Christmas 2013 Letter

Yep, I know. I missed posts about Halloween AND Thanksgiving. Those will hopefully come! Ha! 

Here is the Christmas 2013 letter from us. Sorry there is no picture of our Christmas Card but we don't have a scanner!!

Merry Christmas!!

Family and Friends,

General: Emily is still teaching the 4 turning 5 year olds in church and loves it! She has also had the opportunity to sub for the organist a few times and has really enjoyed that! Tim is still the financial guy. Nothing too exciting there.

January: Nick turned 4 at the beginning of the month. He is getting to be so grown up. He still loves cars, trains, airplanes, transformers, etc. He loves to play with his brothers and his friends.

February/March: Tim’s younger brother and his wife had a little girl in February (niece #7). In March we headed to Utah for the baby’s blessing. We were able to spend time doing a few things. Emily went skiing for the 2^nd (kind of first real) time. Tim got to spend a few hours skiing on his own, while Emily took a class. They both had fun. On the way back home, we stopped in Moab, Utah and did a little off-roading. It wasn’t quite as exciting since Tim ended up going on his own for most of the experience. Jake was sick, so after a small adventure, he and Emily went back to the hotel. Zach has a queasy tummy, so he went back to the hotel and Nick wanted to play with Zach. Tim had as much fun as he could have by himself. We stopped in Durango on the way back to Arizona to ride a train from Durango to Silverton but that was cut short since we found out Jake had another ear infection and was puking. That marked the 3^rd ear infection in 1 ½ months.

Also in March Emily ran her first sanctioned ½ marathon. It was in Phoenix and after training all winter long, finished in a time of 2 hrs. 15 mins. Her goal was to finish around 2 hrs. 30 mins., so it was great! And she managed to finish about 10 mins. before the first marathoner came across, so that made her even more happy! And she ran into a couple friends she hadn’t seen in years.

April: Tim’s birthday came and the boys had a great time picking out presents on their own. Tim was a good sport and “enjoyed” all the gifts given to him. Jake had another ear infection. L

May: School ended for the summer and Zach was so happy! Jake had another ear infection. L It started getting old going to the doctor.

June: Jake turned 2! And he had an EAR INFECTION FREE MONTH!!! He loves to play with his good buddy Eli. He also loves to climb, get into everything and thinks he can do everything by himself. *sigh*. He also loves cars, trains, airplanes and especially motorcycles.

July: Zach turned 6! And he started 1^st grade. He loves school and loves to play. He is often found in his room playing cars, making explosion sounds and running around the house. He is becoming quite the reader and this year for Christmas tried to really think about what people wanted. It was a nice change.

August: Emily turned 29 again! And Tim and Emily celebrated their 9^th anniversary. Nothing special, just out to dinner, which is always fun with no kids! Emily’s younger sister had a baby girl and at the end of the month Emily headed to Omaha for the baby blessing and to spend time with family. It was a more exciting trip that originally planned. Emily’s mom had been helping at her sister’s when she fell down the stairs breaking her ankle in 3 places and dislocating it. It was still good to see all the family that was there and meet her new niece (niece #8).

September: Tim went to Utah to watch BYU play Texas AND WIN!!! He was able to see his brother and hang out and kind of relax. He had a great time. Tim’s sister had her 2^nd baby this month, another little girl. We now have a total of 9 nieces and no nephews. Someday we hope someone will finally have a boy! I guess until then Emily gets her girly fill by making cute blankets and buying clothes for all her new nieces. Zach and Nick started soccer this month and are enjoying it. Emily is coaching Nick’s team and is finding it fun, hilarious and enjoyable! The kids are great!

October: Tim’s parents came to visit. Tim and Emily were able to get away for a couple days and it was great! Then we all (Tim’s parents too) loaded up in the van and headed to Mexico. Tim’s sister lives there and we dropped his parents off at the border. It was an exciting trip as the car battery decided to die, so we had to get jumped 3 different times and drove down a 60+ mile long road one way COVERED with grasshoppers! Our car is still a little gross! After the grandparent drop off, we headed up to Albuquerque for the night. The next day we bought winter stuff for the boys and headed off to Durango for the train ride we missed in March. The Train goes from Durango to Silverton and most of the cars are from the early 1900’s, beautifully restored and kept up. It’s a steam engine. The first stop after the hotel was dinner at a steak place Tim had been to before. First thing Jake did was puke all over the table just after we ordered. Luckily it was just the once and we think it was due to the long drive and lots of junk food. The boys really enjoyed the train ride the next day. It was a bit cold in the morning but by the time we got to Silverton the weather had warmed up and the boys had a great time eating lunch by the river and throwing rocks in. Tim traveled to Portland for work and was able to see his parents and Emily’s parents.

