Tradition

Well, it is the last day of the year and I still haven't written about Christmas - so here goes:  I love, love, love Christmas time.  I know everything is hectic, and I get so stressed out, but it is still my favorite time of the year.  There is just something magical in the air!  I love being with family and how everyone is on their best behavior!  I also love all of the little traditions that we have set and how they stay with us through the years.  I am always sad when Christmas comes to an end.  When it is time to take all the decorations down, my house looks so drab and non-festive:(

Every year, we have a big Patterson family get-together on the Monday night before Christmas. This year it was at my house and we had 40 people here - and that wasn't even everyone! We always have soup, cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. I was so busy I didn't even get my camera out, but Don said he would send me pictures. When he does I will post them. We also had a little program. We played handbells and sang Christmas songs and then Nana told stories about when she was young. It was a great night!

Danny and Ryan working on the sugar cookies for Santa

Christmas Eve is spent with the McBride family plus all of the widows in our family (there are 3 of them).  We have a progressive dinner every year.  We started at Susie's with appetizers, main course at our house, and ended with dessert at Andy's.  Everyone performs some sort of musical number at their own house.  It is a lot of fun!  Emily, Danny and Ryan performed "Away in a Manger" with Ryan singing, Danny on cello and Emily on the piano.  It was very sweet.  Emily made me cry.  She wrote a Christmas song and performed it.  It was beautiful.  I will try and post the video we have of these performances.

All the kids in their new jammies.  I love these pictures every year!  Christmas was more sparse this year and it was still just as wonderful!

Santa brought Ryan 2 new Webkinz and some Bakugans!

Danny with Wii Music

Alex with his new watch

Taylor with his electric razor

Emily with her crockpot

This picture says it all!

Nana and the boys on Christmas morning

I am so glad we have all of these great traditions.  The kids love it too, and if we ever suggest doing something a little different, they make sure we don't.  For example:  today is New Years Eve and we always go eat at a Chinese buffet in the afternoon.  We suggested that maybe we go somewhere else today, but the kids don't want to have anything to do with that!  So, we are off in a little while to go eat Chinese!  I'm glad the kids like our traditions.  It has been nice being a complete family again.  We have all enjoyed Emily being here so much.  We have had a lot of fun!

All I Want for Christmas is . . .

Sweet picture of Ryan with Santa!

Ryan telling Santa to "surprise" him this year!

Santa pulling in on his "sleigh"!

Just a Few Pics to Share

Alex had a great year in club volleyball.  His team won the championships for the 16 year olds.  It was a great game - very exciting!

Here he is with his medal and his shirt

Taylor looking sharp for Winter Formal with a girl named Bianca

Ryan visiting with Santa

Mars Attacks!

I had to get special permission to tell this story - so here goes!

Emily and Danny have a special talent of sleep-walking and sleep-talking.  We have had some pretty funny moments through the years.  Well, really late the other night, Brad went in the little boys room to get the humidifier because I was sick.  He was really careful to be quiet so he wouldn't wake them.  Just as he was ready to go out, Danny sits straight up in bed and yells:  "Invado - Invado - Invado" - then laid back down and was asleep!  It sounded like something out of Mars Attacks or Jimmy Neutron or something.  We had a really good laugh over that one!  Danny especially cracked up because he said he had no idea what that even means.  It sounds like a little kid who can't say invader correctly!  He was a good sport when I asked him if I could put it on the blog.  Thanks Danny!

Family

On Thanksgiving weekend, we took advantage of Emily being here to have a our family pictures taken.  These are some of my favorites.  Shawni did a great job and actually made it kind of fun!  Thank you Shawni!

I LOVE my Family!

Can you spell Panzer?

Danny is the Greenfield Elementary Spelling Bee Champ!!!  This is the 3rd year he has been in it and he finally won - yay!  It was deadly this year - the kids were dropping like flies.  It was the fastest spelling bee that I have ever been to.  Now he gets to go to the District Bee which is in January.  We are so proud of you Danny!

Danny's principal, Mr. Kelly, offered to take a picture of all of us.  I almost forgot to mention Danny's new "look".  Doesn't he look handsome?  He has been wearing contacts for a week and he loves it!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Nana with Ryan dressed in his Indian get-up that he made in school.  The 1st graders had a little Thanksgiving feast of their own

Our own McBride Thanksgiving feast on Saturday

Family pictures with Shawni

Wordle

Emily showed me this program and I love it!

Gratitude

Thanksgiving Day at Don's House

Kiddie table with Ryan, Tyler, Jacob, Nathaniel and Brinley

We had Thanksgiving dinner this year at Don's house.  It is so nice to have family near by and be able to share this special day with them.  This year, the number 1 thing I am thankful for is my family.  I love them all so much and love being with them.  Here is a small list of random things that I am thankful for:

Family,  Atonement, Gospel, Home, Food, Friends, USA, rain, traveling, reading, movies, jobs, Emily home from BYU, still having a mother that is alive and well, cameras, Relief Society, water, Holidays - especially Thanksgiving and CHRISTMAS, silly things my kids do, and the best husband in the world!

