Calling All Super Heros

Today we had a few of Gavin's friends over for a 4th Birthday Party, a few days early (due mainly in part to my over scheduling for the last several weeks and the next week to come). Gavin was pretty excited to ask everyone to come dressed as their favorite super hero. He worked really hard helping get ready and decorating the cupcakes for his friends.

Since I was hosting this party as the only parent, I took a quick picture with the little cake beforehand.

Here is most of the crew... (left to right)

Cat Woman Hannah, Pajama Sam Parker, Pajama Sam Joshua, Batman Drew (sporting a sweet do-rag), Batman Gavin (what else?), and Cat Woman Lexi. They were looking pretty awesome and ready to save the world.

Having some snacks and the yummy cupcakes.

We played several games, but every one's favorite was getting blind-folded and trying to pin the spider web on Spiderman. It was pretty funny to watch.

Some posted mostly just at their eye level... I guess I should have put it down a little.

Pretty good- Right? Lexi hit it right on the nose... or Spiderman chest, whichever hits your fancy.

8 mile Saturday

As most of you know, I am training to run the SLC Half Marathon again this year. I completed two last year, and really enjoyed just having a goal and a focus to my training. The small group of women that I ran with last year are also running together again this year, and we have added some great new additions who are running their first half. One of my goals this time was to take my camera out on our Saturday runs. I know this might sound silly and it probably is, but when you are up with the sun and running in a city of mountains and canyons and great views like we are, I missed a ton of photo opps last year, and don't want to lose out this time around. Also- I realized that all of these women spend time documenting their kids' and family experiences, but don't always have a lot to show for their own accomplishments, so I hope this will serve as our group documentation of 2009 training.

The sunrise on the Ocher Mountains from above the Salt Lake Cemetery.

Caryn and Stephanie at about 2.5 miles. These girls have both run 4 half-marathons and a full marathon, and they are the pros who convinced me to train last year.

Jessi and Alisa- training for their first one. They are doing amazing! And they even look happy to be out in the freezing weather before the sun is up.

Another view of the Wasatch Front from the top of Virgina Ave.

I know I look really lame with my headband on in this one, but just wanted to illustrate how cold it is. That is my sweat frozen to my headband. Jessi and Alisa had taken theirs off to try and breathe through for a minute because the air was quite frigid at this point.

Most of us carry water in a camel pack for running over 6 miles or so, and last Saturday we were drinking ice from our packs by the end of the run. Alisa's actually froze solid and she couldn't get  any water out... I know this makes you all want to get up early and join us next week- Right? Everyone is welcome, you won't regret the loss of sleep, it is totally worth it.

And I really hope that these girls will continue to be my friends even after I take pictures of them running in the early morning hours... especially since they all still manage to look good doing it... now that is impressive.

Primary Talent Show

Friday night was Gavin's first primary talent show. He worried for weeks about what he should do for his talent. He ended up deciding that he would do some "Batman tricks" and sing his favorite song about Tigger and Pooh. Even after he decided, he was still fretting a bit that day about whether or not he would have enough room to really showcase his many Batman related moves.

He also made some art- water color paintings- also of Batman- to display for the night.

I was worried that he would not want to do his tricks or sing with everyone looking at him, but he wasn't too concerned. He did, however, want me to stay next to him, which was not my favorite spot, but it could have been much worse.

For all of our die-hard fans, we have a video that I will try to uplaod at a later date, since it doesn't seem to want to work right now.

The Zoo in Winter

Today we went to the zoo for the first time in months. In honor of cancelled preschool again due to sick friends (though last week it was also due to Henry), we went with our good friends Lexi and Drew. Of course their mom, Jessi, and baby sister, Maddie, came too. It was one of those times where the kids had more fun running around and climbing on things than they did seeing the animals. It was a very warm, but windy day, so we had a great time.

An egg that can fit 4 kids comfortably? Now that is one big egg!

My Little Turtle.

Lexi and Henry were the only ones that I was fast enough to catch coming out of the giant snake slide. This was the favorite spot at the playground.

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?