Temple Square Lights

Christmas Lights are one of my favorite things about the season. Last week we made our annual trip with these great folks to Temple Square. It was chilly, but not frostbite weather, and we had a great time.

The parents of these cute girls, and also Aunt Rachel and Uncle Brennan came along as well.
It was really fun for me to see how much the boys have learned about Christmas and its true meaning this year. They were really excited by all of the nativity scenes and Henry even asked me to take this picture of them with baby Jesus... that might be because of all of the people taking pictures around us, but it was so cute.

Our budding photographer even took some shots for us, you can probably tell by the height of the camera who it was.

I am so lucky to get to spend my life with these three handsome men.

Lets Make Cookies

Last weekend I was convinced by my little helper that we needed to make and decorate sugar cookies. This is not something I am usually inclined to do, since I don't really like sugar cookies much. But after getting a recipe that would actually produce soft and chewy cookies (the only kind that should exist), we went to work.

The boys were a great help, and had tons of fun with all of it. We all probably ate a few too many cookies, as well.

After Gavin and Henry had eaten 3 or 4 each, Caleb and I were eating our second cookie and Gavin said, "Dad, you and Mom are going to get a tummy ache if you keep eating cookies." Good thing someone is watching out for us.

And the Tree Goes Up

And Christmas is here. We put up the tree and the decorations. It seems like we have less room for things in our current furniture arrangement, but we still have more than our sharing of Christmas trimmings this year. We won't mention what day we actually put the tree up since we might be some non-gratitude accusations or something, but we had a great time decorating.

Gavin was a huge help this year, and helped with everything from the hanging of ornaments to the clean up and storing of boxes in the basement.

Henry was excited for all of the new decor, but promptly dropped and broke his first Christmas ornament right after this picture was taken. We were able to glue it, but it will always show the signs of Henry's true tendencies.

Even the Grinch helped... I have this picture to prove it.

You can now guess the new favorite hiding place in our house... I guess I had better get on the ball and get some presents under there.

The Mostly New Kitchen

Last week we were finally rid of one of the most hideous and hated things in our house. My kitchen cupboards. I tried to find some good before pics of my kitchen, but apparently I have always found it was too hideous to even allow myself to take a picture of it. Since neither of these befores really show the cupboards, you will have to have seen it to fully understand. It was bad. With obnoxious small white tiles and white grout for the counter top, and cupboards that someone built as an after thought out of old sloping boards... bad. Very bad.

But a week ago, it all went away. Caleb (with lots of help from Henry) tore out the old cupboards in a couple of hours. Then we got to work on fixing up some things and putting in the new stuff.

I have to say that is it very fabulous. We decided to move the fridge to the other end of the wall, since it was pretty much in the doorway before. We did a fair amount of mudding and tiling the old surfaces to get it all ready. And while we still need to replace some trim and touch up a little paint. We are pretty happy with how it turned out. Feel free to come over and admire it at any time.

And yes- my kitchen is tiny, and that is how we finished in a week... but at least now it isn't tiny and horrid.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a very thankful day today. We spent the day at home together, and enjoyed our rest. At the beginning of the week we started a kitchen remodel, so cooking dinner was an interesting feat today. Caleb took advantage of having the many disgusting part of a turkey in the house to have a little anatomy lesson with Gavin. I was totally grossed out by a bag full of vital organs, but Gavin loved it. And both boys enjoyed watching Caleb carve the turkey. There were a lot of comments like, "What da heck?" and "Gross, it that the bone?"

ignore the partly finished state of the kitchen... hopefully more completed pics will be ready by Monday.

Henry woke up about 4 am with what turned out to be a 101 fever, and though he seemed better off and on during the day. He just nodded when we asked him if he was having a Grumpy Thanksgiving.

We did get this little smile out of him before it was all over, though the eyes closed.

