{Merry Christmas}

Okay, I know I am a few days late for Merry Christmas wishes, but the thought was there earlier and I was too lazy to get on and post it! Sorry! I also want to say thanks to the Becerra's, for letting us be a part of the Christmas Eve get-together. We love to see you! Well, here is the story of our Christmas Day.

Christmas this year was a blast--well, mostly. It dumped over a foot of snow at our house on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We were pretty much snowed in, since we couldn't get out of our garage. We woke up early and Isaac ran to the tree to see what Santa had left for him. He was so excited! Eli slept until after 9:00am, so he missed all of the fun. Oh well, he's only 6 months old--he didn't really know what was going on, anyway. After opening presents we were supposed to have David's dad over for breakfast. We got a call that he was stranded less than a mile from our house due to getting high-centered on a median that had been covered in snow. I'm telling you, it was a blizzard out here. Anyway, so David went and picked him up and brought him back to have breakfast. The only thing I could think about was that we were going to end up being late to Juan and Lisa's house to talk to my little brother, Zach. He's been in Mexico, on an LDS Mission for nearly a year now. I was sick to my stomach at the thought that we wouldn't make it. So, I called my step-dad, Juan, and let him know what was going on with the weather. He assured me that they would conference me in so that I could talk to him from home. Whew. What a relief. David, Isaac and I all had a chance to speak to Zach and it was great! So, then we left to take Jerry home and visited Juan, Lisa and my other little brother, Caleb (I should mention that it had only snowed a teeny, tiny bit in Murray--what the heck?) I feel bad that it was such a rushed visit, but we always seem to have so much to do on Christmas, and so many places to be. It would be nice to be able to just stay home and have everyone who wants to see us come here instead of us running everywhere. Anyway, then we went to David's mom's house and had a wonderful, but rushed, Christmas dinner. We then headed home around 5:00pm to get ready for my family to come over. We hosted my Dad, Rondi, Ramsi, Stoker, Tyler, Dolly and my two nephews. We missed Branigan and Julie and little Beau, born on December 22nd! It was a fun night, with lots of food and presents. I just love Christmas. I will post a picture of the entire family in our matching Christmas PJ's as soon as Ramsi forwards them to me. I'm sure they are great! Here are some cute pictures of our Christmas...
Isaac--after opening all of the presents from Santa.

Isaac with his "loot". Some of it, anyway.

The Grandson's in their matching PJ's. Little Beau has a matching pair of PJ's too! What cute little boys--wouldn't trade them for anything!


Isaac and Eli lounging together on the couch.

Eli and his cute little smile (and David's arm).

Aunt Ramsi made these adorable, reversible capes for each of the boys. She even made one for Eli and for baby Beau. They are super cute and the boys loved them! Thanks, Ramsi!

{The Polar Express}

Saturday we took a ride onThe Polar Express at the Heber Valley Railroad in Heber, Utah. We wanted to take Isaac on it last year, but were unable to get tickets. This year we ordered our tickets early! For those of you who don't know Isaac very well--he is obsessed with trains! The Polar Express is one of his favorite movies that involve trains and he watches it often. He has been counting down the days and has been so excited that we were going to go this year! This week I found some pictures of a Polar Express ticket, similar to the tickets on the movie. I made some adjustments to the picture and was able to print tickets to give to Isaac and his cousin, Jonathan to take on the train with us. They were thrilled! The tickets looked great and they were the only kids on the train with 'real' tickets! The ride was a lot of fun! It was a much longer ride than I had anticipated--close to two hours long. We were given hot chocolate and cookies, we sang songs, read the story of The Polar Express and looked for the 'North Pole' and Santa out the windows of the train. When we got to the 'North Pole', Santa boarded the train, and since we were on the last car the boys waited excitedly for Santa to make his way to us during the ride back to the station. Finally, Santa was in our car! I couldn't believe how excited the boys were! I thought they were going to cry! Santa went to each child and gave them a special Christmas bell. It was the best! Here are some pictures of the adventure (lots of pictures)! Thanks Grandma Rondi and Grandpa Brad for sharing this adventure with us and for helping keep Eli happy so David and I could take pictures and video of this experience.

Here are Jonathan (my brother's little boy) and Isaac with their special tickets. On the other side it says, "The Polar Express" and "Round Trip" with a picture of a bell and some holly.



Grandma Rondi and Eli. I'm not sure why I cut my dad out of the picture. Sorry, Dad!


