Family Photos

Last week we had the super fun chance to go and take family Pictures. I had some lofty ideas that I would get the whole family, pictures of the boys together, and annual pictures of each of the boys alone. Needless to say, this didn't exactly happen.  Hence the fact that Henry's birthday post has no new professional photos of him. Oh well, we'll try again another time. This is what we came out with in group shots. Not the worst of us, but we probably could have done a little better... maybe some day.

The Boys did actually do well together, which I was very happy about. I really like shots that show a little of the personality of these two cuties.

The Birthday Party

Friday night we had a little family dinner party for Henry. Since he has become a bit shy, this was the perfect thing for him. We ate his favorite things- Pizza and Chocolate.

Gavin was most excited to put up the sweet decorations that he had picked out for Henry. Pretty great job, right?

There were cousins and presents...

Cake (With Gavin's help we made this super awesome rendering of "The Hundred Acre Wood". Not too bad, if I do say so myself.)

Singing and candles- Not Henry's favorite part... he tried to run away.

Though he did like the part where he got to eat it.

Even some time to get cozy with Mals and watch a movie.

Happy Birthday Henry!

Today my cute little Henry turned 2. It is hard to believe he is no longer a baby. (Seriously, where did all that dark hair come from?) He was such a sweet and mellow little infant.

Who then transformed into our energetic and slightly out of control baby.

Who loved to get into everything he could reach.

Now he has become this adorable little boy who will do just about anything to make people laugh. He is already such a class clown that I know in 10 more years I will be getting some calls from his teachers. He can't sit still and only calms down when he decides that it is time to ask to be put to bed or take a nap. He can hold his own in almost any crowd with his brute strength and determination. We hope that at some point he will give up his tendency to punch and smash things, but for now, we just try and use up his endless stores of energy. We are so grateful for him and all the joy that he brings us everyday.

The Instructions

Ok- As requested I am finally writing down something basic for you all to make cute letters of your own... now you will know that I am not that skilled...

I bought a solid wood letter from Roberts, though I am sure you can get them at any craft store. Mine were plain wood and I painted the edges and a 1/4 to 1/2 inch strip in brown on each letter with craft paint. Then I traced the letter on the back of the scrapbook paper that I had picked out and cut them out. When the paint dried I painted on a think layer of deco podge (also called modge podge and maybe some other thing- it is just a glue the consistency of paint that dries clear) across the whole surface of the letter, and placed the cut out letter on top and smoothed it into place. After the glue is completely dry I sanded all of the letter edges to get rid of the excess and create a smooth surface from wood to paper. So it actually looks like the paper is part of the wood. Use a 220 grit or higher grit paper.

So- yeah, it was actually really quite easy, and you could match your paint color to the color scheme of your papers. With Gavin's 'G' I had to use two pieces of paper, since it was so large, so I just matched it by sight and then used a ribbon as decoration to cover the seam of the the two sheets of paper. His small letters are just painted to match the colors in the paper and then glued together with wood glue.
I actually still have almost full sheets of the papers that I used for Henry's if anyone want to do a project, just say the word.
Hope that is helpful. Enjoy.

A Little Snow Hike

This Saturday we did something the reminded me of our childless days in Oregon. We got up in the morning and decided to go enjoy nature, so we loaded up some stuff and headed to the mountains. When we got there we just stopped at a random place we had thought of on the way and then realized we had forgotten a lot of things, but got out of the car and went exploring anyway. When we lived in Oregon this is about how our life went every Saturday. It was nice. Now though, these times are few and far between, and oh yeah, there are two people with short legs who need snacks and nap times and all of that, who end up being dragged along. Good thing they are pretty adaptable little guys and more than willing to go along with our need for outdoor activities.
We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Mill B South trail head and did a very short hike in the snow, that took us about an hour. We had ended up forgetting Gavin's snow boots and Henry's mittens, but they didn't seem to notice as much as I did. There was tons of snow and the trail was quite packed down, so Henry walked most of the way.
It turned out to be a great time to try out some of the features of the new camera as well, and a really good break from everything that keeps us from sporadic hiking trips most Saturdays.

One of my favorite things about this winter is short legs in tall snow boots. It really just cracks me up for some reason. And lately when we go outside the boys like to choose their own hats and winter accessories, which meant this time Henry was wearing on of Caleb's and Gavin was wearing Henry's. Henry is actually wearing the lining of Caleb's gloves since we forgot to bring his. It is just too cute.

Even without his boots, Gavin was not interested in staying on the trail and out of the snow. By the end his Velcro shoes wouldn't stay closed since snow was packed almost all the way up to his knees. He was still smiling and throwing snowballs at us though.

What great looking guys.

Henry was intent on giving Caleb his best glare while he tried to take our photo. He was pretty ready for a nap by this time.

A prized snowball.

A little creativity

So Monday I went to Roberts (Craft Store) looking for a gift and checking out their home decor clearance, when I happened to spy some large alphabet letters with a display. I have been thinking of doing something with the boys names, since I always see cute things on Tiana's blog, but had never really gotten on board with monograms. Well- I saw these letters and got thinking of a cute thing that my sister-in-law Stacy did at her last family reunion, and went on a little splurge to buy some stuff and try to make something nice out of it. I was anxious to try my skills, so I started working on it yesterday before work and by this afternoon... voila! they are both finished and hanging on the walls.
Check it out-

Henry did not want to stand next to his name, so he made this half smile for me.

