Our little Family

So, as you can tell we got our family pictures taken a few weeks ago. Our first ones as a family of 4. It was the first time in a long time that Caleb was involved in our photo studio experience, and he now can understand why it is so stressful for me. Luckily, we are all just naturally cute, ;-) so we were able to get a good picture, despite the poor efforts of the photographer. In 15 minutes, she took 7 photos, that's right- 7. And it is not like they don't want to waste film or something from a different decade. So out of those 7, half had someone, usually a kid, tipping over or making a weird face. So really we got 2, where you could see us... The one next to our profile, and this one...

And then 2 where you can't really see our faces, but you can assume that it is us...

Of course, this really just makes me anxious for the boys birthday pictures next year and how well those always go. Oh well, I guess I would have to actually pay someone decent money if I wanted and easy and flawless photo experience, or I would just have to not have kids, and neither of those are going to happen. So for now, we just have to love what we can get.

Merry Christmas

We actually decorated our tree and put up decoration right after Thanksgiving, but life tends to be out of order, so why should the blog be any different.

Here is Gavin getting ready to hang his ornament on the tree. He was Mom's big helper with decorating.

This is how Dad and Henry chose to help from one side of the couch, and Rachel on the other... though Rachel was far more supportive about decorating that the two guys on the couch with her.

Since the holiday seems to bring with it a lot of treats.... this picture had to be shared for all the kids who eat too much candy. This box was a gift from our friend Nicole. I opened and gave a piece to Gavin and put it away to go and read some mail. When I was done I realized that it had been really quite so I called Gavin who just made a grunting sound to let me know he was in the kitchen. Turns out that his mouth was so full of chocolate that he couldn't open it to speak. This is what I found and all I could do was laugh.

Put 'em to work

So we went to Lowes the other day in preparation for the coming snow store. We needed a new snow shovel because I broke the other one during the last storm. (Not, of course, that I am saying that I have super human strength or anything- but it was our neighbors, who are famous for collecting junk and anything that they can salvage off the side of the street, or actually in the street sometimes, so I don't think it had much life left in it.) Anyway, while we were there, Gavin spotted this....

Since you can see that my couch is behind him, I obviously bought it. But who wouldn't? What a great idea. I mean, why should Caleb and I have to take care of clearing all the snow when there is someone living here who truely enjoys cold and nasty weather, and add to that a tiny sized and ergonimically correct snow shovel.... I say "Put 'em to work!"

So when we woke up on Saturday with once again, about 5 more inches of very wet and heavy snow, you can guess who was ready to get "dressed on" (as we say at our house) and head straight out to shovel the sidewalk and the driveway. Look at him go-

What a worker. I wanted to take some video, but of course I got the response, "I can't right now Mom, I'm too busy. I have to go to work." Luckily, since he still seems to be figuring out the effeciency of the tool, Dad also came out to help and throw some snowballs. We are certainly in for some trouble if we keeping getting this kind of snow all winter, but my sidewalk and driveway will be clear.

Temple Square Lights

On Saturday night, we went to see the lights at Temple Square with Nathan and Stacy and the girls. It was a cold night, but the lights were beautiful with all of the new snow. The kids really loved the lights and riding the trax a few blocks to get to the temple.

Here they are all bundled up and ready to go.

This is how Henry saw the lights, all snuggled up and cozy. He actually went to sleep even before we got on the warm train to head back to the car.
Just a few really nice shots of the snowy lights and trees.

Lots of Snow

Last Wednesday, we had a solid cover of snow when we woke up in the morning. From the first moment after breakfast, Gavin kept begging me to go outside and play. So after Henry went down for his morning nap, we headed out. Gavin kept saying, "Wow, it sure is fun to play in the snow." When I got the camera to try and get him to say it, he wasn't interested, but I did get a cute video of him playing.

Then on Saturday morning, we woke up to more snow, and it just kept snowing until the mid afternoon. This was the view out our door, and I had already shoveled the sidewalk once.

Gavin and Caleb went out and built several snowmen that afternoon. And had a great time throwing snow and building. I finally got Gavin some snowboots, since he insists on walking in the snow everywhere we go.
Henry got to go out for a few minutes, here is his super close up. (Yep, I know his face is dirty.)

Henry is 9 months old!

Henry is so grown up now, and so big. We are looking forward to seeing how tall he is at our next appointment, though we know for sure that he breaks our arms every day as we carry him around. He is hilarious these days. He love to try and put his pacifier in other peoples mouths and then laugh as he pulls it away. He loves to get into everything that we tell him not to and laughs pretty much all the time. We are really having a great time with him.

