Christmas 2011

So - there's not any terribly exciting pictures here, but for the sake of posterity...  (and because Grandma requested it :) )....

Caitlyn opening stocking presents.

Jeffrey helping Andrew get his stocking.

Jeffrey helping Eric open his exciting jar of baby food.

Jeffrey with a lego set from Grandma Milton.

Andrew and his new bike...can you tell he's excited??

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Jeffrey with his presents.  He got a 'marble race' track which he had been asking for over and over before Christmas.  I had actually bought it way before he started asking for it - I was so excited to actually get him what he wanted, and what I thought was a worthwhile present!

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Andrew and his gifts (the bag of Goldfish was gone before the day was over).

Caitlyn with her new Cosmo doll and Playmobil camping set.

Jeffrey wearing his new BYU hat and playing with his marble race track.

Salt Lake for the day

We had to take Sara to the airport December 13, so we decided to pull Jeffrey out of school and just spend the day in Salt Lake.  We have museum passes to the Clark Planetarium and the Gateway Children's Museum  - they are literally right across the street from each other and we had a blast.  After the museums we grabbed some dinner then headed over to see the lights on Temple Square.  Other than a few moments of freezing children, we had a really fun time.

Some interesting marble contraption.

Our museum passes gave us passes to a movie in the dome theater - super fun.

In the Gateway museum - the tube blew out quite the breeze.

Andrew always loves these cart deals.

Jeffrey at the water table.

 Andrew shopping.

Jeffrey at the rock wall.

Caitlyn shopping in the store.

Caitlyn riding in the farm section.

Andrew wasn't so happy about riding!

Jeffrey and Dan at Temple Square.

Kids in front of the Nativity.

More lights.

Cold kids!  Ready to head home!

Christmas with Sara

Before Sara left she gave us our Christmas presents.  We loved them!  But we're so sad to have Sara leave us for the holidays.  She's so fun to have around!

In search of a wreath

Sara had the great idea to go into the canyon and find the makings of a homemade wreath.  I think we knew it would be cold, but we didn't realize it would be SO cold that the children would whine the ENTIRE way.  I don't know how many times I heard, "I want to go back to Florida" from Caitlyn....poor child.

Eric was the only one who wasn't miserable.

Our rustic, but lovely and one of a kind wreath :)

Our little jumper

Eric LOVES to jump in his jumper.  At first we had it in a sort of remote doorway, which he wasn't so fond of, understandable so.  When we moved it to the doorway by the stairs, more in the center of the action, he loved it. 

One night we didn't realize that Eric was loosing the battle to sleep...it was really cute!

Eric falling asleep in the jumper.

Andrew's 3rd birthday

At the risk of making any cake decorators out there REALLY jealous, I'll go ahead and post Andrew's birthday cake.  I know...it's really good.  Fortunately I don't think that my 3 year old cared how amazing it really was.  He wanted a fish cake.  So that's what he got.

Andrew's presents - some weird angle...not sure what happened.

Singing happy birthday...

Andrew opening a couple of presents.  Caitlyn is obsessed lately with wrapping household items and giving them away.  Made for a really fun Christmas....

When you need some buffalo chicken, you need some buffalo chicken

After Dan got his wisdom teeth pulled, he took several weeks to get back to normal eating.  Even though his teeth were not feeling great, he certainly didn't have a lack of appetite, so it was quite torturous to not be able to eat.  One night I saw him over in the kitchen blending up some buffalo chicken strips and mashed potatoes.   I guess you gotta get your fill some way!

More snow

Lucky for the kids, they have Sara to go out and play when mom and dad are being lazy.  But we did have the hot chocolate ready for when they came in!

This "mountain" of snow stayed in the yard for WEEKS.  In fact, this was back in the beginning of November, and I'm pretty sure that a small part of it is still there.  We've had some fairly warm days, but this pile of snow refuses to melt all the way.

BYU Football Game

Dan bought tickets to take Jeffrey to a BYU football game several weeks before the game.  We didn't realize when he bought them, it would be for the day after he got his wisdom teeth pulled.  We figured odds were good that he wouldn't feel up to a game the day after surgery. We lucked out, however, and Lewis ended up with several extra tickets for a game BEFORE the game that we had tickets for.  We sold our tickets, took advantage of Lewis and went to the game.  We had great seat and a great time.  I thought for sure Jeffrey would want to come with me when I asked if he wanted to come choose a snack from the concession stand, but he said, "I don't want to miss the game!"  So, we sat there through all 4 COLD quarters.  Fun times!

Of course Sara took more/better pictures!
http://sara-realisticallyunrealistic.blogspot.com/2011/12/gooooooooo-cougars.html

Let it snow....

Lucky for us, when Sara moved out here, she brought a supply of winter clothes that had been under my parent's pool table.  70s and 80s?  Perhaps.  Warm?  For sure!  We'll take it!

Halloween 2011

Jeffrey & Caitlyn decided that they wanted to be ghosts this year for Halloween, so it seemed easiest to just have all the kids be ghosts.  Downtown Springville had some trick or treating at all the shops along Main Street and BYU had a "Spooktacular" (again, Sara blogged about it...http://sara-realisticallyunrealistic.blogspot.com/2011/10/spooktacular.html) that we attended.  So between that and the 4-ward trunk or treat, the kids definitely got more than their fair shares of Halloween candy!

Don't know where Caitlyn picked up this scary face!

Andrew with his haul.

Jeffrey's stash.

Again, fierce Caitlyn & her goodies.

The award that the kids won at BYU's Spooktacular - obviously not a terribly scary crowd if our kids won!