Season's Greetings!

Brooke and Carson's Clogging Recital

On December 15th, Carson and Brooke had a dance recital. Both of them are taking clogging. Carson is also dancing hip hop too. They both did excellent. I already knew Brooke was a good dancer but I was equally impressed with Carson. He has moves and timing (definitely not traits that came by me, we can thank Julie for those). We didn't get very good dance pictures, however we did video it and they turned out good. I need to learn how to upload video to this blog.

I asked myself the same thing, "what in the world is on his head?" Well, Carson did a cute polar bear dance.

Here are a couple of pics of Carson showing off a move called the "Cheerio."

Brooke Wins Again

Brooke entered a Christmas Card contest at her school. She was really reluctant to enter because she procrastinated till the last night. So, Brooke designed her Christmas Card and entered it. Well it turned out that she was one of 10 third graders in the whole district choosen as a winner. There were 3 girls choosen from Monroe Elementary. The other two girls are Brooke's really good friends. She ended up winning a $50 savings bond. It is Brooke's third drawing contest that she has won.

Gingerbread House Building

Our friends the Christensens invited us over for a gingerbread house decorating family night. Being the engineer, I took control of putting the house together.

It was now ready for the kids to decorate.

And they were off.

Chloe had the method of decorating down. One on the house, two in the mouth.

Nearing completion. Everyone stopped for a pose.

The end result.

Happy 2nd Birthday Chole

On December 7th, Chloe celebrated her 2nd Birthday. I can't believe my youngest is now 2! Julie made her an awesome present cake as seen below. It was as good to eat as to look at.

Chloe LOVED blowing out candles. Julie had to light each candle at least 5 times because Chloe kept blowing them out. She has quite the huff.

She has opening presents down. Rip and throw, rip and throw! She will be ready for Christmas.

Here Chloe is showing us some of her new gifts from her birthday.

Like I said, the cake rocked.

Santa in Monroe

Every year Monroe City invites Santa and Mrs. Claus to come visit the kids in the park. It is a pretty fun time for the kids. The junior high student band always plays (which I feel really bad for because it usually is really cold). This year I took the four oldest kids up to the park, Chloe wasn't feeling very good that night. Below is the older four waiting in line.

I can't really believe Cannon didn't bite Mr. and Mrs. Claus, he seems to bite everyone else. I guess he wants something for Christmas.

Carson always acts so shy.

Now Brin is never shy. I think she asked for a fairy tale life.

Brookie giving me her cheesiest smile. What a cutie.

After the kids sit with Santa, Monroe City always has donuts and hot chocolate for everyone. As you can see below, no table is safe with my kids.It was good cocoa, ask Brooke.

My Tile Job

Well, I finally finished the addition tile. Man that was hard work. I am glad I don't have to do that for a living. My knees ached, my back ached and my hands ached. But it feels good to accomplish something like that.

I thought I would throw in a couple pics after the stucco was finally done.
All that remains now is molding, finish the electrical, finish the plumbing, cabinets in the mud room, and painting the molding.

Black Friday at Walmart!

Since Julie had to work, I took the challenge of waking up at 4 am and heading to Walmart to try to get some of the Black Friday deals. I arrived at about 4:15 am and there where probably 40 people ahead of me at one of the entrances. Luckily the temperture wasn't too cold. Here is a pic of the line that was behind me. Hundreds of people.Now when the door opened, that was fun. I felt bad because I could run faster than most of those people, so I got to the items I wanted fast. Then came the wait. I was in line for an hour waiting to be checked out. It was pretty crazy. lined up.

The Thornock Family Black Friday Trip

After my Black Friday event at Walmart, we packed our bags and headed north to have a little vacation. We first traveled to Orem and met up with Julie's mom, dad, Meyer, Jen, Jenna, Jeff and Joe. It was Joe and Meyer's Birthday. We celebrated it at Chucky Cheese of all places. Which was perfectly fine with my kids. We had a great time there eating a lot of pizza (Thanks Papa Foster). We made a quick stop at the mall and then we headed to Salt Lake City. We went to the Gallivan Center in downtown SLC and went ice skating. It was the first time that I had ever been skating. We had a great time. There was a lot of people at the park. There was Christmas music and entertainment in the background.

Carson and Cannon pose for a pic. Cannon didn't really enjoy the skating, but I was impressed with Carson. He tried so hard and never came off the ice. Below I am with my two ice princesses. They did really well. They are actually keeping me from falling on my can.

What a good mom! Using her kid to break her fall.

Chloe refused to dawn the skates. However she played around on the steps and with the fallen leaves.

Here Cannon is enjoying a treat while sitting around looking really cool in his skates.

Brooke and Brin having some fun.

They even had some fires to warm oneself up every once in a while.

Our family posing on the ice. It was such a good time. Have you noticed the matching scarves Julie made everyone? We hope to do it again in the future.

After the skating we grabbed some Hot Cocco from Starbucks and walked up to Temple Square. It was the first night that the lights on the square where turned on.

What a beautiful nativity scene on the fountain.

A view from the temple grounds.

I think the kids enjoyed the lights. Cannon was getting a little tired. You will notice this trend in the rest of the pics.

Another family pic on the grounds.

The kids with the temple as a background.

After this we went to our hotel where we went swimming. Chloe is not afraid of the water, which is scarey. She loves to jump in the water. I think the kids slept well that night.

The next day was full of my most favorite activity of all -- shopping! Yeah right. I would rather do Black Fridays because I know what I wanted and went in and came out. All the shopping made me tired. Julie got to get a haircut at her favorite spot, The Sancutary Day Spa. She looks fantastic. We stopped off at my brother Shane's place before we left for a short visit. All in all, I had a great time, and I think everybody else did also.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was Julie's Thanksgiving holiday to work at the hospital, so we spent a quiet Thanksgiving with just our family. While Julie slept, I prepared this modest meal for us to celebrate. I thought it turned out really nice. The turkey was my best yet. And yes Julie setup the Christmas tree prior to Thanksgiving. Is that legal?

My Little Indiana Jones

It was this dad's dream that his boys would love Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. Well, I got my wish and then some. Both Cannon and Carson love to watch and play characters of the movies, however, with Cannon I got more than I paid for. He has a real active imagination. And shortly after watching the flicks of Indiana Jones, that is all this kid does now. He dresses up like Indiana, he sings and hums the theme song. It was really fun to watch his costume evolve from everyday clothes. He likes to wear button up shirts so that he can leave his chest bare like Indy, sometimes he doesn't even wear one because of the "Temple of Doom" movie. Julie bought him a hat at All-a-Dollar. His whip is my bathrobe belt. You have to dig the snow boots. And he is the first Indiana Jones to carry not one but two lightsabers!

He has converted one of Julie's purses into a backpack. Then he also carries another. These things are full of all his toys, trains, etc. They are quite heavy. He wakes up every morning and starts singing the theme song.