The Green Family Singers

Austin & Cameron sang in their School Christmas sing. They both did a good job and were really cute. They have been working hard on their songs. It has been fun listening to them sing the songs around the house. Here are a few pics and some video clips of both of them.

Where are you Christmas????

This holiday season has been a little rough for me. I have been doing a lot of thinking and have felt a lot like Cindy in "The Grinch who stole Christmas". I have had a hard time with all the commercialism. People are rude and in a hurry to get to the best deal. It's hard when your kids come home from school every day or remind you every day, "I want this...I want that....When Santa brings me this....." I want my kids to enjoy Christmas and be excited for Santa but I also want them to understand the REAL reason we celebrate Christmas. I don't want them to expect gifts or everything on their Christmas List. I have also struggled especially hard this year with the loss of David more than a year ago. I have thought A LOT about him and how much I truly do miss him. He was a big support to me and cheered me up whenever I was confused about something or just feeling down. With finances being short this year and just everything that has been going on...I have really been trying to focus on the "true" meaning of Christmas and ways I can teach my young children how important it is to focus on our Savior and his birth and to give, serve, & love instead of always expecting to receive. It has been somewhat of a challenge but hopefully one small act will penetrate their little hearts.

One of the things I have been doing is trying to talk more about Christ through scripture study and stories. The other night Kent's load at work got canceled so we decided to take the kids to temple square to see the lights and look at the nativity. They really enjoyed that. (they loved the train/trax ride too)

The beginning of December I took them to a live nativity that a family in my ward does. It is the BEST I have ever been to and hope to make it a family tradition for as long as they perform it. Thousand of people come all over to see it. Instead of just looking at a manger scene...you as travelers experience looking for the Christ child. You meet the shepherds and the wise men on your journey. Right before you get to the stable you hear the angels sing and then end up at the stable where Joseph, Mary, & baby Jesus are. They sing a song and have the kids come touch the baby's hands. It's very touching. My boys talked about it for the next week after. They kept wanting to go back and see baby Jesus.

I hope we can all focus on our Savior this Christmas and remember that he loves us. Let us not get caught up in the hustle and bustle....trying to get the "perfect" gift. Let us concentrate on how we can serve those around us and remember the one who gave His life for us, the Greatest Gift. Merry Christmas!

Here are a few pictures I took of the kids at temple square.....

The ride home from Temple Square...Austin (above) looking tired. Benjamin (below) fast asleep.

Cameron wide awake and showing off for the camera.

Ward Christmas Party

We went to my parents Ward Christmas Party on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. The boys got to see Santa and give him their "Christmas Lists" that they wrote. I wasn't even privileged enough to know what they are asking Santa for for Christmas. Here are a couple pictures of the evening. Benjamin wouldn't go sit on Santa's lap but he did run up to him, touch his knee and run away.

All the auxillaries performed. This is the high priests with the Bishop(dad) in the center, singing a Christmas song.

Cameron, Ben, & Karlie waiting to eat.

Grandma & Sue waiting to eat.

Austin & Cameron waiting and picking at their rolls.

Cameron actually sat on Santa's lap this year!! He was even excited.

Austin showing Santa the picture he drew for him and his Christmas list.

Real vs. Artificial Christmas Trees

So this year we decided to go with a real Christmas tree instead of our pre-lit artificial one. I love the smell of real Christmas trees. Kent and I haven't had a real one since we've been married.. Kent's sister and her husband cut us down a tree and brought it home to us this past weekend. It's a cute little tree.

Last night the kids finally talked me into lighting the tree and setting up Christmas stuff. We have had a bit of a struggle finding a tree stand for it. The one I picked up was really big so we bought a smaller one but it's almost too small. Kent finally got it to stand up but we had to be careful so it wouldn't fall over. Well, at 10:00pm last night the tree is finally lighted and Christmas is up. I walked out to the kitchen for a minute when I hear a crash. I run out to the living room and Benjamin has a huge grin on his face. He decided to play with the tree and tipped it over. Our ornaments that we just carefully placed on the tree were now on the floor. I quickly just hung them wherever and told the kids to get to bed. I turn out all the lights and went to bed myself.

At 3:00 this morning I hear a crash. I'm half way asleep so subconsciously I thought it was my bird hitting the bottom of the cage. I hurried and got up to go see if she's ok. She is just fine but my tree is laying on it's side....AGAIN!! Kids are all in bed so I secretly swear at this stupid tree stand, pick the tree up, put the fallen ornaments under the tree, and text Kent to fix it when he gets home. When Kent got home, he put it in the "big" tree stand to see if it will work any better. I guess we'll see. At this point, I'm thinking our artificial pre-lit tree might be a whole lot more stress...I'll just put on a candle for the smell.

