December 29, 2014

Vasquez Rocks

We have so many natural wonders near us that we've made a goal to visit as many as we can while it's not blazing hot outside. The boys are both totally obsessed with rocks or what they think are 'gems' at the moment and so are always up for an opportunity to go tromping around. 
Last Saturday we went out to Vasquez Rocks -- which has some truly spectacular rock formations but  unfortunately we chose a super, super cold day to go! Like 35-40 degrees max with a nice brisk wind the entire time. That's basically freezing to us California folk! We had a blast but were all pretty frozen by the time we made it back to the car.


Benji cracks us up when we go hiking. He and Peter are usually a bit cautious at the outset but as soon as they get confident scrambling over the rocks, Benji especially starts chattering nonstop. On this trip, he kept saying "I'm a billy goat!" Or whenever someone tried to hold his hand on a tricky spot or say be careful, he'd quickly retort "I know!" He cracks us up.

Peter got a new hiking backpack for Christmas with a water bladder and was so proud to wear it the entire day. We love our little adventurer. 



Nora was a trooper in the backpack. I was worried she wasn't enjoying herself with the cold and all the bouncing around, but halfway through we realized she had totally sacked out! I guess all that being carried around wore her out.

 Travis was especially thrilled to explain the different types of rocks to the kids and why they were all jutting up so dramatically. I wished I had brushed up on my geology before going since I couldn't remember much beyond igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. Oy. College seems like forever ago...
The kids had a ball and it was definitely a spot we'll have to explore another time.
Though maybe on a bit warmer day.

My trusty peacekeeper

Since Daddy has been home for Christmas, he and the boys have been getting out the BB gun to go shooting in the backyard. It's hilarious to see these two picking off cans like it's no sweat. 

They both are so serious with the gun in their hand.

December 27, 2014

Christmas part deux

Christmas Eve finally came, much to the joy of kids. Peter had been so excited for weeks for this day to finally come. We had our dear friends the Novacks over for dinner and all night long, he kept saying "I think I need to go get my pjs on. I think it's time to go to bed." At like 5pm. 

Which came as no surprise that when I got up with Nora at 1:30 AM and found Peter and Benji awake and opening their stockings in the living room. "Mom! He came! Santa really came!!" at 1:30 AM!
Luckily they both went back to bed until almost 7 o'clock but geez. 1:30 in the morning!!

The boys set out some cookies and carrots for Santa and were so happy to see them eaten the next morning.

 Peter and Benji both got quadrotors and were so excited. Those little helicopters have been flying all over the house nonstop. I've even got the scratches on my face to prove it. 
They love them so much in fact that Travis has resorted to having to fly them at night after the boys are asleep.
Nora especially loved his little castle playhouse our friends Amber and James sent us. She keeps crawling in and out over and over again and laughing hysterically. It's darn cute. 

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas!!

Our last week of preschool for the year we took the kids to see Santa at the mall. They were all so excited to go and play together.

Three little monkeys.

We wrote letters to Santa one night -- although I don't think Benji even really knew what to ask Santa for this year! 

All the first graders at Peter's school put on this little (like only 15 minutes long!) holiday program at school and luckily my mom was in town and got to go watch our little man with us.
He really, really wanted to wear his full suit to school but we convinced him that might not work out so well for recess and comprised on a bowtie. He looked ridiculously cute.
 Can you pick him out (third row down) with the Santa hat on, singing his little heart out?


 My favorite Christmas elves
We made gingerbread houses as a family one night and the boys got totally crazy on sugar.




This cute girl helped me wrap presents one day. 

And then on Christmas Eve we went to a party at our amazing friends house so the kids could see Santa. 

The boys were sooo excited!  
 Nora, not so much. By the end we convinced her Santa wasn't too scary.

December 21, 2014

Beginning to look like Christmas

It seems like Christmas is coming just a bit quicker this year than normally.
 I shared a few of these earlier where our sweet baby was exploring the Christmas tree and here are a few more because she's just too cute. 
What are all those shiny things? Can I eat them? 
 We took the boys to the Creche festival and for some reason Peter especially looked incredibly grown up that night in his suit. 

 Playing dress up and Benji the wise man giving his 'gifts' the baby Jesus.
Sometimes Mommy even likes to play dress up.

We took the kids to go see Christmas lights one night and these are the faces we got when we asked for smiles. 
Benji: "I am smiling! I just can't make my eyebrows go up Mom!"
 Travis' work Christmas party happened to be a murder mystery dinner this year -- taking place at the Skulls Casino and we went as Ronald and Iguna Trump, owners of the casino.
It was fun to get all fancy and be in character for the night. And I'm proud to report that we both guessed 'whodunnit.' A very fun night out for us both.
Nora didn't exactly love having a babysitter but she did okay.

Rosamond Feline Compound

While looking through some pictures, I found these from our excursion to the Rosamond Feline Compound before Thanksgiving. It was a pretty neat facility with tigers, cougars, pumas, lynx and a bunch of other cats in addition to several peacocks which roamed freely around the place. The boys thought it was supremely cool.
Unfortunately we didn't get to see the actual tigers -- they were shy -- but most of the other animals were out and about.

 Looking fierce.

December 16, 2014

9 months

Our little Nora girl turned nine months this past week and I cannot believe how fast she has grown. 
At the doctors she was 16 lbs. and 27 in long -- growing so well -- and in perfect health. Nora is still incredibly happy and social and loves nothing more than to follow her brothers around and climb on their toys. She has 7 teeth and babbles constantly these days -- dada, mama, nana -- which constantly surprises me since the boys didn't start talking until way later.

Not only is she crawling everywhere and getting into her brother's Legos, Nora has started to pull up on the furniture and will cruise along it. I don't think I'm ready for her to start walking anytime soon - that just seems way to young to me! I'm sure she just wants to keep up with her brothers.

Since she is so mobile, we opted to get a fake Christmas tree instead of our usual real one. Even though we miss the piney scent, it is nice not to worry about her eating the needles and tipping over the water since she already tries to eat the lights and ornaments any chance she gets. I'm not even gonna try putting out the presents until Christmas Eve... 
Such a sweet little soul. We love our baby!

Thanksgiving in Utah

For Thanksgiving, we made the trip up to Utah once again. It just worked out that Travis had a work thing at Hill AFB the week after Thanksgiving so we got to stay up there for 2 weeks! I took Peter out of school and we had a great time with family and friends.

We first celebrated Thanksgiving with the Lees and Grandpa and Nora took a few naps together.

It was so much fun to have all these cute kids play together.




We also went to see the Salt Lake Temple lights (along with about 80,000 other people). It was pretty crazy but the lights were gorgeous.




My mom and I took the kids to the Natural Curiosity museum at Thanksgiving Point -- which was so incredibly cool.






Then I took the kids to the Hill AFB museum while Travis was working.
Of course, we had to stop by the F-16 and say hello.

We also got to spend one fantastic evening with our dear friends Amber and James.

On our way back home, we went to the new St. George Children's Museum with Travis' Mom and Sister Jenn.


It had this great 'Frozen' land where the kids had a snowball fights and went ice staking. Good times had by all.









We had a blast seeing so many good friends and family.