THE CRAZY WILSON FAMILY

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T18:23:00.010-07:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Waiting for Mom and Dad to plug in the lights, turn on the camera... and take out Sammy :)

Who knew that Cameron only needed a candy cane to make him excited :)

The boys got lots of video games, paper jams, lots of legos, clothes, football, puzzles, games... but most of all they were excited about the pogo sticks :)

Daelyn got a lot of games, puzzles, books, arts and craft things, baking stuff, clothes, video games...

Josh got new clothes, work shirts, new books to read, movies, a soft blanket (he was the only one in the family with out one and felt left out ;), and a few other little things... oh and don't forget the YUM YUM sweats :)

Josh is in TROUBLE and SPOILED (and SURPRISED) me this year!!! I got a BEAUTIFUL new electric acoustic guitar (I have the blisters on my fingers to prove it :) and an amp, a new little digital camera (our old one died and I get tired of lugging the big heavy one everywhere for everything, so I am grateful to have a little one to take to events where we are walking around), and a new soft blanket (Josh left my old one at a hotel :)....

But most of all we are grateful for the gift of our Savior this Christmas. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

Oh.... and yes we survived a Christmas outside of Utah, my first Christmas away from home and family, but we sure did miss everyone... A LOT!!

Oh.... One more thing, the kids were SO sad that our new shelf elf had to leave and go back to the North Pole. Here are a few random pictures that we snapped during his stay with us.
He hid all around the house, decorated cookies, made a campfire and made smores, went fishing for goldfish in the sink, played lots of video/computer games, colored, made friends with the nativity set, took barbie on a date, crashed a car, made a mess with the flour in the kitchen and made snow angels in the flour, got hyper and was swinging from the fan/lights when the kids gave him a little candy, got sick when the kids gave him A LOT of candy, left messages on etchastketch, he even followed us and showed up in Tennessee.... We will miss you!
(sorry all of the good pictures were on the little camera that died so I just have the few from my phone)

Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-25T16:37:00.008-07:00

Christmas eve we opened the few presents under the tree today since it was Saturday. That way the kids could play with things today and so that the tree was empty underneath for Santa to come.
I got Josh some pink yum yum sweats!! (The kids laugh hysterically at the Furry Vengence movie when the dad puts on his wife's pink yum yum sweats, and so I thought we needed the movie... and Josh needed some pink yum yum sweats :)

Grandma and Grandpa Wilson got the kids roller blades/skates. The kids had fun trying them out today. Don't worry... I made them put on a helmet and pads (I would have wrapped them all up in bubble wrap, but Josh said that was going a little too far ;)

Oh and we decorated gingerbread houses/boys/girls. We left some out for Santa.

The kids also oped up the presents from Grandma and Grandpa Nelson and we all got some cute, soft pajama pants (which the boys had to run and put on!! And a fun mystery game puzzle that we can't wait to do this week.) Then we also saw that someone (we think it was either Mrs. Clause or an elf, since we knew that Santa was half way around the world delivering presents at the time) left the kids some pajamas and their favorite cold cereal.... they do this every year :) Then we read the story of the birth of Jesus.

Oh..... and sprinkled some magic food outside for Santa's reindeer...Daelyn was SO excited about the nightgown that was left with her cereal because it had a little matching nightgown for her dog too :) Now everyone was off to bed and went right to sleep.... well, maybe not quite right to sleep. Some kids might have been a little excited. Cameron was all "JIGGLY in his bed" (his words) as he was shaking and "jiggling" uncontrollably with excitement. Good Night!

The Polar Express!!

2011-12-22T06:01:00.001-07:00

Finally on the train!! YAY!!!

Yes, the waiters danced around and gave the kids HOT CHOCOLATE and cookies :)

Then they read the story of the Polar Express while the kids followed along with the books.
We also sang Christmas carols, and then the conductor came by and punched words into all of their tickets (sorry, I didn't get a picture of that because I was filming it instead because he was so fast at it and it was really cool).

And Santa gave them each a special bell. Josh can't hear the bell (lucky guy) I guess he doesn't believe ;)

We had SO much fun on the Polar Express. It took us all the way to the North Pole and we saw all the houses and workshops decorated, elves dancing, the reindeers' lit up runway, and Santa (who boarded the train). The kids were SO amazed because the train was actually flying during a lot of the ride ( we were up high and the water was down below us and we couldn't see the tracks so we must have been flying ;). It was definitely a night that none of us will forget!!

Gatlinburg, TN

2011-12-21T20:23:00.008-07:00

We LOVED the little village shops!

The kids had a FUN time at the Aquarium.

Cameron LOVES penguins, so it was great that the aquarium had a big penguin exhibit.

Wilderness at the Smokies :)

2011-12-21T17:47:00.010-07:00

The kids LOVED the water park inside the hotel!! They played for hours!!

It also had a HUGE indoor/outdoor hot tub (it was bigger than a swimming pool), the kids loved it!

