"Winter" Running

Running this summer:


Running today:

It was probably in the high 40s, and notice the lack of training wheels!

2 Generations

The back row used to be playdate buddies, and now the kids in the front row are.  AND, there is a trio of baby brothers to match!  Since school is out, they are all together today.  

Retakes

Ethan's retakes turned out much better. It didn't hurt that I happened to be in his class volunteering when he was called for his pictures, so his teacher sent me with him to help get a better smile.

Let the Holiday Craziness Begin!

This weekend was one of those holiday weekends with more activities than we could attend.

Friday we had a really fun time at a gingerbread house building contest.  We didn't realize how serious our competitors took it before we got there  There was some serious craftmanship, but somehow ours ended up winning.  We started out with just a sleigh, but an hour and a half into our two hours, we were trying to figure out how to step it up to the level of all the other creations, so we turned the board into a roof with a chimney.  It is hard to tell here, but it is propped up on a diagonal.  Our title was "Up on the Housetop".  Without that last minute idea, I'm sure we would have been far in last place!

Saturday the Children's Museum brought a truckload of snow for the kids to play in.  It got rained on before the museum opened, but it was still a lot of fun.

Tentatively kicking it.

Jumping on the snow.

I gave in and bought the boys a snowball maker to share.  They actually did a really good job of sharing it.

The Phoenix Coyotes mascot was there and played with the kids.

After the museum, Ethan went to a friend's birthday party.  

After naps we went to dinner with Grammy and Art.  They are good sports to be patient with 3 small kids in a restaurant.

After dinner, we hit the end of our ward Christmas party, and then came home to put the kids to bed well after bed time.

Despite all these activities, we still missed at least one party and a library winter wonderland festival.  

I was working in the evening and heard there was a meteor shower peaking at 11pm.  So I went out for about 2 minutes and got to see 2 shooting stars.

Let the Record Show...

We now have three kids!

I have been working on updating picture frames around the house so that they better reflect our current family.

Our family picture wall now has an updated family picture, picture of me and Lisa on our 30th birthday, picture of my siblings with our spouses, and picture of my side of the family with my Dad.  I need to get a few more frames, but I've also taped up some pictures from our family photo shoot and Mike with his mom and siblings to experiment with the layout.

This wall above the stairs is a favorite for our boys.  Ethan and Benton like to point it out to all of their friends and Asher always smiles and bounces when he sees the pictures.  Up until today there were only two frames.  Now we have all three up and they have the most recent portraits of our boys.

The picture frames in the nursery only had baby pictures of Ethan until this week.  Now all three boys are featured.

Oh Costco Tree

We got our Christmas tree at Costco for the first time last night. They have a big truck of tied up trees, so it takes away the fun of picking your perfect tree, but the price was good, and when we unwrapped it, it turned out to be a beautiful tree! And my house smells like Christmas! We decided to get it in the stand while it was still wrapped.  That made the process much easier. BUT, after unwrapping it, we were surprised with huge clumps of dead needles all through the tree.  Look at that pile of needles I was able to brush out of the tree! Thank goodness for tile!