Playin' with the Toys

The days following Christmas have been filled with playing, fighting, playing, and did I mention playing? I have more videos of the playing than actual pictures, but at least it is recorded. With the large amounts of playing we have had to find time to relax to recover from the hard-core-playing.

Lego Mega Tower on wheels. Notice that a Monster Truck found it's way into the picture!
Bradley getting ready to ride his new bike for the first time!
His legs are still a little bit short, but with a little help getting started he can cruise around at a new top speed!

A Little R & R:

Eliza manages to sleep through just about anything!

Her favorite is to snuggle when she is awake.

Daniel is sleeping under one of his pillows! Need I say more...

Watching a new movie...thanks Grandma Kenison for the great nature video!

(Bradley still loves taking pictures!)

Cute Outfits:

Part of the fun of having a girl is all the outfits and accessories!

Here Eliza is sporting an outfit and head band from Aunt Janna!

Daniel has to inspect Eliza to make sure we got her accessorized properly.

Eliza in her Christmas outfit from Grandma Shirley.

She is a very pleasant little girl. I just love it when she smiles!

Last night I had a bow making party with some friends and this is one of the bows/clippys I made. A friend gave me the headband and it has a place to slide bows in and out. We are really enjoying it!

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The boys absolutely love the karaoke machine from Grandma & Grandpa Shirley. They are naturals!

The boys recruited Dad to help them build a Mega Tower! They did a pretty good job!

Christmas 2009: The year of the Monster Trucks

Christmas Eve: Eliza keeps getting bigger and bigger! She is pretty pleasant most of the time. She delights us when she smiles and coos. She is very one's favorite!!

We did a Nativity Puppet show, thanks Aunt Janna for the puppets. The boys enjoyed being able to help tell the story of Christ's birth. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the puppet show because I was busy being everything except Joseph and one wise man. Andy was carving the turkey and only listened to the show. (I didn't get the turkey in the oven soon enough. I am not used to being in charge of all the details since we usually go home for Christmas. I am sure I will get better though.)

After the puppet show and birthday cake we opened our pj's.

I love how excited they got about pj's! The only thing I love more than that is how sweet they were to each other. I had to do all of the picture since they were being so cute!

"To insinity and beyond!"

Brotherly love!

After pj's were on we let the boys open their gifts to each other. I had taken Bradley shopping for Daniel one day and Andy took Daniel shopping for Bradley a different day. They both picked out monster trucks for each other.

They had a hard time going right to sleep because they had new monster trucks to play with, but it was worth it the next morning when they played for 30-45 minutes in their room before coming out! We didn't get started on presents until about 7:30 am!

Christmas Morning:

New helmet to go with his new big boy bike.

Once they opened Daniels Lego's they stopped opening presents. Notice all the presents still wrapped under the tree! We had to make them keep opening presents, so we could be done with all the wrapping paper. They found lots of fun things to play with.

"The Year of The Monster Truck!"

Once they realized there were more monster trucks under the tree nothing else mattered! They spent all day playing with the monster trucks. EVERYTHING else took a back seat. (Even the super hero capes made with love by Mrs. Clause.)

Daniel with most of his loot.

(A few things got scattered and didn't make the picture.)

Bradley and most of his loot!

Eliza slept through the hole thing! Her brothers had to open all of her gifts for her. Isn't she lucky to have such helpful big brothers?!

Dec. 24-25, 2009

Christmas Videos

This first video was from Christmas Eve. We let the kids open their new pj's from Mom and Dad and one gift from each other. I think Daniel liked his pj's.

The boys both gave each other a monster truck for Christmas and they each got two from their Washington Mitchell cousins. Daniel was very excited to have his own monster trucks.

This last video is kinda long, but it is so cute! Bradley got a new bike that he was VERY excited about, but his excitement didn't out way his sorrow at no longer needing his old bike. His love for his OLD, rusted, falling apart bike, is touching. (His sad little face is pretty good too!)

Happy Birthday Daddy Dear!

Happy Birthday Dad! Bradley was my helper getting ready for Dad's birthday. Here we are decorating the cake. Bradley helped me pick the picture and do the sprinkles and candles.

Pick a picture, print it on card stock and hot glue half of a tooth pick to the back.
Then stick the tooth picks in the cake in desired place.

The finished product.

Enjoying the cake.

Daniel picked what kind of cake we were going to make and Bradley picked the kind of frosting. They both enjoyed the frosting!

Dad with his presents.

Bradley waiting patiently for Dad to open the gifts.

(We aren't sure how Bradley got the injury on his face. He was playing outside and started crying. When we asked him what happened he wouldn't tell us. It was probably something he wasn't suppose to be doing and that is why he won't tell. However, if you ask Andy what happened he will tell you "His Mom beats him!")

Happy 29th Birthday Dad!

Dec. 24, 2009

Squaw Ski Trip

I went to Lake Tahoe with a friend from work, Will C to go skiing. We were at Squaw, where they had the 1960 winter Olympics.

You can see Lake Tahoe in the far background.

Playin' with the Boys

Chad and his roommate Mike drove out from Utah to see us this last weekend. Since Chad and Andy both have December birthdays they decided to celebrate together at Six Flags. We only live about 20 minutes from there. Six Flags didn't open until 3pm so they decided to go down to San Francisco to see some sites. They looked up Lombard street, the most curvy street, and the steepest street, which I can't remember the name. They also went out to see Alcatraz. They had lots of fun. Here are some pictures of their adventures!

Six Flags:

A picture of the picture of one of the roller coasters!
Mike and Andy


They had lots of Christmas lights up all over Six Flags.

Crowding around the fire to keep warm.

A seal show.

Chad petting the sting rays.

This is a dolphin show.

They had a window under the feeding area so you can see the dolphins really well when they go up to get fish.

Alcatraz:

Another picture of a picture. :)

Mike on the way to Alcatraz.

Chad arriving at Alcatraz.

One of the old buildings. I wasn't there so I am not sure which one.

Looking back towards San Fran from "The Rock".

Inside the jail house.

This is the exercise yard that the prisoners used. Since I have always had kids in strollers with me I have never seen the yard. Thanks for taking all the pictures Uncle Chad!

A jail cell.

This is where the inmates turned in their street clothes and got there prison clothes.

Mike and Andy on the audio tour.

"The Rock"

Andy

Chad

Mike

Thanks for coming to visit us. You guys are welcome any time!

Dec. 19, 2009