Random cuteness...and the beard

Getting the Christmas tree decorated - so pretty :)


Santa riding on a reindeer - then they switched roles. Oddly enough they are the same size from head to bum...Kenzie just has slightly larger legs, but Jaron has larger feet. Pretty crazy that they are two years apart.


We went and saw Tangled for cousin Hailey's birthday in 3-D (thanks Andrew)...we kept the glasses :) Kenzie thought they were sun glasses and wore them on the trip home from Utah - until she fell asleep.

Jaron didn't understand the picture and pulled his own face.


Jack got to go on a limo ride to the fire station for raising his goal during the fund raiser. We had a really great time.


Kenzie was "reading" to the other kids. Family - notice Jaron's wizard cape? Yes, that is Grandma Howell's apron. It has become a wizard cape and we have to fight him to take it off at night. I will try to post some other pictures.

The Beard...Oh - the beard.

Justin and Paul decided to grow out "nasty" facial hair for the Buckley family photos this year. The picture above is before we left for Utah. He trimmed on Thanksgiving morning - truly disgusting.

He did shave before the picture - but not before they got the reaction they were looking for from the mother-in-law :)

The bird....

Have you ever seen the movie "the Great Outdoors" - you know the part where John Candy is trying to get the bat and is dressed in a catcher mask and has a racket....picture that in your head while you are reading this.

So here's the story... The kids and I got home the other night and there was a bird in our house (I have learned from google that it was a Nuthatch - pretty fitting). We found the bird because it flew past Kenzie in to our family room. She screamed at the top of her lungs and ran down the hall to their bedroom. Jaron, not really sure what was going on, sat there until the bird flew by him. He screamed and followed his sister - slamming the door and moving the rocking chair to block the bird from coming in. As they sat and cried in their room - I tried to figure out how to get the bird out.

In church on Sunday I taught a lesson about how Heavenly Father loves everything, even down to the little birds. In the lesson there was a story about a bird in the tabernacle on temple square. They couldn't get the bird out and some suggested to shoot it with a pellet gun. The head guy decided that he couldn't do that and prayed for help on how to get the bird out. They were finally able to coax the bird out by turning off all the lights an opening a door, so there was only one light for the bird to follow. How fitting then - that on Monday I would need to apply this newly found knowledge.

Jack stood in the hall to keep the bird from flying that way. The bird flew from the kitchen to the family room over and over . Jack was using a stick horse to wave to make sure the bird didn't fly his way (he was so brave), and I was walking towards the bird to get it to fly out. Finally the bird flew in the right direction, but landed on our ceiling fan. Jack looked at me and said, "Why don't we just keep the bird as a pet". We felt this bird was going to live with us forever. Much to Jack's dismay, I remembered the story and figured turning off the lights would be the only way to get the bird out.

Kids still screaming in the back room, me on the cell phone yelling at my husband for not being home, and Jack cowering in the hall swinging the stick horse over his head in the dark - we finally got the bird to fly out the front door.

Not exactly John Candy, but still pretty funny :)