Jolley Family Christmas Party

The Jolley Christmas Party was a huge success this year. Almost everyone was able to be there except for the kids sick cousin Kort and his dad Mark. We were sad they couldn't be there. My parents poor house can barely fit all of us now. There had to be close to 50 people and we were jammed in there. It's a great way to make everyone mingle and get to know each other.
This year Ridge and Brenner were spotlighted. We spotlight a different grandkid each year to just learn a little more about them. It's been a very fun tradition. They both play the guitar so they played for us. Brenner's a definite rocker and Ridge more on the country side. They are such great kids. All the little kids had a great time dancing and wrestling to the music.

As always Santa made his appearance. The kids get so excited for him to show up. He brings them each a treat and they get to tell them what they want. We've done this instead of the mall Santa the last couple of years. Tanner asked Santa for a Trio Castle Set.

Cole asked for a choo choo train and table. Kaya asked for an artist easel.

My mom is so good to get all the grandkids and great-grandkids jammies each year. She's got to be buying over 20 pairs now. I don't know how she does it. We love it though and hope she keeps it up. The kids also draw names between each other and exchange gifts. It's always such a fun time to get together because it's about the only time we get everyone there now that we are so big.

Kaya's Crazy Night of Recitals

So we started out this evening at 6 p.m. for Kaya's piano recital. She first played "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" while she also sang the song. I was so impressed. She was not scared at all and got up there like a pro. What a proud moment for Dave and I.
Then when she was done with her own song she played the song
"Jingle Bells" for her friend Ellie. They were so cute and they both did such a good job. They were fun to watch.

As soon as the girls were done with their musical performances we were off to their gymnastic recital at 7 p.m.

They are getting so good at their tumbling and the recitals are so fun to watch to see what they will be doing next.

Way to go Kaya!!! You are so talented and you make us very proud parents!!

Tanner's Preschool Christmas Program

Our cute little reindeer had his Christmas Program at his preschool today. They are such cute little kids.

They sang about 2o Christmas songs and Tanner was able to play a bell song and a song on the kazoo. He is so funny to watch because he gets this little serious face like he is really concentrating and into the song.

Way to go Tanner!! We are so proud of you!!

Sledding!!!!!

Yay for Snow!!! The kids absolutely love to go sledding. This is the perfect little hill by our house that they can run up and down by themselves and we can just enjoy watching.

Hope we can get many more days in this winter!!!

Oh Christmas Tree!!

Every year we take the kids and they get to pick out their own ornament for that year. They always love it. Then we come home and pull out their own CHristmas Tree.
They get to decorate the tree with all of their ornaments. It's been a fun tradition and this year I let them decorate the whole tree. I didn't touch one thing.

Dave did have to lift them up to help them reach to the top of the tree.

The week before Thanksgiving we got up our big tree and decorated it. The kids helped me with it too but it's so big that I have to do most of it. It was so fun to do this year though. I did it a little different and I absolutely love it. I think it turned out good considering I'm not the most talented decorator.

I just love Christmas time and how the Christmas tree lights up the house and gives it that warm cozy Christmas feeling.

Temple Square

Saturday, December 5th we headed up to Temple Square to see the lights. We met my brother Jared and his family there. It had just snowed that day and so it was so beautiful with the perfect dusting of snow. We met at the gateway, ate dinner, and then rode the train up.
My brothers cute family!!

Kaya and her cute cousins, Maddie, Hannah, and Audrey. She loves it when we can get together with them. They always have such a great time.

I loved this picture of Kaya and Tanner.
It was so cold but they did so great. Cole wasn't feeling so great so he was pretty grumpy the whole time. But overall it was a great time. We wish we lived closer to those guys so we could do more together.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving it was our year to be with Dave's side of the family. So we had dinner at his parents house. It was a great dinner. We missed having Beth and her family this year since they went to Idaho with Tim's family. But it was still a great time and great food.
We were in charge of making the mashed potatoes and the stuffing this year. Dave was excited to peel the potatoes since he bought this nifty peeler. It was so great even the boys were able to help him. It was a fun morning of watching the parade and working in the kitchen together. Kaya stayed at Grandma's house the night before to help her make rolls and other things and watch the parade with her. We missed her but I'm sure she had a good time.

Then after dinner Grandma had the kids help her start decorating her Christmas Tree. They had a great time. She's always so good with letting them decorate her tree. They really love being able to do that.

Then as always we headed up to my parents house to spend the night so that me and my mom and whatever sisters are around can go Black Friday shopping. Only this time we didn't go to bed. We headed out at 11:30 p.m. and didn't get home until 7:30 a.m. It was quite the adventure this year. I can't believe how many people were out all night just like us. We usually stroll into Walmart at 4:30 and are able to get what we want at 5. This year because some of the stores opened at midnight it made things a little more crazy. We were pretty much stuck at Walmart for 5 hours if we wanted anything that was on their doorbuster sales. The hot topic items already had their lineups of people at them. Thank heavens for great friends that I have. If it hadn't had been for one great friend I wouldn't have even been able to get one of the things that I needed. Thanks Chels. It was a great time though. Gotta love shopping and the adventure that Black Friday always gives. I love the tradition!!!

