Well, this Christmas was sure a success! I have not had to entertain the children for one second during this whole break! They have been playing with their presents non-stop.

Some present highlights:

Corben got a Wii Zelda game, a membership to some computer game (I think that must've been his favorite gift, judging from the computer time he has logged this week), an ipod, and a weight set.

Trev got an ipod, a Mindfreak magic set (he begged and begged for it, but he's making Corben learn all the tricks first so he doesn't have to read the instructions), and some weird toys.

Lance got an RC car, some puzzles, a Wii game, and though not an actual gift, his favorite thing out of this Christmas was inheriting Corben's old ipod.

Zack got an RC car (broke the first day) and some spy stuff. He is so hard to buy presents for. As I've said before, he is a 16-year-old trapped in a 6-year-old's body.

Brody and Jace just got a slew of toys and they have been in 7th heaven. They LOVE most any toy and can play for hours, just the two of them. They got a lot of Toy Story stuff, which seems to be a favorite theme currently.

Here are all the grandkids - minus Dallin :( - with Grandpa Greg and Stephanie at our Christmas Eve party.

Kira helped the kids perform the story of Baby Jesus' birth. They were pretty good actors. Allie was exceptional as Mary.

Christmas day we enjoyed a DELICIOUS breakfast hosted by Grandpa Greg and Stephanie, and then a delicious dinner hosted by Grandpa Mike. We also squeezed in a visit to Great-grandma and stole her kitchen to make our salad contribution to dinner. I am so blessed to have all these people in my life who love me and my family so much. I am so thankful and love them all!

Happy 6th birthday, Zacky!

I'm glad that Zack is still not bothered by his Christmas time birthday, because I still feel guilty about it. That sounds ridiculous, but it is my fault that he was born two days before Christmas. My doctor was perfectly willing to induce labor on the 11th, but I was just too busy with everything, and was super concerned about missing my son's PRE-school Christmas program. Looking back, WHAT A MORON! So I was hoping to go past Christmas. He was due on the 17th, and when I went for my check-up on the 23rd, the doctor said he wasn't thriving and he needed to be born right away. We got to the hospital at 7 that night, so I guess I should be grateful for such a short labor so that at least he wasn't born on Christmas Eve!

Zack is like no other kid I've met. He is 6 going on 16, in every way, including sassing. I cannot wait (neither can he) for him to start football in two years. He plays in the yard with his big brothers and their friends and he can totally hold his own. He is so tough! He started riding a 2-wheeler bike at the age of 3. He is doing great in school and is quickly becoming a super reader!

Some of his favorites are: football, wii, computer games, ipod touch games, Justin Beiber, Team Edward (these last two make him sound fruity, I have no idea where it comes from), Criss Angel, Spongebob, candy, having sleepovers in Trev's room, graduating from the gym this summer, playing with friends.

I love Zack and his little smoker's voice. He's definitely the life of the party!

We were able to spend the weekend having a fabulous mini family vacation at Bear Lake. Several months ago Jeremy got ants in his pants about getting a time share. I couldn't have ridiculed him worse for it, but luckily he didn't listen and found some great deals from a couple of people looking to sell. Our family is definitely the type who has to be "forced" to go on vacation. We have spent years coming up with excuses, so I know this will solve the problem. In my opinion, there are few things money is better spent on than a family vacation. The memories and time together are priceless.

We're planning a Disneyland trip in the next few months, so we just wanted to go somewhere close, but where we would still feel like we were "getting away." With Bear Lake being under two hours away, and having an indoor pool, it was the perfect spot for us. The kids had the best time. They are so funny. When we walked into the "hotel" (It was a three bedroom suite with a little kitchen) the little kids ran all over, exclaiming at everything from the "wall bed" to the light in the refrigerator. Very easily amused, my kids. We spent the weekend swimming, watching movies, eating junk food, and playing games. We spent a total of eight hours at the indoor pool. By the time we left, everyone had itchy rashes all over their body.

I don't know if it was intentional, but Jeremy made this the most relaxing time I have had since I can remember. He cleaned up after every single meal and was constantly straightening up all our things. I honestly didn't lift a finger. It was heavenly.

