Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to our beloved friends and family! We had a great Christmas season and were as busy as ever!


On December 5th we went to see the Christmas lights at the temple with all of our Steele cousins.

Afterwards, we went back to GG's house and made chocolate houses. Our house's theme was, "It's what's inside that counts!" I don't know if you can tell, but the outside of the house is plain, and the middle is filled to the top with candy. We also made it so the roof was removable so we could snack on the candy inside (which we did for what seemed like days).

Then on December 18th, Reagan had her preschool Christmas program. I got mixed up on the times and thought that the four year old class had their program at 7:30, but really the afternoon class had their program at 7:30. Reagan is in the morning class and was supposed to be there at 6:30. I finally figured it out when our friends, who have kids in Reagan's class, were no where to be seen. So Reagan ended up doing her Christmas program with kids she had never met. She didn't seem to mind (or notice). Oops!

On December 23rd, we had our Steele eve eve celebration. We had dinner, a program, a talent show and, of course, presents. We got our kids board games from GG and Grandad. Thanks for the fun evening. On Christmas eve, we had our traditional hor'devour dinner. After dinner we decorated sugar cookies for Santa.

When we were done with the cookies, we had a short program and then opened our Christmas eve pajamas (another tradition). Everyone seemed to like their pajamas except Lincoln. He said that he hated Iron Man and only liked steel. When we convinced him that iron and steel were the same thing, he warmed up a little bit. Notice the thumbs down from Linc.

Finally, it was Christmas morning. I think the kids liked what they got. Here is a video of each kid telling what they got.



We feel very blessed to have such great family and friends. We hope your Christmas was the best. Love ya!

15!!!

I can't believe it, but last Monday Madison turned 15! We are only one year away from quadruple car insurance rates! She had a nice mellow birthday. At lunch, I took a bunch of balloons to her school and had one of her friends take it to her in the lunch room. Madison texted me a minute later and asked how I could embarrass her so much, but I think she secretly liked it.

That evening, we had pizza for dinner (Madison's choice)

and presents.

GG came over for cake and ice cream.

Then it was homework as usual and off to bed. Madison thought it was over. But....on Saturday, Madison's friends threw her a surprise party! They called me on Thursday and asked if they could have a party for Madison. Of course I said yes. They told me to have Maddie out of the house by 11:30 so they could decorate, and then bring her back around 12:00. Well, I had to wake Maddie up and make her get dressed to go "Christmas shopping" as my way of getting her out of the house. We barely left by 11:00 and Maddie complained (just a little) about not getting to sleep in! When we got back, there was a note on the front door that started her on a scavenger hunt. It ended in her room with five friends yelling "Surprise!"

Maddie and her cute friends.

After talking and laughing for a while, I took them to Cici's pizza for lunch.

Then they came home and played at the park, played games at home, and had a really great time. The party lasted for five hours! When it was over, I asked Maddie if she was still sad that I made her wake up. As expected, the answer was no! She said she was really surprised.

I still can't believe how the time has flown! Madison is such a sweet girl. I enjoy being with her so much. We love to go shopping together and I love when she tells me about all the drama that goes on at school (some things never change :o)). She is smart and funny and a good friend. And (not that I'm biased or anything) I think she is beautiful! Happy Birthday sweetie. I hope this next year goes by slowly. Love you!

Green Belt

About a year ago Lincoln mentioned that he wanted to try Karate. As usual, I said something about how we would have to look into that, and then promptly forgot about it. Then last Spring, the kids brought home a paper about an after school program that let the kids try Tae Kwon Do, twice a week, for six weeks for thirty dollars. I thought that we couldn't beat that deal, so I signed Lincoln up for the class. It turned out that he LOVED it. He's been doing Tae Kwon Do ever since. Last week he tested for, and got, his green belt! This is belt #4 of 12 until he is a black belt. He already has his white, yellow and orange belts. Here are some pictures of his green belt testing.

The kids get a medal for having good report cards.

Part of testing for green belt, and higher belts, is learning and demonstrating sparring skills. Don't they look so cute, I mean cool, in their sparring pads?

Lincoln always spars the same kid. They are the same size and skill level, and kind of look alike. It's so cute, I mean cool!

Receiving his green belt.

Lincoln and Clifford, Linc's sparring buddy, after receiving their belts.

Way to go!!!!!

What a Great Soccer Season!

Last Saturday marked the end of another successful soccer season. This year we had two players, Truman and Reagan.

It was so fun to see Reagan begin her soccer career on the Red Dragons team. A funny story about Reagan and soccer. At the first game of the season Reagan was just kind of running around "near" the ball, but not really touching it. So at half time Darren and I told her that if she made a goal we would buy her a candy. Well, she promptly went out and scored 8 goals in a row! Luckily, we found a store that had do-it-yourself candy bins and she was able to choose 8 gummy worms instead of 8 individual sacks of candy!

Reagan loved to do "throw ins".

This is a look we saw often. She is just making sure we were watching her.

Break time.

Truman's team was the Iron Men. Truman was always center mid-fielder. This is because he has great ball handling skills to get the ball down field for scoring, and is super fast to get back to defend.

Sorry this is blurry, but it is a great action shot.

Just after "heading' the ball.

Goal shot during warm ups.

The Iron Men finished the season 6-1-2. Great job guys!

Of course, the season was all about getting the trophy in the end (at least for Reagan).

Until next season!

Can You Guess What It Is?

A couple of weeks ago, Darren said that he felt like the older kids had gotten a lot of his attention lately and that he wanted to do something special with the two younger kids. So they decided to make a sculpture out of paper mache'. Here is the finished sculpture. Can you guess what it is?

Answer: A Rhino! (of course!)