I couldn't end my post without listing the things I am most grateful for. So first and foremost I am so grateful for Dave and the loving husband and father that he is. I am thankful that we have three great kids who are healthy and happy. I am thankful for our parents and the great examples they have been and continue to be. I am grateful that we have such great friends around us and that my kids have such good friends. I am so thankful for the church and the great ward we live in, and I am thankful for the gospel and the kowledge that we have of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. How blessed we are to know that because of the atonement that we may be together again and for always. I am so thankful for so many more things but the list could go on forever.

Happy 34th Dave!!

On November 19th, Dave celebrated his 34th birthday. We went out as a family to Boondocks. Dave decided he would rather go somewhere fun for the kids so that it would be less work for us. He's so smart sometimes. I think he had as much fun there as the kids though.

That place is great. The kids absolutely love it. I think their favorite part is to play the games that will give them the most tickets. The great part is that they have all sorts of levels so that even little Cole can play too.

And of course, they have to play the car games. Gotta love Dave with both his boys trying to play the game together.

Tanner showing one of his big wins of tickets. They made out pretty good there.

On the weekend we were able to go out without the kids with our good friends and enjoy some yummy dinner at Olive Garden and then went and saw the movie "Blindside". That was such a great show. Definitely one of those movies that just makes you feel good and want to go and make a difference for somebody. I think it turned out to be a good birthday for him.

Happy Birthday Babe!!

Kaya's Gymnastics

Kaya started taking all around gymnastics this year. She loves it. She is learning how to perform on the bars, the vault, the beam, and also doing floor routines. It is amazing how strong she is.

On November 7th she had a fall festival where they perfomed all the things which they have been learning.

In the picture above she is doing her bar routine. She did so great.
In these two pictures she is doing her beam routine.

Everyone recieved a medal at the end.

It's great she loves it so much. It has been so fun to watch her grow and be able to do so much. We are so proud of you Kaya!!! Keep it up!

Tanner's Gymnastics

So this last summer we put Tanner into gymnastics. It has been so great for him. He absolutely loves it. It's been a great way for him to be able to run and jump off things and get out some energy.
On November 3rd they had a little fall festival for them in their class where they performed all the tricks they have been learning. It was so great to watch him and see all that he can do already. They did some vault jumps as you can see him doing in the picture below. Also they performed on the beam, the bars, and tumbling on the floor.

At the end each of the kids recieved a ribbon to tell them they did such a good job.

In the few months that he has been taking he has been able to learn how to do a cartwheel, a backwards roll, and a forward roll on the bars by himself. Way to go Tanner!!

Halloween Festivities '09

The kids had a great time this Halloween. They started out the activities on Oct. 23rd at the school carnival. They had so much fun dressing up in their costumes and going to Kaya's school to play games and lots of fun activities. I was horrible and didn't get any pictures there. Only the one of them at our house before we left. Then on the 25th Grandma and Grandpa Newman had a family Halloween party. Grandma had lots of fun things for the kids to do. They made their own little pizzas, trick or treated through the house, colored pictures, played pumpkin bowling, and made cookies. They had a great time being with their cousins Ethan and Eli.

I don't know what was wrong with me this year but the time seemed to slip past me. We didn't go to the pumpkin patch until Halloween Day. Of course I had to forget my camera then too. So no pictures. Bummer. The pumpkin patch was so picked over and it was hard to find any pumpkins that weren't rotted out. The kids managed though and still had a good time. They loved bringing them home and being able to carve them. They actually did a great job this year of cleaning out their own pumpkins. Gotta love the face on Tanner below with his pumpkin. He was trying to look like it. We also took the kids to see Astro Boy during the day. What a cute movie and they loved it.

Then it was off to go trick or treating. They did so good this year. In the past I have felt like we were dragging them along and would barely make it down a couple of streets. This year they were running so fast we could hardly keep up with them. We almost covered our entire neighborhood. It was amazing how much candy they ended up with. They loved being able to go with friends this year. I'm sure that helped. Then we came home and ate some yummy homemade chili and pigs in a blanket.
The kids were so cute in their costumes. Kaya was a Barbie Genie, Tanner was the blue Power Ranger, and Cole was a monkey. He definitely made a cute monkey, especially when he made his EEE OOO sounds.

End of the Fall Soccer Season

So on October 24th Tanner finished up his first season of outdoor soccer. He did so awesome and loved playing. He got better and better with each game, but still had his distractions. He would crack us up because if a girl had the ball on the opposing team he would back off. There was no way he was going to kick that ball away from her. Also if any girl would fall he would just stand there and make sure they were okay before he would get back into the game. What a gentleman. I think he was able to score at least one or two goals a game and he would get so excited. I think he was best at defense though. He would be so speedy and run to get in front of the other team and either stand in front of the goal or just kick the ball away from them.

Here he is with his little buddies from the ward, Caleb and Brad. Caleb was the superstar of the team and Brad was the superhero. They were so much fun to watch. Don't you just love this picture with the temple right in the middle behind them. We are soooo lucky.

One of his big kicks in from out of bounds.

Here he is running the ball down the field on his way to make a goal.

Very last huddle of the season and cheer.

GO SHARKS!!!

Way to go Tanner!! You were awesome!!