Thanksgiving 2008

So, it's a couple of days late but I thought I'd post about Thanksgiving. This year we had dinner with Kent's parents. Kent had to work Wednesday night but the kids and I took off to Grantsville and spent the night to help with preparations. Kent's sister and her family also spent the night so we had one big sleep over. It was actually a lot of fun. The kids wanted to stay over Thursday night too!! Thanksgiving Day, Kent's other sister came down to join us for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a really nice day visiting with everyone. While everyone was there, we decided to bring in their Christmas tree and decorate it. Kent's dad is not doing very well health wise so we thought it would be a good idea to help them out. The kids loved that! Later that evening, we took off and went to visit my parents in Salt Lake. The kids were tired so we didn't stay too long but I wanted to see my parents on the holiday as well. I am so grateful for the family I do have. I don't know what I would do without them!! I have been very blessed!!!

Here are a couple pictures of the kids decorating the tree!

Austin and Basketball

Austin just finished up an 8 game series of basketball. It was his first time playing the sport and he LOVED IT!! He wants to play some more. Here are a couple pictures I've taken of him playing and some video. He does pretty good for playing the first time. I think he's definitely got potential.

Austin is the one in red shorts. He's going up for a rebound.

Austin is # 11

Poor Cameron

I was sitting at home yesterday, enjoying the peace and quiet. Cameron and Austin were playing outside. All of a sudden, one of my neighbors comes rushing over and asks where Kent is. I reply, "He's sleeping, why?" Before she gets a chance to say anything else, another neighbor comes rushing in my door carrying a screaming Cameron. His face and coat are covered in blood. My neighbor asks where Kent is and I tell him he's sleeping but I will wake him up. He proceeds to tell me that Cameron tried to jump over his dog chain, tripped and somehow feel on his head on his drive way. Kent comes out and we both look. We couldn't even find where he's bleeding from. His head looked like road rash and he had a HUGE goose egg. The goose egg is what freaked me out. My neighbor felt awful and suggested helping Kent give him a blessing, which they did. I then rushed Cameron to the ER. He had gotten really quiet which is not like Cameron. Once we got to the hospital, the check in nurse came and checked him out right away. She found the hole. It was more like a puncture wound of some sort. They got him back and cleaned up. The dr. told me that he was going to put one staple in his head just for precaution. He wasn't going to numb him up first. I was okay with that. Quicker the better. I still can't believe so much blood came out of such a little laceration. They stapled his head and sent us on our way. Cameron was so brave. Once I got home, Kent asked if our neighbor had showed up at the hospital. I said "no" in confusion. A little while later, our neighbor came back to the house with a guitar he has been fixing up for Cameron to give him for his birthday. (He missed it by a couple days). He wanted to cheer Cameron up. He felt so bad. I'm just grateful for such wonderful neighbors and all they do to help me. Cameron feels much better today. He can't wait to go back to the hospital next week to get his staple "out of his brain".

Cameron's one staple. Kind of hard to see but it's there.

Cameron with his new guitar. He goes over to my neighbors house almost daily to play with his guitars and recording equipment. Cameron is VERY into music. The guitar is really nice. We can't wait to get him into lessons. He seems to have some natural ability. :)

5 years old!! Where has the time gone?

Cameron Dawson Green born November 12, 2003

I can't believe how the time has flown! My baby is now 5!!! He starts kindergarten next year. It's unbelievable how much he has learned in the short time he has been here. He woke up this morning saying, "Mommy, Am I the Birthday boy today?" He has been so excited for his special day. Once I got home from work, he told me every half hour that it was his birthday. Happy Birthday Cameron. I am so glad you had a good day! Love you Cameron!!!

Cam with his birthday cake.

Cameron with his best friend Corban.

Cameron opening pants from Grandma Haws

Austin smiling for the camera, Cameron involved in presents, and Corban playing peek a boo.

Cameron and Corban opening Cameron's race track.

Halloween Parade

I love Halloween. It has been a really fun day with the kids. The boys have thoroughly enjoyed the day as well. They both had Halloween parties in the classrooms, Halloween music playing during lunch, a Pumpkin contest, and then the Halloween parade. Austin's pumpkin ended up winning a prize for the the Best Design. I didn't get any pictures of us trick or treating tonight but we had a lot of fun. Here are a few pics I took of the parade and the pumpkin.

The best designed pumpkin. I know it has a "Y" but what can I say, we live in Utah County. :)

Austin giving a mischievous smile. He wouldn't wear his vampire cape right but I guess people got the idea. We didn't paint his face either. He's the cutest vampire I know!!

Cameron really liked being in the school parade this year! He makes a darn cute pirate!! I'm not prejudice or anything.