This is the part where the boy are anxiously awaiting Santa's arrival. They are standing on their seats and their eyes never left the door of the train car.


"There he is!!!!! I see him!" That is what they were saying when I took this picture. It is hilarious! Don't they look like they are so excited that they might start crying? I love it!



Santa walking down the isle, giving bells to each child and saying "Merry Christmas! Ho, ho, ho!". The boys couldn't wait for their turn.



Santa and the boys.


Here they are after getting their special Christmas bells. Check out Jonathan's expression! Hee, hee!


Here they are after the ride was all over. What a fun adventure!

{Oh, Christmas Tree}

On Saturday we put up our Christmas tree and most of our decorations. Isaac thought it was awesome and was obsessed with getting the star on top. I kept telling him that it would be the last thing to go on the tree, but for some reason he was worried that I would forget. So, he carried it around with him until it was time to put it on the tree. Here are some photos of our day. Yeah, we pretty much stayed in our PJ's the entire day. It was great!

Isaac--holding up his precious star.


Isaac and Eli in front of the finished tree. I am not sure why I cut off the top of the tree in this picture. Sad. For those of you wondering why a BYU fan would have a red tree, all I can say is that blue doesn't really go with our home decor, but notice the large BYU ornament front and center on the tree. Go cougars!


All I can say is, poor Eli. Isaac isn't the most gentle kid in the world when it comes to holding his brother. Isaac is pretty excited, though.

{Thanksgiving}

This year we went to Thanksgiving dinner at my uncle Neil and aunt Holly's house and then over to David's moms home a little later. After eating and visiting at each place we met up with my Dad and Rondi, Tyler, Dolly, Jonathan and Dylan to see Madagascar 2. It was a funny show, and the kids loved it! So, it was a busy day for us, filled with food and fun. Isaac had a blast playing with his cousins. He was so bummed when the day ended. Here are a few pictures of our day...

Grandma Rondi and Grandpa Brad with Isaac and Eli at Neil and Holly's house. My nephew Dylan wanted to be in the picture so bad, so he's at the bottom left. What a cutie, huh?

From left to right...David, Isaac, Jonathan, Jace, Dylan, Rondi, Eli and Brad. Do we have enough boys in this family? We have one more on the way via Branigan and Julie, too. Yikes!

Eli and Aunt Cynthia at Grandma Names' house. Eli is looking pretty thrilled in this picture.

{Happy Thanksgiving}

I have much to be grateful for this year!

I wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

{Campout}

This week David decided that it would be fun to have a campout with Isaac in our living room on Friday night. I thought it was a great idea--as long as the tent was cleaned really well before bringing it into the house. It's been many years since it's been used, and who knows what creepy, crawly things lurk in the folds? Probably none, but my imagination was running wild...

Anyway, so David cleaned the tent and found our Smore's maker. While I was giving Isaac his bath David set it all up in the living room. It was going to be a surprise. Once Isaac was in his jammies I had him come out to find daddy. He walked out and stopped. His eyes were huge and his jaw hung open. "Wow!" was all he said. Then he ran to it and climbed in. He asked David if they were going to have a campout and he was so excited to find out that he and daddy were going to be sleeping out there that night. Here are some pictures of the campout.

This last picture is hilarious. Isaac insisted on taking a "funny" picture. What a goof!

{Twilight}

So, I went to see Twilight at midnight last night with some of my girlfriends. It was a crazy night for sure. I wasn't sure whether I would regret going since it would be cutting into my much needed sleep time, which is scarce since Eli has been teething.

We met at 9:30 at a very crowded Red Robin for dinner (yummy), and then walked to the theater after eating. There were screaming and excited girls everywhere! It was hilarious! Twilight t-shirts galore and ladies yelling, "I love you, Edward!" at the top of their lungs. I think I counted a total of 6 men in our theater--hee, hee! Poor guys. I have to say that I was a little disappointed in the movie. I'm sure it was just because I had such high expectations. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty good, just not what I hoped it would be. Some of the actors weren't quite right for the part, in my opinion, and I just wanted there to be more. I know that movies rarely are as good as the books and a lot has to be changed or cut out to get the story shoved into two hours, but I was left wanting more. I think if I see it again, and I plan to, I will like it better. I will know what to expect and instead of being bothered by what was left out or changed I will be able to just enjoy it.

All in all, it was a fun night. The food and company were great. It was an exciting experience, and although I didn't LOVE the movie it was worth seeing. I certainly don't regret a night out with friends and an escape from the kids for a while--no matter that it cost me some precious zzz's. Totally worth it! Thanks Lori for arranging everything and getting the tickets for us all--it was great!

