Catching Up

Ok, so it's been a while since we have updated our blog and many things have happened in that time. I will try to catch up on the most exciting parts of our lives.

First, we moved into our home a little more than a year ago and are loving it. We have done a couple of house projects like painting the front room and one of the bedrooms.

The second and most exciting life changing event was the arrival of Aiden and Logan. Last February we learned that we would be expecting our first baby. That March we had our first ultrasound and that is when we were told that we would be having twins. We were both surprised and excited. I will never forget that feeling of excitment and then the feeling of doubt as to how were we going to handle two babies. The pregnacy went really well, there were no problems. I think the doctor was surprised at how well and how far Mandee was able to carry them. Our due date was set for October but the babies came September 14 just five weeks early. The best time to have a baby is 2am, at least for us. No one else was there and we got the attention of every nurse on duty that night. At 6:09am we welcomed Aiden followed by Logan at 6:11am.



Everyone was happy and healthy. The boys did not end up in the NICU, which is what are goal was. They were 4 and 5 pounds which also made it so that they were able to come home with us.
On Monday the boys will be 5 months old, oh how the time has flown by. Here are a few pictures of Aiden.











Logan







Here we are together as a family

June Report

While not as busy as May, we found a lot to do in June. Camshaft's birthday celebration started early, and by the first weekend of the month, the celebrations were already underway. Mandee was really excited and had to give Camshaft his birthday present early, Punch-Out! for the Wii. We've had a lot of fun with it so far. The birthday weekend started with a visit from Chelle and Victor. They came and had dinner and brought a cake. As a present, they gave Camshaft yet another Wii game, this time Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Camshaft is really enjoying that one as well, but Mandee hasn't found the time to try it out yet.



He finished the birthday celebrations with a trip to Mt. Green, where Camshaft's mom made some great wasabi salmon and she and his dad gave him a couple of shirts and an expansion to Camshaft's favorite board game, Arkham Horror. His team from work also took him to the Tona restaurant on 25th Street in Ogden.

We also went and saw Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian this month. We gave it mediocre reviews.



June was also our latest trip to Seattle and it's environs. Our first day there, we went to a little German town called Leavenworth, about 2 hours from Mandee's parent's home in Snohomish. While there, we browsed the shops and ate bratwirsts and German cookies.

On our second day, we took a ferry out to Whidbey Island to Fort Casey. The fort was built in 1897 to protect the Puget Sound. Luckily, it wasn't really used for anything but training and watching the water, but it makes for a nice park today, where people stroll the run-down fort and fly kites near the neighboring Admirality Head Lighthouse. We finished the trip with a seafood barbecue put on by Mandee's mom and dad that consisted of salmon, bacon-wrapped scallops and shrimp puffs. That meal alone would have made the whole trip worth while.

We also got a chance to catch a Raptor's game through Camshaft's work. Chelle, Victor, Michelle, Patrick, and Ruby. The Raptors lost, but it was good to get out and enjoy the summer.

The last weekend of June was Camshaft's family reunion. We got an early start by having Decker and Brennan over for a sleepover the night before. We played a lot of Wii, watched a lot of Clone Wars, played Star Wars, and did some geocaching before heading up to the reunion.

The reunion itself was a great chance to see the family. We started out with a 50s diner dinner, then played a game where we had to try the food that everyone brought. The next day after breakfast, we headed up to Layton Surf 'n Swim and spent a nice afternoon there hanging out and floating the wave pool. It all wrapped up with a family pizza party and an auction where Mandee donated a couple of hand-made stuffed animals to raise money for next year.

But all in all, we stayed busy and had a lot of fun. We will see if we can't get a few pictures of the family reunion and Raptor's game posted at some point on the blog. We hope that everyone is having a great summer and we will keep you posted on the rest.

May Reduction

So our May was a super busy month that continued into June. We've had a ton of things going on and are finally able to update our blog with all our May activities.

Things started off with Camshaft's Dad's birthday. We had the whole family at the Golden Dynasty restaurant and ate a ton of food and cake and opened presents. It was great having the whole family together under one roof. Luckily, we are able to do that with Camshaft's family quite often, as everyone is under an hour away from everyone else, but we still wish we could do it more often.

We also got to see the new Star Trek movie. For once, our decision on it was unanimous. We both really liked it. It got rid of some of the rubbish that made the old Star Trek kind of hard to watch at times and emphasized the stuff that made it interesting. It also had a lot of cool action. For anyone with any sort of interest in sci-fi, it made for a fun movie.

The weekend after was Chelle and Victor's wedding. We spent Friday hanging out with Mandee's family at her grandma's house in Cedar Hills. The girls had a final little shower, just with Mandee's mom's family, while the boys hung out at Cabella's and went to see Wolverine (Camshaft gives it a thumbs-down). Saturday was a beautiful, sunny day. They were married in the Draper Temple. Here's a few pictures to give a feel for the day:



The weekend after, we decided to head down south for the Memorial Day weekend, and spent a few days in St. George and Las Vegas. Upon getting there, we spent some time in downtown St. George, where we shopped at the outlets, geocached, and went for a walk to Brigham Young's winter home.