Lucky 7 Tag

7 Things I Can Do:

1. Blog Tags even though I'm not that great at it.

2. Make really good cookies!

3. Clean my boys' bedroom in 7 hours or less.

4. Text Message really fast! I'm the queen of text messaging.

5. Crochet

6. Put together a quilt.

7. Paint Ceramics

7 Things I Cannot Do:

1. Jump or run since I broke my ankle a year and a half ago.

2. Tolerate non-Enlish speaking people in drive throughs or at check out stands in the store.

3. Tolerate Stupidity.

4. Remember names....I have to repeat it like 10 times and I might ask your name about the same amount of times before I get it.

5. Stand a cluttered house....like mine. These darns boys I live with aren't very clean.

6. come up with cute ways to decorate my house.

7. cook a "good" meal without a recipe.

7 Things that Attracted Me to Kent:

1. His red hair.

2. Very thoughtful and sweet.

3. Made me feel comfortable and protected.

4. Hard worker.

5. He likes to do about the same kind of things I do.

6. He's smart.

7. He's clean...got good personal hygiene.

7 Things I Say Most Often:

1. Awesome

2. Cool

3. Sweet

4. Love you.

5. No problem

6. What you doin'?

7. No

7 Celebrity Admirations:

1. Oprah - I think she is a very caring person.

2. Jo- from Supernanny! I think she's awesome!

3. Josh Groban - I know....some people would say he's lame but I find his music very inspiring and uplifting.

4. Celine Dion - see # 3

5. That's all I can think of....

6. ?

7. ?

7 Favorite Foods:

1. Potatoes - any kind

2. Corn

3. Pasta

4. Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal

5. Movie Popcorn and Dr. Pepper.

6. Chocolate

7. Cookie Dough Milk Shakes

7 People to Tag:

1. Stacie

2. Pam

3. Robyn

4. Amy

5. Lauralee

6. Laura

7. Julie

Trunk or Treat

Every year my parents have a trunk or treat at their ward. It has been a tradition since Austin was a baby to go. He started bugging me about it in January!!! As soon as Austin got out of school today we dressed everyone up and headed to grandma's church for the trunk or treat. The kids had a blast!

Left to right: Cameron the Pirate, Jessica as Fiona from Shrek, Samantha as a cute little cow, Austin the Vampire, Aaron as Buzz Light Year and up front is Benjamin the dragon.

My dragon, Pirate, and Vampire!

Carving Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins with the kids tonight for family home evening. My favorite thing to do...NOT. Why are pumpkin guts so nasty? The boys enjoyed it though. Ben even got a little taste of the action. He didn't care for the pumpkin guts much either. After I destroyed Austin's pumpkin (I'm a retarded pumpkin carver) Kent helped him carve another one. I have pictures of the final Jack-o-lanterns. They turned out really cute even though it took a really, really long time!

Getting started

Benjamin not sure about this

Cameron getting into it

Austin getting into it....(ignore the trash in the background. We forgot about garbage day.)

Austin's 2nd pumpkin. I destroyed the 1st one.

my pumpkin that took almost three hours.

Kent's pumpkin....the headless horseman if you can't tell from the picture.

Cameron's (left) Benjamin's (right)

Boy Fun or Torture Chamber?

The boys were all wresting yesterday. I had to take a video because it was so hilarious. I guess I must be a girly girl because it didn't look very fun at all to me but the boys sure loved it.

Life just really sucks sometimes!!

I am SO FRUSTRATED!! I got a call last night from my daycare provider that watches Ben while I'm at work. She gave me her two week notice. AAaRRRGGH! She said she has a schedule conflict although she watches several other kids all day long. I think it's because I only work part time and as of recently I haven't been on time picking up Ben....15-30 minutes late. She has been very understanding.... I thought. It is so hard for me to just leave my children with anybody and now I have to go through the whole process again! SUCKS!! This provider was right by my work so it was really convenient. So, if anyone out there has any suggestions for me. That would be great. I was receiving State Child Care Assistance so I really need a state licensed provider somewhere between American Fork and North Orem.

Future Football Player

Austin is so funny. A couple of weeks ago his Grandma & Grandpa Green took him to a BYU football game. He loved it and now loves football. He told me the other day that he wants to play for the BYU team when he turns 10. (I'm sure he'd love UTAH too if he ever went to a game) He got a football for Christmas last year. He wanted to draw BYU on it. I told him it was BYU colors so he didn't need to write BYU on it. Anyway, last week when we went to my mom & dad's (Grandma & Grandpa Haws) he had to take his football so he could play with Uncle Mark. He ended up leaving it there. This last Sunday he spent the night and my mom got a few cute pics of him. He starts basketball this Wednesday. I'm really hoping he likes it. While I like to watch football, I can't imagine my child playing it. Too many ouchies!! Thanks mom for the pictures!!