Father's Day

So I was pathetic and did not pull off a decent Father's Day. I felt bad because Craig did such a great job on Mother's Day. I tried really hard to whoop my butt into shape all week, but no matter what I just felt swamped and overwhelmed. I seriously did bare minimum, and even that was a struggle. A lot of my time was spent in bed. I tried to think of something fun and exciting to do for Craig, but whatever energy I could find was wiped out by the stress of having to spend money.

I did manage to get him and the boys some fun superhero shirts. I try to get the boys some cute Father's Day shirts every year. This year we chose superheroes because the boys are obsessed and because I was hoping we may be able to finally see The Avengers movie for Father's Day.



This next part is total nerd of me, so hang in there. So there are DC Comics and Marvel Comics-- and other various one's I do not know about. I know, I'm a weird girl that actually knows this stuff. I grew up on DC comic characters-- Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc. My brother and I would put on our Superman capes and jump off the top bunk, in an attempt to fly. My Dad would read us the Batman Comic strip every Sunday and I think Wonder Woman is in my childhood memories somewhere. Anyway. . .I'm more of a Justice League girl-- Superman, Batman, Green Lantern. But there isn't a cool Justice League movie out right now-- though I keep hoping maybe someday-- so that led me to try and find Avengers shirts. The Avengers are Marvel comics, and I'm sure most people know what characters are included on their team. Well The Avengers characters don't have cool symbols to go on shirts. And all the shirts that feature Avenger superheroes are kind of ugly. The best we could find was a Captain America shirt for Craig. I grabbed that, and a Superman shirt in his size. I decided we'd check out the little boys department and see what we had more options with, Avengers or Justice League. Well neither one won, so we ended up with a combo of both. We have Superman, Batman, Spiderman,-- another Marvel Comics character-- and Captain America-- or Super Star's as he is called in our house :).

The boys love their shirts. In fact they had to give them to Craig the night we bought them because they were so excited-- which happened to be 4 days before Father's Day. When Craig wears his they have to get theirs. And when they wear their shirts Craig has to wear his. It's super cute!

For the Grandpa's we printed off these pictures.



So the Grandpa's got a picture, Craig got a shirt and, thanks to my family, we all enjoyed a nice meal.

Oh, and thanks to our nursery leader! Who had some more cute things planned for Father's Day. I thought, "I need to at least have the boys give their gifts and cards to Dad when we get home."






Yeah I didn't even do that. He got them a couple days later. Seriously, I was pathetically wiped out till Monday.

I really do feel bad that I did absolutely nothing for Father's Day. But hey, I still managed to make a long post about it.

Christmas Time is Here

Just an attempt to catch everyone up before I post the Christmas Card and letter.

Last weekend

I took the boys to the dollar store so they could buy presents for each other. The twins had fun picking out gifts for each other, but when I told them they needed to pick one out for Baby M my suggestion was met with a resounding, "No!"



It took some convincing, but they finally picked something out for him. They even got a roll of Thomas. . . paper to wrap them in. Grandma Andreason made sure they each had their own roll. After all there were two different colors. ;)



Monday

Baby M got a sweater from Great Grandma Guthrie quite a while ago. Sadly it had two iron on baseball patches that were falling off. It sat at my mom's house waiting to be fixed. Months went by, still no sweater was worn by Baby M. Then I asked for it the other night, and, after a neighborhood Christmas Goodies Get Together, finally tacked the patches on.



How clever I thought I was, until I washed it. The patches crumpled up in the wash, and I just took them off and tossed them in the garbage. All that wasted time for patches that just got thrown away. They were certainly cute, however, their purpose was in vain. It being a yellow sweater, left some workers at McDonalds to mistake Baby M for a girl today. Baseball patches and all.

Thursday

Nephew K performed some songs, with his grade, at an assembly at his school. I missed the performance thanks to work. But I enjoyed seeing him all dressed up in his Christmas attire.



Friday

Big H has grown rather fond of Christmas lights. And, of course, Little H has too. They now fight over the lights they see.

"It's my lights!"

"No it's my lights!"

"You can both look at the lights!"

