Christmas 2008

I was, unfortunately, very negligent at taking pictures this Christmas. BUT, here are a few pics of the boys finding their Santa gifts Christmas morning... a book, play kitchen with food, and a soccer ball and net. The kitchen was an absolute doozy to put together -- a million pieces and 2 1/2 hours of assembly time. You'll have to ask Santa for more specific details!!! ;-)

Christmas was wonderful. We went out to the Christmas Eve service at our church, drove around to see some Christmas lights, and then came home to get the boys ready for bed and put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Micah thought this was fascinating! Christmas day was busy as the whole family came out from Payson to join us (our fam and my parents who were in town) for gift-opening and Christmas dinner. It was quite a trek for them as it was pooring down snow the whole way. Thankfully they made it safely, in about 3 1/2 hours time (it is usually a 2 hour drive at most). We had a great time celebrating together and stuffing overselves silly.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!!

Snow play!

The boys, my hubby included, hit the snow in the early afternoon hours on Christmas Eve! Here are some photos of their fun.

All bundled up!

My boys

Where'd Daddy go?

The pups had fun too -- especially Ariel!

Warming up with hot cocoa

Thanksgiving trip to the northwest ... Part II

Micah doing his best to con Andrea into just one more game of Candyland.

Morning at the park

The spinning poll was amazing. I think the adults had more fun than the kids. Jake actually fell and bounced his head off the ground like a basketball after taking his first spin. It was pretty histerical - for those of you concerned, he was just fine! ;-)

Micah wearing Elliott's shoes. My how his feet have grown! ;-)

We had so much fun! Thanks for the wonderful trip, Elliott and Andrea!

Thanksgiving trip to the northwest ... Part I

We ventured up north to the Portland, Oregon / Vancouver, Washington area to visit good friends Elliott and Andrea for Thanksgiving this year. As always, we had a wonderful time together - playing plenty of Settlers and Pinochle - and truly enjoyed seeing such a gorgeous part of the country. The following pictures should provide a pretty good summation of our trip...

Oregon Zoolights

Making & enjoying chocolate cupcakes...yumm!

Christmas tree hunting

Breakfast and light shopping at Bob's Red Mill

Mr. Model yet again :-)

Day at the Phoenix Zoo

Jake had to work at Phoenix Children's Hospital on Friday, so the boys and I decided to venture along for the day to go to the zoo. Jamie, Nathan and Bryce met us there and we all had such a wonderful time! It was so nice to spend the day out in the fresh air. The weather was absolutely perfect - in the 70s all day! We may have to make a November zoo trip an annual tradition. Here are some pics from the day...

The big boys did a good job holding on to the little guys!

Nathan & Bryce

Micah & Nathan by the Baboons

Caden & Micah chillin' in the double stroller

(This only lasted a few minutes...Micah walked just about the whole day.)

Jake ended up being stuck in surgery for about 10 hours...much longer than anticipated... so we did not get home until almost 11pm. The boys were such troopers. Thankfully Jamie's mother-in-law lives close by so we crashed at her house until we were able to meet up with Jake for dinner.

Mr. Model

Micah looked so handsome the other day that I asked him to pose for some pictures. They turned out so darn cute and he really got into posing (as if you can't tell).

Very GQ

Silly one

One of the good moments...

We have lots of "moments" around here. Many are good. Many not so good -- those usually involve the word "mine!". Here are some pictures from a good brotherly moment this morning...

Our talking goof-ball!

Okay, so I know I only promised three posts in my "coming soon" blog, but here is an extra one for good measure. I wanted to make note of our little talking Caden. It seems like he has really started talking so much more in the last few weeks. He says more than what is listed below, but here are some of his latest words...

• Daddy! (He has said "dada" for a long time, but recently made the very emphatic switch to "daddy".)


• Mama (FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!)


• Elmo (Which did come before "mama" but we'll pretend that's not true, okay?)


• Light


• Ariel


• Car


• Cah (short for Micah)


• Nana (As in my mom, not a banana.)


• On


• Varoom-room (While playing with cars and trucks.)


• Bye-bye


• See you!


• Mickey (which actually sounds a lot more like "hee-hee")


• Truck


• Eat (He says this A LOT! He likes his chow.)


• Cheese (when smiling for the camera)


• Cracker


• Milk

First snow of the season!

Apparently we are entering winter again here in Flagstaff. While today has warmed up quite nicely into the upper 50s, Sunday evening was a different story. Here are some pics of the first snow of the season... we got a good coating though most of it has alreay melted away.

And so it began...

...later that night...

Micah's 3rd Birthday Party

Micah had so much fun celebrating his birthday - and the party was simply icing on the cake for him. I don't think I have ever seen him smile bigger than when everyone was singing the happy birthday song to him. Nothing like being the complete center of attention! We had a great turnout and he got lots of great presents that he and Caden are both enjoying.

I snagged this pic from Kristen's blog (thanks!)... it captured his goofy smile while being sung to the best!

For as much fun as Micah had with his birthday and party he was actually acting strangely all week long. This was the first year where he was really aware of his birthday and had been counting down to it for at least two months. I think he had built the occasion up in his head as this amazingly perfect time where he could do anything he wanted. Sort of funny ;-). So, as a result, he had a few royal meltdowns when he was told "no".... "but it's MY BIRTHDAY!!!" We even had to have a chat with him about sharing his birthday cake. He wanted it all to himself. Oy-yoy!!!

As always, here are pics...

Sorry for the cut-off head... he wouldn't hold still! ;-)