November: Tim traveled for work 3 of the 4 weeks this month. It was a tiring and exhausting month for Emily (for Tim too). Thankfully, he was able to be home for the week of Thanksgiving and that was great. His sister and her family came for Thanksgiving and it was fun to meet the newest niece. Emily was able to go shopping on Black Friday and have a pleasant experience. She hit Jo-Ann Fabrics and saved over $200 on flannel and a few other things. Enough fabric to last a year! Jake broke his 4 ½ month streak of no ear infections with another one. Luckily we caught it quickly and it was not a “problem”. Tim put up all the Christmas decorations on Black Friday with the “help” of the boys.

December: Tim started this month by traveling to Wisconsin. He told Emily, “I’ve always wanted to go to Wisconsin … in the summer!” Luckily he was there before the big storm came through and was able to make it home safely! We have really just been enjoying the season and the cooler weather (finally). We are so grateful for this time of year, to really concentrate on our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is wonderful to have such great reminders of all he did for us.  We hope you will remember the Savior and feel His love as you celebrate Christmas this year!

Merry Christmas!

Tim, Emily, Zach, Nick, Jake and Baby “Buzz” or “Holly” (We find out in January).

Omaha

In August, my sister and brother-in-law, Hannah and Matt, welcomed their first child, a little girl named Penelope. I LOVE that name and they obviously love it too. I booked a flight and got everything ready to go visit for the baby blessing and to see some family, which was over labor day weekend. It was an interesting weekend. My mom, who had been there for about 3 weeks helping, fell down some stairs and broke her ankle in 3 places and dislocated it. I've always said she is an overachiever. Because of this, another younger sister, Molly, who wasn't planning to be there, flew out to help take care of my mom until my dad and I got there. Everything went as well as possible with someone who was basically bedridden.

The blessing was Sunday night and we were able to have it at the hotel. It was very nice of everyone involved to come to us since my mom was injured. I did have a chance to meet two of the cutest little girls ever! *Sigh* Too bad they are only 4 and 6 and live in Omaha. I'm not a big proponent of arranged marriages but the thought did cross my mind cause they were so stinking cute and adorable!!!

Mom, dad and Molly left Monday around noon to begin the drive back to WA State. They got there incredibly quickly and safely. After they left, I headed out with Hannah, Matt and Lil P to see the sights. We went to the Winter Quarters Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Right next to it is a cemetery where lots of members of the church were buried. It's a lovely little place. Across the street from both is a visitor's center where we took the very abbreviated version of the tour. The tour starts with a video and then goes around the visitor's center and you learn about the early pioneers of the church, how Winter Quarters was founded and a lot of church history. It usually takes about 45 minutes. We did it in about 15. Matt had already seen it and Lil P was on a schedule all her own.

It was a really nice visit. I got up early Tuesday morning and went for a very nice run. It was very green and cool. It was a beautiful run. I did enjoy my quick visit. I loved driving down a main highway/road and seeing corn fields on both sides! I wrongly thought corn fields flanking a road was something only found kind of out in "farm" country. Nope. It was beautiful and I had a lot of fun.

Lil P in her blessing dress.

The fam that was there.

Lil P sleeping.

Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple

View from the road.

Entrance to the cemetery.

View of the temple from the cemetery.

Closer up view of the temple.

Me and the sign. 

The visitor's center.

Emily's Birthday

A month after Pach's birthday is my birthday. We have 3 summer birthday's in this house, so it's a party all summer long! I got to pick dinner, so we head to Hot Rods here in Vail. We like it. The food is good, the service is mostly good and the boys LOVE all the hot rods sitting around. It's a great place for us as a family.

After we got home we did the presents, which meant, the boys opened them for me. Actually, just as we sat down to open presents, the doorbell rang. It was a friend dropping off a present for me. Bacon took it and before I had even closed the door, he had pulled everything out of the bag! They get so excited for any type of celebration with presents! Then came the cake.....

I think it was my second birthday after we had gotten married, Tim tried to make me an elephant cake. We would watch "Ace of Cakes" and he would get all sorts of ideas for cakes. He made a cake and rice krispy treats to sculpt an elephant. It didn't work. That year I got a soccer cake, which was awesome! Fast forward a few years, a few kids and lots of crazy cakes and Tim made another attempt to make elephants for me. I think it was a success!! It wasn't an actual elephant cake but it had elephants and I loved it!

The ever helpful boys!

Bacon is never far from the action!

Pickles turn to help.

Bacon is the ham of the family. I guess the nickname is very appropriate.

Pach is such a cutie!

Bacon is actually helping this time.

The elephants that went on the cake. I LOVED them! The boys did too.
They ate them.

Blowing out the candles with help. 