It started snowing the day before we left for home, and didn't let up. We drove through the canyon at 20 miles per hour, and still couldn't prevent sliding all over the place. I have never been more terrified in my life. When we were safely home, I asked the kids if they had been scared. They said no, and that they had been too engrossed in the movie they were watching to even notice us sliding all over the place. Thank goodness for the blissful ignorance of children!

The one downside to vacations, and I know I'm not alone in this, but I'm pretty sure I'm the worst: WHY DO I THINK VACATION CALORIES DON'T COUNT??!! Holy cow! Who eats an ENTIRE box of Crunch 'n Munch, BY THEMSELVES?! Not to mention that every meal I brought was a total grease pit.

On that note, I am so grateful for these precious times I get to spend with my wonderful family. I love you all so much!

Jeremy made us stand in the freezing cold in our damp swimsuits so he could get a family picture.

Zack has a mean cannonball.

Pigging.

Way to go, Trev! His team made it all the way and won the mini-bowl championship! He has played a great season and I am very proud of his hard work and dedication. It is impressive to watch what these boys are put through. I don't think I could do it!

It was fun to have Grandpa Cardon, Tami and Nate, Kira and Allie and Kendall come cheer with us. Thanks so much for your support! Trev loves to have people come cheer him on.

I think we are all ready for the season to be over. I've forgotten how life is without it. I hope it will be as relaxing as I'm picturing. :)

We had a bummer football game this morning. It was Corben's first and last game in this season's play-offs. It was pretty disappointing. We can't even look on the bright side and say that at least we'll get our lives back and not have to plan our lives around games and practices because Trev's team won their game, and if we're already planning around one we might as well plan around two! On that note...

Congrats to Trev! His team kicked butt this afternoon and are heading into week two of the play-offs. Trev did such an awesome job. I'm so proud of him!

The most exciting thing happened in Corben's game last week.

Remember this guy?

He and one of his waterboy assistants were sitting on the sidelines innocently fulfilling their waterboy duties. There was a pass play right by them and before they knew it, they had been knocked to the ground and run over by a group of 14-year-old football players. They both got pretty banged up. It was very sad, but luckily we can look back on it and laugh. Initially Lance said he was quitting his waterboy job and he would never play football. He got over that idea pretty quickly though. He was there with the team today and he still plans on being a player next year. Tough guy!

Congratulations to my football guys, both going to the playoffs! It's been a really fun season this year. Trevor's team is undefeated and Jeremy is an assistant coach on Corben's team, so that's been fun for them, and especially for this guy:

Lance has been in seventh heaven being "waterboy" for Corben's team. The coaches and boys are so awesome, they treat him like one of the guys. He is so dedicated. Not only is he at every game, but he goes the required hour and a half early with Jeremy and Corben. He's not making it a career, though. He's decided that next year he definitely wants to be on the field playing.

Corben and Trev have also been very dedicated to the grueling schedule and have really worked hard and done their best out there. I'm so proud of you guys!

My sweet baby has turned 13 and entered junior high. Luckily it went a lot smoother for him than it did for me. I was such a nervous wreck, partly because my junior high experience was less than stellar. But he is such an awesome kid, he will do great. He is liking it so far, especially since Jeremy and I made a deal with him on payment for grades. He will do anything for a buck. Here he is in the process of cleaning every one of my blinds for $50 (TOTALLY worth it):

He's become obsessed with some video game called Zelda, and for months he begged for this weird musical instrument that is played on the game that I'd never heard of. Props to me and Jeremy for finding it on the internet, although in the end Corben did have to help us decide which kind he wanted. The picture of him with his candles cracks me up. All of my kids are somewhat of a pyromaniac, and Corben scrunched up his candles so they would make one big flame. It worked pretty well!

Of all my children, Corben's infancy and toddler years are the ones I remember most. We went through a lot together, and I will always have extra-tender feelings for this guy. He is so sweet and obedient. I can always depend on him. Love you, Corben!

