Jackson's 5th Birthday

Yesterday Jackson turned 5. All day he'd run around the house singing that it was his birthday. He had already decided he wanted to celebrate at Chuckie Cheese, so once Jeremy arrived home from work, we went. All of the kids were actually pretty excited to be there, despite it being a little busy for a Tuesday night. Alora would freak out when her ride was over, but the boys were actually really well behaved and patient. Their only momentary meltdown was when they threw their skeeballs onto the lanes next to ours. Once all the pizza was eaten and the coins spent, we returned home for Jackson to blow out his candles and open presents. He was super excited to get additional accessories for his Batcave and to get a $20 bill from Grandpa and Grandma Frye. "You're rich!" Noah told him. (Noah is all about money.) Overall, Jackson said he had an awesome birthday and loved everything.

Jackson's favorite gift. Other gifts he received included a Pirate bath tub set, leapster game, Batcycle, Repulsor Ironman, and cash.

The 2008 Holiday Season

This Holiday season seemed to sneak up on us so fast. It sort of felt like all of our traditional activites were crammed together and we almost didn't accomplish some of them. We somehow made it work and did everything we had hoped for, with the exception of visiting Santa's reindeer at Thanksgiving Point. Here are just a few pictures from some of the activites we did this holiday season as a family. We hope you all had a great season as much as we did.

All Jackson wanted from Santa this year was this Batcave. When he saw the large box with his name on it, he knew what it was.

Noah, on the other hand, only wanted a Nintendo DS system from Santa.

Alora loved helping everyone open their presents. She only threw a couple of tantrums when she realized the gifts weren't all for her (typical princess behavior).

Santa requested the same cookies from last year, so the kids made him sugar cookies with TONS of sprinkles.

Santa made a surprise visit at our friend's, the Harvey's, Christmas Party. Jackson was the first one to welcome him. (He wanted to make sure he remembered the Batcave.)


Right before Christmas we got dumped on with snow. Even though it wasn't good enough for snowman making, the boys still had fun playing in it.


The Sunday before Chrimstas we made our annual visit to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to see all the lights. This year, the kids didn't really appreciate it as much. Noah kept asking us why we were there and what the purpose was. Needless to say, we didn't stay very long.


The kids at Temple Square.


December was full of treats, treats, treats. If we weren't making them for others, we sure did receive them! No wonder why they say you gain weight during the holiday season.

Our ward's Christmas Party kicked off the 2008 holiday season. Since Jeremy and I are on the activities committee, we were responsible for a lot of the night. We helped cook 91 pounds of turkey, help make 100 pounds of mashed potatoes, set-up, served food, and then cleaned-up. When Santa failed to show, we had to quickly find a replacement and with that, I (Deseret) got stuck playing his helpful elf. Thank goodness I deleted all those pictures! Everyone seemed to have a good time and loved the turkey. We were just glad when it was all over!

Letters to Santa

The boys wrote their annual "letters to Santa" before Thanksgiving even happened, so we made them wait to at least send them until Thanksgiving was officially over. To their surprise, Santa wrote them back; each with a separate letter that detailed things only specific to them. The boys were so excited that Santa knew exactly what they wanted and even who some of their friends were. He even included little packets of reindeer food for the kids to sprinkle on the front porch Christmas Eve.

Gumdrop Tree Memories

When Jeremy was a kid his family always had the tradition of putting up the "Gumdrop Tree" each Christmas as part of their decorations. Wanting to carry on that tradition, I began my search for one such tree several years ago. I soon found that this was a difficult item to find... popular candy stores and Christmas stores had never even heard of these. I thought all hope was lost until I finally found one on Ebay. I bought it and we've used it as part of our own Christmas decorations the past couple of years. Sadly, I think this will be the last year of the tree. Since it's made of a cheap plastic, the branches are now weak and one even broke off when Noah was sticking on a gumdrop Saturday. I did see a metal one in the Skymall magazine a few weeks back when I went to Denver, so if I'm lucky, I'll be able to continue with this tradition next year and for many years to come.

Jeremy and the boys with the gumdrop tree.

Alora was more interested in eating the gumdrops than in helping.

Turtle Pumpkin Pie

I always go all out preparing the Thanksgiving meal and I typically like to try some new recipe; mostly desserts. This year was no exception. I had received my Kraft Foods magazine a month or so ago and inside was a recipe for Turtle Pumpkin Pie. It's a variation of the traditional pie in that it adds carmel, pecans, vanilla pudding, and graham crackers. The picture of the pie looked amazing, so I decided this was the new recipe I wanted to try. As it turns out, Jeremy and the kids LOVED it! Jeremy made the comment that he liked it almost better than the traditional pumpkin pie, and the kids, who never would touch pie before, gobbled it up and wanted more! So I've posted it for all of you to try. Trust me when I say you'll love it too!

Turtle Pumpkin Pie

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. caramel ice cream topping, divided
1 HONEY MAID Graham Pie Crust
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. PLANTERS Pecan Pieces, divided
1 cup cold milk
2 pkg. (3.4 oz. each) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided

Pour 1/4 cup caramel topping into crust; sprinkle with 1/2 cup pecans. Beat milk, pudding mixes, pumpkin and spices with whisk until blended. Stir in 1-1/2 cups cool whip. Spread into crust. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Top with remaining cool whip, caramel topping and pecans just before serving.