Not too far from our house are The Riverwoods Shops. Apparently they do a splendid lighting sometime after Thanksgiving. We really enjoy driving past, and decided we had better take a walk around. That night we had brought Nephew M home to play with us, so he got to come along too.

What do you think people thought when they saw us with 4 kids, all 9 months apart?

We had a fun night, and the boys really enjoyed spending time with their cousin.






We even stopped in to visit The Provo Beach Resort. It was a fun little place, and warmed us up rather well.



Saturday

The next day found us at The Guthrie Family Christmas Party, hosted by my Aunt Candice and Uncle Don. It was the first Christmas Party without Grandpa Guthrie, which made me kind of sad. I'm glad this family has so many fun traditions. I think it really helps keep us together, and strong.





We enjoyed a cute little Nativity with all the great grand kids. I was glad that we sang because, I am told, Grandpa Guthrie liked to hear the family sing together.




My angel, shepherd and wise man.




And, of course, there were presents. So much fun!




I decided to make a wreath for one of my cousins. I had to put a picture in somewhere :)



My Aunt and Uncle live up in Daybreak, which gave us the opportunity to see the new Oquirrh Mountain temple. It is strikingly beautiful, sitting atop that hill. I had to drive by to get a closer look. It really took my breath away!




We were sad that we couldn't be down South, to help Craig's cousin celebrate is wedding, on this Saturday. Unfortunately stressful schedules and lack of funds kept us from doing so. We hope he had a wonderful day!

Sunday

On Sunday we woke to a frosted wonderland. It was so gorgeous!





We also awoke to new callings. We will now be helpers in Senior nursery. This means we'll be in nursery with the twins, but poor Baby M will go to Junior nursery all by himself.

We took time on Sunday to go visit Great Grandpa Darrington. We had a very fun visit.

Monday

Monday was filled with shopping. Darn that Christmas! Sneaking up on us so fast. I've scarcely had time to enjoy you.

Grandpa and Grandma Stratton were up last weekend, and they took us to Olive Garden for dinner-- Thank you, by the way. In the foyer was a giving tree. The boys kind of took an interest, so I let them pick an ornament, and we bought a gift for one of the families. We delivered it on Monday. I was going to have the boys help me take it in, but I didn't want to undo car seat harnesses. They were a little disappointed to give away the toy. Even though it was for a 3 month old, and it was for a girl.




When I said, "You're helping another kid to have a Merry Christmas!"

They said, "No!"

Still I think it was a good experience. We have been given so much, by so many, that we like to take any opportunity we can to help others in need.

Well, that about catches you up. Now I just need to get the Christmas letter posted.

An Early Thanksgiving, Fun Projects and Some Sad News

On Thursday I rushed home from work, grabbed the boys from my mom and headed to Provo to try and catch Thanksgiving Dinner/Lunch with Craig's Grandpa. The home that Craig's Grandpa is living in had a Thanksgiving Dinner for the family members this week. We were about an hour late, but the employees were extremely nice, and set us up no problem. We enjoyed our little get together. I was glad we were able to make it, and that they were so accommodating. I wish Craig could have come with us, but he started clinicals this week and couldn't make it. But I had fun getting to know Grandpa Darrington. This was the first time we had officially met.




We enjoyed a good visit and a good meal-- the boys ate, mostly, pumpkin pie and Baby M helped me eat my yams. We need to go back and visit again when Craig can come.

The boys and I have been busy this week as well. We've been working on shapes, so we made these trains.



And today I, went a little crazy, and pulled out the paints to make these turkeys. Little H was way excited about his turkey. And they all enjoyed squishing the paint between their fingers. Surprisingly we escaped with very little paint on our clothes. I was also way impressed when Big H recognized his name when I wrote it on his Turkey.



In other news, I forgot to post that my Great Aunt Barbara passed away from pneumonia. She is my aunt on my Dad's side. My Grandma Andreason's younger sister. We were all pretty shocked by her passing. I feel really bad for my grandma because they were both widows, and had been keeping each other company. I'm also sad that I wasn't well informed about her viewing and funeral, so I couldn't pay my respects. I hope she knows I will miss her, and that I'm sorry I never got those pictures to her.

To end with, I'll post some pics of the boys that never made it to the blog.