The Jacobs' Halls are Decked!

So my amazingly talented friend Bethany gave a little challenge for all to share their favorite Christmas ornament(s) and why. So here is a little post about some of my favorite Christmas things.

Growing up, as many do, my family had the "PRETTY TREE" and the "KID TREE". The "PRETTY TREE" was dressed beautifully with all my mom's pretty/breakable ornaments. It usually had white lights and pretty bows. Then there was the "KID TREE" which belonged to us kids. It had colored lights, NOTHING BREAKABLE, was adorned with ornaments we kids had made, sentimental ornaments like the ones we each got with our date of birth on it, and my dad's specially made ornaments which he made out of all our family's old season ski passes. This was a fun tree.

Well, here is my attempt at the "PRETTY TREE":

And the "KID TREE":

Because my kids are just in the beginnings of bringing home ornaments and decor they made at school, this tree is still a work in progress.
**Notice that it is decorated as to be TATE PROOF!**
So to get this tree started, we did a little FHE with the kids and made our own salt dough ornaments. They got to help make the dough, cut them out, and then their favorite part... PAINT them.
Here is one of my masterpieces:

And here are a couple of the boys:


They decided didn't want THEIR ornaments hung on the BIG tree, they wanted ALL of their ornaments hung on their very OWN tree, so here IT is:


Another something I have started doing is collecting Nativity Sets.

This is the very FIRST NATIVITY sets we got when we were first married.

This next NATIVITY was given to us as an anonymous 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN. We recieved 1 piece of the set every night with the scripture telling of the meaning of the piece. I thought that was a really neat idea.

This set we got last year for our boys. THEY LOVE IT. I LOVE IT. Finally a set THEY can use to tell the story of JESUS' BIRTH without mom in a panic for fear of breakage.

This set was given to me by one of my great old roommates from Utah State who knew I was collecting them. It is hand carved from wood and from South Africa! I LOVE IT!

Now to my very FAVORITE one. We got this set in Mexico many years ago. It is made of Mexican Pewter and will NEVER tarnish!


To end I will share one final CHRISTMAS TRADITION that we do.
Every year, we hang a single white stocking.

This stocking is for our SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST. Because HE is the REASON for the SEASON, we hang it to remind us whose birth we celebrate. On CHRISTMAS EVE each of us puts (on paper) their GIFT TO CHRIST in this white stocking. Then on NEW YEARS EVE we read aloud(anonymously) what each gift is and dedicate to accomplish this GOAL/GIFT throughout the up coming year. I am hoping this tradition helps our children to focus on the TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS and to set Christ-center goals.

May we all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and always remember to just...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to MY Mr. Jon Daniel Jacobs!

Today is the day, as is every year, that my love has finally reached the day when he is as old as me! So to celebrate him I have picked a few great pictures that capture some of the many things I LOVE about him.

He was a dang cute kid!

My first impression of Dan:
*An all around HOTTY!

We met at Layton High in 1993!


As I got to know him:

*Still a HOTTY! With a special nack for ALWAYS finding a way to get me to LaUgH!

A STEADY and LOYAL friend!

*Still the HOTTEST one of the bunch! (sorry guys)
These guys are all STILL good friends and this is only part of the group.
They have all been friends since Jr. High!

My BESTEST friend!


A Fantastic HUSBAND and ....... :)

A WONDERFUL and SILLY daddy!


And he is ALL MINE!
Thank You my LoVe for ALWAYS being YOU!

Happy 31st Birthday!

Playing Catch Up!

WOW! The month of November completely flew by with out me, I think. So I have done two posts to try to capture the 2 main events I missed. The first being our AMAZING and CRAZY Thanksgiving and the second being a tribute to our sweet Tyler who turned the much awaited 4 years old on November 22nd. So enjoy.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

It all began with a few of these:

...a LOT of this:

... and that is how Thanksgiving was born.

So to celebrate this year, ALL of the Jacob's clan came in to town. When I say ALL, I mean all 29 of us. Dan has 6 siblings, 6 in-laws, 2 parents, and there are a total of 15 grandkids. We took this crew up to the Stratford Family Cabin (my family's) located in beautiful Eden, Utah. Most arrived on Monday with the remaining 2 arriving on Thursday and stayed through Saturday morning. We had a lot of fun together. We played cards, rode on the 4-wheelers, the men golfed (4 TIMES!), we went to the temple together, the ladies saw Twilight (let me just say I was NOT impressed), played cards, went to Surf-n-Swim, had family pictures taken (THANK YOU SO MUCH DAD!) and lastly and definately one of the BEST things we did was... the men took all the kids to the Fun Center in Layton while the women stayed at the cabin and made pies! You might wonder how that was the BEST? Well, because while we were making the pies, we took turns getting a 30 minute message from a professional Massage Therapist that we hired to come up to the cabin. It was AMAZING! I think that is a Thanksgiving tradition we should definately keep. In fact, because all us ladies were so "relaxed" look at what we accomplished!