Dig into Reading - End of the library summer reading program

Each year (as I found out this year), the library holds a "Dig into Reading" program to help kids get into reading. Each child gets a reading "log" to keep track of how many books are read. It's a rock path broken up into four sections. Each section has 10 rocks. Whenever a child reaches the end of a section, they can go to the library and get prizes. Sometimes it's books and little papers. Other times it's more books and pamphlets and cutesy little things. At the end of the summer, any child who has filled in all 40 rocks get a free pass to the Zoo where the Library holds it's end of the summer reading program party. There is a lot of things to do and it's a lot of fun. I'd never been before, so this was very new to me. I'm glad we are zoo members because the line to get in was crazy long! We were able to go straight to the "Zoo Members" window and only wait 5 min. versus the 30 mins or so. The kids had a great time. We went with some friends so we were able to divide and conquer!

I would like to say we actually saw some animals but not really. We saw the Otters, a couple monkeys, the giraffes and the lions. And we only saw those because they were on our way to someplace we were heading. It was accidental animal viewing this day at the zoo.

Digging for dinosaurs.

Nothing beats playing in the water on a hot day!

Not really a river but fun nonetheless.

Trying to hula hoop.

Not to be outdone by his older brothers.

He got pretty good. 

Cute red stegasarous. 

He surprised me by getting a lion. I thought for sure he would have gone with the dinosaur.

"Where the Wild Things Are". There were many
storybook characters roaming around.

Doing the "limbo".

A friend's son asked the DJ to play "Gangnam Style". The older boys danced.

For trying to hula hoop for so long, Pach won these window clings.
Until we decorated for Halloween, they were proudly displayed on the bathroom mirrors.

Another School year Starts!

Here in Vail, we have a modified year-round school system. I really like it. The kids start in mid-July and go until the end of May with a few breaks thrown in. I like they start in the summer because it gives them something to do during the inferno called summer here.

Pach started 1st grade! I can't believe he is in 1st grade already! And in a small but nice change, Pickle started his second year of Joy School the same week! He LOVES it and I can't believe he will be in kindergarten next year! Ahhhh!!!! Where is the time going?????

Pach and his new backpack.

Bacon wouldn't be left out so I got a picture
with all my handsome little men!

Pickle with his new backpack.

Even though he isn't starting any type of school,
Bacon will not be left out. 

Pachman is 6!!!

Not long after Bacon's birthday and Father's Day is Pach's birthday. This year he turned 6 years old! He is growing up so fast!! I don't know that I like it.

He chose to have a Transformer's birthday party and had a lot of fun. He was able to have a few friends over. Each got an Optimus Prime mask and played "Pin the Allspark on Bumble Bee."

He had a great time opening the presents and loved each one. The surprise hit of the present opening was a gift bag that played "Happy Birthday to You" while candles lit up. Everyone wanted to play with that. Guess I know what to get him next year!

Tim mad a great cake again this year. Pach had asked for a Bumble Bee cake, specifically his face. I was wondering how Tim was going to pull that off since Bumble Bee's face is a bit more difficult than Optimus Prime's. Luckily for him (I guess), Pach decided he didn't want a face, he simply wanted two figurines fighting each other. So Tim made a wonderful cake with Bumble Bee and Star Scream fighting each other.

I love his smile!

The boys playing Transformers.

Opening a legos. 

He is such a good brother! He let Bacon open one of his presents.

Bacon was really excited!

The bag! Biggest hit of the party!

Ben 10 Humangasaur. (That is probably spelled wrong).

 

The cake. I really like the bright yellow and black contrast.

Happy boy with his cake!

Tim thinks I'm funny I always want a picture cutting the cake.

Bacon decided he didn't need a fork or plate.

We made him take this bite for a picture but he would've done it anyway.

He was so proud of himself!

Happy Father’s Day!!

 Right after Bacon’s birthday we got to celebrate again. Yay for Father’s Day!

The boys LOVE Father’s Day. Every year I dress the boys in all their BYU stuff: shirts, socks, hats, toys, etc. and we head out to get Father’s Day pictures taken. That is the one gift Tim gets every year: a picture of the boys that says “Happy Father’s Day” on it. It’s hard to keep it a secret now and he knows that is one present but it’s still fun to do.

He got a couple Cure CD’s that he didn’t have. I was shocked when I found them but quite happy too. He opened and listened to them that night. It was great fun! I wrapped all the presents in white paper and the boys went to town decorating them and their cards with stickers and markers. It’s always fun wrapping paper for dad!

Bacon helping dad unwrap his movie.

Pach helping dad unwrap his CD.

Pickle's wrapping job.

Helping dad unwrap his other CD.

His present from me. A card and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

 

Opening his annual Father's Day present: A picture of the boys decked out in BYU gear.