The kids learned how to body surf... it was by far the most entertaining thing ever!! I will have to upload the videos so you can all see Cameron almost lose his shorts in a wave, and Daelyn wiping out - tumbling up the hill, and Brendan not weighing enough so he just kept flying up and over the hill :) It was GREAT!!!

The kids LOVED all of the water slides!

PEACEFUL holiday :)

2011-12-03T19:17:00.002-07:00

Wishing everyone a PEACEFUL holiday season... or at least one SILENT NIGHT :)

Daelyn's 9th Mystery Birthday Party :)

2011-11-06T06:36:00.014-07:00

Daelyn really wanted a mystery/movie birthday party. So I created a mystery for the girls to solve and then they "watched" Nancy Drew the movie (ok, so they sort of watched the movie but they pretty much loved solving the mystery so much that they were creating their own mysteries to solve instead of watching the movie... as long as they were having fun, right?)
Eating pizza and waiting for everyone to arrive.

Someone stole all of the snack, treats and cupcakes and the girls and to follow the clues, solve puzzles and riddles, crack codes use magnifying glasses in order to find all of the goodies and figure out who stole them.

They found the cupcakes :)

Then they opened presents. The last present had one last clue which led them to the popcorn and treats for the movie.

Movie time (didn't last long, they wanted to solve more mysteries)

I hope you had a fun birthday party Daelyn. We love you so much!!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T20:40:00.017-06:00

Daelyn was Medusa

Cameron was a Knight (Sir Cameron Don if you ask him)

Brendan was a Dark Ninja

Daelyn won first place in the costume contest :)

Trick Or Treat!!

Brendan LOVED running through all of the leaves all over the neighborhood :)

PUMPKINS :)

2011-10-30T18:08:00.009-06:00

We went to a local farmers market corner to get some pumpkins this year (the kids were a little sad to not go to a pumpkin field and pick their own, but we couldn't find any like that). Then we had a good time carving them. Brendan drew a face and carved his own pumpkin for the first time ALL BY HIMSELF :) Daelyn was quite the little pumpkin carver and carved two pumpkins by herself and even helped Cameron carve his pumpkin. Normally I end up having to pretty much carve all of the pumpkins, So I have to say that I TRULY ENJOYED sitting back and watching the kids do their own pumpkins. The kids are getting SO big :(
Sammy was just hoping that something other than pumpkin would fall on the floor ;) We all had a FUN time carving pumpkins together!

I helped Daelyn's 3rd grade class with a pumpkin lab at school and the teacher asked me to bring baked pumpkin seeds on Monday for the students to try since most of them had never tasted them. So, we saved and cleaned all of the seeds from the pumpkins and I baked three different flavors for the students to try.... I hope the like them, we enjoyed the ones that we tasted :)

Sky Top Orchard

2011-10-28T16:44:00.026-06:00

We had LOTS of fun going to Sky Top Orchard in North Carolina. It only took us about 40 min. to get there, and the drive was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS... I could have driven through those hills (ok, so they are considered mountains here) forever!! I am in love with fall on the East coast and all of the tall trees covered in the most beautiful colors ever.... it was seriously like driving through a painting! Sky Top had lots of fun swing sets, slides, play houses and things for the kids to play on. They also have a huge orchard where the kids got to pick TONS of apples. The kids were also fascinated by the bamboo forest! We had fresh hot apple cider and the most delicious apple cider doughnuts ever! We had so much fun being together and working together and we can't wait to go back there again!

Myrtle Beach :)

2011-09-23T08:16:00.017-06:00

Ripleys Believe It Or Not Museum

2011-09-22T19:39:00.009-06:00

Then off for some ice cream :)

MagiQuest

2011-09-22T19:03:00.007-06:00

The kids LOVED MagiQuest, in fact we had to go twice because they loved it SO much! They got to pick out wands and toppers for their wands, so they were just how they wanted them, and then they got them filled with "REAL" magic. Then they were able to go on quests and earn runes, make magic potions, fight goblins and dragons, and help unicorns and princesses and well, everything that a kid dreams of doing!!

I have a feeling we will have to go to another MagiQuest very soon :)

Wonder Works Museum (Myrtle Beach)

2011-09-22T17:54:00.009-06:00

This museum looks like a BIG building that got flipped upside down, even when you go in the front doors it is like you are walking on the ceiling :)

We got to fly lots of fun space ships, rockets, air planes etc...

