Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you all did too!

Santa left tons of presents under the tree!
Gavin is into superheros and pretend play right now, so Santa brought him this cool batcave. He loved it and played with it all day.

Megan is fascinated by furniture that is her size. This cool Dora couch is perfect for sitting on to read books and it also folds out into a bed.

We didn't get snow until the day after Christmas, but it was still pretty chilly. By the afternoon we were all in need of some fresh air so we bundled up and took the kids for a ride in their new wagon.

The Strength of Ruperman

One of Gavin's favorite pasttimes is to transform into various superheros. A few weeks ago he became Ruperman (Gavin language for Superman) during Megan's naptime. He was occupied and she was asleep so I busied myself cleaning. Just as I started a load of laundry Gavin came down the stairs and said, "Uh oh mom, I broke it." Curious, I followed him and found this...

Ruperman is so strong that while flying down the stairs he broke a hole through the wall. Thankfully I have a handy husband who repaired the damage before our company came for Christmas. This is definately worthy of our family memory book!

Thanksgiving

I didn't realize it has been so long since I've posted! Although we had car problems, we did make it to Idaho for Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful visit with family. Here are pictures from our trip in no particular order.

We went to Grandpa and Lita's house the day after Thanksgiving. We were so glad to see both sides of the family in one trip.

We met Mark's family at a lodge for Thanksgiving. It was nice to have plenty of space for everyone.

Megan entertained herself by dressing up.

A lot of the entertainment came from this big slide. It took Gavin a little while to gather up the courage to go down it by himself.

This is most of the slide, minus about 10 feet at the top. It took me a while to get enough courage to go down too, but it was a lot of fun.

This was our first attempt at heading to Idaho. We we able to pick up the truck with a new, expensive fuel pump a few days after we got home. I am so grateful for the many blessings we've received this year, and particularly that we were able to spend Thanksgiving with family.

Great daddy

Megan had severe stranger anxiety for the first 16 months of her life. She got sad when I would leave the room and even cried whenever Mark would take her from me. Needless to say, it was a rough time, but now Meggie is a daddy's girl! Here are a few cute pictures of the two of them.

Fiasco and fortunes

We had a rough day! These pictures were not taken today, but they fit the day's circumstances perfectly. We left early this morning to visit my parents for a few days before traveling to spend Thanksgiving with Mark's family. The kids were happy and all was well until, 70 miles out of town our truck broke down. Thank heavens we have roadside assitance and our insurance company was awesome! They called a tow company and within 1 hour they towed us to their shop. The fuel pump had gone out, and because we were in such a small town they didn't have the part we needed, so we called a friend to come get us. 8.5 hours later we ended up right back where we started.

While we were waiting for the diagnostic test on the truck we went to a cafe to eat. We had sandwiches and soup for lunch then they gave us fortune cookies. I've never been given a fortune cookie at a place that wasn't chinese, so I was a little surprised, but I loved what the fortunes said...

~ "You will have much to be thankful for in the coming year." Like a second vehicle, good friends, and excellent auto insurance.

~ "Use your abilities at this time to stay focused on your goal. You will succeed." The kids were angels, and everyone (the mechanics, waitress, and gas station attendant where we hung out for 2.5 hours) was so nice and helpful.

~ "An unexpected event will soon make your life more exciting." I don't think I would call our vehicle breaking down in the middle of nowhere exciting, but it was definately unexpected.

~ "Treat yourself to a special time this coming weekend." Celebrating holidays with loved ones.

~ "Keep up the good work. You will soon be rewarded." It's nice to be home.

So tomorrow we will try it again! Wish us good luck!

Just a few cute pictures of the kids

In the last few weeks I've had several friends and family ask what new has been going on in our lives. Honestly, I feel like our lives are average and not too exciting, but nevertheless we are very happy! Here are a few pictures of what we do to stay busy.

practice not eating dirt
walk in the "woods"

splash in puddles

look cute

admire cuteness

play with shaving cream... this picture probably needs a little more explanation. Gavin often sees me put moouse in my hair and wants some, so I decided shaving cream was a cheaper option with a similar texture.

Zoo pictures

As I mentioned a few weeks ago during my last post, we took a family vacation to Utah last month to visit Mark's brother and his family and to go to Temple Square and the zoo. Here are more pictures from our trip.
I do realize Halloween was 1 month ago, but Megan was so cute I wanted to share one last pumpkin picture. She now loves candy and was suppose to help daddy and Uncle Kent pass it out at the trunk-or-treat, but I think she ended up putting plenty of it in her own bucket or in her mouth instead.

This is a super cute park in Hoogle Zoo. We let the kids play while we relaxed after a few hours of visiting all the animals.

If Mark were a turtle, this is what he would look like...just in case you all were wondering!

Megan taking a leisurely stroll around the zoo.

This was one of my favorite animals, but now I can't remember if it's an ape, chimpanzee or gorilla! Anyway, I thought she was cute!

My camera is not zoomed in! This giraffe came right up to us!

More giraffe close ups.

I'm sure most of you have been to a big zoo before, but this was a first for all of us (unless you count Tautphaus Park in Idaho Falls), so I got a little carried away with pictures!

None of us are the same size as an ape...again, just in case you were wondering!

We had a great time at the zoo. Thanks Kent, Mariam, D and K for coming with us!