The Children's Museum

On Christmas Eve, Melissa took us all to this really cool Children's Museum that was in an old elementary school building. This place was amazing! The kids had a blast. We could have stayed there all day.


Tanner had fun sitting in the dinosaur nest and throwing the eggs around.

Riley's cousins put these headphones on Riley unbeknownst to him. He resisted at first, but I would say that this ended up being his favorite thing in the whole place. He would talk into the microphone and then be able to hear his own voice in the headphones. It was pretty neat.
By far and away Tanner's favorite thing was this ball ramp. We couldn't get him away from it! He just laughed and laughed, and then would get all serious when he went to put the ball back at the top. It was pretty funny.
This was a pretty cool activity. You could build whatever you wanted out of pvc pipe. Riley and Todd both had a lot of fun. And, if you look hard enough, you can see Tanner playing with the bead maze in the background. He loves those things.
Tanner loves anything that has to do with a ball. He especially loved this ball that floated in mid-air.

Visiting Family

This Christmas we were invited to Andy and Melissa's house in Loveland, CO. The 9 1/2 hour drive was worth it for this fun visit. Riley really enjoyed playing with his cousins, Aaron and Ethan...and Aaron and Ethan were extremely kind to Riley and all his 4-year old eccentricities. Riley also fell in love with the Lundmark's cats...much to our surprise. We did a lot of fun things with our cousins and can't wait for our next visit. And, side note, not a day goes by where Riley says he doesn't like Kansas and that he would rather live in Colorado or Utah.

 

 

 

Ward Christmas Program Gone Wrong

Sara left me all by my lonesome to go to the ward Christmas program with Riley and Tanner this year as she was singing up in KC. I was sitting at the table when I hear someone say "let's have all the primary kids come up". I had no clue what they were doing but I sent Riley out with all the rest of the kids. They came back 20 minutes later filing into the cultural hall with their little angel costumes and halos. Everyone except Riley. That was my first clue things weren't going to go well. I had my hands full with Tanner running around so I wasn't very mobile. As they all started singing I had one of our friends come back chuckling to tell me that instead of singing the words to the song he was singing "blah, blah, Blah!" How embarrasing. Things ended up with him making a small scene and having to get pulled off the front row. This child keeps us humble!

Ummm...?

Nana got Tanner a Leap Frog magnetic letter toy for Christmas. He LOVES it...and so does Riley. For the past 45-minutes or so, Riley has been making words out of the letters. He just turned to me and said, very proudly,

"Look mom! I spelled FAG!"

Oh...that's great spelling honey!

"Mom, what does FAG mean?"

Ummm...I'm not sure...(do I tell my child it means a cigarette...or do I tell him it is a derogatory word referring to someone who is gay?)

"Does it mean a train?"

Maybe.

"Oh, I think it means chocolate."

That sounds about right. :)

Picture Time

We are so excited that these pictures turned out as well as they did. In the past getting the boys' picture taken has been a total nightmare. This time though, Riley was hammin it up. It was a piece of cake to get a good picture of him. Tanner was a little bit trickier. There were several good shots of Tanner that were missed by the Target photographer...darn it! I just want to shout at these people to have your finger on the camera at all times and be ready to click at any given moment. I wonder how many great shots have been missed due to a lack of understanding of this idea. My guess is a lot.

 

 

 

My Preppy Boys

They just looked so nice before church that I knew I had to get a picture before they didn't look so nice anymore...and believe me, "nice" goes quickly in this house!

 

 

The BEST Candy!

Growing up on Woodchuck Way in Sandy, UT we lived by the Smarts. Jenny was friends, and still is friends, with Stephanie Smart. Well, Steph's mom makes the absolute best candy around. We always got a big plateful every Christmas season. We loved it!!! Now Steph's mom, Kimberly, owns her own candy store in Sandy (The Chocolate Cottage on 7th East and 10600 South). Every time I visit, I get spoiled with some seriously good treats (the white chocolate covered raspberries are seriously sinful!). She now has a website selling her amazing toffee. So, because they were always so nice to us growing up...and Steph is my sister's best friend...and the toffee is some of the best I've ever had...I am doing a little advertising. :)

Her website is called English Toffee Anytime. They are giving away free toffee, so go check them out.

Merry Christmas!!!

Our Funny Sleeper

Riley is such a great little sleeper! He has this uncanny knack of being able to fall asleep in very strange ways. We found him once asleep in his closet after making a terrible mess first. Another time we found him propped up in his little chair just kickin' back. And talk about uncomfortable, once we found him dead to the world laying on his train table with his blankets wrapped all around his head! This kid can sleep through anything too! He has completely slept through lightning hitting our house...producing the loudest sound I have ever heard! He also slept through Tanner poking him in the ear.

Well, here is his newest sleeping caper. We walked in last night to check on him and just laughed and laughed. This kid!?!?! :)