Here he is riding on the bike that Gavin got when he was 1. He can actually push himself backward a little bit.
And we now find him standing next to something almost every time that we come into a room. What a champ.
Just a fun shot of Gavin caught in the act of fixing the shelves in the laundry room with his wrench.
This is Gavin and his friend Paili caught in the act the other day. It was very quiet in his room where they were playing and when I came in they were trying to get the lid closed while both in the box. Pretty funny.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. We had a pretty uneventful one at home. Rachel came for the weekend from BYU, and I am sure that she probably got bored with us by the end, though Gavin talked her ear off day and night.

Henry enjoyed his first Thanksgiving dinner, but didn't eat much before he gave up and went to take a nap.

Gavin pretty much just ate his weight in stuffing.
Here is Caleb making the mashed potatoes. What a good chef.
Mom and "2 Boys".

Bathtime

Just a couple of cute shots of the boys in their hooded towels. We just got Henry a new one since he has gotten too big for his little towel from Stacy. He got a dog to go with Gavin's froggie. They look pretty good together, even though getting a shot with both of them is harder everyday.

I love these boys. (Even if this shot of Gavin is a little funny. I love that you can see all his curls.)

Itty Bitty Soccer

Hurray for organized sports, though I think what we have so far witnessed with Itty Bitty Soccer (for kids ages 2-4) is much more sporting than organized. But it is fun. Gavin has now been to his second soccer class. The first day was interesting, since there was only one other boy in the class that day, and they were certainly acting their age. The main thing that Gavin told everyone about his soccer class was that he ran away, and he did. He probably ran 100 yards before I realized that he wasn't going to turn around and I think I caught up with him after atleast another 50 yards. For the second class today there were 5 total kids, which was alot better, and Caleb cut out of work for an hour to go and witness the fun. I think he is learning a few things, and hopefully getting some of his energy out.
Here he is excited for the first day.

Some powerful kicks.

This blog entry wouldn't be complete without some video of the action. This first one really shows you the way that it went last week. But the second clip actually got Gavin on a good run the first day, so we can actually show off that he has some moves.

This is really just a funny shot of Gavin doing what he likes to do lately... watch the video Ipod. The strange thing is that now he knows how to restart the videos when they end and how to play one. If he could read, he would be better at using the thing than I am. Pretty crazy.

Sweet Cheeks Henry

Not so much these cheeks...

As these...
Henry has got to have some of the most kissable little chubby cheeks that I have ever seen. I think we spend most of our day kissing them. Gavin sometimes tries to pinch them, maybe a little too hard, but Henry laughs about it nonetheless. Even people that don't spend as much time with him as we do, love to kiss Henry's cheeks. What a cutie.
He has been crawling for quite a while, but as of yesterday, we are on the scary road to pulling up on things, so far he is only at his knees, but getting more determined every day. Here is a video that I took today showing him in serious action. (The siren is the sound of the buttons he is pushing... not an emergency near our house.) You can also hear him say his favorite thing. Man this kid is fun.

Happy Halloween

Hurray for a good Halloween. We only had one costume event this year, which seemed to be enough for us. Henry wore the dog costume that I made for Gavin for his first Halloween (also sometimes called a cow costume). He looked fabulous. He is wild and crazy as always and had fun crawling all over the church getting into mischief and trying to get people to give him candy before Mom and Dad noticed.

Gavin was a fireman, this costume was previewed earlier in the month because of the excitement of getting to wear it. It looked great for its big night. He had a few people ask him where the fire was, and he would just smile as though they must be making a joke. I guess the fact that firemen go to fight fires was not what he had in mind when he picked this costume. The necklace he is wearing has ghosts that light up, the neighbors that share our duplex with us got it for him to use in the dark.
And off we go.
Just a little funny shot of wrestle mania as we tried to take a group picture.

Leaves and Laughs

Saturday afternoon we spent some time outside enjoying the really nice weather. We went on a walk to Liberty Park to play and to check out the changing leaves. Gavin loved it, we got to go the playground where we don't go very often and he kept saying, "Dad, this is the best playground I ever seen." or "Wow, this is the best slide I ever seen." Lately he has been busting out all new phrases that just make us laugh. Henry is also a big boy with the new tray attached to the stroller, so he is super happy to go walking where ever we want to go. We also decided that is would be fun to take some fall leaf pictures. Hopefully this was not a preview of how our family pictures will go in a month. We couldn't get both of them to look at the same time and could hardly get them to be at all still for even as second, they were so excited to be surrounded by the leaves. I included a few of the not so perfect shots so you can really get a feel for the pandemonium that we have lately.

We also painted Halloween pumpkins this week to get ready for Wednesday. Nothing like hanging out in your underwear.

This pumpkin idea looked a lot cute in the magazine, oh well, typical for my craft pursuits.

Henry wasn't really interested in painting, but loves to be tickled by Dad.

This shot is from a few weeks back, but I love it. What a cute kid I have!