A Little of This, A Little of That

One night, Damon occupied himself with making a trap for his brother. He explained that Tommy would grab the gun, which was tied to the chair, so the chair would fall on him, then somehow the Batcave would fall on him, then the tower (behind Damon) would fall on him. Pretty clever. Unfortunately it kinda worked. Tommy was walking by and the tower, which Damon built higher, had a heavy toy on it and it fell on Tommy's head. Yikes!

 The boys were invited to a birthday party at a martial arts studio. They were so excited for it! They basically thought they were going to come home being ninjas:) One day Tommy said to me, "Mom, now when a bully comes, I can fight him!" They learned some moves and kicks. I even joined in on the fun and it reminded me of my kick boxing aerobic classes I used to go to 2-4 times a week! The boys even got to break a board!! The birthday boy's dad kicked 2 boards at one time and all the kid's faces were priceless...they were in awe.  Then it was their turn. They thought they were so awesome! It was pretty fun.

We finally made it back to the temple since Hannah was born. We all did pretty well. The boys spent a good amount of time rolling down this little hill at the stake center next to the temple. Tommy even started pretending he was a crazy guy that would get knocked down and do stunt-like moves and sound effects. It was pretty hilarious!

 I didn't end up going into the Visitor's Center this time (it was incredibly busy and there wasn't any parking at the temple...which is why we were at the stake center), but Barrett ran in real quick and said it was completely re-done. He said, "think Vegas. Lights, tvs, everywhere." We also discovered a new traffic light put in at one of the busy intersections on our path there. Amazing what 4 months can do! Oh, and Barrett ended up breaking the stroller. It was given to us, so not the end of the world, but still. He said he was hopping a curb when it snapped in half and Hannah and her carseat went bumping down the sidewalk. Oh boy. Damon said to me later, "Mom, are you going to trust Dad now. He broke the stroller, let Hannah go down the slide, and even swing?" Hmmmm. It was a wonderful day.

Just another adorable picture of this sweet babe.

Saturday Fun

Barrett had to work most of last Saturday. When he got home, the boys played outside with the neighbors for a bit, then we went downtown for some scootin' fun.

Lucky for us they had the little road in front of Legislative Hall blocked off to get ready for the Governor's Inauguration. The boys could ride their scooters in the street without worrying about cars. We have really grown to love this little town.

Sweet Moments

I've been trying to remember those really sweet moments with our children. I've also been trying to take more pictures (more pictures?! I know, but really) to help remind me of those moments. 

Little Tommy LOVES his Angry Birds puzzle we got him for his birthday. He does it at least once a day. It is 3 puzzles in one where the first is 24 pieces, then 48, then 63. I think it totals to be 135 pieces. He can do all 3 puzzles by himself!! He always tells us, "I'm the puzzle master!"

 Little Hannah girl is growing. Her legs are starting to get chunky and squishier. Her cheeks are getting bigger and kissable too. She is starting to arch her back and turn like she wants to move or roll over.

 She doesn't love the bouncer, but is getting more tolerant of it, but only if I'm in the kitchen near her.

 One day I told Tommy to hurry and get on a sweatshirt or jacket so we could go get Damon from school. He leaped out the front door in a super hero cape...and I smiled and let him go in that:)

 The boys love holding Hannah. Damon loves to hold her in the mornings when she's smiley:)

 Hannah is just adorable (at least in my eyes!). I just can't get enough of her cuteness. She wore this adorable outfit Sunday. She slept all through Sacrament Meeting (which was a mini miracle) then smiled at the couple behind us all through Sunday School and even giggled at my friend who was holding her while I was doing Primary Music.

 I had been putting the boys to bed one night and Barrett had Hannah. This is what I saw when I came downstairs. She was captivated and content listening to her daddy play the guitar and sing.

We pulled out the exersaucer the other day. She likes it, but I think sometimes she's over stimulated with all the toys surrounding her AN D big brothers hovering and playing with it too! The first day she was doing some serious staredowns with the toys.

Her she is in another adorable outfit! We have been so blessed and showered with love from friends here and far away that have given little Hannah adorable outfits. (This is one). I am still getting baby gifts for her. I can't put into words how special it makes us feel. Such awesome friends!

 Don't you just want to kiss her and hug her?! She's adorable:)

 We made little powdered donut snowmen after lunch. We just hope we're going to get to make a real snowman someday!

Tommy was helping Barrett wrap presents last month. He convinced his dad that he could cut the wrapping paper. He said, "I'm a born natural cutter!" 

It has taken awhile to convince Tommy that he needed to be something other than a "Daddy" when he grows up. For the last month or so he's decided he wants to be a daddy and a construction worker. One day he saw construction workers on the roof of the high school being built out near our house. He said something like,"Construction workers have to be on roofs and that's scary. I don't want to go up there." A few days after that he told us he doesn't want to be a construction worker anymore because they have to go on the roof and its too scary. Then, "I want to be like dad and work in a building." We said, "You want to be a lawyer like dad?" Tommy,"Yeah, I want to be a lawyer like dad so I don't have to do anything!" 

