Getting fatter....

One of us is getting fatter every week. Can you guess who?

(17 weeks down, just a lot more to go... And the most flattering pictures are taken by someone who is 4' tall.)

Ski Utah

Gavin has been begging us to get him a snowboard and skis for the last month. Though the obvious choice in our family would be a snowboard, we are heeding the counsel of professional Swiss ski and snowboard instructors, who frequent the GapKids in the winters, and waiting to start snowboarding until he is 8. (Something about it being too hard on their bodies (it's also pretty hard on mine) and damaging to their growth plates.) Caleb was able to score a sweet pair of kids skis for $10 at a Goodwill in none other than Mesa, AZ. Or neighbor, Scott has found several pairs on kids boots and he let us borrow them to try our the skis last weekend... in our own front yard.

Gavin enjoyed it a lot, and actually did pretty well. Even though their is no incline, it was a good spot to warm up, and get a feel for things the first time.

And being able to laugh a bit when you fall down is a benefit too.

Henry also tried out the skis, but mostly with the help of his Dad. It was quite entertaining to watch Caleb running around the yard pulling Henry through the snow.

Mesa Temple Lights

What a super great place to walk around and look at all the lights, and not even have to be bundled up. It was fabulous and fun.

Merry Christmas 2009

The boys seem to be at the perfect age for Christmas. They were happy about everything and super excited for all the small joys of the holiday. They even went to be on time and didn't wake up too early. It was a really fun year.

"What da heck?! New race car jammies!"

Gotta love matching your cool older cousin.

Just a little sleepy still, but loving what Santa brought.Gavin didn't ask for much from Santa and his wishes were fulfilled. He now feels like all of older cousins with a decent bakugan collection...... and some much desired Star Wars Legos that Dad helped him build. Gavin's hands were literally shaking with excitement as he was putting these together.Mom and Dad were able to come through with some cool stuff too. What a great morning.

Off to Arizona

A couple of days before Christmas we headed down to Sunny Arizona. We got to drive through a lot of snow on the way and then a whole new storm on the way back. Here are a few of our highlights.
This was not Arizona, but central Utah... We saw this bald eagle scavenging on the side of the road, it was pretty cool, but when we stopped to take this picture he flew off a ways and watched us warily.

We went to the Larson's house and had some great times. Here are a few of the people we saw there. Sibling rivalry kicks in when anyone wants to sit on Nana's lap alone.

Morgan- What a handsome dude.

Gav had tons of fun playing with all the extra toys that 4 kids have at their house.

Henry was a huge fan of the dog, Brownie, and sometimes had to be restrained as he showed Brownie so much love. He woke up about 5:30 a couple of mornings crying that he needed to go, "Lay by Bownie." Brownie was great at enduring all of this adoration.We also got to spend some time out biking around the driveway and just chatting in the sun.
Rachel was pedaling all over the driveway sipping a root beer she had snagged from someone. Pretty funny.Henry was willing to steal a scooter or bike from anyone that left it unattended.

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.