Reagan gets to proudly display it in her room. Great job guys!

Halloween Fun

Halloween this year seemed like it was a week long event. On the Friday before Halloween, Darren and I were invited to an adult Halloween party at our friend's house. We had to be in costume so I was an 80's girl and Darren went as a guy with an undeveloped twin attached to him. My costume will be recognized by our extended Steele family as the outfit from Bill's birthday, the cruise, and 10107. I told Darren that it was really sad that doing my hair came back so easily to me. It was like riding a bike, and only took about 10 minutes. Darren's costume, if you can believe it, only took like 5 minutes to put together. Pretty amazing huh?

Then on the Saturday before Halloween, Madison and Jackson were invited to the "social event of the year". It was a Halloween party given by one of Madison's friends and included all the Mia Maids, Teachers, Beehives and Deacons in our ward. Everyone had to be in costume, which made for many hours of discussion on that topic. I think that Darren and Jackson had the most fun coming up with costume ideas for Jackson. Most of their ideas got the Madison response of, "If you wear that, I'll deny that I know you." That was when Darren and Jackson knew they had good idea!

Madison was a fairy and Jackson was a Baked Potato.

On the Monday before Halloween, we went to a pumpkin patch near our house. We had a lot of fun searching for the perfect pumpkins.

Then we went home and carved our pumpkins because we were busy every night until Halloween.


The finished products.

Finally, it was Halloween night. We met all our cousins at Bill and Gayle's house for Trick-or-treating. I think we were the scariest thing out that night. I bet that the sight of 16 kids coming scared anyone who saw us!

Reagan: Lion, Lincoln: Crocodile hunter, Truman: Clone trooper, Jackson: Undeveloped twin sheriff, Madison: Fairy (without wings because they were uncomfortable).

All of the cousins trick-or-treating.

Of course, being the kind parents that we are, we relieved the kids of the candy that they didn't want :o). Mine and Darren's secret candy drawer is looking pretty sweet right about now!

We're Not Just Growing a Garden, We're Growing Children

As I mentioned before, the kids were off of school for fall break a couple weeks ago so Darren took a few days off work to be home with everyone. We were trying to decide what fun things we wanted to do while he was home and we decided to plant a garden! The kids were thrilled (jk)! At the same time, we planted our winter lawn. Darren had Truman spread the grass seed with our fancy push spreader, and then he had Lincoln and Reagan use buckets to spread the compost on top of the seeds. A funny note here, Lincoln and Reagan chose to use their Halloween buckets to do this job. I think they will be carrying pillow cases around to the houses this year. I'm still getting used to this blogging thing so I failed to get pictures of all of us with black hands and legs, but here are some pictures of the finished product.

We planted tomatos, bell pepers, broccoli, calliflower, squash, chives, jalapenos and lettuce.

Darren's form of pest control.

As for the title of this post, whenever one of the kids complained about the work we would tell them "We're not just growing a garden, we're growing children." It seemed to work because they eventually stopped complaining! Darren wants me to toll paint that on a sign so we can put it in the garden.

When we harvest our vegetables, I'll post about it again. If you don't hear anything more about it, then you'll know how successful we were. :o)

Officially a Teenager

Today was Jackson's 13th Birthday! He is now officially a teenager. I'm still trying to figure out how he could be 13 when I'm only 21! Weird. Anyway, as far as I can tell he had a great day. Darren took the day off work and they spent the day doing "guy" stuff. Here are a few pictures of today's exciting events.

This morning we took Jack shopping and he got to choose a birthday present. He chose to get a DS Lite video game player. He also got a DS video game called Nintendogs. This is a game that lets you pretend to own a dog and you have to do everything to take care of it. We told Jackson that this was the only way he was going to get a dog at this point. Then he and Darren went to a store called "Spy Headquarters". Apparently it was awesome and had all the stuff guys love to use on their undercover missions, including several supplies for practical jokes. Then they got some lunch and went to see "The Mummy III" at the dollar theater.

After the movie it was home for Jackson's birthday dinner of spaghetti and meatballs....

...and then birthday cake and ice cream.

The kids were off school last week for fall break, so Jackson had a couple of friends over for his birthday "party". Twelve year old boys are interesting creatures.

Jackson is a really great kid. He has a quick wit and a dry sense of humor. It's really fun to be around him because he can always make you laugh. He is an excellent student and his ability to stick to things amazes me. He and Darren have gone to the gym together every week, at 6am, for a year. Pretty amazing considering that he gets up and ready on his own. He is a talented piano player and a computer wiz. He is the one I call when I need help with computer stuff. He is a great brother and a great kid. Wow! I can't believe how the time has flown. Happy Birthday Bud! We love you!

What We've Been Up To-10107

Our family has come up with a holiday that only we celebrate. It's affectionately called 10107. It originated from some bad handwriting several years ago. Darren writes in all capital letters and had written on a piece of paper the word IDIOT. However, with his handwriting, Darren's dad asked, "What's a 10107?" And a family joke was born. Ever since then we have used phrases like, "Don't be a 10107!" or "You 10107!" Then in July of 2007, we were sitting at the dinner table and somehow the subject of 10107 came up, and we realized that October 1, 2007 would be our joke in date form! (10-1-07) Some phone calls were made and our family holiday began. The celebration consists of all things idiotic. The more idiotic the better. One of the most idiotic things we do is commemorate the date every year. Here are some pictures of this years 10107.

Megan's family made t-shirts for everyone the first year.

Lincoln and Cade during the Ice cream eating contest.

Our white elephant exchange. Usually there are mixed emotions from the kids, depending on the gift they receive. This year went pretty smooth.

Thanks for the fun you "10107's"!