Christmas morning, 2008

There were so many great moments from Christmas morning that I couldn't choose. The boys were overwhelmed with their new train table and weren't quite sure where to start. Dominic has Christmas down, and had NO problem discovering his stocking. We got a "holy crap, are you serious??" out of him with a renewed subscription to XBox Live. For those of you with teenagers, you know just how big that was :) Noah and Zane received lots of cars and trucks from Santa this year. Zane is still in his Disney Cars obsession phase and Noah just wants to play anything with wheels. The unwrapping of gifts took almost two hours. Although Dom understands the "rip and go" technique, the little ones would much rather play with every toy first. This takes a lot of time. Alot.... After the toys were assembled and we had our first fight over whose truck was whose, we dressed and went to the Pape's house for a yummy Christmas breakfast. Thanks to the Pape's again for inviting us and treating us as family. We all enjoyed some naptime later, and then over to the Budoff's for the First Annual Christmas Breakfast for Dinner. Keith made some fantastic crepes with all the great trimmings. He added waffles, pancakes, sausage...the whole deal. We had such a great time and our kids were passed out cold by 8:30. Thanks to the Budoffs for making us part of their family. We're looking forward to next year!

I know there's a lot of pictures here, but we hope you enjoy them. More to come soon! Love you all, and we hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Deaton's Christmas Eve

I know, Christmas was a week ago but we've been quite busy. Sheryl (Jason's mom) came to town on the 17th and stayed with us until the 30th. We felt really blessed to have some family around us at Christmas this year! We had a crazy, busy time, so I'll try to keep it short...yeah right!

Christmas Eve was spent with the Pape family (thanks Mike, Julie and the boys for inviting us in on your tradition!) at Uncle Sam's pizza. We had 20 people there to celebrate with one another. We adjourned to the Pape's house to open white elephant gifts and sing Christmas carols. Julie plays piano and sings - this is the first time she's sung for us and it was so pretty! The missionaries (one was from Tonga...I can't remember where the other guy was from) sang us a traditional Tongan song about following the ways of Christ. I didn't understand a word, but it was beautiful. We adjourned to our house after the carols and opened our own Christmas Eve gifts.

Dominic was hiding Jason's gift under his shirt...he didn't want to wrap it so he had me wrap him.....so ingenius :)

Unwrap me Daddy!

Woo-hoo! Slippers that Dominic hasn't worn and stretched out with his giant boat feet!

My Boys....

Family Pics 2008

Hi Everyone - sorry it's been so long. I have about 50 pictures I should post, but thought I would start with some family ones. I tortured the kids with matching shirts and made them take baths and everything! In case you're wondering, I took over 100 photos and there are only about 5 with everyone looking in the same direction. I don't know how professionals do this, but I clearly need some tips :)

Hope you're all well - I hope you enjoy these pics of our family.

Facelift

I read Amber's blog this morning and saw that she had a great new look....that prompted me to do some research and who knew there were about a million free blog backgrounds you can get????

So, welcome to the new and improved Deaton Family Blog.

Thanks for such a great idea Amber!!!

Meet Your Match....

I thought there was nothing more terrifying than Dominic starting high school. Not terrifying for him - terrifying for me! Dominic in high school? If that's the case that means I am older than I ever thought I could be :)

The Mustang's took on the Panthers from Anthem for Homecoming this year and lost. Unfortunately, it's pretty typical of our Varsity squad. The freshman squad lost their game but the JV squad pulled one Homecoming win out for the Mustang's!

Meet Your Match was the theme of Homecoming this year. I just hope they were talking about football, not chicks! Dom decided to go with a group of friends because it was just too hard to pick one girl to go to the dance with. You have to dress up, shower (God forbid!), pick a corsage, take some pictures, plan dinner. Oy vey. Too much for him, so we dropped him off and picked him up.

Enjoy my "baby's" first Homecoming pic......

Happy Halloween!

I know, I'm a bit behind but better late than never, right?

My dearest friend on the planet came to visit last week and we had a great time! Shannon and her beautiful son, Porter arrived on Halloween. We were all so excited to see the both of them that Halloween day was especially exciting. Porter was a puppy, Zane was a spider and Noah was a 3-eyed monster (Dominic has decided he is way too cool for Halloween, so no costume for him).

Once I got home from work we all quickly got ready and headed over to my friend Julie's house. A couple of years ago Julie and Mike started grilling hot dogs for their neighbors. In the colder years (anything below 75) they made gallons of hot chocolate. This year they were disappointed that they couldn't be home on Halloween because their son Christian had a football game. Our bible study group decided to keep the tradition alive and come over a grill hotdogs for them. We made over a 100 hotdogs that night for their neighbors and went through about 6 bags of candy. It was so great to see the expressions on people's faces when they realized the "hot dog house" was still there. Thanks so much to Julie and Mike for making us all a great dinner (chili and cornbread) and to Tim and Shannon for grilling with us.

We took turns grilling so we could take the boys trick - or - treating around the block. They had a great time and Zane learned how to say trick-or-treat and said thank you after each house. Noah had a great time running from house to house. He was especially intrigued by the house that had 4 quads in the garage. Not Halloween decorations. Quads. He and Zane both were ready to ride. And, quite unhappy with us as a result when we left.

In any case, we had a great time this year. Hope you all had a great Halloween as well!

Noah the three-eyed monster

Zane the spider

Daddy and Noah

Daddy and Zane

Porter the puppy


Shannon (complete with great new haircut!) and Porter

Mustang #13

Dom's last football game resulted in another Mustang loss, but Dom made a great play.... and being the great Mom I am I forgot my camera. So although I have no photo to prove it, you'll have to take my word for it when I tell you he made a spectacular block for the WR...he drilled this kid. I'm not sure I should say that with so much pride - violence and all - but honestly, I don't know that I've ever been so proud watching my kid hit someone so hard!

I did remember to get a picture of him in his different jerseys, so I guess these will have to do. The Mustangs finished the season 1-9, but I loved watching Dom play. He really loves this game and as much as it terrifies me it's great seeing him do something he loves to do.

Next up? Soccer. Yeah.