New Years Eve in Utah

Poor Garrett still feeling under the weather, mom was not far behind. I had been feeling under the weather too, sore throat that would come and go. Anyways, we plugged on with our vacation in Utah. On New Year's Eve we decided to head up to Salt Lake City. Really wanted to go to Temple Square and Leslie has a membership to the Children's Discovery Museum. The boys had a blast and I was taking tons of pictures. Then I ran out of room on my memory stick, so I thought. I had forgotten to put it back in and I was putting them on the hard drive of the camera!AHHHHHH! Luckily I have a wonderful hubby and we were very fortunate that a Office Depot was just a couple blocks away. Otherwise, I would have missed some fun pictures of my family! Talmage with balls.Spencer watching the balls go up the tube. Garrett is hoping for a job in Law Enforcement for the Little Tikes. Ammon is going to be our pilot!
After lunch we headed to Temple Square. It was really COLD! We had Spencer and Garrett all bundled up to keep them nice and warm. And we rode the railway system to save us from having to walk in it.
Our time on Temple Square was pretty quick, because I was feeling pretty
yucky. And Garrett too. I told Michael we have to come back in the summer when it's warmer. But we got some nice pictures of the family by the Temple.I like this one. You can tell Garrett doesn't feel well. But I am highly trained in Smiling when you feel badly. Ancient Temple Square Sister secret!!
We had some IHop dinner, hit the Walmart, back to the hotel to put on our Pj's then over to J&L's for movie, hot chocolate, and banging pots at midnight. Michael & Spencer crashed about 11:30. The others made it until midnight. Ammon was so excited that he got to stay up so late. And they had fun too. Happy New Year boys!

Utah Vacation pt 1.

So Michael says to me "Why don't we go to Utah and visit our friends Jason & Leslie after Christmas?" When he said we he meant the family. I came up with lots of reasons we shouldn't go, but in the end...I'm glad we went. The boys had fun, made a couple of new friends and really enjoyed themselves. So did mom & Dad. So the Monday after Christmas we packed up the suburban, the boys and ourselves and headed up to Utah. We bought a new DVD player for the car because our old one died. That was a life saver, plus the Nintendos!We survived the 8+ hour drive. And the roads were nice and clear for us. The mountains were covered with snow and beautiful. Low and behold the next morning as we were getting ready for the day, Garrett started puking!!! He was burning hot with fever. I didn't know how high,but I knew he needed medicine NOW! Michael went to the Walmart to pick up some stuff. Poor Garrett.We just figured that we'd head over to our friends and see how he did now that he had medicine in his system. He got sick again and Leslie suggested we use one of the suposatory for nauesa. It worked and he fell asleep for a few hours. The boys had been playing on the Wii and would have been happy to stay there all day. But while he slept, Michael & Jason took the boys to Cabela's and Leslie introduced me to Guitar Hero on their Wii. It was pretty cool. Ok REALLY COOL. That night we braved the cold and Garrett had been feeling a little better, and went to Mayan Adventure. It's this super cool resturant with a Indiana Jones feel with a cliff diving show. Our wait was very short in comparision. Check these out. Talmage, Ammon, S, and Mayan guy. & us waiting for dinner with the boys.
Definatly ones of the highlights of the boys trip.

Family Party..

Just wanted to post one of the pictures of Michael, his parents and siblings. It's a rarity that all the brothers and sisters are at a family function with Laura living out of state and now moving to Texas. Yeeehaa. I hope that I get some of the better pictures that the others took. Laura, Tammy, Mom & Dad we'd love to see your pictures from the party. The boys love playing with their cousins and we think that it's good for them to be able to spend time with them. Looking forward to the next family party.

Build a Bear...again!

My boys and I have the best aunt in the world. After we went to the Build-a-Bear Workshop the first time we called Aunt Carol and told her how much fun this place was. She said that at Christmas we could take a trip down there. So Friday morning after Christmas we headed down to Gilbert San Tan village. Aunt Carol, Aunt Donna, all 4 boys, Papa, Daddy & Mommy went. The boys really wanted a new animal and Aunt Carol said that was fine. What ever they wanted. COOL!! Ammon picked out a ragged dog,(and Aunt Carol did too) Talmage picked out a brown bear, Garrett a black bear, Michael picked out the Velvet bear for me and for Spencer we weren't going to get him one but then he woke up. So he got a soft bunny.
Ammon is great at naming the animals. So he was very helpful with Spencer's bunny's name Hoppy. His dog is Raggs, Talmage picked out a Batman outfit for his bear so he became Batman Chocolate, I like to call him Bruce when it's off, Garrett's bear got a great winter vest; we named his Blackie. And Michael named my teddy bear Cuddles. It was busy at the BABW, but fun. Gotta remember to leave the baby at home. He is the hard one to deal with. But in the end it was fun. Afterwards, we said goodbye to our aunts and Papa took Spencer back to the house so that the 3 boys, Michael & I could go see "Bedtime Stories". It was funny and we all enjoyed it.