Daelyn liked the Titanic exhibit and then being able to feel what it would be like in a hurricane :)

We got to make HUGE bubbles :)

Brendan LOVED the rope obstacle course that was up in air... he was right at home :)

This was such a fun museum, we all loved it! There were SO many fun things to do, like: huge piano to jump and play on, virtual roller coasters, lots of virtual games, lights/music exhibits, optical illusions, space/robot stuff, things to climb, etc... Probably one of my favorite museums we have ever been to :)

Downtown Greenville

2011-09-22T11:35:00.003-06:00

We decided to walk around downtown Greenville. We went to the farmers market and we had to take a picture of the pepper booth for Grandpa. We bought some of the worlds HOTTEST peppers. We made some yummy salsa later that afternoon with fresh tomatoes, peppers and other ingredients we bought at the market :)

We didn't know that there was a place for the kids to play in the water or we would have had the kids come in their swimming suits... wet jean shorts probably weren't the most comfy thing to walk around in.

Falls Park is GORGEOUS!! We love living in Greenville :)

Back to school 2011

2011-08-18T05:59:00.004-06:00

I can't believe that my BABY is off to ALL day Kindergarten. Why do they have to grow up so fast?

Walking to the bus stop
waving goodbye to Daddy
My three cute school kids all ready and excited to go

Waiting for the bus

BYE :( Have a GREAT first day!!

I decided since the kids were ALL gone ALL day I would use this time to get back into shape and start running again no matter what! I didn't feel well this morning and wasn't having a "good"day but I didn't care, it was my first day alone and I was going running to keep my mind of off missing/stressing/worrying about my kids. Perhaps I should have listened to my body because I ended up blacking out and collapsing onto the asphalt... oops, no one ever said I was bright. Anyway, so my day wasn't off to the best start, but I couldn't wait to pick my kids up from the bus stop so that I could snuggle them and hear all about their first day of school. Well, as soon as they got off the bus they all literally ran off to play with their new friends (yes, I was sad). Then, I finally got them all home and then turned around and Cameron was gone, we couldn't find him anywhere!! We started searching the house and the neighborhood and couldn't find him (I was seriously worried sick!!), but I finally found him playing by himself in our neighbors backyard on their play set.... yes we had a LONG talk about that!! Let's just say it has been a long, painful, stressful, sad day for me and I am glad it is over, but glad and grateful that my kids had a FUN first day back to school.

Happy late birthday to 2 of my favorite boys :)

2011-08-17T17:42:00.003-06:00

I realized that I never posted a blog for first, Brendan's 7th birthday :( We were actually moving out of our house in Utah on Brendan's actual birthday and so he spent the day with my mom and dad. Josh and I felt bad that we weren't really there for his birthday so the next day we took the kids to the Smurf movie and to Thy Mayan (Brendan LOVES this place!) Brendan also got to spend a lot of birthday money from everyone once we got to South Carolina... so THANK YOU to everyone that gave him $ because the kids didn't have any other toys to play with except the birthday gifts that Brendan picked out and was nice enough to share and it seriously saved them and me by keeping them occupied so that I could get ALL the painting done!

Happy Birthday Brendan we LOVE you SO VERY much! You are such an incredible, sweet young man and we can't imagine life with out you... you bring us SO much JOY!! :)

AND...
Happy LATE 30th birthday to the greatest Dad/Husband in the entire world. I wish that I could have made Josh's 30th birthday spectacular, but it was a little difficult when we just arrived in a new state far away from any babysitters, friends or family. So the kids and I took Josh out to Outback Steak house for some yummy food and time well spent together as a family to celebrate.

Josh, I may not have thrown you a HUGE bash, or taken you out on a romantic evening, but I want you to know that you deserved ALL that and MORE! We love you SO much and appreciate EVERYTHING that you do for us, you are TRULY AMAZING!!!

Lagoon

2011-08-02T08:48:00.014-06:00

We had LOTS of fun going to Lagoon-a-beach and cooling off in the water and the shade.

But we all decided that the rides are the best part. Daelyn loves roller coasters and even went on wicked with me :) Brendan (who was about a half inch too short to go on any roller coasters) perfected the art of standing on his tip toes inside of his crock so that the ride operators thought he was tall enough to go on the rides because he was GOING on the roller coasters, so it was a good thing they let him on :) Poor Cam was about a half inch shorter than Brendan and they didn't let him ride any of the big rides.... next time Cam!!

Splash Pad and Ice Cream :)

2011-07-25T20:02:00.003-06:00

Thanks for the pictures Becca :)

Birthday/Unbirthday celebration :)

2011-07-25T19:27:00.012-06:00

Planet Play with Grandma, Grandpa and JJ

2011-07-25T19:09:00.005-06:00

Zoorasic Park (Hogle Zoo)

2011-07-24T19:01:00.005-06:00

4th of July in Richfield

2011-07-07T22:27:00.001-06:00

Daelyn had fun riding the mechanical bull... YEE HAW!!

Brendan loved getting squirted by the people in the parade

Cute cousins :)

MMMMMMMMM, Cotton Candy :D

4th of July weekend at the cabin :)

2011-07-07T22:20:00.001-06:00

Mom and JJ had a whip cream fight.... I think JJ won ;)

The kids had SO much fun playing on the swing set!!

Playing in the little pool at the cabin

2011-07-07T22:17:00.000-06:00