Utah Gymnastics Red Rocks preview

The boys still enjoy going to Utah gynmastics so we went to their exhibition a week ago. There wasn't many people there so we spread out and the kids had a blast. The best part of the night was Swoop (the utah mascot)coming over to see the kids. Jake and Zach were so excited. They love it everytime they get to see him. The babies on the other hand, you never know how they are going to react. We have had some great pictures taken with him and the babies, but this was not going to be one of those great pictures. As you see in the picture, they were not happy at all to see this giant red tail hawk trying to hold them. Needless to say, they didn't get a picture that day. That is Ryan screaming in the picture. Alex was too you just can't see him.

Babies first Haircut

Well I couldn't take it anymore. When your twins look like Doc Brown from Back to the future it is time to fix things. They also have been mistaken as the cutest girl twins and someone else also told Jeff's sister Adrienne(while holding Alex) I quote "you have the cutest little girl. She looks just like you." They still had such cute curls but they were a bit out of control so Jeff's cousin Becky came over and we set up shop in the shower. The boys did great. They didn't cry much. I think they were more confused on what the heck was going on. We got them in and out so fast we didn't give them much time to get mad. There haircuts are so cute. They look so different. Alex more than Ryan I think because Alex's hair had gotten so long. But they are still adorable but they look like boys now. Here are a few pictures of the experience.

Jake's Powwow at school

I forgot to post from Jake's powwow at school. It was so cute. They had worked on it during November and performed right before Thanksgiving. It had all the first grade classes and each class had their own class dance and then they did a few all together. He worked so hard on his little outfit and props. We were so proud.



This first picture is of him getting ready to do his class dance. The girls did it first and then the boys repeated. Here is a video of him doing the dance and then the second video is of the Bear Dance that all the classes did together.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. Of course the time off school was great but just being able to relax and play with the kids was great. The kids got a little bored not being in school. They had a fun break though. The day before Thanksgiving the kids helped me make some turkey cupcakes. We had a ton of fun but they got bored quickly. Zach lasted about 15 minutes and Jake lasted almost until we were finished. They turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

Thanksgiving Day was at our house. All of the Jacksons came. After lunch we went bowling and then returned to our house for snacking and dinner with the left overs. It was a great day. Then on Friday was shopped and then Jake and Zach went with Val and Age to help decorate up at Ed and Beth's.

They still have a huge tree and need help. I was told that the boys helped tons but I am sure it took a bit longer with their help. They loved being able to help though. Zach had a break down when he couldn't get the ornament to stay on the tree but after calming him down he continued to help. My crazy Zach. The break was great and we are now looking forward to the 2 weeks off at Christmas and whether we will be home for the holidays or off to a bowl game. We will keep you posted. Love to all.

Bowling with the BCS version 2 (12-0 Baby)

Well after an exciting Saturday night we are now the 12-0 Utah Utes!!!! Yea Baby!!! We had so much fun at the game. We were so excited about the win and we are looking forward to what BCS bowl game we get invited to. We are all hoping for the Fiesta Bowl so we all can go and visit family in Phoenix. If they get invited to the Sugar or Orange bowl then Jeff will be traveling with his sister. It is a bit much for all of us to fly so we will be cheering from home if that happens. Lets hope the Tostitos people love us. We went down for the Fiest Bowl in 2004 and had a blast. We would love to do it all over again. Below are some great pictures from the game. We definitely met some interesting people.

My favorite picture is this first one. They met this crazy guy dressed up like Jesus carrying this sign. How random and crazy to do this for a football game. He was the life of the party though.
This second picture is after the game with 2 of the starting offensive line guys. #72 Caleb Schlauderaff and #65 Dustin Hensel. Jake got to wear one of the guys helmets. They were so nice.

These next two pictures are right after the win and the crowd rushed the field. It was crazy.

This last one is actually during the game. We were ahead so you can see how happy we were.

At least Age and I look happy. The boys were trying to act cool for the picture.

