Say CHEESE if you're excited for Christmas!

These pictures I took after church on Sunday give you a little glimpse into the excitement level at our house this week...

Can you say hyper?

I think this is the most normal shot we got.

Mmm...Gingerbread. It smells like Christmas at our house...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Spending the evening in downtown Salt Lake City really got us feeling the Christmas spirit! We ate a delicious dinner at Little America, then took TRAX to the Gallivan Center to see the lights and the ice skating.

There were so many beautiful lights!

Katy wow-ed us with her skating ability!

Dad and me

Enjoying the ambiance

Santa came around for some "high fives"

Thankfulness on Turkey Day

This Turkey day, we were THANKFUL...

That we could spend Thanksgiving Day at cute Grandma's home this year with Dad and Spencer, Katy, and Blake.

That we could bring our turkey fryer from California so we could eat Dad's famous turkey and stuffing--nothing compares to his!

That we could be with cousins and family we hadn't seen in too long.

Grandma with her great grandkids!

That these two guys are such great buddies!

That we could celebrate Dad's birthday with him!

Also Thankful for on Thanksgiving Day (but no pictures to prove it--oops):

• Getting to see Ashlee before she went home to Houston--we love her!

• Getting to spend time with Phil all day

• Dad taking the kids on a surprise Lego and Polly Pocket store run--they were in heaven!

• That Andrew did not break any of Grandma's treasures

• Catching up with aunts and cousins

• Abby teaching me to fold beautiful napkins

• Meeting Kai's sweet fiance, Heather

• Grandma's book recommendations

• Grandma finding my "brilliance" boxes in her bathroom

• Getting to meet some wonderful people who love and watch out for my Grandma

Happy Memories in Happy Valley...

Posting lots of pictures is the only way share the fun times we had at Gramm-Z and Papa's house last month. Here are some highlights...

Decorating Gramm-Z's beautiful tree

Getting to go INSIDE the MTC and attend Sacrament meeting (in Portuguese) where Gramm-Z and Papa are serving. The kids loved the attention from the missionaries and Lauren loved the cafeteria!

Having FHE with music provided by Kazoos and Gramm-Z's washboard...and a SPECIAL musical numbers by Andrew (I am a Child of God)

Snuggling on a COMFY hide-a-bed and watching UP for the first time.

Playing at "Papa's Park"--no matter how cold it was. Andrew loved his hat and pink mittens.

Exploring the yard and trails and looking for snow!

Helping Papa set up his new camper and begging to sleep in it.

Post-Thanksgiving dinner

A quick trip to Sundance with the sleeper (Andrew) to throw a few snowballs and get some lollipops at the store.

Target practice with slingshot and BB gun...
(Papa is training new recruits to help him deter squirrels and deer!)

Go Cougars!

Every year during football season, Brad and I say to each other, "It would be so fun to take the kids to a BYU game." Well, this year, our dream came true. Because the kids had no school for the whole week of Thanksgiving (including the previous Friday) we were able to take a road trip to Utah and arrive just in time for the BYU v. Air Force football game. Although at times I wondered if our California kids were going to enjoy sitting through a long football game (the weather forecast was predicting snow flurries), we all had a great time!

We've started them young...they wear their cougar gear with pride!

Cheers to the Cougars from two of the biggest cougar fans

Lauren loved drinking hot cocoa, watching the Cosmo and the cheerleaders, and eating snacks.

Andrew loved wearing his cougar shirt (did not want to wear a jacket to cover it up). Gramm-Z's blankets and her snuggles kept him warm!

What a fun game--especially since the Cougars won! Caleb loved doing the fight song, and got to "rise and shout" several times with all those touchdowns. We hope it's not another seven years until we can do this again!

If you give this boy a challenge...

you better believe he's going to take you up on it!

Caleb's teacher challenged all the students to read 500 pages in a month, and "sweetened" the deal by telling them that they could throw a pie in her face for every 500 pages they read. When Caleb returned to school the following day, having read 544 pages in one night, she realized she needed to up the ante. So, she told them that the person with the highest number of pages got to throw the first pie. And the winner is...

