Christmas Lights on Temple Square

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to see the newly lit Lights on Temple Square. It was very crowded and very cold, but fun.

Mom and Gavin near the temple.

Nana and Josh near the temple and some beautiful lights.

A cute and cold little family shot.

Nana and Vatti snuggled up and happy.

Josh and Gavin with cold and rosie cheeks.

Gavin's favorite part of Temple Square is all of the fountains. Here are Gavin and Dad taking a rest next to one of them.

Happy Thanksgiving

This year the Larsons, Bridgett and Nana and Vatti came to visit us for the week of Thanksgiving. We had a great time hanging out and seeing a few sights around town. The weather got a little chilly for the people from Arizona, but we did have a few very nice days left to spend some time outside.

Rachel, Josh, Hannah and Gavin hanging out on Temple Square.

Which they now refer to as "The Square Temple."

Hannah and Gavin checking out the pendulum at the Clark Planetarium.

Bridgett, Gavin and Rachel hanging out on Mars.

Josh giving us the weather report.

Nana and Gavin check out the planets in the solar system.

Family in NM

Dad had eye surgery on Wed, and came home sporting his best pirate face... though I chose not to display that one. It seems that all went well. The little kids were a little apprehensive about being too near the eye patch.
The Turley girls looking cute, with Miran upside down for this one.
Bridgett and our cousin Sara Smith, very beautiful girls.
Gavin and Nana hanging out on the porch.

A very silly smile from Morgan.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! After a few weeks of dispute, our lion finally decided that he would wear his costume. It turned out the perfect thing for him. We had a busy day with lots of fun, and luckily, not too much dispute about getting dressed up. We never got him to say "trick-or-treat" but he certainly figured out the part about asking for treats to put in his pumpkin. We had a great time.

Never a cuter lion.

Also a hilarious view from the rear.

Cute smiles. He also had quite the growl, as you can imagine from this face.

Pumpkin painting

This year Gavin and Mom painted the Halloween Pumpkin. Pumpkins are definetely Gavin's favorite part of Halloween, though that may just be because he hasn't realized that lots of people will give him candy later. Here are a few pictures of the great creation and the artist at work.

Cute family

On our visit to southern Utah we also visited a spot called Dead Horse Point. It had fabulous view of Canyonlands. Here are a few cute photos.

It's a Boy... again

We found out this week that we will be having a baby boy in at the beginning of March. We are pretty excited, though we realize that starting with 2 boys greatly decreases our chances of ever having a girl. We are grateful that everything looks healthy and it looks like another strong and determined child. He was actually taking punches at the ultrasound equipment when the technician was poking him to try and get him to move to a different angle. It is always so fun to see the new baby for the first time. And with all of the fun we have with number 1, we are pretty stoked for number 2.

Here is our bruiser, sucking his thumb. We thought he might be a little on the lite side, since my weight gain has been so much less this time around, but nope... he is a whopping 12 ounces right now.

The Arches

Last weekend we took a very wet trip to Moab, UT with Nathan and Stacy and their family. It was a great time, and a great memory, even though it involved a lot of water. We were lucky enough to rent a couple of small sleeping cabins so that we didn't wash away in the flash flooding. Here are a few shots from our trip.

Our first view point... though Caleb and I were the only ones who jumped out to snap a rainy shot. Cute family shots.

Gavin wore Mom's extra raincoat, you can see that it fits him really well. Atleast he stayed dry on the hikes. This is the north window.

One of the most beautiful things about our day was the spontaneous waterfalls that had sprung up all over the park. We got to take in some views that most people will never see, granted a lot of them were from the car window.

More Arches

The Double Arch. With the hikers- Nathan, Mallory, Libbie, Caleb and Gavin.

A spot out of the rain at the Double Arch.
Dad and Gavin hike some slick rock.
A foggy and distant view. The moving fog made some things seem somewhat surreal.
More photos to come later.

Circus Fun

We had a great week of Circus fun. On Wednesday we went to a short parade at the Gateway Mall for the opening of the circus. Here is Gavin getting ready to watch with his friends Tate, Annie and Katelyn. You would never guess from this photo that he started crying in horror as soon as the parade started with a very loud high school marching band. We had to stand at the back while I held him and he would try and peak at the horses and elephants in the parade. I guess it was all too close for comfort. Luckily we had a lot of fun waiting for the parade, which only lasted about 3 minutes.

Here is Caleb giving Gavin a boost to get a look at the elephant in the preshow.

We did get one shot of a clown dropping his juggling stuff at the preshow.

After that there weren't too many photos, it was dark and a bit crowded, so we couldn't document it all. But all of the kids had a great time, and Gavin enjoyed it quite a bit. We were sad that there are no tigers or lions in the circus anymore. I guess it is just too scary.

Oh... Shoes

There is a bit of a shoe fetish at our house lately. We find such joy in trying on shoes, well atleast one of us does. You can just imagine the pride that we have in moments like these.

Turns out some "pitty" shoes are for boys and girls.

He actually walks around in heels better than some women that I know.

Cold fall Days

Well, in a few hours we went from 90 degree days in Salt Lake, to a couple of days in the 50s. I am sure it feels much colder than it really is, but let's hope that fall didn't just disappear without any nice crisp days. Of course, Caleb is staring longingly at the mountains waiting for the snow to pile up.

We are really just amazed at how moving into the warmer clothes makes Gavin look more and more like a little boy and no longer our baby. Here he is of course trying to jump off something outside... his favorite place to be.

As you can tell our lives pretty much center around Gavin. I guess until we teach him how to take photos of us, that is probably most of what it will be... or until the next kid comes along.

Good Times with Dad!

Dad and Gavin head out on a hike together. Obviously you can see the view was great, even if it was from the parking lot. Caleb was pretty tired after carrying giant Gavin in the backpack, so Gavin gets to drive home.

Welcome to Our New Site!

WELCOME to our New blogspot. We are hoping that this site will make it easier for us to post photos and tidbits about our life more often.

Gavin at 18 months.

What a big boy.

Gavin and Dad relaxing.

A Camping We Will Go

We had a great Labor Day camping trip with the Petersons. It got off to a rough start, since without a reservation, there seemed like little chance that we would ever find a spot to make dinner, much less get any sleep. Finally our luck came through and we convinced someone to give us there campsite, who had just purchased it to have a picnic.

Everyone looked great in the morning, especially Caleb.
Gavin was a big help cooking breakfast, and left there dirtier than ever before.

The Petersons and Gavin enjoying a campfire breakfast.