{My Big Brother and Me}

I was going through some old pictures the other day and I found these of Jarrod and me when we were little. I have been thinking about him so much lately. I miss him like crazy and it makes me so sad that he isn't here to see little Eli, or to play rough with Isaac. He and Isaac were such great buddies. Anyway, I miss you big brother!


I was about 1 in the above picture. Jarrod was probably close to 2 and a half. He has the chubbiest cheeks! Hee, hee!

I was 2 in this picture, which would make Jarrod 3 and a half. Don'tcha love my mohawk?

{Yum, yum}

Over the past week Eli has decided that eating his toes is the best. He grabs his feet the second we get him undressed or change his diaper.

Above is before we got him in the tub...below is what he did the second we put him in the tub! (censored)

What a silly little guy.


This last picture cracks me up. He has this look like, "Oops, busted."

{4 Month Check-Up}

I took Eli to his 4 month check-up yesterday. The poor guy. He was such a good boy the whole time we were there and then we had to go and ruin it by giving him his shots. Usually we get a couple of nurses and they each give him a shot in different legs at the same time. This time we only got one nurse and he had to get three shots. It was so sad.

So, here are his stats: Weight--12.13lbs, Height--26 inches, Head 15.6 inches. We officially have a runt for a baby! His height is in the 75th%, but his weight is only in the 8th% and his head in the 3rd%. The doctor isn't concerned about any of his stats because he is definitely growing--more in length than weight, but he's getting bigger.

It is so strange to have two kids be so completely different in almost every way. Isaac was a week late, Eli 3.5 weeks early. Isaac weighed 9lbs 11oz at birth, Eli 7lbs 10oz. Isaac was a good eater, Eli isn't--he likes to eat often, but only small amounts. Isaac has a big, round head and Eli's is long and narrow (like his daddy's). They really don't look anything alike--except they were both born with lots of dark hair. Isaac lost his by 5 months, and Eli is on his way there. Their personalities are so different too. It is just so interesting to me.

Here is a silly picture of Eli. He has decided that he is a big boy now and rolls all over the place. He figured out yesterday morning how to roll from his back to his tummy. Every time we put him down to play he rolls over. I mentioned in a previous post that he hates being on his tummy, so when he rolls onto it he just grunts and whines. I keep asking him why he rolls onto his tummy when he hates it so much--he hasn't answered me yet. Silly boy.

{Happy Halloween}

I finally got my camera to work so I could post the pictures from Halloween! Yippee!

The week of Halloween was a fun week for Isaac. On Thursday he had a Halloween party at his preschool. It wasn't a big production like they have in Elementary School, but he got to dress up and take treats to class.


On Thursday night we carved pumpkins--Isaac insisted that his pumpkin look like him. It was hilarious! It had to have hair and holes in his circle nose so he could breathe. We got him describing what it should look like on video--too cute. (In this picture he is poking his little saw at the camera).


He wouldn't touch the insides of the pumpkin. He said it was to disgusting.


This is the final product.

Friday night we got dressed up and went trick or treating. David's sister, Cynthia and her friend, Alex brought Alex's son to trick or treat around our neighborhood with Isaac. They were too cute together, and Isaac had so much fun! He was running from house to house and yelling "TRICK OR TREAT!" as loud as he could. It was so funny. This is Isaac out "Trick or Treating". Not a great picture--sorry.


This is Isaac and Drew after a long night. They were both totally exhausted!


Poor little Eli. He hated his costume and was super fussy all night--well, until he fell asleep on the way to the Grandparents houses. I only got three or four shots of him in his costume, but it was pretty cute. My little "Pea in a Pod". Last Halloween I had just found out I was expecting this little guy!

{VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!!}

Since I can't get my lame camera to upload my Halloween photos, I will skip my Halloween post for now....

I hope everyone took the time to get out and vote today!

{Tag!}

So, this is my first tag (thanks Holly)...wish me luck!

1. Where were you 10 years ago?
Hmmmm...I was 21 years old and working at Bank of Utah as a teller, or maybe a New Accounts representative. Can't remember for sure. I was dating David and living at home with my mom and Juan and the boys.

2.What's on your to-do list for today?
-Vacuum and dust the great room, kitchen, Isaac and Eli's rooms.
-Wrap gifts for Julie's baby shower tonight.
-Get treats together for Isaac's preschool Halloween party tomorrow.
-Do a load of laundry.
-Shower.
-Play trains with Isaac.
-Snuggle with Eli.

