Great Grandma's 85th, a broken toe...and "i'm never going to the olympics"

Sadly, this is the only picture I have from our trip to Boise. We were all sick the whole time, so that would explain my lack of picture taking. This is how Hansen felt the whole time there. He sucked his fingers a lot. :-) Great Grandma Meredith is 85! The party was grand, and the best part was all the cute people showing up in the sunday best to celebrate Grandma. She is one of the sweetest women alive and has lived such a faithful life. Since her husband died when he was 63, she has been a widow for a long long time. That is why I eat so unhealthy, so I can die before Sam. :-) We love her! And we are so grateful for her.
This is a pic of Garrett's toe after a few days.You can't see much, but the whole side of the foot where the pinky toe was hurt was much darker in color, and the inside of his pinky toe was black. He is a tough dude. He just limped around on the rest of our trip. Even got his shoes on by himself while gritting his teeth. We make it a point to get some kind of injury when we are in the great city of Boise.


Finally, my cute little Molly has informed me she will not be participating in the Olympics ever. She watched the women's downhill and has made up her mind. I'm pretty sure she thought I was going to make her try that at some point.(she has needed a bit of coaxing while on the mountain, and she loves it after she is "coaxed"). I told her I am fine if she doesn't want to hurl her body down a mountain at 75 MPH. Fine by me. :-)

Handsome Hansen is walking...well running

So our little dude is too good to crawl around on the ground now. He has forced himself to learn how to walk. It was a very strange way to learn...but it got the job done. He had NO caution at all, and was never discouraged. He fell at least 10,000 times, and just got right back up and kept trying. He didn't pull himself up on a couch and then "dare to take a step". He just pulled himself up in the middle of the room and tried to walk. Very unsuccessfully at first. But he's got it now. He also didn't really take "first steps," he took "first hops." I have never seen anything quite like it. He learned to jump before he learned to walk. I never had the camera handy, buy finally got some good takes of his funny hops. His record was 6 across the floor...and then didn't fall at the end. The first video is to help me remember how determined he was as a little guy. And the second is to remember the hopping. He is such a funny guy. He now doesn't really walk...he runs. He stresses my mom out because he walks with "reckless abandon"

January Survival!

We have officially survived January, and I am pretty excited about it. I thought after last year(being VERY pregnant) that January couldn't get any worse, or at least it would be a little better. Nope! It is officially the month I despise in Utah. Not just for the very cold temps...but mostly for the inversion. I could say, well at least our air isn't as bad as...but no, I can't say that, because we have the WORST air in the country. I have finally figured out that it was causing some throat, sinus issues for me, and I am doing some things to remedy that. SO...we decided to take up skiing to survive. The air is clean, it is usually a bit warmer up in the mountains, and it is SO beautiful.
I am thrilled that Molly can do the rope by herself now, so I can just focus on getting Garrett comfortable on the mountain. He is improving each time he gets up there. And they are both so cute doing it! Garrett officially let go and made it down the bunny hill by himself....very slowly...but that is better than when he got going so fast that mom had to catch up to him fast and grab him. :-) Molly is a pro, and is bored on the bunny hill. We will venture to ski free at 3 at Alta, and then maybe...just maybe next year consider paying money to do it if they are both still interested.
I posted this pic of Hansen asleep(in a shirt that used to belong to his dad when he was a baby mind you). He is such a good little guy. This may be the last time I see him asleep in his Dad's arms. He is getting TOO heavy. He is walking! Craziness! He is showing more and more personality each day. Today he couldn't get enough of Garrett. He just kept trying to interact with him and giggling at every growl and every grunt that Garrett elicited as he pretended to be many friends from the animal kingdom. Wow! We really survived January(I even saw the tulips coming up already, which is probably a bad thing...but oh well...nothing like a little hope...we all need hope) Now February will just fly by. All basketball games are so relevant...warmer days will come...then march madness will be here! Here's to survival!

New Years!

Our whole family! My brothers came into town and our family was together for New Years. It was awesome. It was renewing and cathartic, and that is all I will say about that. We had fun with cousins. Rich made a sledding hill and every time Garrett went on it, he just kept saying to himself, "This is vewy vewy good." That is his way of screaming, "Thank you Uncle Rich, this is the best thing of my life!" Jump On It was a hit. Even for Hansen, the kid was born to jump.

We got to ski...which was very nostalgic. We got to get a pic of our old cabin where many a days were spent playing pool, in the sauna, and jumping of balconies into snow forts. We had plenty of time to take the picture, because traffic going down the canyon on New Year's Eve day was incredible. Standstill is an understatement.
It was great teaching the kiddos to ski though. Very fun. Horrible at first...then very fun. :-)
Molly and Lola EZ bakin it up. Ridiculous toy. You work really hard to have three bites of dessert. Ridiculous. Molly of course, loves it and wants to do it all the time. Today was Peanut butter fudge.