Gavin was all Thanksgiving spirit this year, thanks to preschool and a few Thankful talks at home. He enjoyed listing things he was thankful for all week, and tried to encourage Henry to do the same. He also gathered a pretty nice bouquet of twigs from our friend Caryn's yard, and we created a center-piece for our Thanksgiving spread. He was so proud of it he had a hard time focusing on eating with it nearby.Earlier this afternoon, while Caleb and I were cooking in the kitchen we heard Gavin yell, "Henry! Get over by me, I am trying to tell you that I love you!" Nothing like forcing the spirit of family on your little brother.

Snowball Fight!

What we expect to be the first of many.

I not Goofball. I Henry.

Happy Halloween 2009

We were all pretty excited for Halloween this year. There was lots and lots of talk about costumes, which finally led to these fabulous ensembles yesterday morning.
Once Gavin spotted this Captain America get-up, there was no going back. We just had to find the time to make a shield out of cardboard to go along with it. Henry on the other hand was a different story entirely. He insisted that he did not actually dress up for Halloween, and he rejected every costume we suggested. I finally resolved to just let him choose something from the dress-up box when Halloween came around and it could go with this black outfit underneath. In the morning he choose to be a night... though we never left the house.

By the time he and Caleb showed up at the church for out party... He was Batman! Complete with deep grouchy voice and scowl to scare villains.

Since Caleb came as himself, he didn't get to be in our little group photo. ;-)

Gav looked so cute on the way over to help me decorate the church that I just couldn't help, but take a picture. At 5:30am Halloween morning he woke up and when I took him back to his bed he started talking about how excited he was for the party and what he thought I should do with my costume so that people would know that I was really the devil.

Of course there was lots of superhero style posing from Captain America. Quite impressive.

Hauling the loot at the end of the night... Batman was too worried about someone finding out his true identity to do any posing. And he just wanted to stay near his Dad and eat a lot of candy.

It goes without saying that at least one person in our house is glad that Halloween is over, and one person is already planning their costume for next year.

Lost in Translation

This was my conversation over dinner tonight with Gavin and Henry.

G: Mom, what song is this?
M: 'Be Still, My Soul.'
G: What kind of music is it?
M: Kind of like church music.
H: Dis song beauful, Mom.
G: Henry, it's called 'They Steal My Skull.'

Oh Goodness. It's going to be a long night of explaining the english language.

Ready for Winter Yet?

During my trip to Mesa, Heidi and worked on making this super cute guy! Since he couldn't be completely finished and still ride home in a suitcase, I finally just finished him today. And I must say that he looks super fun. I love it!The other thing that is super fun... these two crazies. Even cuter in their hats and gloves on a chilly day. Or in Henry's case, the matching sweatsuit. He's ready for a brisk jog around the park.

Punkin Carving

Sunday night we set to work carving our Jack-O-Lanterns. The boys had picked out their pumpkins, though Gavin ended up wanting to carve the big one that I bought just because Halloween requires at least one large pumpkin at the house. They were pretty excited and drew the faces on the pumpkins and then left the carving to the parents.

Henry did help scoop out the pumpkin guts.

Gavin was all excited about helping until...

... he smelled the pumpkin guts... yes, he is plugging his nose. geesch.

I am so delicately carving Henry's little pumpkin.

The end results weren't too shabby.

When we finished Henry kept saying, "I don't want to eat my Jack-O-Lantern." Not sure where he got the idea that we were going to make him eat it, but he was quite relieved when we told he didn't have to.

Primary Program

Yesterday was every one's favorite church meeting of the year. When the Primary kids (ages 3-12) put on their program. This year was just a fabulous as we could have hoped. Gavin had 2 speaking parts and did a great job. While he did have them memorized, he chose to wait for some help from his primary teachers, but spoke them with great poise. He knew almost all of the songs, and sang out loudly most of the time. He did do some complaining before hand that if the program took too long, his mouth would be hurting from all of that singing. Somehow he survived, and with only minimal nose-picking while sitting in the choir seats at the front of the church for 70 minutes. We were proud of how well he did in his first program.

Henry's nursery class did go up at one point and sing a song, but he sat down in the aisle and refused to be coerced into going up to the front with his friends, so he sat this one out. Maybe next year. And regardless he did look pretty handsome for church.