Merry Christmas 2013

 We were particularly jolly around our house with these Santa hats this year. I made seven of these santa hats a couple years ago. Noah currently loves putting on hats, so having seven of these to choose from to wear and spread around the house was a daily activity. Noah would put the hat on and say "Ho Ho," which is also how he says santa.

Christmas Eve we were with the Robbins family decorating gingerbread houses.

We spent Christmas Eve night at Grandma Diane's and awoke to find that Santa followed us there! Jason was very excited to get his new Angry Bird toys.

We spent the afternoon sledding with Grandma Diane, Grandpa Jesse, and the Neuenschwanders. It was so much fun.

Girls' Trip to Chicago

Brooke, Holly, Megan, my mom, and I got away for a girls' trip to Chicago! It was our first time doing a girls-only trip together, and we had a blast. It was actually my first time visiting Chicago. Next time we go somewhere we hope Heather, Natalie, and Karren can come as well. Highlights from the trip include:

• Bus tour around the city

• Field Museum of Natural History

• The Art Institute

• Millenium Park

• Walking around the city together (although it was quite cold)

• An off-broadway play of Great Expectations
• And eating lots of good food, or course, including real Chicago style pizza. This was my first time ever trying it, and I liked it. 

Noah update

I haven't done an update on my Noah for a while. He is 21 months old and already acting and looking like he is two. Noah recently revolted against his high-chair, although we compromised and he still eats soup and cereal in his high-chair. Noah loves to stack blocks, play with cars, and jump around on pillows that are constantly on the floor. He loves animals, both real and pretend. Life feels pretty good for Noah if he can pet at least one live animal each day. Most of the time Noah is carrying around something silky (blanket, bear, ribbon, etc.) in one hand while he takes his fingers in and out of his mouth with the other. Noah LOVES for us to read stories, and he will often pull out books to look at pictures on his own.

The only thing that gives him away as not being two is his speech. He is not nearly as talkative as Jason was, but he has a few words. They are mama, dada, ball, hi, duck, kitty, puppy, hee-haw, boo-boo, uh-oh, choo-choo, no, and EWWW! Most of the time Noah reminds us of Curious George because he makes sounds like George all the time. No wonder because my boys love to watch Curious George. Oh and I almost forgot that he also says "me" when he wants something. It's pretty funny because sometimes we have a real conversation when I ask something like "Who wants breakfast?" and he says, "Me!"

This flimsy construction hat is a recent favorite for Noah. He loves to walk around with it on. You can also see him holding Jason's green silky bear. Noah kept taking it from Jason's room, so I commented to Jason that we would probably buy one for Noah for Christmas. Jason promptly decided to give his green bear to Noah and would instead receive the new one for Christmas! I think it is a fair trade because both boys are happy. Now Noah sleeps with this green bear every night instead of Jason.

Lately I find myself putting Noah's clothes away in Jason's room on accident because it doesn't seem like that long ago since Jason was wearing these same 2T clothes.

Nursery time in church is getting easier-- he settles down quicker after we leave him. However, when we pick him up, he gets all pouty as if to say "I can't believe you left me!"

Halloween

Jason was so solid in his answer all October long-- he wanted to be "Hulk" for Halloween. So he surprised me when our week-long string of parties hit and he changed it up a bit.

At the ward party and on Halloween night trick-or-treating he was a Star Wars Angry Bird.

At his pre-school party and Grandma Diane's party he was Batman.

And at Thanksgiving Point and his friend's birthday party he was the Incredible Hulk.

Noah was always a Tiger.

Kyle dressed up once as Batman, and I dressed up once as a pirate.

Some pictures from our visit to Cornbelly's. 

Kyle's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Kyle. We are so happy having you in our lives.

7 Years of Us

Kyle and I celebrated our 7th anniversary by going on 7 dates. Those 7 dates were a combination of big dates (we had a babysitter) and small dates (we stayed home). Our big dates took us to a Jazz game, a homecoming dance, the temple, and dinner at Macaroni Grill. We had a blast going on all those dates together, so next year we'll probably do it again with 8 dates for 8 years.

