Aidan Learns to Wave Bye-Bye

Here's a video of Aidan just learning how to wave bye-bye and of Gavin and Connor eating lunch and trying to help Aidan figure out how to wave.

Aidan's First Haircut!

It's hard to see just how scruffy Aidan was looking because his blonde hair doesn't show up the best in pictures, but it was getting bad. I had given him a bath that morning and noticed that with his hair wet it went to his shoulders in the back...almost like a mullet...yeah, definitely not good! So, we drove over to Jason's Mom's house where she has a hair shop, and she offered to cut Aidan's hair if I held him. He actually sat really still while we cut his hair as long as we let him hold onto his own comb!
The before shot.

After Jason's Mom was done cutting Aidan's hair.

Some after shots. Aidan was definitely done sitting still by this point and kept trying to wiggle away before I could take his picture but, luckily, I got a couple of good ones!

Sledding!

Jason's cousin works up at a place called Badger Creek that is owned by the college here, and he invited us to go sledding. There's a really fun hill there that has these cords that pull you up on your sled, so you can go sledding down the hill over and over again without getting tired! There was also a little hut there to get your sleds and to warm up. The first time Connor and I went down, we accidentally got turned around and went down the hill backwards! That was a little crazy, but fun! Later, Gavin went down the hill by himself and the same thing happened to him, and he thought it was great! It was a little windy outside that day, so Connor didn't last too long (he hates being cold!), but Gavin stayed outside with Daddy for a long time after I took Connor back to the house Jason's cousin is staying at.


The sled shed.

Where you would grab a hold and get pulled up the hill.

Sledding!


Jason and I decided to have a race down the hill...he swears that he and Gavin beat Connor and me, but...the proof is in the pictures!

Bowling

My sister-in-law, Angie, and I took our kids bowling over the holidays. Gavin & Connor had so much fun! It was so entertaining to watch them. When Connor would get up there, we were always nervous about which lane his ball would end up in because he was determined to throw the ball himself. My nephews, Justin & Tyler, were so patient with my boys and helped them a lot. My boys LOVE their cousins and are always sad when they go back to Boise and they don't get to see as much of them anymore.

Here are some of Connor's wild throws!


After throwing the ball, Connor would walk away and wait for his ball to come back up even before it hit the pins! He loved watching his ball come back up!

It took a while (a long while!) for the kid's bowling balls to actually make its way down the ally and hit the pins, so the kids would "take a little rest" sometimes while they waited for their ball to make it to the pins! A couple of times I was worried that the ball wouldn't make it all the way down the ally, but luckily that didn't happen!


Angie, Aidan and me cheering for our bowlers!

My nephews!

After the kids were done bowling they all wanted to get some subzero ice cream that they freeze right in front of you with dry ice. I decided to get a large for the kids and me to share. Well, Gavin and Connor had much more fun just watching the ice cream being made with all the smoke from the dry ice. When it came to actually eating the ice cream, they each took about three bites and said they were done! The ice cream was good, but my kids don't like to sit for anything! So, it was up to Aidan to do damage control with the ice cream, and he didn't mind one bit!

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve we were at Jason's parent's house. Jason's sister, Angie, and her kids and Jason's brother, Travis and his family were able to visit from Boise and Utah. We had fun staying up playing games while the kids played video games and slept in a fort!
Here are Jason and his mom getting the fort ready for the kids.

The kids in the fort.

Playing games.

Here we are at midnight! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Video

Just Getting Started with the Fun...

Gavin came in my room this morning and whispered to me, "Mom, Santa came, but he didn't bring me any coal...why?" I said, "Well, Santa probably knows what a good boy you are." That's when he said, "Well, I've been good except for yesterday, but he still didn't bring me any coal!" (Yesterday was a rough day for him, so apparently he thought he'd been bad enough to deserve coal for Christmas, but he never said a word about it last night! No wonder he couldn't sleep. I just thought he was excited! Silly boy!) The kids got to digging into their stockings and shared some of their chocolate with Aidan.

Gavin sucking on a piece of chocolate and opening his presents...multi-tasking!

Here's Connor telling us that he asked Santa for a train, and he got a train!

Aidan playing.

Getting down to the business of opening the presents!

Christmas Fun

Opening the gifts.

Aidan needed lots of help staying focused on the opening of the gifts...there was too much going on for him to know what he was supposed to be looking at!

Aidan playing like it's nobody's business!

Jason was excited to get a sword from my dad and Laurie. He loves swords and had no idea it was coming.

More Christmas Pictures

Happy Baby.

Jason's mom made some cute aprons for Gavin, Connor & me. Gavin & Connor love helping out in the kitchen...my little helpers!

Gavin wearing a Clone Trooper helmet he got from my mom and Cheryl...it talks and says lines from the movie, or you can push a button to make your voice sound like a Clone Trooper. Gavin looks so funny running around wearing this. He loves it.

My favorite present! Aidan accidently sat on a bow, and I just had to take a picture!

Connor got a new violin stand to hold his music...he was so excited to get the violin out with his new little stand.

Messy Face!

It's amazing how much of a mess can be made from one little piece of chocolate! Sure looks like he enjoyed it! (On a side note, if you look really close, you can see his one goofy tooth up top. He's had it all month, but the other one hasn't come in yet!)

Gingerbread Houses and a Visit to Santa!

We decided to get together with a few friends of mine and their kids for a little Christmas party/gingerbread house making get-together. The kids had a hard time getting the candy on their houses before it made it to their mouths! But, that's the fun part, right?!


The kids got to visit Santa last week and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Connor said he wanted a train. Gavin said he wanted candy canes! I think he could see Santa's stash of candy and that's all he could think about! Santa laughed and handed him one.

Winter Wonderland

This year, I really wanted to get a real tree and thought it would be fun to cut down our own tree. I think I was thinking there would be a tree farm we could cut from, but it was the real forest we had to go to. It was actually really nice and quiet and beautiful out there, but no good trees to pick from. We tried to find a tree for over two hours and then realized that we would just have to pick something before it got dark, but we really couldn't find anything. Everything was very bare as far as branches and pines go or way too tall to cut down. We just let the kids play for a while in the snow. They had a lot of fun with that...running through the forest in the powdery soft snow. The snow was about a foot or more deep, so Connor had trouble trudging through it, but did okay when he followed the path we made ahead of him. It was a really beautiful day out...cloudy but absolutely no wind and so quiet and white!
Here's an example of the types of bare trees we had to pick from! Once you dusted the snow off of them, there just wasn't much there.

Finally, with almost all hope lost of finding a tree, I asked Gavin to say a prayer to help us find a Christmas tree, so he did. We got back in the truck and headed back and saw in the distance a tree that would work! It's not the greatest Christmas tree ever, but compared to what we'd seen, it was perfect! We cut it down and took it home to decorate. It's so nice to have a real tree that smells so great and is so fresh. The boys were really proud of themselves, and we ended up having a really fun day together as a family.

Here are Jason and Gavin after we found our tree.

Connor and me after we loaded up our Christmas tree!

I had a hard time getting the kids to sit still for a picture in front of our tree...they were too excited to decorate it!