Future Doctor

For Alex's birthday he received some Mr. Potato Head kits. One was for a Doctor. Yesterday, Alex put the stethoscope in his ears (ears are attached) and walked around saying he was a Doctor. Really funny! (Do you think it's safe to let him put the ears in his own ears? Probably not.)

Projector

I know all the research shows that children should be put to bed with no extra things in their crib. They should just learn to fall asleep on their own. We believe in this to a point, however, my boys have LOVED having little projectors in their cribs. Brenton's had little birds going around in circles and projected an image on the ceiling while it played music. (That's why we call them projectors.)

By the time Alex came, Brenton's projector has ceased to project. It still had the birds that moved around, and the music that played. Alex loves it. He didn't know that it used to be a bit cooler.

My last trip to Utah, I forget the projector. So, around 10:00 PM the first night there, after listening to Alex cry for over two hours, I went to Target with my mom and sister to buy another projector. I knew the one we had was no longer made. I had to settle for a fish one. He loves it just as much. The problem is, he loves it too much. You can tell from the pictures below.

We finally weened him from the projector. Now he can sleep without it. I wouldn't mind letting him keep it, but Brenton kept climbing into his crib to look at the fish.

Happy Birthday Brenton!

On January 10, 2009 my oldest baby turned four years old. Amazing how time flies. The circumstances with Brenton's birth (due to our car accident) was much different than Alex's. It was a happy time, but also a VERY hard one. We are so grateful that he arrived safe and healthy. Another miracle we managed to receive during that time.

Me with Brenton at his blessing

Kale with Brenton shortly after his birth

Brenton's happy pen time

Brenton's 1st birthday

Brenton's first steps

Brenton's 2nd birthday (pretty ugly cake, huh.) My mom and I tried...
Brenton's 3rd birthday (he'd just gotten his cast off the day before).

This years Birthday!!!

Since Alex got a Little Einstein birthday cake, Brenton insisted that that's what he wanted. It turned out okay even though the frosting wasn't as planned. My red turned out pink, and after I put it on the cake, I thought better of it. So, I took the pink off (the best I could) and replaced it with the blue. Oh well. I'm definitely not the best decorator. I just have to remind myself that my 4 year old could care less.

We invited a few friends over this year. These are Brenton's new best friends, Parlianne and Grant. Brenton and Parli are so cute together. We are so grateful they moved into our ward!
We did get out the giant birthday cake again. It was sent for Brenton & Alex's birthday. This time, Parli and Grant's dad (Jared) helped the kids have lots of fun with it. They climbed on, used it as a slide, rolled around on it, etc. I had no idea how much fun they could have on a six foot tall birthday cake!

I told Parli & Grant's mom that Brenton didn't need any presents for his birthday. So, being creative as she is, she had them make something. All the kids were excited about it. They decorated a wooden birdhouse. Parli told Brenton, "There are hearts on it, because I love you!" So cute!

Happy Birthday bud! I love you!

More and more snow!

OK. I'm annoyed with snow. We seem to keep getting it again and again. I hate to shovel snow. I can think of 50 ways I'd rather exercise, that does not involve snow!

On the bright side, it does make where we live even more gorgeous.

The view up our street

The view next to our houseI'm not a fan of the snow, but my boys sure do love it.

New Years

For New Year's Day, we went to the Sevy's for dinner. They had some of their children visiting, but they all graciously let us "intrude" on their family. We had lots of fun playing Wii games, and our boys had lots of fun playing with their two grandchildren. (They had three there, but one is just a new baby...I had fun holding him...so cute!)

Thanks for inviting us. The prime rib dinner was wonderful, and it was a very fun day!

This is what little boys do with pink doll strollers.

Wii games. Fun! Kale and Shea played a game where they're tethered together and have to jump over holes. Kale is 5'7" and Shea is over 6' tall. If you notice the second picture, Kale looks as tall as Shea. Pretty funny.

Family

I know I've said this before, but we really miss having family close by. It was very nice to have Patty & Britt here to share Christmas with us. The boys missed them terribly the day they left. Even though I loved having Kale's family here, my family was missed. My dream is for all of us to live in the same place. Wouldn't it be great if we were all neighbors? I didn't always think like this, but now I do. I miss our families.

Sledding

A few days after Christmas, we went sledding in Kellogg. It was a much faster hill than we imagined. It wasn't that long, but pretty steep. The problem we ran into (literally) was a building at the bottom of the hill.

Brenton had a wonderful time. He couldn't get enough of it. Alex, well, the first time he went down, I took him. I was going way too fast from the beginning, so I dug my feet into the snow. It didn't slow us down much, but it did plaster our faces with snow. Poor guy. He wasn't very excited to try again.

10 years!

Well, we've made it over 10 years! On January 2, 1999, I was married to the most wonderful man in the world.

Since that time we:
Moved to Salt Lake City for a year to work
Moved to Iowa for graduate school
Bought our first home
Almost lost one of us in a car accident
Had a wonderfully amazing little baby boy
Moved from Iowa to Idaho
Bought our second home
Had another beautiful baby boy
Survived and even enjoyed married life for 10 years!

I'm looking forward to many, many more years together, and after that eternity. I love you Kale. I'm so grateful to have you as my husband and the father to our children!

Christmas Day

The boys got a train table from Santa. It was the first thing they played with. They have continued to enjoy it. It's amazing! Usually they get tired of new toys after a couple of days.

They got lots of new toys from Santa, Grandma, Grandpa, Mom & Dad. It was a very fun day.














Alex got a bird feeder from Grandma Patty for Christmas. I think the gift was actually for Bunsen. He loves staring out the window at the birds. They have teased him a few times, flew into the window a few times, and Bunsen has jumped into the window a few times.

Brittany got some fun gifts. Believe it or not, we weren't insulting her by buying these books. She actually asked for them. She was even pretty excited to get them.

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve, we had Danny & Crystal over again. First we had dinner, then decorated cookies for Santa. The best part for the boys was the frosting. Brenton even found it necessary to lick the frosting tub.

Brenton's first cookie consisted of a knife full of frosting (half-way smeared on the cookie), followed by an entire bottle of sprinkles. There was a super loud crunch with each bite. Funny to watch and listen to.

The Sevy's gave the boys PJ's to open Christmas Eve. Danny was concerned that it wasn't a fun gift to receive, but our boys happened to be VERY excited about it.