Temple Square

I couldn't let another year go by without seeing the beautiful lights at Temple Square. We went last night. Boy was it freezing. My nose was about to fall off! The lights are so beautiful. I'm so glad we were able to go and share the beauty with the boys. Who knows when they will have the chance again. Elliott wasn't interested in taking pictures because he was so cold. He did agree to take the picture in front of the steaming fountain. He thought that was pretty cool. I love it with the temple in the background. I'm happy we went even if it was ridiculously cold. We weren't the only ones - it was pretty crowded.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve - singing carols



The tree

We had a lovely Christmas morning. The boys slept until 7:30, so we didn't have to get up too early. My only problem is that I woke up at 4 and didn't sleep well after that. I have a history of doing that on Christmas morning. I'm too excited for the day (although this year was just following the routine of the past couple weeks). The boys loved their presents and couldn't get enough of them in one day. That's always a good sign. Elliott finally got the pop-up tent he has been asking for for 2 years. He has slept in it every night since Christmas.

Derek in Christmas bliss.

We spent the afternoon with Stephen's and Mary Anne's families. We all had a great time visiting. Derek loved Lincon's rocking horse. As soon as one of them got off, the other one would get on. It was a fun, relaxing afternoon. We came home and had pizza dinner with our friends the Straits. Derek did surprisingly well all day with only a 15 minute car-ride nap. They were definitely ready to crash when it was bedtime. Merry Christmas to everyone!

School Christmas Program

Elliott had a Christmas program at school. They all dressed up in their Sunday clothes and looked so sharp. They sang 2 songs - I Want a Hippopotomus for Christmas and Must Be Santa. They were pretty cute. Here's a clip of the first song. I love Elliott "creeping down the stairs." It's adorable. They're both pretty long songs, so I'm only including the first video. Enjoy!

Christmas Preparations

I didn't get pictures of us decorating our tree because the flash on the camera broke. I got a new camera for Christmas - okay, so I got it a few weeks before Christmas and I'm happy to be able to take all the pictures I want now.

Elliott loves decorating gingerbread houses. I tried my best this year to let Elliott to the decorating by himself. I put the icing on and then let him put candies wherever he wanted. He did an excellent job! Since Christmas he has been enjoying removing and devouring as much of the candy as he can.



With the Big Man himself. When we saw Santa from a distance, Derek was pretty excited. He kept pointing and smiling at him. When we got to his lap, he wasn't as excited. But he only cried for a second and then sat there mildly content long enough for me to take a picture.

Derek LOVES the musical toys Grandma and Grandpa send every year. He just sits there and pushes the buttons over and over and watches them sing and dance. Sometimes he'll even dance with them too. It's really cute. Too bad he got a little rough with Frosty so he doesn't work anymore. I didn't get a picture of this year's toy, but he loves that one just as much.

Discovery Park

Wow. I guess it's really time to catch up on my blog! One Saturday, now long ago (mid-November) we headed to Discovery Park to play, explore, and well, discover. I read a friend's blog about this park and when we got there, I remembered going there once when I was a college student. That was really long ago. :) It is an awesome park with so many things to do. There are two separate areas for children of different ages. The boys had a great time. It was actually a little chilly, so the boys enjoyed themselves more than the parents, but it was still a great way to spend the afternoon. We'll definitely have to return when the weather warms up again.

Pennsylvania here we come!

Brent got a job offer with Air Products in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He accepted it on Monday. He interviewed with them back in January for an internship position. They contacted him last month and invited him to fly back again. They were so impressed with him that they took an offer to his hotel room just 30 minutes after the interviews were over. They never do that, but they knew they wanted him! Pretty awesome. The offer was much better than he expected it would be, so that was pretty sweet. He really likes the company and the people he has met there. He will be part of their MBA Career Development Program. In the program he has the opportunity to rotate positions every 8 months. After that he can choose the position that he wants to work in. He also likes the opportunity to change jobs within the company frequently to keep things interesting. They offered to fly me and Brent out before he accepted the offer, so we were able to go out there last weekend. My mom was so nice to drive up and stay with the boys so we could enjoy our trip without them. They had a great time together and so did we. A realtor took us around the area and showed us housing options. It was really nice to see the area. We also had a chance to do some shopping and relaxing. It was a fun, although short, trip. We even got to experience a snow storm there before coming home to our own storm.

