Happy Birthday Garrett

self portrait

Garrett loves, loves, loves Nerf guns. On Friday we had a nerf war birthday party. The boys had a great time and enjoyed their prizes: reese's peanut butter cups (Garrett's favorite), whoopee cushions, and flarp-a little can of goo that when you stick your finger in it, it makes a lovely farting noise. I tried to pick out other prizes, but Garrett insisted on those lovelies. What is it with boys and their amusement with bodily functions? Oh well a great time was had by all . .

And I even made a nerf gun cake!

Happy Birthday Garrett! We love you and are thankful you are part of our family. Hard to believe you are now in the double digits (how can Derek and I have a ten year old?!). Thank you for being a great big brother, good student, and practicing the piano without too much coercion. We are lucky to have you in our family!

No School for a Month!

One new adjustment to life here is year round school.

Today, Monday, February 1st, we went off track.

We are off until March First.

What do you do when there is no school and it is February and it is 34 degrees outside.

Apparently you still have breakfast sitting on the table at 5 minutes till 11 am (lunch time at our house).

Apparently leaving breakfast on the table means Elena will continue to pick at cold cereal for 5 1/2 hours (the kids were up at 6:30 am).

And, apparently you watch mindless television.

I will try to be a better mother tomorrow.

The Basement

We started construction in November. Here is the great room looking toward double closets, the two kid bedrooms, kid bath, and toy room.

Garrett's room

play house under the stairs and door way leading to toy room and cold storage

Began dry wall and the messy job of mudding and taping. This will be the play house under the stairs.

crooked door to play house

Great room! Lots of closet storage, small wet bar, fireplace, and cabinet for (future) tv & components.

Finished a week before Christmas!

Toy room. Messy now, but lots of shelves for storage.

Window to play house under the stairs and magnet board.

Guest bath.

Great room! With loads of closets and door to guest bath and bedroom.

So my grand plan was to photo journal this project with lots of details and pics. Grand plan took back seat to life and holidays. We are thrilled with the end result and loooove the basement. Please come see for yourself!

Happy Halloween!

The festivities began for Elena, Camille, and Carson on Thursday. Elena's preschool had a fieldtrip to a local pumpkin patch. Unfortunately the weather was freeeeeezing, but we still enjoyed the hay ride out to pick a pumkin, a "train" ride around the corn maze, and some play time on the slides.

Friday night we were suppose to take a doctor the hospital is recruiting to a Utah Jazz game, but he canceled and we got to invite Laurissa and Blake (Derek's sister and her husband) instead. The seats the hospital has for the season are really close to the court and we enjoyed watching a great game. We even enjoyed watching some really dedicated fans that sat nearby. One guy in paticular brought a ginourmous Jazz flag, mega-mega-megaphone, and a rubber chicken to use both for cheering on the Jazz and for trying to distract the Clippers when they took their foul shots. It was fun, thanks for coming guys!

Prior to the trunk and trick or treating we took the kids to see some sights in Salt Lake City. Instead of taking the van we made it especially fun by taking the light rail--a commuter train that runs from various northern cities to SLC. The kids liked the train ride (Carson loved it) and seeing some Mormon Church Sites like the Conference Center and the beautiful Salt Lake City Temple.

According to some, the most exciting part of our Halloween Weekend involved Carson, Elena, and Camille dressing up as a spotted frog, a black cat balerina, and a fairy-butterfly-balerina respectively.

Lastly we were protected by a blue ninga from all the "tricks" lurking about on Halloween night(thanks Garrett!).

hiking

Yesterday we took the kids to Adams Canyon (about 12 minutes from our home) to do a little hiking. We were looking for a waterfall, but took a wrong turn. It turned out mostly fine though . .. the kids loved hiking on the mountain and we were warned by several hikers returning from the falls that the falls trail was pretty steep and not very good for little kids. The only bad part to the day was that I slipped with the camera on my wrist and it smacked into a rock and killed the viewing screen. Soooo enjoy these pics because I don't know when we will replace the camera!

You may see this in a future Christmas Card??!!

(note the ever present binoculars with Carson)

Carson insisted on holding on to the binoculars the whole time. We could not convince him to turn them around to look through . . . funny kid

So we're here

Boxes and boxes and boxes . . .but we are getting settled and look forward to our new adventure

Garrett and his new teacher, Mrs. Bowen

Elena and Carson at Bluff Ridge Elementary for Garrett and Camille's first day at their new school

Elena trying out the kindergarten park
Camille approves of her new park and school

Here are some pictures of our new place . . .

nice big master closet

hall to garage entry, 1/2 bath, laundry room and master bedroom

kids bath

kitchen

Front door and entry