Tuesday, January 22, 2013

11 Years and Counting....

That's right!  Trav and I celebrated our 11th anniversary last week.  I know, Time flies when you're having fun!  It's funny because we kept our anniversary very low key this year.  We went out to dinner at Gabor Brothers.  It was our first time going there but had heard several recommendations for it.  The food was delicious but it's located pretty much in a motor home with about 10 tables in it so the wait was very long.  But we weren't in a hurry so it was all good (as Pete the Cat would say).  Then we came home and played Scrabble in which I got creamed.  We were laughing because we have come a long way from our 2nd anniversary celebrated in Paris.  But I still loved it and I still love that man like crazy.  Here's a picture of that lovely anniversary so many years ago.  No, we did not take one of us playing scrabble.  I didn't want everyone to see my tears.
 
And just because, here's another one of when we were dating.  Man, we look young!
 But on to other things,  we've actually had some days off of school.  Normally I love it when the kids are home from school.  We can be lazy, no running around, we can just hang out or go do things together.  But I cannot wait for school tomorrow!  Am I the only one?  I am SO sick of winter.  I hate being cold.  And this isn't just cold, it's-freezing-so-you-don't-even-dare-to-go-outside-cold, and the smog!  Don't even get me started......I am ready for spring!  And can someone tell my kids that it's a holiday.  They can sleep in.  They never listen to me and I keep telling them but 7:15 on the dot Kate comes in declaring "It's morning!" and Rach and Josh aren't far behind.  But on school days I have to beg them to get out of bed at 7:45..  What's up with that?  Enough of my complaining.....here are a few pictures of what's been going on.  Here's the kids with a totally awesome army fort that daddy built over Christmas break.....
 And this boy no longer goes by Josh.  It's Karate Boy to you in his new robe.

 I gave these cute boys some haircuts...
 There was one day they were able to play in the snow, and of course daddy built them an awesome snow tunnel.
 Josh reading books to Kate (which he is an awesome reader), I have bragging rights....I'm his mom....
 Sometimes Kate just can't quite make it into bed.  Or maybe she's having a nice long heart to heart with the Lord.
 Yesterday I couldn't stand it anymore so we packed up and went to the Ogden Treehouse museum.  It was not an original idea, but it was fun to get out of the house.  The kids had an absolute blast!


 I like the look on Rachel's face in this one...


 Mommy was ready for a nap when we got home.  And laugh if you must at this next picture but you are all going to be jealous.  This is one of the Christmas presents I got this year (I guess technically it was last year, but you know...a few weeks ago)  They are called Hot Booties.  These are slippers you put in the microwave to warm your little tootsies up.  I think Trav actually got this for himself because usually he it the one to warm my little tootsies up.  And they are ALWAYS freezing.  Not any more!  Now I end every night with my hot booties and an episode of Downton Abbey reruns.  Ahhhhh, sweet serenity.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

A little more Christmas

All right. Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for.  The rest of Christmas with our fancy schmancy new camera.  I don't know if the picture quality is THAT much better (it will be once we learn to use it) but to actually take a picture the moment you want to take it?  It's amazing.  So needlesstosay, we went a little picture crazy and are having a lot of fun with out new camera.  So here we go!  Here's a few more shots of Christmas morning....

 One of Rachel's favorite gifts was a Checkers set from Josh.  She challenged everyone that came to visit that day and is actually quite good.
 Mr. Handsome
 Rach also got an "American Girl doll" (or a knockoff....we won't say which)  She was happy about that!
Don't you dare mess with this girl!
 Then with all of the new snow it was outside to shovel....
 New toys just wear you out sometimes...
 One of Trav's gifts was Lego Lord of the Rings Wii game.  I like this picture because Josh and Trav look so bored and Rachel is on the edge of her seat.  Kate has no clue what's going on except with her treats.  Truth is, I can't get those boys to stop playing that game now.
 More shoveling.....
 Playing our new game "Headbands" which is quite fun.
 Someone got sick of shoveling....I don't blame her.
 But daddy did find a way to make little snow caves for everyone.
 And there's always swinging in the snow...


 We had to go sledding too.  This picture is a total "winter baywatch' picture.  Mr. Maughan, you are handsome!


 I couldn't help taking a lot of pictures of this.  Too funny.  Especially Trav's face.




 After  a while the hill got too slippery and they couldn't walk back up it.  Josh will tell you how much fun that is.
 And the 3 monkey in their snow caves.
It was an awesome Christmas break.  Lots of food, family time, and snow.  Coughing couldn't even keep us down.  Happy 2013!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Christmas!!

Well, I've been a slacker and now I have to pay the price of sorting through all these pictures.  So, hold onto your hats and mittens and here we go!  The season doesn't officially start until you take a train ride to Temple Square to see the lights.  This is a tradition we started since we moved to Kaysville. The kids love it and every year I question why we do this to ourselves.  You'll find out why later....

 
We were happily waiting for the train to come......
 We had a blast zooming past all the cars and the best part is no seatbelts!
 We made it to Temple Square.  The lights were amazing as always.
 Josh wanted a green Hulk face.....


 We even headed over to city creek which was fun.  Especially the candy windows.
 Now this is where the story takes a turn for the worse.  We barely missed the trax train to go back to the station and we thought "Well, there will be another one in a few minutes.  We'll be okay."  The other train didn't come for like 20 minutes.  But we still thought "I'm sure they time it so the trax makes it on time to catch frontrunner.  We'll be okay."  Well, they don't time it.  We missed the frontrunner train by about 2 mintues which means we had to wait in the freezing cold for 53 mintues until the next train came. Yep, we had to wait until the 9:55 train and the kids had school in the morning.  And to make matters better....as soon as we got there, a lady was puking on the tracks.  That should have been an omen.  So the kids were staring at her, then Kate needed to go potty and experience the Grayhound station.  The only thing that kept us going was watching "kid history" on daddy's phone.  It was a long night......
 Onto happier things......we decorated the tree.....
 Our elf, Dasher, had a few games of his own.....
 And someone was caught on camera!  Rachel requested a picture of Santa for Christmas.  Boy was she surprised when he was caught in the act!
 Then we had a magical Christmas morning!  My kids are at the perfect ages for Christmas!  I wish it could always be like it was this year.
 As soon as Kate opened her stocking and saw a fruit by the foot she got to work....
 20 minutes later......The rest of us were opening presents and she was still going, foot by foot.....
 She finally decided to open a present but she's still looking longingly at the foot that's left.......
 Josh got his Hulk punching fists which came in handy to flatten those little bubble things that come in packages....
 Gross, I know but I had to prove I was there on Christmas too.
 The best gift Trav and I got for Christmas was a new fancy camera!!!!  So the rest of the Christmas pictures were taken with that beautiful little baby.  We've had the camera over a week and still haven't had to change the batteries.  That, in and of itself, is a Christmas miracle.  So now I have to figure out how to get those pictures on the computer and then you're in for a real treat.  A visual Christmas treat.  Oh the anticipation!!

But here's a couple others from the *blank* camera that I thought were cute. 
 And who says you can't shovel snow indoors?
Merry Christmas!!!