We are really excited for the adventure that awaits us in Pennsylvania. I'm sure it will take some getting used to, but it'll be fun. We'll definitely miss our families and friends out west. Now you have an excuse to go back east. :)

18 months old!

Derek is 18 months old as of a couple weeks ago. He is finally walking!!! He started just a week or so ago. It is so nice to have him walking. He still doesn't say much, but he is figuring out more words slowly. He also finally hit the 20 pound mark. He has only gone to nursery once so far, but he did great and I loved it! It was great to not chase him around during church. He is such a sweet boy and pretty mellow, although he definitely knows what he wants and lets everyone know it. He can hold his own against Elliott. Derek is a sweetheart and growing so quickly.

Jack-o-Lantern Fun

Elliott and i got to work on the jack-o-lantern together. He let me do all the dirty work, but he wanted to help with all the rest. He traced parts of the pattern and helped me cut some of it. Here's our creation of "Freaky Frank."

We decided to try painting him to give him a better Frankenstein effect. The paint turned out kind of green. Now we know poster paint doesn't work very well on pumpkins. It started flaking off the next day. It worked out okay though.

Crafter's Corner

Last month Lis and I were finally able to go to Crafter's Corner, a cute shop where you can go and make metal decorations. We had been trying to find a time to go for 6 months! There are tons of awesome crafts to make - for every holiday or just because. It was difficult to choose just a couple. These are the ones I came home with.

I painted the board and chose paper to put behind the metal to spruce it up. I love the way it turned out!



All I did for the turkey was paint the block it sits on, but I think it's pretty dang cute. The beak and wattle poke out to give it a 3-D effect.

Halloween Fun

Halloween always lasts for days and this year was no exception. We enjoyed 3 days of Halloween festivities. Thursday night was the MBASA Halloween party. Friday was our ward activity and Saturday we went trick-or-treating with the Malmgrens. We missed Brent at the parties but he got to accompany the boys on Saturday.

Here are pictures the first night. Derek made an adorable frog (he's even in a great frog pose) and Elliott was a great skeleton. Unfortunately the flash on my camera decided to die on Saturday so the pics from trick-or-treating didn't turn out.

Elliott had a parade at school. It was a madhouse! There are rows and rows of chairs for families to sit and watch the parade. Then all the kids walk up and down every row. The parade started 20-25 minutes late and lasted for almost 30 minutes. It was crazy! The kindergartners are supposed to get out of school at 10:30 on Fridays, but we didn't leave until almost 11.

Derek waiting for the parade to start - Elliott the skeleton - Mr. Nielsen (the principal) as a Red Neck Super Hero - Mrs. Stewart (Elliott's teacher) as a witch

Overall it was a fun Halloween, but I'm glad it's over. It always makes me tired!

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Whoever said the 2nd year of the MBA program was easier was either crazy or else their husband didn't have hard classes or didn't work or didn't have to find a job. Brent has been super busy this semester. He's got a full load of tough classes, works as a TA, and is job searching like crazy. He also just got asked by the company he interned for to work for them on the side (with all that extra time he has). It's quite a privilege to have been asked to help, since he's the only one that was. They really liked him there (of course, because he's awesome). He has travelled a ton this semester too and it's barely 1/2 over. He's been to New Orleans (career fair), Minneapolis (career fair), New York (networking), and New York again right now (job interview). He goes to Palo Alto and Charlotte in a couple weeks for more interviews. We are thrilled that he has received all the interviews he has. He has been really blessed for all his hard work. Here's to hoping for even better news when offers start coming in. :) Keeping our fingers crossed. I'm so proud of you Brent! We love you!