Christams Day!

I would love to have one Christmas when I felt 100%. But alas, I am still waiting. I'm going to start celebrating Christmas either 1. in July no one gets sick in July or 2. In Australia. Plus no snow to deal with. Who really wants a white Christmas anyway? Just means the hubby has to shovel so the family can get in the house. That's one reason we go to Mesa, even though it was kinda rainy and chilly. So enough bad stuff let's get on to the fun.

Each one of us has our own special stocking. The boys all have ones with animal heads on them. And their birth year. Nana has Minnie, Michael has Spidey. Papa has a Santa fisherman. I just got my Aunt Carol a Kokopeli one. Still trying to find either Superman or a golf one for Aunt Donna. And me I have one with my name hand stitched by my mom. I keep looking for another one for me but have yet to find one to jump out and say THIS IS YOU AMY KING. So I wait another year and see.
Santa (and family) were very good to the boys this year. Talmage got exactally what he wanted. Even though he opened it sooner than I wanted him to. Got a little anal on Christmas morning. I blame hormones. But like I said Talmage got what he asked Santa for.
This picture of him with the Bakugan was too pricless. He got that from Spencer.

His Nintendo DS was his big gift from Santa. His response was "I knew I would get it" Very faithful kid.

Ammon asked for some DVD's and a lot of new games for his DS. And he got quite a few. After 7 years of smiling for pictures with presents he's gotten really good. Funny how when you get something educational, the smile fades...


Garrett hadn't really asked Santa for anything specific but he got some fun stuff. He really liked his Little Einsteins ornament.
Have to teach him to move the gift out from in front of his face.
Best picture was after he opened his very own scooter. Granted Spencer took it over, but it is for Garrett.
When you're number 4 of 4 boys it's hard to know what exactly you could need. Poor Spencer. He did get into unwrapping though.

Christmas was a nice day. Both my aunts and Michael's aunt Marilynn & Karen were able to be there to enjoy the day. Everything turned out nicely. Even though I was all stressed out. But my wonderful hubby kept taking care of me and for that I am very grateful. And for the beautiful pearl in hibuscus necklace and earrings he gave me.

Christmas Eve Traditions

Some people go caroling, some read Luke 2, some gather with friends and family but the King-Stiles-Reich do something else to start off our Christmas celebration.

A few years ago we made sugar cookies for Christmas day. We had so much going on that we hadn't had time to frost and decorate them. Aunt Donna stepped in and along with Ammon & Talmage, Garrett was just a baby, started decorating them. We thought to ourselves this is alot of fun and the boys loved spending extra quality time with Aunt Donna. The next year we desided that we would do this as a Christmas Eve tradition. Some people read the Christmas Story, we decorate cookies. Don't worry I read the Christmas story to the boys earlier in the month and even sang songs to them. Anyway, now we have alot of fun on Christmas eve. There is always so much to do that night. Preparing for the next day and making sure the boys are clean and ready for Christmas morning. Every year I swear it's going to be less stressful. I'm still working on that. So we ate our Mexican food dinner early, because the resturant we go to used to close at 5 on Christmas eve. This year, they didn't close till 10, but still it was nice to have dinner at 5 and get to the cookies. It's a whole family thing. Aunt Carol, Aunt Donna, Papa, Daddy, Nana, Mommy and the boys.
Papa was helping Ammon to see how thick they could get the frosting on a single cookie!!
Aunt Carol helped Garrett this year.
Nana is great at decorating.



This is Aunt Donna with Talmage. She is the master of making new colors.

Michael is really starting to get into the decorting thing.

Spencer couldn't wait till Christmas; he chose to eat his cookie frosting first!

This year we think that our cookies were excellent.Very well decorated. Each year we have a cookie decorating contest....everyone wins. Last year Michael was the judge with catagories like "MOST LIKELY TO PUT SANTA IN DIABETIC COMA" That award went to Talmage. He puts enough frosting on to choke Santa and the sprinkles are piled high. This year, Michael picked the catagories like 'MOST LIKELY TO BE ON THE FOOD NETWORK" and my Dad picked the cookies. By the way I won that one. Take that Rachael Ray.

These were the cookies for Santa!Yummy!

Trapoline Christmas

Michael thought that a trapoline would be fun for the boys. They are always jumping around anyway. So when his boss was ready to get rid of his, he gave it to us. Merry Christmas boys. The good and bad thing is that it's at my parents. Not like they would be jumping on it right now with all the snow anyways. Enjoy boys. (and Daddy)