surprise for them - A trip to the Living Planet Aquarium! Logan wasn't sure this was a good surprise at first. He was really scared for some reason. Once we got inside, he really liked it though and we had so much fun!

I don't know if I have ever seen Avery so happy as at the Aquarium! It was so fun for her to toddle around and discover so much on her own without being in the silly stroller. She was laughing and smiling the entire time we were there. She was in LOVE with this frog!

She loved these frogs, too. She had so much fun watching everything. I didn't expect her to be so into it, but I think she had the most fun of all.

They came over and fed the frogs while we were there. Avery LOVED it! She was laughing so hard she sounded like she was screaming. It was pretty funny!

Everyone watching the frogs eat - It was pretty interesting! Some of the crickets would get on the backs of the frogs and just sit there. Maybe the frogs couldn't eat them that way? The kids thought it was hilarious!

Avery watching the fish

Rylee

They had one little area with little caves the kids could climb into. Avery just kept climbing in and sitting down and then getting up over and over.

They were having some special activities for their Arctic Nights and had a story time about Polar Bears. Logan ended up being the only kid there because our girls wouldn't sit still. He loved it and the lady was so impressed with how smart he was and how much he wanted to learn.

Rylee spent story time exploring the little caves. She loved to peek out of this window.

Avery looking at either a LARGE spider or snake...I can't remember which one because I was too grossed out to get very close. Avery was way into it though.

We have been to the Living Planet Aquarium before, but it has been awhile and the reason we wanted to go back was to see the new Sea Turtle and the penguins. Here are Daddy and Ry watching the penguins. They were so cute!

Logan measuring up to the penguin

Rylee's turn

Avery - She couldn't stop looking at the penguin to look at the camera

Logan and Rylee watching a demonstration about how polar bears can walk on snow.

In front of the penguins

Since they were doing the Arctic Nights thing, they had a craft set-up. Rylee had to do it! She is our crafty girl and loves art projects and things. Her and Logan had fun making this underwater scene...or maybe it was supposed to be the Northern Lights. I'm not too sure - Either way, they had fun!

While they were crafting, Avery was shopping! The gift shop was right next to the craft and Avery kept running over and picking out different stuffed animals. Then she would yell "Da, Da" and run over to show Daddy what she had picked out. Then I would take her and have her put them back, and she would pick something else and do the same thing. It kept her very entertained!

Finished art projects!

They were also serving up some hot chocolate. Yummy!

This is Rylee with her favorite thing at the Aquarium - the jellyfish! I think she liked them because they looked pink and purple from the light they had in there, and she LOVES anything pink!

Logan couldn't decide on a favorite thing - He said it was all his favorite! Kind of funny for a little boy who didn't even want to go inside!

After that, we took the kids to stay with Uncle Dean and Aunt Laura for a couple hours. They were thrilled with that and had the best time and keep asking to go back. They made cookies and watched movies and Logan got to play Xbox with Uncle Dean. Darren and I went to his family's Christmas party at the Little America. Every other year, their family Christmas party is an adults only dinner. It is really fun to get together with everyone without all the kids and have a nice, relaxed (FREE) dinner. It was a nice night out! After that, we picked up the kids and headed to Grandma and Grandpa Webber's house for a surprise sleepover!

The next morning (Sat Dec 11) was even more fun. It started with family pictures with Darren's entire family, which is 35 people! No small feat! It was a little crazy, but we survived somehow. I wish I had a picture to post as proof of our success (or at least survival, which in this case IS success!) but I don't think that they gave any digital files. To be honest, I don't even really know how our picture came out and I haven't seen it yet, but I heard it turned out OK. After the pictures, we grabbed a bite at In N Out Burger and then headed to a double birthday party for my nieces, Lauren and Raegan.

The birthday party for my nieces was at Kangaroo Zoo. Avery was in HEAVEN! She loved bouncing in the little inflatable things and didn't seem to mind all the crazy bigger kids jumping around her. It was a little stressful to watch her, but she had a blast!

Rylee and her cute cousin, Raegan! These two are such cute buddies. Rylee is so lost at family functions when Raegan isn't there, so when she is in town, Rylee is so happy!

Avery jumping - She kept running away from us whenever we tried to get her out. She loved it!

Logan had so much fun! It was so hard to keep track of him because he never stopped running from place to place. He especially liked this one maze that reminded him of Wipeout, the TV show, and he kept pretending he was doing the Wipeout course when he went through. His shirt even had sweat on it when we were done! GROSS!

They had a cute separate room where we had pizza and cake and the bubbles came down from the ceiling. The kids thought that was so cool!

Raegan and Rylee having some cake

After the birthday party, we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Boman's house and then headed home. On the way home, we decided to stop for one last surprise. We always drive by the lights at Willard Bay and say we want to stop, but we never have time or the kids are always asleep. So, we decided to stop. We saw a Santa with a short line, so we decided to go and see him while we were there.

For some reason, Logan was NOT impressed with this Santa. He told us that this wasn't the REAL Santa because he talked weird. I was worried that this would ruin Santa for him, so we ended up going to see another Santa a little later...

Rylee and Santa

Avery checking Santa out - I think she might not be convinced he is the REAL Santa either.

Avery did like Santa once he gave her a candy cane.

All 3 kids with Santa

The lights at Willard Bay were pretty impressive, although I thought it was a little expensive for what it was. The kids especially liked the Disney characters. Rylee loved that they had Tinkerbell and Cinderella!

Logan liked the cool dinosaurs.

Avery liked it all! She was totally mezmerized by all the lights and just stared out the window the whole time.

Whew! I am tired just typing this - It was a busy and super fun weekend! I love all the fun things there are to do at the holidays and I was so glad that we could get away and have some time with our little family to do some fun things. These are some of my most favorite times with the kids.