Joined the Club

Well, it is official, we have finally joined the rank (and have done something that as I teenager I swore I would never do). We are the new owners of a Mini-van.

We have been looking into getting a second car for almost a year now. The more we thought about it, a minivan made the most since. After a bunch of research, we decided that the Kia Sedona was what we wanted. It is ranked right behind the Odyssey and the Senia, but still $10,000 cheaper.

So we have been looking at, and test driving the Sedona for a while now, and yesterday was the fateful day, the price was right, the miles low, and the color...well it is blue.

I am so excited!!

Happy Birthday to Tal, Happy New Year to You!

It does not seem like a whole year ago that we were having a New Years Eve party, and Talmage decided to interrupt it. But Here we are one year later having a Birthday/New Years Eve Party. I can not believe how quickly this past year has gone. Wow, the older I get, the faster time slips away, and I am not even that old.

We had a pretty fun party. I thought it was so much fun to celibate both New Years Eve, and Tally's Birthday. We had a great spread of food, all the yummy finger foods, a great cake, presents, a New Years Countdown. How could it get better? I always like to make a creative cake for birthday parties. This time I made a Cookie Monster cake. I was so proud of it, and my boys loved it, especially Tal.

After we did all the Birthday festivities, we decied to do the New Year Countdown at 9:30 (Midnight is just a bit too late for my boys, and their cousins). Holy Cow, I think it was my favorite count down ever. Kids just make Holidays fun. They all ran through the house yelling and screaming, tooting on horns, and dancing around.

After the 9:30 Countdown, we figured that there was no way a Midnight Countdown would even compair, so everyone went home. And I fully intend on being in bed by Midnight.

Happy New Year!!!

My Big Brave Boys

My boys are growing up. They are venturing out, trying new things. Talmage started walking last night. I gotta say, it happened a bit earlier than I expected, Owen did not walk until 13 months, and Tal is not yet one. He has been taking a few small steps between Tom and me for a couple of weeks. But last night, Tal was standing up, holding on to the couch, and Tom was sitting in the chair across the room. He just looked at Tom,put his hands up in the air, and off he went. He hasn't stopped since.
Here is an action shot of some of his first solo steps:
Now, Owen, is doing his own kind of growing up. He has been a bit hessitant to play with his new bike. I think the whole Two-Wheel thing is stairing him. So I desided to show him some videos of other little kids playing on their bikes, in hopes to incourage him. So this is what I showed him (these are videos from the makers of his balance bike):





Man, that did the trick. He loves his bike now. He still doen't quite sit on it, but he loves running with it between his legs, and his favorite thing is to do "jumps." It is so cute, he just pulls up on the handle bars, making the wheels bounce. Love it!

Merry Christmas to all!

I love Christmas! I loved the Christmas magic when I was little, and now I love trying to create it for my boys. I started Christmas chopoing this past summer, which I used to think people that Christmas shopped in the summer where crazy, but now I did it. Hey, sometimes you just find the coolest things, and if the price is right, why not. Mostly, I found things at garage sales. I figure, if it is in pristine condition, why should it matter where it came from. Anyway, most of my shopping was completed by the end of the summer, which made me happy, I figured I could spend December actually focusing on having a Christ centered Christmas.
Then I went to the Big Sale at Joann's the day after Thanksgiving, where I got struck with all these brillian ideas of thing I could make for my boys for Christmas. Suddenly, December turned into a month of frantic sewing. Hooded towels, blankets, crayon rolls, matching shirts for Tom, Owen, and Tal, I-Spy Bags. Yep, Lots of sewing. Don't worry, I think we still had a fairly Spiritual Christmas, but I deffinately felt the Christmas pressure this year.

Santa was really nice to the boys this year. Tal got a Fisher Price Noahs Ark, and a tool box, and Owen got an Elmo Chair and a Balance Strider Bike (Awesome!). It was pretty funny when we went to see what Santa left. I asked, "Owen, what do you see?"
He got all excited, "A Boat!!"
Tom asked, "What else?"
"Oh, tools!"
I ask, " Do you see anything else?"
"Elmo Chair!!!"
Really? Come on, the bike was leaning infront of the chair. Come on, it was totally the elephant in the room, and he was completely missing it.

Finally, he saw the bike, and I think he likes it, but he is still trying to figure out the whole two wheeler thing. And Tal loves his Noah and tools.

We also had a some wonderful family parties. I love spending time with family at Christmas. My brother and his family came to visit from Maryland. Tom's brother came down from Idaho Falls. My mom made nativity costumes, and had the grandkids dress up. We got to go to Tom's sister's Chior Concert down at Temple Square.

I just love this time of the year.

Shop til' you drop!

Ever get tired of all this Christmas shopping?



No kidding, he really fell asleep on top of Tom's shoulders. And man he was out, we are talking snoring, drooling, the works. He did not wake up for two more hours.

Vo-KID-ulary

I love to watch my kids grow. I love to see them figure out things, and make new connections. And I especially love to hear their vocabulary expound. Owen had been learning and using a lot of big words in the past couple of months. He does a pretty good job using them correctly, but his pronunciation of some words is pretty funny.
For example:
Motorcycle: he says Michael-cycle
Lightning McQueen: is pronounced Lie-Queen
Scriptures: Scrap-chores
Macaroni: Racaroni
Talmage: Taw-widge
Interesting: Distressing
Football: Hop-Ball, although he used to say Foodball.
"To Infinity and Beyond!": "Sitting in a car!"
Life Cereal is called Cracker Cereal
And KIX he calls Kendell Cereal (Kendell is his cousin).

But here is my favorite. Yesterday, Tom poured himself a tall glass of Orange Juice, then put it down on the table so he could make himself a sandwich. Owen sneaks up, grabs the glass, and takes a big ol' gulp, then says with a smile, "Mmmmm, that was Lidicious!”

The Hunt

One of our favorite Christmas Traditions we did in Oregon was cutting our own tree. Oregon supplies like 90% of all the Christmas Trees in the nation. So there are plenty of Tree farms around, that let you cut your own tree. It is so much fun, I was a little sad that we weren't going to be able to do this year, so we decided that we would get a permit, and go find a tree up in the Mountains.

It turns out that Idaho's Tree cutting laws are a lot more lenient than Utah's, so on Saturday, we headed up to Preston to get a Tree Permit, and start our Tree Hunt Adventure. When we got there, they told us they had just ran out of permits, and we would have to go to Mont Pilar (which is an hour East through the canyon), or wait till Monday to get a permit. For some odd reason, probably routed in High School rivalry, Tom HATES Mont Pilar, and decided that we were not about to grace the town with a visit. But I convinced him that this was just added to the Great Tree Hunt Adventure, and we went and got the permit, then head back to the canyon to find our tree.

Searching for the Tree was actually quite the event in and of it self. We had to hike in a little bit, so Tom tighted a sled to his waiste, so he could pull the kids up the trail. They loved it.

A couple of times, Tom thought we saw the perfect tree, and would leave the trail, and go waiding through the snow to take a closer look.

Meanwhile, Owen and Cousin Liam, who was hanging out with us for the day, played in the snow.

And Talmage stayed on the sled.

Finally, Tom found THE TREE.

It was not exactly easy for him to get it out because he keep falling down in chest deep snow (which was pretty funny to watch).

By the end, the boys where cold, and tired, and we had a beautiful tree.

All and all, I would say it was a pretty successful hunt. Tom, was a bit disappointed when we got the tree up in the house, he thinks that it looked more full out in the forest, which may be true, but I love it. I think that it turned out lovely.