Utah beats TCU 10-0 Baby

Well we enjoyed a very cold and wet football game the other night. Utah played TCU. It was going to be the last big game before facing BYU in 2 weeks. It was a nerve racking game. We were behind the entire game. After 2 missed field goal attempts by TCU the score was still 10-6 for TCU with a little over 2 minutes left in the game. Our offense came back on the field and managed to pull it together to drive down the field and get a touchdown with 45 seconds left in the game. It was now 13-10. We held them off and time ended with a Utah interception to end the game. It went crazy in the stadium and we are now 2 games away from getting a BCS bowl game. Jeff took the two older boys on the field after the game. They got some pictures with a few of the players. The first picture is with Sean Smith a starting cornerback and the second is with Matt Asiata, the starting runningback. The boys loved it. We would love to spend the new year in Arizona. Fiesta Bowl would be great. We had such a fun time last time we went. Case family get ready for a party. Hopefully we will be seeing you all soon.

New family pictures and Halloween

We had family pictures done about a month in a half ago at JCPenneys. It went really well. We didn't end up getting any pictures of all the boys together. Ryan quit on us and we had to be done. The pictures ended up so cute. We were so proud of the boys. Also Halloween was great. The babies did a great job and really enjoyed it this year. They carried their own buckets and walked with me at the trunk or treat for our ward. All four boys were so cute and they really raked in the candy. They (meaning Jeff) will be eating off of it for weeks. Jake was Darth Vader, Zach was Spiderman, Ryan was Eeyore, and Alex was Dumbo. This is a picture of all the boys at Ed and Beth's house. They are always our last stop on the Halloween route.

Boys hunting trip

Well Jeff has had a hunting trip planned for a while now with his cousins and brother. They decided they would take their oldest boys and go to the cabin and make a weekend of it. Well the fun began on Friday night they went to the cabin and really roughed it. They played guitar hero and messed around until late into the night. Then Jeff thought they would get up early and go spot a little. This lasted about an hour. As you can probably guess, Jeff hasn't been hunting for a few years, he might need to ease into it a bit more. After that Jeff, Jake, Scott, Peyton, Todd, and Bradyn met us in Salt Lake for the Utah football game. We won and had a really good time with everyone there. They headed back up and played Saturday night until late into the night again. Sunday they got up and had an early/late (depends on who you talk to) breakfast. They headed out for some huntin time. At one point they witnessed an accident with about a dozen deer and a small silver car. You can probably guess who won. The car was pretty torn up but so were some of the deer. Jeff said it looked like bowling pins when they got hit. Sad huh. They had some great stories to tell with this experience. Lastly, the boys really wanted to see the guns (if you know me yes I was about to throw up when I saw the picture, I don't do guns!!).

They reassured me they unloaded them and put safetys on so it was completely safe but the boys loved looking like the big boys. And I must say it is a cute picture of boys who can't wait to be men. Scary.

Halloween Activities

We have had fun preparing for Halloween. The boys love it. Most of our activities cause a huge mess but I am working on not worrying about the mess and just having fun. My boys love it and I love seeing them happy and having so much fun. We made and decorated halloween cookies a couple of weeks ago. Jillian, Aunt Shelli, Amelia and her boys Cayson and Parker all came over and we had so much fun. We rolled out the dough and cut all the cookies. Then after baking and cooling we broke out the frosting and sprinkles. It was everywhere but we just laughed and had a really good time. The best was that Shelli brought these cute candies to put on top and my boys went crazy with them. Some of the cookies you would have thought add a little cookie with that frosting and candy. That was the best part though. The best cookies were the loaded ones. After cleaning up all the frosting and sprinkles we sat back and viewed the beauty of the Halloween cookies.

We also carved pumpkins tonight and that was even better. I have decided that some of my mess anxieties have rubbed off on Zach. He wouldn't put his hand in the pumpkin and clean out the guts. He kept screaming not to touch him with our gross hands. We are working on that. Finally we got him to stick his hand in the bowl of goop and he realized it wasn't too bad. We had some stencils this year so the kids enjoyed making their design. Jeff and I helped with the cutting, it was still a bit tough for the boys to do but they had fun lighting them up and seeing what they looked like outside. What a fun holiday.