Birthday's Galore

Three of my siblings have had a birthday in the past month.  Ginna  is the best big sister.  She was my 2nd mom when I was little.  I was only in kindergarten when she went off to BYU.  I used to be so excited to see her when she would come home.  She would always bring me a Madame Alexander doll, and I still have the collection!  We don't see each other that often anymore since she lives in New Mexico, but I love it when she comes.  She is so fun to talk to and laugh with.  This picture was taken when we went to England.  I would love to go another trip!

Jeanne is always so loving and gives so much of herself to everyone.  I really love that about her.  She helps Mom so much.  This picture was taken at Christmas in St. Johns.  I think we are about 4 and 2 and I love this picture.  I love that Jeanne has such a happy spirit about her.  She is always laughing and smiling and cheering everybody up!

 This picture was taken when Dad and Mom took us to Meteor Crater.  Check out my plaid pants and Jeanne's flowered ones!  Aren't they a kick!  Greg was the typical big brother (always teasing)!  He is sensitive and kind and gentle.  He has gone through a lot over the years and is doing so well right now.  I am very proud of him  I love him and all my brothers and sisters very much.  I hope they know they are loved!

The Eagle Has Landed!!!!

Taylor is so awesome!  Last night I got to go with him to his Eagle Board of Review.  I had no idea what to expect.  It was quite a production.  He invited Marty Smith and Derrick Dickerson to go also.  They really grill them, but at the end of the evening they congratulated him and told him that he received the rank of "Eagle" and will get his certificate in about a month.  Then we can set our date for his Court of Honor.  

It was such a long hard process and I know he didn't like my nagging - but in the end, he did it all on his own.  He should be proud of himself (I know Brad and I are) for accomplishing such a difficult thing.  I know that he will also be glad that he carried on and finished.  He is such a great young man.  We are so blessed to have him as our son.  Way to go Taylor!

Germs, Wonderful Germs

Poor Ryan.  He is having a terrible time with sickness this Fall.  He missed school the whole week of Halloween with a very long stomach flu and a high fever (then for the next 2 weeks everyone else had it forever too).  Now the last 2 days he has been sick with another high fever and croup.  To top it off, he is missing his last soccer game of the season tomorrow.  He is sad about that.  

Alex has been sick almost this whole week with croup too - only I don't have a picture of him!  The really sad thing about that is that he is almost 16.  You're not supposed to get croup when you are 16.  He has struggled with it his whole life.  We are known for years at the pediatricians for years as the "croup family".  Anyway, he is disappointed that he will miss his volleyball tournament in Tucson tomorrow.  Hopefully, we are getting most of our sickness for the school year out of the way now - yah right:(

X Games!

Over at the Raymond's, Ryan is trying his first time at bike ramps!

From the Mouths of Babes

Just a great line from Ryan!  On Sunday, Clark Butler asked Ryan if he knew what drugs were.  Ryan said, "Yes, they are bad for you and make your ribs turn black."  Too funny and very cute!

Road Trip Anyone?

Alex James - my THIRD child asked me to take him to get his driver's permit last week.  I was pretty reluctant, because I thought he would fail because he didn't study much.  However, being the good mother that I am, I relented and took him.  Boy, was I ever surprised that he passed - he showed me!  I let him drive around a little after church on Sunday and he did a really good job.  I am proud of him.  But, will I ever get over being afraid when my kids drive?  Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like that?  They are good drivers, but for some reason it scares me because I know that they don't have a ton of experience.  They're probably all better drivers than me!

Feast of Beasts 2

 3rd Ward had their "Feast of Beasts 2" last Saturday.  A few months ago at 6am Stake Priesthood meeting, our ward had the biggest percentage of priesthood holders there.  Because of that, they got the "Irod Rod" award.  They celebrate with the Feast of Beasts and this is the 2nd time they have won.  All the boys, from 2 on up are invited and they go crazy eating every kind of meat you can imagine.  There is pork, beef, elk, chicken, rattlesnake, etc.  You get the idea.  They also drink rootbeer that is served out of an old toilet bowl!  After eating themselves silly, they have different contests for the boys.  I snuck over for a little while on Saturday, just to witness what really goes on - the boys absolutely love it and wouldn't miss it for the world!

This is Ryan trying to catch a chicken.  He was a little shy at first, but rose to the challenge!

I caught one!

This is Taylor and Travis trying to put underwear on a steer.

It looks hilarious, but I feel sorry for the steer!

I'm Thankful for . . . . .

I'm Thankful for . . .

My Family

A Living Prophet

General Conference

My Home

Road Trips

My Bed

Watching my kids in their various activities

My Relief Society Calling

Friend's

Autumn

Family Vacations

Reading

Movies with Brad

Flowers

Holidays

Traveling

The Gospel

Answers to Prayer

My Savior

Penny Project

A few months ago, our Primary started saving change to buy a tree so that they could plant it at the Mesa Temple.  It was a project our Stake was doing together with the Temple.  Ryan and Danny were excited and willing earned and saved change and took it to Primary every few weeks.  

Saturday was the day that they actually got to plant the trees.  Our ward got a great spot with a nice view of the Temple.  Under direction of the Bishop :) the kids got to take turns digging the hole and filling it in.  It will be really neat when they get their endowments or get married and we can take another picture by "their" tree and see how big it has gotten!

Ryan taking his turn digging.

Danny filling in the hole.

These were the kids that were able to show up and help, along with the Bishop and the Primary Pres.