Yes, you counted correctly, we made 13 PIES! There were 3 apple, 2 pumpkin, 2 cherry, 1 pumpkin chocolate cheescake, 2 chocolate caramel cream, 2 pecan, and 1 german chocolate pie. And YES, we ate every bit of everyone of them. And YES, that is the ONLY picture I remembered or even thought to take of this entire vacation.

It was truly WONDERFUL to see Dan's family in it's insanely CRAZY and LOUD entirety. As CRAZY as it definately was at times, I hope we will do this again!(except let's leave out the breaking of one 4-wheeler, 2 ovens, the smoking up of the cabin, and Kyle having to "save" a missing Haylie that was never missing:)Love to ALL the Jacob's!

** A very special thanks goes out to my parents for all of their extremely hard work in getting the cabin ready for such a crew. It was and is always the perfect place to be with family.**

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY TYLER!

It was April 1, 2003. April Fools Day. Now I am usually one that thoroughly enjoys a good joke. So of course I was trying to plan the "perfect" joke to play on my Dan. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be funny to give Dan a big scare and give him a pregnancy test. He wouldn't know how to read it, so he wouldn't know that it was really negative. Yeah, that would REALLY freak him out since Tracen is only 8 months old." So I just happen to have one on hand, (come on ladies, you know you have a few stuffed in the bathroom closet) and pulled it out. Now as I was "taking the test" the thought did cross my mind... "what if?... Nope... No way"... and I set it on the counter to WAIT. 3 minutes later... APRIL FOOLS... on me, not Dan. Yup, 2 gigantic pink lines. I was pregnant! WOW! What a joke! I couldn't wait till Dan got home, so I called him. The conversation went something like this, Dan: "Hello!"
Me: "Hello, my love."
Dan: "Hi, love. What's up?"
Me: "So I had this really great April Fools Day joke to play on you but... well..."
Dan: "YOU'RE PREGNANT! Aren't you? I had this feeling... Deanne, what are we going to do?"
Me: "Umm...love...we're going to have another baby and THAT is NO JOKE!"

And that was the beginnings of our TYLER'S TEASINGS.

Tyler then lead me to believe that I had a chance for a V-back (since Tracen was C-section) because everything was going wonderful in the pregnancy. That is until I went to one of my last appointments to "see how far along I was". That was when my doctor announced, "Oh my, I think this kid has flipped!" "What? What does THAT mean?" "His head is up, his bum is down. He is breech!(aka he's going to come out BUTT FIRST-just like his sweet mammy did)" So after attempting to turn the stubborn kid and without success, it was determined that I would have to have a 2nd C-section. So we scheduled the date to be November 29, 2004, approximately 1 week, and after Thanksgiving, before his due date. Ok, so we have a plan, not the plan I had hoped for, BUT a plan... or so I thought...

So Dan and I were trying to finish remodeling our basement before Tyler arrived, which included fresh walls, paint, new carpet, a beautiful rock fireplace and an amazing log cabin play house built out of the "under the stairs" nook. We had come to the end, the carpet would be layed just before Tyler arrived, and we (meaning my Dad, my Mom, my Dad, Dan, my Dad) were trying to get the logs on the play house and the mantel on the fireplace stained. Well, apparently I did not get far enough away from the strong smell of stain, because I began having what I thought were quite mild contractions. They started early that morning around 3am and were fairly consistant throughout the day. My mom was at the house helping my dad. I told her I thought I had started having contractions. Her response? "Deanne your still two weeks out, you've been on your feet too long, go lay down. We've almost got this done." So, like a good girl, I obeyed. I figured she must be right. These contractions were consistant, BUT, they really did NOT HURT, so they must not be real. I say, WHAT WAS I THINKING? Then about 7pm, I had some kind of reality check because I had the "thought" that I should at least call the hospital to let them know I "might" be coming in tonight and to prepare for the C-section. Well, while on the phone, the contractions got a bit stronger, and the nurse insisted I come in ASAP. So we packed up, left my parents at our house to finish "THE PROJECT", and Dan rushed us to McKay Dee. When we arrived, they of course insisted on checking me right away. Well, it is a darn good thing they did, because I was at a 9. Hello? The contractions only just begun to hurt. How in the world did I progress that far and NOT know it. Man, I am DUMB! So they rushed me in, strapped me down, cut me open.. Oh and Dan had the nerve to say, "Dee, can you smell that?" "Smell what?" "The smoke from them cutting you open?" Now, this is our 2nd time around with the C-section thing, I know what happens, BUT geez, did he have to say that? (love you honey) Good thing I am not bothered by that kind of thing. Anyway, at 10:35pm November 22,2004 our little stinker, I mean sweet TYLER KEITH JACOBS was born. He weighed in at 7lbs 8oz and 21 inches long. He was PERFECT! No trama from labor, a little bruised on the butt, (that's what happens when you put your best side forward first:)), and he had tons of thick, light brown hair with white blonde highlight streaking through it! I am NOT exaggerating. I had never seen that much BLONDE hair on a newborn before. And I could tell his eyes were going to be very different from Tracen dark brown eyes right from the beginning. Oh yes, JUST PERFECT!
Tyler is a tease to this day. He is stil marching to the beat of his own drum. Doing things his own way. He is sweet and SO agreeable, when HE decides to be. He LOVES his brothers. I knew that Tyler and Tracen would be the dearest of friends. And they are... in between some amazing fights. Tyler can quote almost every movie he has seen, he knows all his letters and their sounds, LOVES to spell his name, and is very proud to write the letter T everywhere! He has a very different "look" than his brothers. He is very "Stratford". He is very proud that he has the same name as his grandpa (Keith)and that they both have blue eyes.