The next day we went to Vegas and walked the strip, and did we ever walk. We started at Circus Circus and gradually wound our way through the casinos to eventually turn around at Mandalay Bay. That's pretty much every casino on the west side of the strip. Our goal next time is to tackle the east side. It was a great time, but we were very tired afterward. And no, we didn't win anything. We didn't even end up gambling. We searched high and low for a slot machine that would just accept quarters, but we didn't see any anywhere. Even the coin slots wanted you to put in dollars or a credit card. But we did get a lot of cool shot glasses and magnets for our collection. We had a celebrity sighting too. Ironic that Pete Rose was in Vegas... but we guess he doesn't have to worry about that now...

The next weekend we were off again, this time to Olathe, Colorado, to help Greg move. We took a train to Grand Junction. It was an interesting experience. We had a woman behind us snore (very loudly) for almost the entire trip. There was also someone close to us that had the WORST B. O. we had probably ever smelled. One of the conductors eventually had to come back with air freshener and spray half the bottle in our area to get the stank out. But all in all it was a fun ride. It was nice being able to relax the whole time and not have to worry about someone driving.

So anyway, while we were not moving, we did take some time to see some of the local spots before going back. We first headed to Ouray, a small touristy town smashed among the mountains, where we strolled around and enjoyed the scenery and shops. It was named after a Ute Indian chief that is famous for trying to broker peace between the local Native American tribes and the White settlers.

Besides Ouray, we also hit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It was very spectacular and interesting. We learned that it was also largely unexplored until 1901. After seeing a quick movie a the visitor's center, we took a long drive going up to the highest point in the canyon, descending down to the lowest point. Greg's breaks sure did smell by the time we got to the botton.









So anyway, yea, a busy month. But a momorable one. We are also looking forward to June, with our Seattle trip and Camshaft's family reunion!

April Recapitulation

Late report. Sorry. We just haven't been able to find the time to write this up until tonight. Everything is going well and we have had another busy month.

April started with April Fool's Day thinking Holli was going to get her mission call that day, prepared for any nonsense that may come because of the day, and even met at Red Robin to hear the news, but alas it was a day late. But the great news is she is going to the Roseville CA mission.

We had another adventure with General Conference. Hilary dropped the nephews off and we had a slumber party over at our townhouse. Once the parent's left, the party started, according to the boys. We spent all night playing Wii. At 10:00 Mandee and Camshaft were ready to go to bed, so they put the Clone Wars series on, hoping the boys would fall asleep, but they both outlasted their aunt and uncle and didn't actually doze off until well after midnight. The rest of General Conference was good too, if not quite as exciting. We had the boys over once again later in the month, this time along with Heidi. They boys had a blast, but Heidi was very melancholy. It was the longest that she had ever been without her Mom! But she did pretty good and only cried a little bit.

Mandee's Mom and Dad came to town to visit Easter weekend to take Holli through the temple. We also had everyone, including the Villasmils, over for easter dinner. The food was good. The rest of the week was spent getting more last-minute prep done for the May wedding.

As far as excursions go, this month was fairly quiet. We did take a trip up to Morgan and Devil's Slide and had lunch at Steph's Diner, which is owned by Camshaft's good friend JR. We drove around the town and Camshaft showed Mandee all his old stomping grounds like the school, fair grounds, Como, and Commercial Street.

So anyway, that's the month in a nutshell. Hopefully, we will get May's update out a bit sooner in the month.

March Rehash

So, another month has come and gone. We stay busy and try our best to enjoy life like always.

The month started with the baby blessing of our new little niece, Ruby, the first day of the month. It was great to see Camshaft's family and the old friends that gathered for this special day.

In fact, we did a lot with the family over the past month, and saw pretty much everyone at one time or another, except Mandee's Mom and Dad in Seattle, that didn't quite make it down this past month. Some of the activities included Chelle's birthday, Greg staying a night to go to a job convention, Patrick, Michelle, and Sean coming over for a game night, and going up to Mt. Green for St. Patrick's day to visit Camshaft's parents and partake of the Irish feast that Camshaft's mom had made.

We also had Holli at the house for a weekend and went to the Gateway to hang out for an afternoon. Lunch was furnished by Costa Vida and the entertainment by the Clark Planetarium. We saw Under the Sea 3D. Getting memberships for the Clark Planetarium has been a great investment. For only $25/year, we have made it worth the price at least 2 times over and have seen a ton of cool an interesting movies and laser shows while visiting. It's become one of our favorite dates.

Mid-month, Disney on Ice was also in town. We went down with Holli, Victor, and Chelle to Energy Solutions Arena and watched the show. Mandee had a great time, and Camshaft had a good time hanging out with Mandee, and hey, at least he got nachos. And he got to make fun of Holli's Flounder hat.

