Our Latest Adventures

Despite what my blog says about us, we have been rather busy. Not normal "us" busy, but we still have been doing things here and there.

We were so excited to get a visit from Craig's Sister and her family. They live in Missouri, so our visits are few and far between. We went with them to visit Craig's Grandpa.




Little Baby M was so tired one day that, after getting him out of the car, he fell asleep at the top of the stairs.



We took advantage of the nice weather to do some yard work. Baby M was so cute out there with his Dad. I went to grab the camera and, when I came back, he was crying. I guess Craig told him not to touch the fire.




We also decided to enjoy a good old weenie roast. The twins don't like hotdogs so they roasted cheese sticks-- they still didn't eat them. More food got roasted then eaten that night, but we still enjoyed ourselves.



We enjoyed a little venture up to Salt Lake on Friday. We even decided to visit my cousin in Layton and see her new baby girl.

The first time I tried to find her house I go the address wrong. So I took the boys to a park we just happened to drive by.




Craig was busy in Salt Lake at this point, and we needed to return to pick him up. So I loaded the boys up and left to pick up Craig. We met up with Craig and got lunch. We were then going to head home. It was then that I realized I had left the diaper bag at the park we were at. It was about 30 minutes in the opposite direction of home. We loaded in the car, and I decided that, since we had to head back that way anyway, I would try to get my cousins right address. We surprised her with a visit and a gift from my mom. She was very gracious to let us all in, and we enjoyed a good visit.

Today the boys and I painted coffee filter flowers to put up on their tree, while we listened to conference.




More Boy Stories:

The other day Little H dropped something and exclaimed, "You got to be kidding me!"

The boys got Superman/Batman capes for their birthdays. Big H puts his on and says, "I want to go to the sky!" I then pick him up and throw him in the air.

Little H like to pretend he's a kitty. He crawls around going, "Meow! Meow!" Then he'll brush up against you. He even likes to play this when we go to the store.

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.

Where to Begin? Because it Never Seems to end :)

I feel so behind. I don't even know where to begin. I'm sitting here at the computer, feeling like a stranger because it has been so long since I've spent time organizing photos and updating blogs.

I had to spend some time online doing some fun stuff for work(got to love the mandatory mumbo jumbo that's all for legal purposes), but haven't had a chance to sort through pictures since Halloween.

I've also burned up, some of my, online time searching for the boys Christmas PJ's. It's a family tradition we started. Every year they get Christmas PJ's on Thanksgiving. This year I was hoping to find all matching Thomas. . . ones. Well all I could find was a two pack of Thomas. . . holiday PJ's. It didn't make sense to order two two packs for three little boys. So I thought I'd get Baby M something sock monkey themed-- I call him my sock monkey baby because he's named after my mom's baby, that died, and one of the things that sticks out in my memory is the sock monkey she had for him. Low and behold, I was actually successful at tracking down some sock monkey PJ's-- that were extremely cute. But, alas, they were two sizes to small. We ended up finding some on Carters web site we were happy with, though the were sock monkey-less. But it was all for not because I just purchased some cute PJ's I saw at Wal-Mart today.

On top of all that, to make it more confusing, I've been reediting the the photos I took of my dad, and the boys, for Father's Day. My Dad said he looked old, and I didn't want a costumer to go on being unhappy with our work, so I've been giving them a once over. :)





That all sort of added to the confusion of getting photos sorted. But now that that is all behind me maybe I can sit down and make a somewhat decent post. I always hope this will be quick and easy, but something always happens with the picture uploads-- or I get distracted and get caught up making online searches, or reading backed up email.

I had fun celebrating my birthday this year.

On the third I had a hand-me-down party with some friends. It was partially a birthday party too. I had so much fun visiting, laughing and enjoying everyone's company. I probably got too carried away, but I still really enjoyed myself. Thanks everyone for coming!




On Saturday my parents took me to Ikea, and bought me lunch. I picked out a few small things here and there, that I bought for myself. And they bought me some really cute lanterns to hang in the house.

On Sunday we had some family over for lunch and cake. I couldn't enjoy the food though thanks to a nickel sized canker sore on my tongue, but I still had a really good time.




The twins crashing into Grandpa!



Who likes cake?!




Random:

These three love to watch movies. Here they all are watching "Pumpkin Jack". Or as others may call it The Nightmare Before Christmas.



We enjoyed a trip on the Heber Creeper with Grandpa and Grandma Stratton.







We got robbed by some bandits :)




And we aided in a proposal.



All in all it was a pretty full, and fun, trip!

More random:

One night Big H had a whole bundle of things he wanted to take with him. So I gave him a bag to put everything in. Well he wanted a back pack. So this was my solution.



Those three boys! They like to keep us busy!