3. What if you were a billionaire?
I would use the money to finish our basement--finally. I would travel around the world with the family. I would especially love to see Italy, Ireland, Austraila and France. Maybe we could be like Brangelina and buy property abroad and live there for a portion of each year. I would probably hire a housekeeper because no matter how hard I try I never seem to have enough time to clean the house the way it ought to be. I would love to have an indoor playground in our house, but since it wouldn't fit in this one maybe we would have to buy a new house (maybe one with a finished basement so I can stop whining about our current one). I'm sick of having to slather sunscreen on my kiddos and myself only to go out and suffer in the extreme summer heat just to play for 30 minutes. It would be much more sanitary to have one in our own home instead of taking the kids to play at McDonalds or Carl's Jr during the winter, too. I would also use the money to do something really great for my dad and Rondi--not sure what, though. Hmmmm.

4. Five places you have lived:
I can beat five...
-Bountiful
-North Salt Lake
-Provo
-Salt Lake City
-Albuquerque, New Mexico
-San Juan, Puerto Rico
-Murray
-Sandy
-Riverton

5. Three bad habits:
-Definitely procrastination
-I bite my cuticles. Ick.
-Talk on my cell while driving.

6. Snacks you like (love):
-Popcorn
-Any fresh fruit
-String cheese

7. Post random picture:

(David prior to going to the OR with me for my c-section with Eli)















Now, I tag BreeAnn and Taryn! I hope you guys read this! Good luck!

{Pumpkin Patch}

On Saturday morning my dad and I took Isaac and Eli to Engh Gardens in Sandy. They have a costume parade and some fun activities for the kids each year on the Saturday before Halloween. David was not at work this time, but was at the BYU football game. I have known since before marrying him that BYU football always comes first. Soooo, I asked my dad if he would join us just in case Eli didn't cooperate. Thanks, Dad (or Grandpa Bread as Isaac would say). You're the best!!!!

This girl pirate statue sitting in the middle of the pumpkin patch was pretty cool. I had to get a shot of Isaac with it. Notice my dad holding Eli in the background? I think he was trying to get out of the way, and I didn't notice he was even there. Oops.

Isaac is yelling "Boo!" just in case any of you thought he was howling at the sky.

There was a cute little hay maze that the little kids could go through. Isaac went through at least 5 times. He thought it was pretty great.

They have this awesome electric train in the middle of all of their plants and flowers. It is raised up, and there are flowers on the ground in front so the kids can't climb up and touch the train. It has a really cool tunnel and everything. The second we walked through the doors all Isaac wanted to do was watch the train. He forgot about all of the fun Halloween activities that were going on. We eventually pulled him away from it, but we had to watch it again right before leaving.

This is the coolest pirate ship! It is like a big playhouse for kids and Isaac just loves it. This isn't the best picture of it, but it is really neat. In this picture Isaac and some other kid are on the top of the highest point of the ship. It seems much higher and cooler in person.

Isaac was saying "CHEESE" is this picture, but for some reason he thought that he could say it without a smile. The lady on the side of me taking pictures of her kids was cracking up at how mad Isaac looked while saying "Cheese".

This is Isaac in the dungeon part of the pirate ship. Apparently he is going for the pirate look--one eye covered. His head is just a bit too little for that helmet.

{Trunk or Treat}

On Friday evening our ward had a Trunk or Treat party for the kids and a chili cook-off for the adults (yummy). So, since David was working (as usual), I got the kids in their costumes (we'd hoped to find a BYU football player costume for Isaac, but couldn't) and took them over to the church. This is a picture of Isaac right after we got there. Notice the decorated trunks in the background? This was our first Trunk or Treat, and I felt kind of lame that I didn't have my trunk all decked out.

Isaac had so much fun! I wish I could say the same for Eli. He was a grump the entire time. It was cold outside, and I had him all bundled up, but nothing I did seemed to make him happy. Good thing the party only lasted an hour and a half. Isaac kept yelling, "This is the best Halloween EVER!" at the top of his lungs. It was so cute!

This picture is of Isaac shoving a chocolate cupcake in his face, in case you couldn't tell (hee, hee). They had a cupcake walk for the kids, but they weren't very interested, so they just let everyone take the cupcake of their choice. All in all it was a okay night for me, a GREAT one for Isaac, and misery for Eli. But, it was worth it!