I guess it's time I introduced the two newest members of our family. One year ago we had a disastrous first experience with getting a dog. It lasted for two weeks and then it was either he goes or I go. So imagine my surprise when I was out with my sisters one Saturday and Jeremy decided he'd take the kids and pick up TWO dogs. I was very disturbed at first, but I quickly realized that this would be nothing like last year's situation. The dogs are brothers and are so cute and well-behaved. By the time I got home the day Jeremy picked them up I was so surprised to see that even Brody and Jace had taken to them and were sitting down letting the dogs crawl all over them. I'm glad I got to experience that evil dog from last year because I'm convinced that I never would've taken to ANY dog if we hadn't gotten a "rock-bottom" dog first. It's taking time for us to bond, though. We took them to get neutered a few weeks ago and when I went to pick them up the assistant brought one of them out and held him up to me and said all cutesy-like, "There's your mommy!" That's when I realized I have a LONG way to go to become a true blue animal lover, because that statement made me shudder really bad. It's been going great, though. The kids all love them and they're a great addition. The best part is I can stop feeling guilty for making the kids get rid of the evil dog.

We get to have Allie and Detmer come over sometimes for sleepovers and the kids always have so much fun. One of their favorite things to do is take a bath. They especially love taking one in my big tub with lots of bubbles.

Detmer and Brody are scared of the bubbles, so they waited patiently until I could get them in the good old-fashioned kid tub.

They all love watching movies. Tonight they got to watch a movie on the big screen downstairs that Jeremy splurged on earlier this summer.

It's been a fun preview to the real fun when they get to have a big sleep-over tomorrow night at Grandpa Greg's house. They are all so excited for that! He has them all over once a month and they just love it (and, of course, so do the parents).

Happy belated birthday to Jeremy. He turned 36, but age doesn't mean anything to us anymore. Since we both aged about 25 years when the twins were born, we can't believe we're still young enough to be in our thirties.

I'll just do a little bragging about him now. He's always known he wanted to go on and get his masters degree, and now that he feels he can finally do it without me heading to the insane asylum, he's gotten it started. He went for summer and is starting back for fall semester. He's done really well so far. His gift for bs-ing will really come in handy on his way to his degree.

He's also an assistant coach for Corben's football team, and seems to be really loving it. He takes Lance to practices and Lance is thrilled to have become one of the team's water boys. They practice every night for a couple hours and Jeremy has been very dedicated.

He's still working on base and doing everything he can to better his position. It's been a shock to his system to have a job that requires you to be there at a certain time in the morning, but he is long gone every morning before I even roll out of bed.

This is what I like the most about him: He knows when he really needs to be there for me. I have been really sad these past couple of days, and he has done everything to try and makes things easier for me. These are some of the things he's done the last couple of days that I couldn't tell you when the last time was that he did them: bathed the kids, cleaned the kitchen, rubbed my back, brushed the kids' teeth, and has just generally been doing whatever he can to make sure I'm okay. He even cancelled a fishing trip he had planned this weekend so he could stay with me.

I hate bringing this up because it makes me look bad, but I made him sell his motorcycle. The feeling came upon me suddenly and strongly that we needed to get rid of it, and though he loved that thing, he immediately gave in to my wishes. It was really hard for him, but I'm very happy to know that when I feel that strongly about something, he won't second-guess me. It was never even an argument, he was just sad about it. He had it sold within a month (I won't mention the two news articles I've read in the week it's been gone that were about fatal motorcycle accidents. Just more peace of mind that we did the right thing).

The last thing I will mention about his amazingness is SO amazing, that he doesn't even know it yet! Since Kira is going out of town this weekend, he is going to get up bright and early on Saturday and come to yard sales with me! Isn't he the greatest?