Harry Potter! With over 7000 pages, he got to throw 14 pies!
Including the first one.
And he made each and every one count.
(Isn't she a great sport?!)

Halloween Festivities

Oct. 24th: Stake Carnival and Trunk-or-Treat

Harry Potter, "Scary Spider", and a "Pretty Witch"
This was our dress rehearsal for the costumes..they were almost complete
(Thank You Mark's Portraits for taking the pictures! Our camera busted that night, so this is the only one we got.)

Oct. 29th: Pumpkin Carving

Caleb's masterpiece: "Harry Pumpkin"

Two out of Five Pumpkins got carved this year...why did we get FIVE??

Oct. 30th 11:00am Kindergarten Party...

Parade, Pinatas, Popcorn Witches Brooms, and Monster Mash Freeze Dance!

3rd Grade Party: 12:45pm "It's the Great Pumpkin" Party!

Parade, Pumpkin Finding, Pumpkin Decorating, Cookie Making, and Pies in the face!

Oct. 31st: 5:30 Visiting Neighbors and Friends, Taking Pictures

6:20 Batteries in the old camera die--doh!

6:30 Ward Trunk or Treat

7:00 Neighborhood Trick-or-treating

7:30 Visiting Uncle John and Aunt Becky

8:00 Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

With a week full of Trunk-or-Treating, a surprise visit from Grandma & Grandpa, and classroom parties...and a busted camera...I'm glad we at least got a few pictures of the Halloween fun! What are we going to do with all the candy?!?

Caught ya!

Climbing dresser drawers... In his underwear... Stealing from Caleb's Mission Fund!

Busted!!

TWO Years Old!

Andrew had his 2nd Birthday on Monday, but the fun started on Saturday, with a trip to the ZOO! Highlights included: being early birds=no crowds, seeing the otter feeding, getting an up-close look at an elephant eating his snack, riding the train, watching the meerkats, riding the train (Andrew's favorite)...


Sunday night, Caleb and Lauren helped to decorate the house after Andrew went to sleep. We decided to do a "Spider Party"--since Andrew loves spiders. He loves to wear his spider shirt, read Caleb's Spiderman book, sing the "pider song" (as in "eensy, weensy"). We put up streamers and the kids made a big spider in a crepe paper web in the doorway for Andrew to see in the morning.

We didn't allow enough time on Monday morning to make birthday pancakes, but Andrew didn't seem to mind eating cold cereal--he was just having fun being the Birthday Boy and wearing the Birthday hat. While the kids were at school, Andrew got to run a few errands with us (some of it for his party--good thing he's too young to know the difference). I think he was enjoying having us all to himself. We even got him a happy meal. (And a frosty!)

After school, we went to the pumpkin patch. Andrew was loving it, as you can see in the happy smiles on his face. ...Until we had to go home.

It's so hard to be two.

Here he is eating his spider cake--he loved every minute of being the birthday boy!

Andrew funnies we don't want to forget:

• When people ask him, "What's your name?" He likes to respond, "Bob."

• He has a new 'do--and each morning stands in front of the mirror and says "pike" (spike) and then "hairpay" (hairspray)

• He loves Star Wars, thanks to Caleb ("goo-goo-bacca"=Chewbacca, "Deetoo-deetoo"=R2-D2--and the crazy face he makes when pushing the button)

• His scary DEEP "Spiderman voice": "pi-der-man!"

• He tattles:"La-nen wunning in a house" "Caleb tackle An-doo"

• He picks up on grown up phrases and repeats them in the perfect context: "Come on!" "Darn-it!" "Oh...cool." "WHYYYY?"

• When he gets scared or if it's time for bed, he cries out for whoever is not in the room: "Daddy/Caleb/La-nen...guggle!!!" (snuggle)

What fun he is to have around! We are always cracking up at the things that come out of his mouth. We love you, Andrew!