SANTA CLAUS CAME TO TOWN!

And he brought a bag full of toys for two little boys.





Tate and his "Trucck"




Dylan and his favorite things......




And mommy and daddy's favorite things...
Our two little men sharing a hug!

We hope all of you had a great Christmas and we wish you a Happy New Year!

CHRISTMAS CARD.........

Make a Smilebox greeting

It has been a busy Season for our family this year and we did not get our annual Christmas cards out in time. We hope you enjoy this and next year we have a goal to get to the mail before the 20th of December. We hope you all have a happy and safe Holiday season.

THE MANY STAGES OF MAKING A GINGERBREAD HOUSE......

• First you have to eat all the icing (this would be Tate)


• Then, you have to eat more gum balls and candy canes (Tate again )



• You have to be precise where you place the gum drops (Dylan)




• and then you have to be proud of what you created (Dylan and Tate).....which would be

THE BEST GINGERBREAD HOUSE EVER MADE! (and the most candy ever eaten by Dylan and Tate).

What happens in Vegas......

It has been a while since I up-dated my blog. My camera broke and so I haven't taken many pictures lately. I was able to sneak away for a few days and spend some great time with my best friends in Vegas. We had such a great time and we decided we will be better about getting away every year for a girls trip. We did not get much sleep because we were playing a lot, but is was very relaxing. We were able to go the PBR finals and to the Beatles show at the Mirage. It was an awesome show. We also squeezed in some shopping and almost missed our flight home. I am grateful for wonderful friends who remind me that life is to be enjoyed, not just endured. We took some great pictures and then my camera broke. I guess I will be asking Santa for a new camera this year. My friend will be e-mailing me some of her photos and I will post them in the future.

"Trik or Tree"


Halloween has always been one of our favorite holidays. Dylan came up with the idea for Batman and Robin and the boys were a great pair.
We had our annual dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup and rolls and then the kids collected tons of candy. We had our friends over for dinner followed by chasing the kiddos from house to house.
It is always fun in our neighborhood. Tate was adorable and was on a mission to collect the good stuff. He ran from house to house saying "Trik or Tree," and then would say, "Thank you, your welcome," after the candy was given to him. They also had fun carving, "punkins."

Thank you Mr. Wandtke...

We have some awesome neighbors. Mr. Wandtke, a.k.a Gerno, took the boys on his amazing go-cart. He is a very talented gentleman and he built this go-cart. According to his eight year old daughter, "he started building the g0-cart when my mom was a little bit pregnant with me." There you have the story behind this amazing machine. Lucky for us, he has a throttle to adjust the speed and he uses a rope to somewhat keep control of the machine. He told Mike and I to beware of Dylan because he knows how to operate the machine really well and if the throttle was not adjusted Dylan would have been at the District rather quickly (16...please don't come to soon).


Tate is along for the ride.....that is until he has to get out and then a tantrum tends to occur.
Tate also likes to drive the "goo-karrt."

Our little Nascar team.

Dylan in his element.

Now guess what the boys(including daddy) want for Christmas? And Daddy wants to built the machine. I'm afraid the garage is quickly going to change and mommy's car will be finding a new parking spot. Anyone out there want to donate their garage for a time?

Our little "Tattey Bear"...

Since Tate just celebrated his second birthday, I wanted to highlight some characteristics that make this boy so great and why we love having him in our family.

How could you not love and laugh at this little guy?

Tate loves to say "cheese," when you take his picture.

• Tate is always smiling and is so easy going. He loves to watch his older brother, Deelan, and he imitates everything his Dylan does.


• We love it when he says, "I wove you mamma and daddy. He is so sweet and is tender-hearted. He is also very clever and mischievous.


• He has the cutest smile (in his mother's opinion) and we love those blue eyes.


• He has an amazing vocabulary for a two year old. He is already counting to nine (with a little help from Dylan).


• He loves adventure and one day we are sure he will take up repelling as a hobby since he loves to climb.
• He loves to wear hats and shoes. He likes to have a hat on when he goes to bed and it can be difficult to sneak it off his head when he does go to sleep.

We Love you Tate and we are happy you are in our family!

Tate is now a 2 year old....

Our little man Tate is now 2. Unbelievable! He is such a joy and we love him so much. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday breakfast and he responded "waffffles and eggs."

He ate every bite of his birthday breakfast.

After breakfast, we had family plans to celebrate his birthday at Gardner Village. Tate, Dylan, and mommy went and met up with some of our friends. It was a perfect fall day and we enjoyed the fun atmosphere there. The kids loved looking at the "punkins and witchies."
(notice where the cute hand is).

We also checked out the petting zoo and had a pony ride.




Tate adored looking at this chicken, until he pecked his little hand. When we were leaving Tate wanted to see the chicken again. Suprisingly, he was not afraid of the chicken (brave kid).

We celebrated his birthday by singing "Happy Birthday," and sharing a donut from Neighborhood Bakery (yummy). Tate LOVED the chocolate frosted donut.

Later that night Tate celebrated his birthday with his dad and the Green family. He was excited about the Elmo cake that his dad had chosen.

Just a few random thoughts.........