Not too bad for a days work. Gavin is pretty excited to be able to wake up every morning and spell his and Henry's name. It's all about the little things, right?

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a good Valentine's Day. First, we woke up to large amounts of snow falling to wish up a Happy Valentine's Day. While I went running in the snow the boys and Caleb made waffles and a super awesome Valentine's card for me. Since the Valentines for the boys consisted of candy, we waited until midday to give them their treats.

These are some pretty cool dudes sporting their pink hearts full of chocolate.

Henry loves to show his food.

Caleb got me a new camera for Valentine's Day. It is pretty exciting how many great features it has, and I am sure that means less limitations, right? Anyway, we had fun trying out all of the new settings, like this self-portrait mode.

Lucky for us, the roads weren't too snowy by midday and we were able to head down to Nathan and Stacy's for traditional valentine's food. Red soda and heart-shaped pizza. Stacy was our pizza artist this year, and it was great.

All the kids getting ready for their delicious dinner.Henry enjoyed eating, but also sitting at the little red table with all of the older kids.I tried to make a new dessert, but due to lack of inspiration, I went with a red cake and some whipped cream/cream cheese frosting. Luckily, I can make food that tastes pretty good, since I tend to be lacking in presentation. I was going for a deep red, but ended up with a fairly bright fuchsia. Oh well- better luck next year, I guess.With help from the boys I was even able to convince Caleb to dress in his festive red. Holding his pink soda he is almost like the epitome of Valentine spirit.

Sarchasm

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
Some of our friends, sent us this word of the day because they said it reminded them of Caleb and the comments he makes in church meetings that seem to be lost on most of the crowd. I just can't think of it without laughing, since more and more often I find that I see people wondering if he is really serious about something he said to them. Most of the time, he isn't and it just cracks me up. Though I did tell him that it was nice to know that at least a few people get him.

Parker and Joshie

Some of the boys' best friends, are Parker and Josh. And when I say best friends, I mean that they love to play together and that they love to fight with each other. The last few times that all of the boys have been at my house, I have noticed this- Josh and Henry want to be next to each other all the time and playing with all of the same things, which ends up meaning that they are sitting on top of each other, pushing and hitting. It is quite the sight, but when I try to get them to play with separate things they both look at me like I am crazy.

Sometimes though, they really just seem to click and have so much fun together. This is what I found the other day when they were alone in the bedroom with Gavin's batman toy. I could hear them laughing hysterically, and came in to find them peeking at each other through the portal holes and just plain cracking up. It was so funny. (These two are about 6 months apart, but one day at the end of nursery one of the teachers tried to send Josh home with me because she thought he was Henry. Kind of funny.)

Parker and Gavin are more like 18 months apart, but fairly close to the same size. Parker has a big fan club amid all of the preschool kids because he tells the best jokes and is just the all around leader of the pack. Gavin loves being in this pack, but as the only other boy he tends to try to copy Parker as much as he laughs at him. Sometimes I wish he would wait until he was also 5 to start with all the underwear and bathroom jokes, but the other day, Gavin came up to Henry and put his around his shoulders and said in his nicest voice, "Are you ok, Henry? Do you want to play with us?" It was such a happy moment for me, and totally recognizable as something that Parker does with his little brother and with other little kids. I love it.

While these two do argue and tease each other, they are really starting to work out how to have fun together. I hope that once Gavin passes the 4 year old tattling phase, they will continue to work and have a lot of fun together. It is really fun to watch.

I had to take a couple of pictures of them working together so determinedly to make a new house for Batman and Robin. It was pretty cute, and I was actually quite impressed with the results.

Some days when we don't play together, Henry wanders around the house mumbling "Karker. Yoshie. Play. Karker. Yoshie. Play."

The Petersons Come to Visit

So, I know I am little slow to blog about this, but my computer has been giving me some serious issues...

Anyway, Last weekend, our now east coast friends, Michelle and Lauritz came to visit us for a few days. Actually they were coming to Utah for some of Michelle's family events, but we are always super excited when we get to spend time with them. They always worry that Gavin will forget them, but we are now quite sure that will never happen. Even our shy Henry seemed to remember the 4 days that we left him at their house to go to NY, and he warmed right up.

Just a few fun shots- Gavin made Lauritz watch "They Might Be Giants- ABCs" and added his commentary through most of it... in case Lauritz wasn't familiar with the vocabulary. Henry and Lauritz were keeping the beat on their knees at this point.

And, of course, there was some storytime. Lauritz is great at making up music to go with Gavin's books, and seems to draw to boys in for any kind of reading. They always run to the bookshelves to command all of his attention.

Sadly, I didn't get the camera out as much as I should have, so I don't have any pictures of Michelle from this trip. Even when Lauritz had to go home to get back to work, she still came to visit us. And cam to help me and the boys get through the middle of our week, which is always rough with Caleb gone in the evenings. It was super fun to get to hang out and try to talk and relax even with Gav and Henry around. Thanks again Michi!

Ok- so this is from awhile ago, but I had to post it anyway. We miss you guys already.

Butter Sculptures

This is what I found Henry doing the other morning while I was washing Gavin's hair. He was pretty excited that I had found him and proceeded to show me just how much fun he was having with the butter he had gotten open and was sculpting on the counter. Needless to say he had quite soft hands for a couple of days. 

He had stripped off his footed pajamas to make it easier for him to climb up the slide. He's a quick thinker. Though whenever he runs into a problem lately, you can hear him from all over the house saying loudly- "OOOhhh No!" It's about the funniest thing I have ever heard.