Another one of our favorite hang-outs, the Terrace playhouse, had been playing the Music Man, so we decided to go and check it out. It was not our favorite, and like always, Mandee enjoyed it a little more than Camshaft. But it was very well produced, and was one of the more elaborate and larger plays we have seen there. Camshaft could not help quoting the Simpsons episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" every chance he got.

We are also working on a new Wii game. We beat Dokapon Kingdom, so we bought Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (almost takes two breaths to say) for our Wii and DS so we can play with each other simultaneously. There's still a lot left to do, as we bought it towards the end of the month, so we will be working on it for a while yet.



So that's about it. We are excited for April (Conference, Easter, mission calls, wedding prep) and will keep posting about what we are doing.

February Rundown

Well, things are finally calming down a bit since the hectic months surrounding our wedding. In February we had a bit more time to relax (and no one with major illnesses), but we did do some fun things.

Valentine's Day ended up being a lot of fun for both of us We went up to Cache valley to the Providence Inn and spent the weekend up there. It was a really nice bed and breakfast that not only included the room, but also all the popcorn, hot chocolate and cookies that you could eat, as well as free DVDs to play in the rooms.

While up there, Camshaft decided to take Mandee on a tour of all of his old haunts while at USU. We drove by all his old apartments and walked around campus (Which has changed a lot since he attended school there, with the new library and whatnot). We had dinner and lunch at the Bluebird and El Toro Viejo, before ending up at Hilary and Mark's for a good visit with them and the kids.

Mandee's family also made a trip to Utah again to help out with Chelle's wedding. The boys and girls went their separate ways for much of the visit, but we got together again to eat at Golden Dynasy and to go see the 3D movie Coraline. The design and the 3D was cool and we decided we didn't hate it, but it was really wierd and didn't explain a lot of things. Also, really not a movie for kids, as there is a lot of creepiness all over.

But other than that, we have been settling in on a routine, inviting family to come over when they are in town or available, and just going to work and enjoying each other's company. We have been playing a lot of Dokapon Kingdom on the Wii, Mandee has been quilting and cross stitching, while Camshaft plays Warhammer: Age of Reckoning with his boyz on Thursday nights.

So that's that. Hope everyone else is doing well these days.

January Round-Up!

Ok, Let's see, what did we do in January?

Well, for New Year's we ended up at Chelle's house celebrating with her, Victor, Greg and Holli. Camshaft somehow convinced them to try out the new edition of one of his favorite board games, Talisman! And they actually kind of liked it, at least they said they did. We spent the night and woke up early. Mandee went with the girls to shop and quilt, and Camshaft went up to Mt. Green to hang with his boyz.

And big news! Patrick and Michelle had their baby, a sweet little blonde baby girl named Ruby. We are an aunt and uncle again!

We also saw the movie Bride Wars with Mandee's sisters. Reviews were very mixed. Mandee thought it was entertaining. Camshaft can't quite put into words what he thought of it, but it was pretty much all negative. But it was fun to spend an evening together.

Little Heidi also had her birthday! She turned 1. We got her a Glow Worm, which she really seemed to like. We had a good time seeing Camshaft's family.

Mandee's mom also came up from Seattle to help Chelle prepare for her wedding. Mandee tagged along while Camshaft went and hung with his boyz. See Chelle and Holli's blogs for more details!

We have been trying to see most of the plays at the Washigton Terrace Playhouse since we started dating. Right now they are playing Blithe Spirit. It was an interesting crowd. Looks like there was some sort of high school drama conference going on. Luckily, they seemed at least somewhat serious about it, and they were fairly well-behaved while the play was going. It was a funny story about an author, who's wife had died and had re-married, that invites a medium over to his house to do some research for a book that he's writing. Well, the medium ends up summoning the spirit of his dead wife to the house and hijinks ensue! We quite enjoyed this one and was one of Camshaft's favorite's so far.

As a wrap up, we went and toured the Draper Temple. What can you say about temples that hasn't already been said? It was very beautiful. Its dimensions were interesting though. They are saying that it isn't what they call a "small" temple, but it didn't seem full size either. Some of the remarkable features included, a baptismal font decorated with cattails (besides the regular bulls) two small ordinance rooms decorated with murals, and a spectacular chandalier in the celetial room.

After the temple, we drove up to Mt. Green and had a Chinese New Year's celebration with Camshaft's family. We enjoyed hot and sour soup, won tons, char siu bau, potstickers, sweet and sour chicken, orange beef, fried rice with lop charg (not sure how to spell that) and almond cookies. We enjoyed the rest of the evening with the family and played Crossbows and Catapults and Lego Star Wars with the boys. Oh and BTW, it is the Year of the Ox!

Well, we think that about covers everying for January! Hope everyone is having a great year so far!