I just got finished checking out nienies blog (http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/) and I am amazed at her strength, yet again.
It has been a wonderful General Conference weekend and I am so thankful to be able to spend time with Mike and our boys enjoying the conference. I can't pick out a favorite talk (enjoyed them all), but I was very fond of President Uchtdorf's words. I am grateful for the trials the Lord has given us and I know it has made our little family much stronger. I have heard the saying that the Lord will stretch you to grow into who He needs you to be, and although it is hard at times, I can also see the greatness of this blessing. Mike and I have had many "tender mercies," recently. We are grateful for our family and friends who have supported us during difficult times. We have learned alot about those who take advantage of your goodness and then are not there when you may need them in your own trials. Life lessons to be learned! We are hoping to be planning that trip to Disneyland for our little family here in the next 2 weeks. Those who are close to our family, knows what this means. Mike and I are keeping our fingers crossed and are sending many prayers upward :)

The latest from the Green's home.....

Life continues to be very busy at our home. Dylan was thrilled to start another preschool year at Mrs. Amee's Preschool, and so far he loves it. He is excited to have Jake and Emma in his class and he is ready for preschool to be 3 times a week. Tate really misses him when he is gone and it is great that the arguing between the two of them has declined (mom enjoys this.)

Dylan and Jake getting a pic before entering Mrs. Amee's.



First day of preschool. Big smile!

We also started the Fall soccer season and today was the first big game. It is fun to see Dylan actually get more involved in the game this year, instead of picking dandelions or rolling down the hill during the soccer game. He told us his team is named the "Utes red team." I am sure he is biased to the red instead of the blue, just like his daddy.

"GO UTES RED TEAM!"

Action on the sideline.

Tate the aspiring Transformer....

Tate loves dressing up in Dylan's Bumblebee Transformers costume that Grandpa and Grandma Green gave him. He calls it, "umblee." He also has to wear these pajama bottoms over his other pajamas. Every night after his bath, he immediately runs for the drawer these lovely pants are kept in and asks for his "fooball patts." Maybe we will be aspiring Transformers for Halloween.

It's party time with Batman and friends....

Dylan had his big 5 year old party last Saturday. Since we were able to get a deal on a Batman bounce house, the party theme was changed from Transformers to Batman.
Daddy, Dylan and Tate in the bounce house. It also became a wrestling cage.

After going to multiple stores in search of a Batman cake, I found that the only store that had the "Batman cake set up, " was the Smith's near our home. Why I didn't go there first? I was sure they would not have that in their small bakery.

We had a great time and are grateful that all of our little friends and family were able to come. There were many little Batmans and Robins who made it a blast! Dylan was so excited and when we were taking the bounce house back he asked, "can I have a Batman party like this again next year." You only turn 5 once, right? We were also excited to have a suprise visit by Grandma Rowley, who showed up on Dylan's birthday with two fish (thanks Grandma..now we hope the fish live). Dylan had a great birthday and we enjoyed making it a memorable day for our "Bubba."

Happy Anniversary

We just celebrated our 11th anniversary on the 21st. I can't believe it has been 11 years already! Since Dylan's birthday is on the 20th we celebrated the weekend before our anniversary. We were able to get away and share time together at the Little America. A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Green for staying with the kids. It was a nice getaway and we enjoyed spending time together. These are a few things I love about being married to Mike. He is a great listener. He works hard to support our family. He is very attractive. He has a great personality. He loves being a dad and it shows. He has a strong testimony of the gospel. I am grateful for all he does! Happy Anniversary and many more happy years to come!!

Happy Birthday to BUBBA!

Our little guy is officially a 5 year old today! Where has the time gone? Dylan told his Grandma that today was his "grand birthday." He will be having his birthday party on Saturday and he is constantly asking, "is it Saturday yet." These are a few things that we love about Dylan and why we are blessed to have him in our family.

1. He is always open for a new adventure and enjoys playing with his brother and his friends.


2. Dylan is very independent. He gets his own bowl of cereal, complete with milk, and he is not afraid to schedule his own play dates.


3. Dylan loves to cuddle and is very affectionate. He will come and give me a kiss spontaneously(I hope this will never change).


4. Dylan enjoys building things and he has a great imagination. He loves Lego's and is very good at figuring out video games. His favorite place to be is outside and he is always displaying the many small insects that he has collected.
   
5. Dylan has a great sense of humor and is always making us laugh.
6. His prayers are well beyond his age. He is very thoughtful, wise, and concise, when he says his prayers. We love to hear his little prayers.

WE LOVE YOU DYLAN AND WISH YOU A HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Thanksgiving point.............

• Yesterday we spent the day with our close friends at Thanksgiving Point.
• The kids loved Noah's Ark and enjoyed "getting sprayed by the elephants."
• It was a gorgeous day for a picnic near the waterfalls.
• Tate enjoyed walking the 1 1/2-2 mile distance (why bring the stroller).
• The best part was getting to share the day with awesome friends.

Were back .....

Okay, it has been a little rough around our home lately. The H1N1, or otherwise known as the swine flu, came to our home for a visit. I have never been so ill in my whole life. Mike and I both had it and we were non-functional. Thank heavens that Grandma Green took Dylan for a few days while we somewhat recovered. Tate was also on the Tamiflu and he had a brief spell of the junk, but Dylan never did get ill. I also got strep - just to boot. We stayed in for nearly a week and then the boys and I went to Parowan to see family. Were thankful for our family and friends and appreciate all their suppport during this time.

4th of July

Tate at the Bees game.

Dylan and Addie
Ty enjoying his sucker.

This year for the 4th of July, we had Grandpa and Grandma Rowley, and the Young family stay with us. We celebrated the 4th together and it was a great day. We had originally planned on going to the parade, however we all slept in and then decided to go see the movie "Ice Age." It was a cute movie. That night we met up with Lucas, Candace, and Ty at the Bees baseball game. The game went 12 innings and the fireworks started at about midnight. The fireworks were awesome. It was a fun day and the we were happy to celebrate the day with family.