(side note: this story ends fine, just sharing an experience)

A few weeks ago Jeremy took Trevor in for his sports physical. He was otherwise fine, but the doctor wouldn't sign him off because of a heart murmur. Trev would have to see a cardiologist before the doctor would sign him off for football. Jeremy and I scoffed. Who doesn't have a heart murmur? I've heard of tons of people who do. So we made an appointment with Primary Children's Riverton office (so we could get in sooner. The main hospital couldn't get us in until after football would have already started). We decided to make a day of it since we were driving all that way so we piled all the kids in and headed to see the doctor. The doctor was really nice, but after a couple of initial tests he explained that he didn't like what he was hearing. He went into detail, saying an innocent murmur wasn't common in a child as old as Trev, and it sounded like the type of thing, he didn't say this in so many words, but implied that it could basically make a child drop dead if they are being too active. At this point Jeremy and I were both getting a little nervous. The doctor sent Trev in for an ultrasound. After that we were brought back into our little room and waited. And waited. And waited. After nearly an hour, the doctor reappeared. Now, a little advice to you doctors out there: After you have just told me my child quite possibly has a very serious heart condition, done further tests and made us wait for an hour before reappearing, don't come back into the room escorted by two other doctors. Or if you must, at least poke your head in the door first and say that you have two residents following you around observing. It was a terrifying few seconds until he casually told us that it was an innocent murmur after all and Trev was just fine.

After that lovely experience we went to try out a big waterpark in the area called Cowabunga Bay. I can't believe how much fun we had. I'm always a little skeptical to take all the kids to a water place, but it worked out pretty well. There were a lot of slides they could all go on, even the little ones, and the water is never very deep. It was such a fun day. After a hectic summer it was pretty much the first time in several weeks we had gotten to spend quality time together. It's definitely something we need to work on doing more. The only damper on the day was missing Corben because he was at scout camp, but I stopped feeling bad when he got home and told me it had been the best week of his life. Uh, don't know exactly how I feel about that.

My two cents about Cowabunga Bay: We did the cheapest deal they offer, which is two hours at the end of the day, and it still costed $65. They are way overpriced. Though it was a lot of fun, it definitely does not offer enough to justify what they charge.

Here are the kids all tuckered out at the end of the day:

I've been bummed all week about last week's Deseret News 10k that I ran with my dad, sister, and brother-in-law. I had no doubt that I would improve on last year's time and ended up adding three minutes! So I'm trying to gain a little perspective. I'm blessed that I have the ability to even attempt a race. It's not something I would've ever thought about trying ten years ago. And my sister made a couple of good points when she wrote about it: It is an awesome family tradition that we've started. This was our second year but we have no plans to stop. Also it's inspiring to run with our dad. He's 56 years old and didn't even start running until about five years ago or so. I am an avid exerciser, and despite my deep love and appreciation for all things chocolate/fried/crunchy/salty, etc. and the ensuing weight problems that causes, I think I am fairly healthy. So I need to stop being bummed about what I couldn't do and be proud of myself for what I can do.

The kids and I just spent an awesome few days in Wyoming at Kira's in-law's cabin. Kira and I were there with ten kids between us. It kept us quite busy, but I think everybody had a great time. I was quite surprised at how much fun I had, since I really loathe anything resembling camping. But it's like Kira always says when she goes to the cabin, "I had fun because my kids had fun."

The favorite activity was going down to the river. The first night there we walked down intending to just throw rocks and maybe stick our feet in. We told the kids where to stand and to not get any closer to the river. Of course they all just kept inching closer and closer, and before we knew it they were all totally in the water and their clothes were soaked. I was pretty uptight for a while but Kira quickly taught me that you have to muster up lots of extra patience in that kind of setting. The next day after breakfast we got smart and got them all into their swimming suits before heading back down to the river.

The bigger boys had tons of fun playing card games with Kira. There was lots of screaming and laughter. I'm definitely going to have to learn myself a few games. Trevor's been begging for me to play some with him since we got home.

It was a lot of fun going hiking and exploring. There were a lot of interesting and fun sights. I was so amazed at how well the little kids did. They never got tired or slowed down. Everybody's legs are full of scratches and bug bites. Totally worth it, though.

(warning: yes, a couple of the kids are in their underwear in this first photo because their shorts were drying on the deck.)

Good job getting the computer fixed, Jeremy. Still waiting for our millions of photos to get put back on the computer, but until then, a bit about summer.