I love you, Kyle!

First Time Playing Soccer

Jason played soccer for the first time this fall. He played just how Kyle and I remember playing soccer as kids-- a lot of running around, but not really going after the ball. Jason played on a team with his friend Isaak.

 Jason's faithful supporter came to all the games.

Huntington Beach Day

The boys got to see the beach for the first time, and they loved it. We went on a Thursday morning, which was perfect-- not too busy and easy to find parking. We also got to visit our friends Adam and Lisa Hall that day, who are our friends from college. We wish we didn't live so far apart, so it was fun to visit. 

Disneyland

We spent two days in the Disneyland Park. Our hotel was only a fifteen minute walk from Disneyland, which was really great. After pushing our boys to exhaustion all day in California Adventure, we figured out we would be happier walking back to the hotel for a mid-day nap/break. Our hotel room was a two-room suite, which I insisted on so that we could actually sleep. The boys did miraculously well sleeping together, but I think thoroughly wearing them out each day had something to do with that.

Jason got really scared by Frank on the Radiator Racers ride, which made him nervous to do any other ride that went in the dark. I created a "Brave Chart" where he could earn a sticker each time he was brave and went on a "dark" ride. After earning a certain amount of stickers, he got to choose a souvenir. This brave chart worked out great. And what did Jason choose for his souvenir? Why another Lightning McQueen car, or course! But this one was different-- it had an orange construction cone glued to the hood of the car-- so of course he needed it. Sadly, this poor car got lost in our hotel room.

We had SO much fun with Grandma and Grandpa Hunsaker. We felt spoiled having them all to ourselves. Noah was their little buddy, happily going on almost all of the rides with them since Jason was a little scared and needed his parents close by.

Favorite Rides: "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Toy Story" for Jason. "Dumbo" and "Carousel" for Noah. "Radiator Racers" and "Tea cups" for Kate. "Toy Story" for Kyle.

Least Favorite Rides: "Radiator Racers" and "Alice in Wonderland" for Jason. Noah didn't like any ride that he couldn't go on. "Matterhorn" for Kate. "Star Tours" for Kyle.

We will always remember how hilarious it was watching These three cram into this rocket. I was afraid we we need some grease to get them out.

Linda, Valerie, and Sienna joined us on our last day in Disneyland, which was a lot of fun.

Jason keeps asking when we can go again. I don't know the answer to that, but I hope it is sooner rather than later.

California Adventure

We took our boys on their first California road trip. Our plan was to meet up with Grandpa and Grandma Hunsaker in Anaheim to do Disneyland together. Kyle and I chose to drive, and we invited Grandma Linda to ride with us so she could see Valerie, who lives in California. It was fun having Grandma Linda along. We stayed in St. George both ways to break up the drive. Kyle's grandparents were kind and let us stay at their house there.

Our worst adventure was our car breaking down on the freeway on our way to California. Our fuel pump decided to give out on us. We were stuck on the side of the road for over an hour while we figure things out and waited for a tow truck to come get us. We did have many tender mercies throughout the ordeal:

•  We were in civilization! Tow trucks and mechanics were close by. 
• The boys were happy playing out of their car seats while we waited in the car-- they were too little to be scared.
• The temperature was not too hot, otherwise we would have been way too uncomfortable in our car.
• Valerie was only an hour away, so Sean came and picked the five of us up. We crammed all six of us and all our bags into his car. 
• We got our car into a mechanic's shop before it closed for the weekend. 
• They were able to fix the problem in a day, so we got our car back in plenty of time for our drive home.
• My dad was able to drive Kyle the hour and an half trip (one way) to pick up the car.

Here are pictures from our day in California Adventure. Cars Land was magical for the boys. I am grateful Noah was tall enough to go on all the kids rides because he was always anxious to do another.

I love these Mickey Mouse ice cream treats!