Hansen loves these drums as much as anyone...and I still love that it has volume control. Good toy.
Sleepover with her cousins. It was heaven for Molly. She loved it. We had a great time, and were sad to see them leave. We got a Christmas card from Aaron's fam and Molly had to put it up in her room to "think about them." :-) Highlights: Seafood bash at Russ and Mary's. MMMM. Steelhead, huge shrimp, mussels, and yellowtail(caught by my nephew). Being at Alta skiing. Temple. Watching the kids sled on all of the uncle's crazy trails(even if it meant hitting a rock), Singing. I'm probably forgetting something, but that is what I get for waiting so long. :-) Good good times. I am and forever will be grateful for my family.

Welcome 2010

I came downstairs after Hansen woke up to find Garrett watching a little morning show in his new(actually very used) ski boots. If that isn't the cutest thing...

We'll head up to Alta today, partially to get out of this inversion. Some guy(probably someone with a PhD in air quality or something) on the news, let us know that the air we are breathing is like smoking a pack of cigarettes. Awesome. Doesn't that just make you feel great? It is so gross. When I drove into the Salt Lake Valley yesterday it was even worse than here. (so maybe that is like two packs a day) Sooooooo bad. To top it off, it also makes it COLDER! Oh Spring...where art thou? I will anxiously await you...until then I will ski.

Christmas 2009

What a wonderful year we have had. With SO many changes. New job, new house, new car, new baby, new schools, etc...It has been a little too eventful, but we are grateful.

What a great Christmas we had! We had a few classic meltdowns...but I choose to ignore those and try to just remember the good. :-) Needless to say, Garrett won't be getting pj's without a pj top next year late on Christmas Eve. Highlights: Passing out caramels and caroling to our ward friends. Some of the older people couldn't get enough of the little people in their Santa hats singing(and Garrett jumping up and down and singing all at the same time). I was running out of songs that I had taught them. Note to self for next year, learn more songs. Our repertoire will have to be much larger for our older friends. Caroling to Sam's patients on Christmas Eve. When loneliness is seen so close up, my crazy children don't seem quite so crazy anymore. Christmas Eve and while doing Luke 2 we didn't think that Hansen would cooperate at all by laying still in the "manger" but he spent a couple still minutes(which is Christmas miracle 2009) just looking up at his sister(Mary) and his brother(the shepherd). Singing Silent Night and watching him be so still was memorable and priceless.

25th---Having Garrett sneak down to see if Santa came and running back up and whispering so excitedly, "Mom, Dad....Santa brought me CHEETOS!" Molly after opening a few presents looked up and said, "Mom, look(pointing at her stuff), are those ALL for me?" and after she opened them saying, "Thank you mom and dad." It was a highlight too as she was able to read all of our tags, my personal favorite, that even got her laughing, "To: The one who threw up on the way to the temple open house...From: the one who took you" She was so cute as she was guessing who each present was to and from. Garrett being scared of the robot dinosaur, not daring to get to close. Hansen wandering around breaking stuff. :-) Molly making me smell the empty milk cup that was left for Santa, "Look mom, Santa smells like nothing!" Eating Christmas eggs(then having Garrett pretend he liked them so he wouldn't ruin my Christmas with a fit). Watching them watch our family video while they waited for their next turn to open a present. It was crazy to see how much they have grown in just a year.

26th---Sam's birthday was pretty fun as well. Family came and celebrated with us as we did a cheese fondue and a chocolate fondue. It was fun...and the kids had a great time with cousins. They just kept asking where the cake was, and I kept telling them I didn't make one b/c daddy doesn't like cake. They kept coming up and asking thinking that I was kidding. I wasn't. :-) He'd rather just have a milkshake...and that is so much less work. He is so wonderful in every way.

So all in all it was a Happy Christmas and a Happy Birthday. This was a year where it was a different Christmas spirit for me personally. As there have been challenges in the lives of those so close to me. I came to the horrible realization that SO MANY people are struggling in so many ways. And life is hard. This changed me a bit this Christmas but reminded me that we are so blessed and need to be grateful every single day.

These little people

I know I am going to miss Garrett J when he goes off to school. I was out shoveling snow, and it was good exercise as my positive mind says...but when my fingers started to ache from the 24 degree weather(even with Sam's good ski gloves on), I was getting a little sick of it. Then, the front door opens and Garrett through the storm door gives me a big thumbs up. I am not sure if he just has fortunate timing, or he can sense when his mom is feeling a bit discouraged...but every one needs a Garrett in their lives.

Then earlier in the week, I was moving the kids beds and found a cup...yes a CUP in between the mattress and the box spring of Molly's bed. Upon questioning, she said, "I wanted to see if I was a real princess like princess and the pea." Oh yes, my sweets, you are a princess...a real one. :-)