Getting in the Christmas spirit...

Traditions

Russell, Taylor and Benjamin in their
Christmas Sunday suits. The big boys
both requested black suit for their
Christmas clothes. I think that is a
little strange but it is fine with me!
Don't they look handsome? Now if
I could just get their dad to wear a
handsome black suit... : )

Here we are picking out our Christmas
tree for family night. We found a
really pretty one. The boys did
a good job decorating it too.

Jay and Vicky's neighbors have Santa come
every year. The kids get to sit on his lap and
get a neat Christmas sucker. They also have
lots of cookies and hot cocoa for everyone as
well as a cute train ride for the kids. Kaitlyn
and Bridger Gear came with us this year.

The suckers were so good and Santa
was so nice but the kids were a little
disappointed because it was too snowy
for the train to run. Grandpa Jay didn't
want any disappointed kids, so he took
them all for a snowy lawn mower ride.
They spun donuts all over the back lawn.
I'd like to see a train do that! Good job
Grandpa!

Every year Taylor and Russ look forward

to playing with their electric train that

Grandma Janny and Grandpa Dan gave

them. We only get it out around Christmas

time. Too bad Benjamin is terrified of it!

Performing

at church...

Russell and Taylor were both in the ward Christmas play this year. First the whole primary sang a song and then a few of the kids performed a live nativity while a sister who is a nice grandma lady read the story from the scriptures.

Taylor was Joseph and Russell was a wise man. When I say they both did a great job, I mean Taylor played his part very well and Russell looked really cute in his costume, was quiet and stayed roughly in the vicinity of his spot on the stage while he opened baby Jesus's gifts. He also had a hard time not playing with baby Jesus since we had a real baby in the "manger".

Carter Gear was our baby Jesus and his big sister Kaitlynn was Mary. Their brother Bridger was one of Russell's fellow wise men. The Gears live right behind us and have been our friends for a long time. The 3rd wise man was Ty Christiensen who is Taylor's friend and the son of my good friend Courtney. We had lots of angels amongst whom were Nicky Matheson (Russ's friend that lives 3 doors to the South), Rebekah Brailsford (everybody's friend who lives 2 doors to the north), and Sarah Dollinar (Taylor's friend that lives across the street. Her mom Michelle has been my V.T. companion for about 7 years.) There were even more beautiful angels and a good group of shephers, too. All the girls in the play came to me and asked for a part. I didn't want to turn anyone away so we just had lots of angels and a couple girl shepherds. Only 2 boys vollunteered so I had to recruit the rest! They all really did a great job.

at the library...

Taylor was also in a Christmas program with his music theater class. He was the best one there. Not that I'm biased or anything.

at school...

Today was the last day of school before Christmas. 2 first grade classes got together to hear Taylor tell the story of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Suess. Taylor is getting to be such a great story teller! He has a natural gift and has been practicing to get better and better. When he gets in front of a big crowd he is a little more reserved with his expressions and actions than he is at home, but as you can see from the pictures, he is still plenty entertaining. That is his toy grinch in the background because he wanted to have his Grinch there for the story. I brought the book to show the students the pictures as Taylor recited, but I think Taylor is animated enough that the pictures were unnecessary. Great job Taylor!

Thanksgiving at the McQueens

Me helping Taylor, Ella and Russell with their candy turkeys.

Russ, Ella and Taylor and their finished turkeys...
which didn't last too long (gobble gobble gobble gobble)

Grandma Janny feeding Benjamin his favorite treat...pumpkin pie.

cute kids

Jeremy's sister, Heidi and I have been trading babysitting every Thursday while the big kids are at school. It gives Heidi and I each a chance to go to the temple every other week and the cousins an excuse to get together and play. Luke is being a "super hero", Vanessa is being a "cowgirl" and Russell is her "pet cow". Marcus is just hanging out and I think Ben was sleeping at the time. They all play together really well and it can be pretty funny sometimes.

Here is Benjamin waiting for his pumpkin pie. Dr. Cosgrave said he is too skinny and we should feed him lots of pumpkin pie and guacamole since they are high calorie, healthy fats and full of vitamins. Plus, the key is, they are smooshy and that is important for someone with no teeth!
That was two weeks ago and Benjamin has been enjoying a very tasty diet. I took him in for a weight check yesterday and he has gained 10 oz. Not bad! Oh, and he cut his first tooth!

The Fall Harvest

If you saw the pictures of our pumpkins this fall, then you won't be surprised to see the GIANT carrot we grew! We just ate that carrot a couple nights ago with dinner. It was sweet and yummy and big enough for the whole family! I cut it up into LOTS of carrot sticks.

