Christmas

Finally I have gotten to Christmas.  We had a wonderful Christmas weekend.  We first had a yummy Christmas Eve dinner at my parents and did the nativity with a flannel set.  We watched the traditional Grinch cartoon.  Then we went up to the Christenson's for some Minute to Win It games.  We had a late night of watching movies and playing games in the family room.  The next morning we woke up early to open a few presents and before we knew it it was time for church.  We got ready and headed to a nice Sacrament service and then went back to my parents for a few presents with Staci and Scott.  Then back up to the Christenson's to finish Christmas.  Jack got many fun gifts and we had a hard time taking them all back home in our suitcases.  Seriously we were right at the 50 limit for each bag with all the great stuff we got.

Doing the nativity.

It's a blurry picture but still cute.

They are entranced by the Grinch.

Minute to Win it.

Early Christmas morning.  Haha.  What a mean picture to take.

Grandma Alice made an adorable giant brontosaurus for Jack.  It was so cute but of course wouldn't fit in the suit case so we had to leave him behind for now.

Birthday Boy

For Jack's birthday we had a backhoe party.  We were in UT over his birthday and Logan was not there yet so we decided to divide his birthday up into two parties.  On his actual birthday we did a party with my family and then once Logan arrived we did another combined birthday for Lafe with Logan's family.  For the Pickett party we had the treat of Grandpa Lynn taking the boys for a backhoe ride.  When Jack saw how excited Will and Tuskies were, it made him more excited too.  We had a backhoe cake which Jack loved and he got to eat his cake and ice cream out of a dump truck.  He was obsessed with the balloons and got lots of fun presents from the family.

For birthday #2, we had pizza and cake and ice cream.  He was spoiled again by family and it was nice to have Logan there this time.

A backhoe ride to kick off the party.

When I brought the cake out he kept yelling, "it's digging! it's digging!"

Cousin Will was sure to help Jack if he couldn't get a present open.

Pizza party.

Lafe eating all alone on his birthday, I mean Christmas Eve, I mean his birthday.

Lafe was a good sport to let Jack sit on his lap.

One of the boys

Jack loves playing with other boys.  He had lots of older cousins to play with while we were in Utah and they were all good sports and let him tag along on their fun.  Jack still requests to play with Tuskies, even though I don't think he knows exactly who that is.  He would call both Adam and Will Tuskies.

Adam started "skiing" so of course Jack had to join the fun.

Staci and I took the boys to McDonalds in Richfield to burn off some energy.  

Grandma was brave and had the boys frost Christmas cookies.

Easy on the sprinkles there buddy.

Driving the power wheels.  All I ever wanted was a power wheel growing up.  Spoiled grand kids.

Aaron and Tina came down the day after Christmas which gave Jack another friend to play with.  Here are the boys playing with their new blinking cars from grandma and blocks. Tyler, Jack, Will and Adam.

Another lift ride.  I felt it was necessary to supervise this time.  Papa Pickett isn't into safety.

It was unusually warm in Utah and we got to play outside a lot.  Jack loved the sandbox and tree house.

I don't remember how this came about, but I am pretty sure its Lafe's fault.  Here is Jack getting in and out of a bucket of ice water.

Jack also loves hanging out with the boys on the Christenson side.  He was especially interested in Pierce.  He was literally Pierce's shadow and would not leave him alone.

Leavin on a jet plane

Wow I have lots to catch up on.  Jack and I have been in Utah for an entire month.  I wasn't happy to abandoned Logan for two weeks (he joined us just before Christmas) but due to ticket prices and the effort it takes to get to Utah, I figured we better make it worth it.  And it sure was, we had so much fun and were spoiled by family.  So Logan took Jack and I to the airport at the crack of dawn on December 9th.  The airport is only 20 minutes away from our home which is nice, but you have to have a layover if you fly out of Charlottesville which isn't so nice.  So our first leg was 1hr 30 minutes on a tiny plane.  Jack loved it.  We then had a 3 hour layover in Atlanta followed by a 4 hour flight to Utah and then of course the 2 hour drive home to Gunnison. It was definitely a long day but we were blessed and made it with no problems or delivery of babies on the plane.  We then had two weeks of family parties and playing.  Jack loves playing with Gracy.  Staci and Scott came on the 16th and Jack was thrilled to have some more friends to play with.

Jack watching the airplanes at the Cville airport.  He was super loud on the plane, narrating everything that was happening, and it was an early morning flight.

Jack has the coolest grandpa' s ever.  One drives backhoes, dump trucks and lifts and the other drives tractors and combines.  He thinks they are the greatest.  Here he is going for an unsafe lift ride with Grandpa Lynn.

Just got back from a backhoe ride with grandpa.  He cried a little the first time but after this he was always pumped to go.

We stole Gracy from school and had lunch in the playhouse.  Both Jack and Gracy thought this was pretty cool.

The Nutcracker!  I love the Nutcracker.  All the girls on the Mathews side used to go at Christmas each year and the Nutcracker used to be in Gunnison when Vivian Bagnel was there.  So I made Hannah, Miranda and Gracy come with me and thankfully they liked it too.