Alex's new love

Well we have a boy now that seems to love dressing up in things. It all started with getting ready for Halloween. Alex seemed to just love to put on the costumes. He would just laugh at himself. Then Jake got a new helmet and pads for bicycling and Alex couldn't stop playing with them. So we just figured, put them on him and he would hate it. Then he would leave them alone. Well it backfired and he ended up with the whole get up on for the whole evening. He even ate dinner with everything on. I couldn't stop laughing so I took some pictures. Hope you enjoy.

Alex has also gotten pretty good at watching his brothers. He has now learned how to throw his own fits. He is getting pretty good but as you can see he is also beginning to see that the fits don't work. He gives up pretty fast so lets hope for the future.

One more thing.....

Jeff is mad that I haven't posted the babies walking good yet. They are so good at it now and he is so proud. I love it too but now they are just getting into everything faster so I am not totally sure I love it yet.

We are also still enjoying the Utah football games. They played Oregon St. last week and they were coming off a win against #1 USC so we were excited for the game. It was a great game and we won 31-28. We had so much fun. The babies do so good at the games and we got some fun pictures. Alex has the headband on. Man he really needs a haircut but I can't bring myself to cut the cute curls. Ryan is our drinker. He is a tiny bit addicted to the straw. Whenever he sees a cup with a straw in it he just knows it is something he wants. Do we have any hope for the future?

Trip to Colorado

The next day after the circus we took a trip to Grand Junction Colorado. Jeff had a conference for the tire company they are teamed with. Riley and his family went also and we had a lot of fun. We arrived on Thursday evening and the hotel was really nice. Big rooms but only one king bed. The hotel obviously didn't plan well. It worked out, they had a large chair and ottoman in the room and Jake thought that would be the coolest bed so he got to sleep there. We had cribs for the babies and Zach just slept with us. Friday, the guys had meetings all day so Stephanie and I took the kids to the dinosaur museum just a few miles down the road. They had a great time and there were tons of fun things they did there.

We also went swimming and then had a dinner on Friday night. We watched the fireworks from the local air show and then went up to the room to watch a late night movie. It was a long but very fun day. Then on Saturday we went to the air show. They had tons of stunt planes and jets to watch but the best part of the show was the Blue Angels from their base in Florida came and did a show for over an hour. It was amazing to watch. I got some great footage but there was so many cool things that I didn't catch on film. We loved it. The boys got to see all these planes they had there. You could get into some of them and the boys felt so cool. Zach was so worried everytime I tried to have in get into a plane. He kept saying he didn't want to get in because he was afraid they were going to take off and he didn't want to go up in it. We went through it everytime he started to get into one.


As you can see in the picture of Zach, the show got so loud. We really enjoyed watching the Blue Angels do all their tricks. It was amazing. I put a few clips below so you could see just a few of the crazy things they do.

I know this is alot of video clips but I couldn't decide which ones I liked better so I had to put all of these on. The Blue Angels also were staying at the same hotel as we were so we saw them all weekend. We had some pictures taken with them but I didn't have my camera with me so Stephanie took them with her camera. When she emails it to me I will post it. The kids loved it so much. We then returned on Sunday to unpacking (the absolute worst part of a vacation). The kids are ready for another trip.

Circus

We got to go the Ringling Bros. Circus a couple of weeks ago. The kids had so much fun. It is very interesting to watch. Jeff ended up spending the last 45 minutes of the circus with the babies outside the show. They just couldn't last anymore. It was getting loud and they were done for sure. What a good dad. Here are some pictures of the hightlights.

The first picture is of the elephants dancing. The next is of all my boys anxiously waiting for the show to start. The next is Ryan and me taking a picture of ourselves. The next is a picture of the Ball of Death. At least that is what I called it. They had 7 motorcyclist in that thing driving around in circles. Doesn't give much room for error. I sat and wondered to myself, how do you practice for something like that. The last picture is of the acrobatics portion of the show. The whole thing was really good. As Jake said over and over, I couldn't take my eyes off the stage.