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY TYLER!!! WE LOVE YOU.

***For Tyler's B-day, he had a super hero party with all the family. The kids all got to dress up as super heroes. Tyler dressed as his very favorite hero, DASH INCREDIBLE!
This is where I found Dash only moments before the party was to begin.


This is the amazing DASH INCREDIBLE B-day cake that Tyler requested. It was extra special because his very own amazing Uncle Joel made it just for him.



And THIS is one the many B-day presents that quickly became a favorite AND just as quickly POPPED! With MUSCLES like these, it's amazing it lasted as long as it did.

Good to go.... Good to come back!

Isn't that how it always is? You count down the seconds to leaving, to having that perfect vacation to "get away" from the crazy life, the KIDS, the EVERYTHING so you can RELAX and let go of all RESPONSIBILITIES and then when you are FINALLY there you are almost doing the same thing to come home, to get back to "that crazy life", to hang with your kids, to doing EVERYTHING you left behind. WHY IS THAT? It's not right! (Or is it?)

Not to say we didn't have an ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL TIME, because WE DID! It is just so nice to be back. To be perfectly honest, we actually MISSED OUR BOYS! A LOT!

Here are just a few of the 100 or so pictures we took on our little 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY excursion to CANCUN (actually Playa) MEXICO! We've been home for over a week now, it about time we get this posted.

As is typical on many of our previous Mexico trips, here are a couple things we are usually greeted with:

This sign was posted on the shuttle that took us to our resort: (we're tourists so of course we took a picture)

If you can't read it, it says:
Dear Client, Please take all your BELON GINGS when you leave the vehicle.......

Seriously, this is not the only time we have seen things like this. (This one is not so bad) You'd think that because of all the tourists, they would actually have someone edit the translation. Oh well, makes for cheap entertainment.

Then... this is one of many. These are EVERYWHERE!

A place inside the resort we thought was lovely
Chess anyone? (this was for Tracen)
This is what we found while shopping in one of the market places in town. Such cute LITTLE guys.

We went on several excursions as well.

We visited the Mayan ruins of Tulum...

The view in Tulum:


And look who we found there.

You go to the other side of the world only to run into your neighbors. What are the odds?! It was really great to see you there Mike and Elise.

Another friend??

We then went to XEL-HA which was AWESOME! It is an inlet where ocean water meets fresh water and it is beautiful. There is so much to do there.


We went KAYAKING.


Hiked through some JUNGLE where we were EATEN ALIVE by mosquitoes.

We TUBED down the river and then went back to the top and SNORKELED down.

We spent almost 2HOURS snorkeling and checking out all the cool fish.

We ate more MEXICAN FOOD at a very tasty little place while we listened to a great MARIACHI BAND (I don't have a clue how to spell that) playing on a huge XYLOPHONE.
We swung from a rope swing and almost jumped off a cliff (I'm a chicken and Dan needed some competition).
We were there all day and still didn't get it all in. We REALLY would have LOVED to swim with the dolphins but at $150 per person we decided to take pictures of them and save up for the next time. It looked incredible!

We then went to Coba. WOW! Now that is the place to go if you are looking for some amazing Mayan ruins.
Dan on the steps of one of the temples.

This is the one we got to climb

Deanne half way up.


At the top. We counted 122 steps going up 156 feet.

Gorgeous view!

This was a fascinating place. Unfortunately, the history of the Mayan people was horrid. They were definitely a WICKED PEOPLE! I don't want to go in to detail, so if you MUST know, you'll have to ask.

More friends in the jungle?


We also got to visit a little Mayan village and then swim in a CENOTE, which means sink hole.
I fell in love with the Mayan children of course.

The CENOTE!


The rest of our time was spent...

Hanging on the beach,

Drinking LOTS of these... (virgin of course)

And mostly just LOVING being together!


****A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to all those who helped with our boys. ESPECIALLY MY MOM! She took over LIFE with the JACOB'S BOYS. (not an easy task mind you) and did a FABULOUS job! In fact, when we arrived to pick them up, Tate was the ONLY one who ran to me with a smile and said "Mama"! Tracen and Tyler were both crying. Tracen greeted us (through his tears)with, "Hi mom and dad. Can grandma please stay with us for just a little longer?" And Tyler? Well, I never did figure out why he was crying. Possibly, he was in trouble again. He later told me "Mama, I had a hard time being good."
I am so grateful to have family that I can leave my babies with and not worry a bit for their happiness and safety. However, I can't say I did not worry about the happiness and safety for the one staying with them.

THANKS AGAIN MOM! WE LOVE YOU!