I've discovered that the only way to survive the summer is to keep the kids busy. Sure, my house, laundry, and cooking suffers, but that's easy to deal with compared to whiny, fighting kids. We've definitely been putting our Lagoon season passes to full advantage. We've also gone swimming, fun times with neighbors, and had a really fun 4th of July. When all else is lacking, we put out the pool in the backyard, or watch a movie in the basement to escape the heat.

I know everyone's met my best friend, Intention. Intention's job this time was that I was going to set aside some time every day for reading, and for the school boys to work on math. So far it has been done, let me think, zero times. Are there people out there who actually keep up on school work during the summer? If there are, I don't think I want to meet them.

Father & Sons 2010

Well, another F & S is done. This year, like last year, all seven of us went up. The difference this year though, was that we got there at 12:30 Friday, and it was really nice, we played kickball, football, frisbee, and played on the swingset (which the Brody and Jace can't ever get enough of). I was well prepared with food, which you have to be with 7 boys. We had chicken hobo dinners, and the kids ate them up.
Then, about 6:00, the storms came rolling in. It was a torrential downpour for quite a while. I was up most of the night paranoid about one of the twins or Zack becoming too cold and dying. Finally, after my second visit to the neighboring tree that night, I noticed that our tent was covered in snow. I went to the van to see what the temp was, and it was 35 degrees! I couldn't believe it. I started the van and got it warmed up, then started carrying one child at a time through the snow to the van to warm up.
I figured if I was cold and shivering, which is extremely uncommon at night, then they must be worse. So Finally about 4:00 in the morning five of us were in the van, and Lance and Trevor, who had the best sleeping bags, were in the tent.
It was crazy, and we quickly had breakfast and loaded up all of our wet gear and came home earlier than we have ever done from F&S.
Here is our annual picture we take in front of the tent:

I REALLY wish I would've dusted that coffee table before I took that photo.

I guess now's the perfect time to write since Jeremy took the boys to the father/son campout (I hope they don't all get hypothermia). It's been a busy couple of weeks since Kira and I started our new job. We're working at Lagoon for the month to earn season passes for our families. I'll write more about it later, when we're done. I'm sure Kira will bring her camera on the last day to capture some of the magic!

I just wanted to briefly note how my Mother's Day went. This was my main gift:

Remember my living room set with the duct tape ottoman? It's finally been banished. I couldn't be happier about it. That thing depressed me every time I walked into the room. It's now in the basement due to Jeremy next 10 Father's Day/birthday/Christmas presents, which is a home theater system. He's a little obsessed. He keeps dragging people down there to show them and I'm pretty sure 75% of them really could care less (no offense, hun).

Anyway, Jeremy and I had picked out the living room set a bit before Mother's Day, so on the actual day they gave me what I truly love: chocolate. And the kids and Jeremy were so sweet to me all day, which is really all a mother ever wants.

Skiing 2010

Well, I guess Kelly is tired of updating our blog. At least that's my excuse for being "forced" to put these pics up here. I like to leave this up to her, but she says I should be more involved with the cardon8 blog-site. Just to punish her, I'm going to see how long and boring I can make this.

Corben and Trevor love to ski. Lucky for me, I love to ski too. It is expensive, but the exercise is good, and the time with the boys is invaluable. They are "forced" to sit for several minutes at the end of each run with me on the chairlift. Luckily, Trevor only fell off the lift once, right at the very end. Corben has the green coat on, Trevor has the blue one. I think that Corben was getting tired by the time I took this one.

This is Corben's third year skiing, and he is getting the hang of it pretty well. He is fairly cautious and a conservative skier. This is Trevor's first year. I don't take any kids until they have had their 4th grade ski day. He had his this year, so we could go with him now. Trevor is far more daring than Corben. He doesn't snowplow anymore, he is trying to parallel down the hill. He had a few nasty falls this year, but overall, has done very well. I've been impressed with both of them, and look forward to many more ski trips in the future.

We were lucky to be able to go to Deer Valley this year, thanks to Denny for scoring us some deeply discounted passes. Normally $86 per day each, we were able to go for $25 each.

Here are some pics of our last trip, Conference weekend, April 3rd, 2010.