January 2013?!

I can't believe it is already January 2013!! We had a pretty low key New Year's this year. On New Year's Eve, we went to Sam's Club, cleaned/organized a bit, played, and the boys went to Chuck E Cheese and the mall. We had a little party with the boys and ate chips and dips. We counted down for a pretend New Year's with glasses of soda. We were all sipping away when Tommy said, "I didn't count." So...we counted down again! After the boys got to bed, our friends came over with their little baby. We had fun just chatting and snacking and bouncing babies when we realized we needed to get ready for the real countdown. Barrett flipped open the ipad to get a correct countdown and realized we were too late, it was already 12:00...so for the third time that night, we did our own pretend countdown! January 1st was spent hanging out at the church with lots of friends. The kids had a fantastic time running around, the moms enjoyed chatting, and the dads eventually played volleyball. The next day we were back to reality with Barrett back at work and Damon back at school.

Tommy and I enjoyed watching Hannah during her tummy time. 

This past weekend we finally took down Christmas. The boys had fun throwing the Christmas tree off the balcony, then chopping it to pieces.

 Miss Hannah watched for a few minutes in a nice cozy bear suit,

December Photos

Hannah Santa was sad Christmas was over!

 The few days after Christmas were pretty chilly and windy outside, so we moved the table and chairs out of the kitchen, so they boys could use their new scooters.

 Hannah just watched the boys.

 I guess Barrett snapped a photo of me asleep with the kids.

 Our neighbor gave Hannah this dress. Its a 6 month dress, but I thought she could get away with wearing it now!

 Tommy and the Mystery Gang Inc.

 Sad face girl

Tommy's December Craft Wall. He is very particular about his crafts lately. Basically it is his way or the highway:) The reindeer are actually the kids' handprints and footprints. See how cute Hannah's is?

Tommy's Birthday

Tommy was sooo excited for his birthday! We had waffles for breakfast and danced to our family's favorite  Happy Birthday song. We went to the church parking lot so the boys could ride their scooters. Mom and Dad had fun on the scooters too:) We went home for lunch then Tommy opened up his presents. He played with his presents all afternoon. He decided on Chick-fil-A for dinner, then we went home to eat his Angry Birds cake. (I just took the pieces from the new game he got for Christmas and stuck them on the cake). We love this little 4 year old.

I did a little questionaire with him, here are his responses:

Favorite food: rice and crackers and sauce (think Hawaiian haystacks)

Favorite color: yellow...it used to be orange, but now that he's four, he likes yellow

Favorite show: Scooby-doo

Favorite toy: new Scooby doo toys

Favorite song: "Baby, you light up my world like nobody else" and "Dance, dance, dance" (aka Dynomite!)

Favorite Primary song: I Love to See the Temple

Favorite Number: 3

Favorite Letter: X

He keeps saying things like, "Now I can do that because I'm 4" or "I used to not do that, but now I can because I'm 4." He's really, really good at puzzles and pretend playing. Grandma Ro got him some Scooby doo toys for his birthday and we love  hearing him play with them...he uses lingo like, "Come on gang!" and even talks like Scooby, "Ruh-uh Raggy!" He loves to climb all over dad. He loves his sister and always makes her smile. He loves doing projects (crafts), cutting paper, and having books read to him. He loves to dance to One Direction. We love this little 4 year old!!

Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve started with breakfast at Chick-fil-A. We had to use some breakfast coupons we received in July! Then we went to the Dollar Store to get candy to make graham cracker houses. I hot glued the graham crackers together and let the boys decorate. They surprisingly turned out pretty good! 

 While we were decorating our houses, we looked outside and noticed SNOW!! It was snowing on Christmas Eve!! Tommy started running around outside yelling, "Snow! Snow! Let it Snow!!!" He was super excited. After about 5 minutes, it turned into rain, but he still thought it was snowing:)

 We had broccoli cheese soup in bread bowls for dinner. The boys ate it without complaining (Tommy even had 3 helpings!). I told them it was an early Christmas present for me! We tried to have some caroling and Nativity story and traditional Christmas Eve stuff, but the boys were beyond excited. They got to open these new jammies. We left cookies and egg nog for Santa then headed off to bed.

 The boys were sooooo excited to see if Santa came. Tommy even said, "I can't believe Santa actually came!!" He brought them new scooters and 2 games, plus candy and little boxes of cereal and hot wheels cars in their stockings. After breakfast we opened the gifts under the tree. The BEST reaction was when Tommy opened his new Scooby-doo underwear from me. He was so excited!! We filmed it too!!!! Awesome.

 Barrett took the boys outside to ride their new scooters. It was sunny, but super cold and windy! While they were out there, our sweet neighbor pulled out some gifts. The boys got this huge hot wheels structure (which ended up needing batteries we had to buy the next day) and Hannah got a new church dress. We had a wonderful, tasty dinner of ham, funeral potatoes, green beans, and jello pretzel salad. We had a great Christmas but missed family and friends.