We also grew some really funny looking carrots that were all twisty and a couple funny tomatoes that looked like they had rabbit ears. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the tomatoes, though. The boys did lots of hard work in the garden in the spring, summer and fall. Sometimes they complained about pulling weeds or picking green beans but I think they really enjoyed the experience of having a garden. Especially when we got funny looking vegetables! When Jeremy or I went out to work the boys would usually come "help" by digging in the dirt. Though they were not actually doing anything productive, they thought they were helping and they were having fun doing it. Taylor would often sing "The Prophet said to Plant a Garden" while we were working.

HALLOWEEN

We had perfect weather for Halloween this year. I felt like I had gone back to California and the Halloweens of my childhood. First we made the rounds to all our grandmas and grandpas before dark, then we had a quick pizza dinner at home, and finally headed out for trick-or-treating. Jeremy passed out candy at home and I took the kids around the neighborhood. Halloween is just so much fun! Taylor was Bumblebee (the transformer), Russell was Spiderkid (he always likes to adapt his superheros just a little for a more personal touch), Benjamin was Sweetpea, Jeremy was Popeye and I was Olive Oil. We had another fun ward party this year that we were in charge of for the 4th year in a row. FYI we grew those pumkins in our garden!!! Jeremy carved the big ones, I helped Russ with the yellow one and Taylor carved the smaller orange one that you can't quite see all by himself!

Road Biking

What a fun weekend! Some friends (Courtney, Brook and Donna) and I rode our bikes from my house in American Fork up Provo Canyon to Park City. We stayed the night at the Park City Marriott, sat in the hot tub, watched a "chick flick", did some shopping at the outlets and biked home the next day. We rode about 90 miles in all. Grandpa McQueen (who is a serious road cyclist) followed us up with the van in case we had any problems but it was smooth sailing all the way UP. The weather was perfect and the scenery was amazing! Saturday morning my friend's husband came and picked up all our overnight stuff and we started for home with no support vehicle this time. We had a really stiff headwind the whole way so it felt like we were going uphill again...bummer. Between the 4 of us we had 2 flat tires, 3 chain issues and one pretty nasty crash...ouch. Luckily the crash was near the end of our ride so we were able to get Donna taken care of quickly. It is sad that she got hurt, but she still wants to go again "next time". She broke her wrist and hurt her hip pretty badly, but was genuinely relieved that her new clothes were not ruined and that her bike was an easy fix. GIRLS! (rolling my eyes.) Aside from the accident we all had so much fun. It was such a beautiful ride, especially this time of year. Thanks to Jeremy for letting me go play all weekend without him.

overdue update!!!

The boys are doing great! Taylor loves first grade and is becoming such a good reader. Last week he wrote a book about Casper for Halloween and it is really cute. There are two girls in his class that "like" him but he likes Megan the best. She gave him her phone number which he was confused about at first but when I explained to him why people exchange phone numbers, he was very excited and he called her as soon as he got home from school. His end of the conversation went like this:

"Hi, is this Megan's mom?
Can I talk to Megan?
Hi, Megan, this is Taylor Haws.
Next centers if we have 'buddy read', want to read with me?
What is your favorite food?
Now, let me ask you this; Why did the cow cross the road?
To get to the MOOOVIES.
Okay, I'll see you today again.
Okay, bye."

The next day they were holding hands after school and Taylor walked her to her car. Or at least he tried...I made him say goodbye and come with me before they got all the way there. As Jeremy would say, "Taylor has mad game." The best part is that it is really so innocent. Taylor is really confused why kids keep saying that he and Megan are "in love." He just likes having a good friend and still claims that he is going to marry Sarah,
the neighbor girl, when he grows up.

Russell wants to marry Annalisa, Sarah's little sister. Annalisa is a good foot taller than Russ. Hahaha! Maybe Russell will have a growth spurt one day, but for now he is loving gymnastics. He is in the Boys Only Advanced Tumbling class twice a week and sometimes he cries when it is NOT a gymnastics day. He also cries if he doesn't have "super-hero-basketball-clothes" to put on in the morning. For years Russell struggled with problems with his digestive system and we did all kinds of testing for food allergies and all sorts of stuff. At one point we discovered he had Giardia and did the treatments for that. He was still sick for a moth or two after that but he seems to be better now! He feels a lot better and has also been growing so we are really happy about that. Hopefully he has grown out of the problem or gotten over it once and for all, whatever it was.

Benjamin is doing so good. He is a rollie-pollie and very squeaky. He loves his mush and he loves it when his brothers clap for him. Ben is a good sleeper and is usually a happy baby. He cries when he is hungry, tiered, messy or lonely so it is usually easy to figure out what is wrong and how to cheer him up. He has been a really great baby and we love having him around!