Monthly Archive

and I think I’m addicted.  I don’t know what took me so long to create a profile and get searching for long lost friends, mission companions, former classmates, etc but everyone, and I mean everyone it seems, is on there.

Since signing up the night before last, I have conversed with 3 former mission comps whom I didn’t know how to reach before, two families from my mission that I love dearly but lost contact with, quite a few classmates from high school, and even found out that one of my companions is a current contestant on “The Biggest Loser” (Blaine Cotter, the guy that is 6’8″).  If you don’t have a profile, you should get going on one today…or tomorrow, or never if you don’t care to connect with people from your past.

Around our house.  That's right, our little Ethan is sick again.  I swear, that kid just doesn't have much of an immune system.  Hopefully he will develop a strong one from being sick so much while he's little so he won't be a sickly adult.  He's been to the doctor for all of his regular appointments and when he's not sick he's a very normal two year old so...I dunno . We're just hoping it's not the same thing as my niece has (see HERE) because it sounds similar.  He started throwing up late Wednesday night, all day Thursday (but develped the big D on Thurs as well) had a reprieve from throwing up on Friday but did it again a couple times both Saturday and Sunday, but he appears to finally be acting like himself today (altough still has the runs).  If he continues to improve we'll write it off as the flu but if he doesn't improve off to doctor he'll go first thing tomorrow!

Our family had a lot of fun during the holidays, and as usual it all seemed to come and go too quickly.  This year we went out to Tooele to spend Christmas eve and day with the McArthur’s.  BriAnne’s brother Dave has moved back to Utah and Chelsea and Jordan made a surprise visit (they are in med school in St. Louis) so it was awesome having everyone there (we locals were all there of course too).  It is just crazy to me how many little kids were running around that place though! Just a few short years ago it was just we adults and now with Shalei & Jamis’s 3, Chelsea & Jordan’s 2, our 2 and Dave’s 2 there was never a dull moment. Here are some pictures of the fun that was had:

We came back home to Orem late in the afternoon on Christmas day, just in time to beat a bad snowstorm.  Since we were going to be away from home on Christmas eve/morning, and Katelyn was worried Santa would miss us, we decided to write to Santa and ask him to stop by our house on Christmas night instead of the usual Christmas eve, thus making our actual Christmas day the 26th. In the end the kids didn’t know the difference, and we got to spread the festivities out another day.  And I’ll tell you what (and you may already know this) but Christmas morning with a 2 and 4 year old is SO FUN!!! I mean, it is always fun, but when they were babies and didn’t know what was going on it was just kinda fun (lower cased), not really FUN!!! They got so excited to see if Santa had come that I’m pretty sure Ethan almost ruptured something important. Santa did come and now we have even less space in our house than we did before, what with the new toys he brought and all. We played around with all the new stuff and then listened to a  CD of Christmas music that my parents made to give out to their loved ones and neighbors.  

The kids each got to open new jammies on Christmas eve (a new tradition!)

Cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer were laid out by Katelyn with great care.  She was insistant that we sprinkle the carrots outside on the lawn but we let her know they’d get buried in the snow and the reindeer would go hungry (if Rudolf aint happy aint nobody happy). Heather (Blinzinger) – you’ll probably recognize those cookies.  Word has it that Santa really enjoyed them

Did Santa come mommy and daddy? Did he!?!?!? “I’m not sure but I think he might have…”

Wow, my own hat! Now I don’t have to steal daddy’s (or Clayton’s either!)

This is one way to lose your living room:

All in all it’s been a great year for our family, for which we feel blessed and gratetful.  We hope your family enjoyed the holidays as well.  And here’s hoping the economy climbs out of the toilet bowl it’s wallowing in

Now that they are getting older.  For example, Katelyn will remind us that Ethan is tired and needs a nap.  Really, I think it’s because she’s annoyed with him and it’s a great way to make him go away. Ethan, on the other hand, likes to remind us when he needs his diaper changed.  On several occasions, usually when watching cartoons or This Old House with he and Katelyn on Saturday mornings (yes, they really like watching This Old House. They get that from me) Ethan will run out of the room and then run back in a minute later with a diaper in hand and promptly throw it squarely at the side of my head.
The other day though, I walked into the front room and happened upon this little production:

Now, It’s not uncommon for BriAnne to lay on the ground and have Katelyn walk on her back if she’s pulled a muscle or whatnot. It helps BriAnne’s back feel better and Katelyn has fun.  It’s not even that uncommon for Ethan to finally run out of energy and just lay on the ground like that for a while. But for them to work together to help ease their mom’s pain was something worth taking a picture of.  Cute kids!

Btw, yes, it is Jan 8th and we have yet to post about the holidays.  That’s coming soon, I promise.  We’ve been having some computer challenges (we live and die by ‘em now, don’t we?)