Cougar Run and Homecoming Parade

Elliott ran in the Cougar Run on Saturday. It's part of the Homecoming festivities. He ran with 5 and 6 year old boys for 400 meters. He had fun doing it (even if he did come in 20th out of 21 runners). Good job Elliott! Elliott and Collin before the race. Elliott and Mason afterwards. Way to go boys!



Watching the parade with the Joneses. The kids all had fun, especially going after all the candy.

And of course no parade would be complete without the marching band. Go Cougars! (Too bad they got creamed in the game later in the day.)

Crazy Hair and Cute Faces

Last week was Red Ribbon Week at school. One day was crazy hair day. I used gel and made Elliott's hair stand up. It was as crazy as I could make it. I offered to spray it black, but when I told him he'd have to take a shower afterwards, he decided against it. Silly boy.

Las Vegas Fun

A couple weeks ago I took the boys to Las Vegas since Elliott has a few days off of school. We had a great time visiting family and friends. It's always fun to stay at Grandma and Popeye's house. Here are lots of pictures showing all the fun we had.

Derek loved going up and down the stairs. He was pretty proud of himself and now is quite the pro.

Town Square with Grandma, Curt, Ethan, and Caitlyn



Visiting Heather Fife and family. It was so fun to see them after several years.



The park with Grandma.

Party time with the all the family living in Vegas.

We spent some time at Chris and Kara's new house. The kids had a blast!

The District - trolley and carousel.

Mount Charleston with Daniel, Ashlee, Maya, Grandma, and Popeye. We hiked up to waterfall (I like to call it a water-trickle). There wasn't much to it, but it was still a nice hike. The hike itself was a little challenging with the little ones, but they made it.

Elliott on the way down: "I'm following the water. It's like I am the water."

We went to Curt's house after the hike. He made dinner for us. Way to go Curt!

We went to the Painted Mountain Ward on Sunday. I always love going back there. I love that ward! Thanks to so many good friends.

Pumpkinland

Derek and I went to Pumpkinland with our MBASA friends. They had a corn maze, a petting zoo (of sorts), and a big playground. Derek wasn't too thrilled to be there. I think he was pretty tired. He liked playing in the dirt more than anything. Elliott got to go there the following week with Kindergarten. He got to ride on a school bus for the first time. He had fun.

Standing Tall

Derek's newest accomplishment - standing up in the middle of the floor.

He has never attempted to stand up, but tonight as I was cleaning up dinner, Elliott said Derek is standing up and falling back down. I was doubtful, but as I watched, this is what I saw (beware loud screeching ahead)...

He finally got the hang of it. Once he got up and stood there for a good 30 seconds. Of course the video was processing so I couldn't get a picture, but here's a great one from another successful attempt. I absolutely LOVE the face!

Go, Derek, go!

He's finally making some progress. Hooray!

Elliott Update

I've been a bit behind on getting this update out. Elliott has had an exciting month. He loves school. He started playing soccer. He has a lot of fun, even if he doesn't usually get anywhere near the ball. He has a good coach and teammates. Their team is the Green Goblins. It's fun to see him play and have a good time. Elliott finally got a new bike too. It was time to get him a "real" bike with training wheels. He loves to ride it. A friend of mine was selling it, so it was a good deal too. Finally, last Saturday Elliott lost his first tooth. We were at the Wymount Opening Social. He was eating a cookie and felt something hard, so he took it out of his mouth. He thought it was just a sprinkle from his cookie. I glanced at it and realized it was his tooth. He thought that was pretty cool. And since he was eating something, we didn't have to deal with any blood. It was nice all around. It's funny to see him smile without the tooth because the new one is already as big as the other teeth in his mouth, just a bit further back. He was very excited for the tooth fairy to come. Elliott LOVES to play the Game of LIFE. We play it almost every day. He is really good at being the banker too. He can calculate anything - 2 paydays minus something he has to pay, etc. He's pretty amazing. It's fun to watch him learn and grow.