Out with the old, in with the new

Our beloved house for 20 years!!!


The new house


The view of the front porch, covered by a patch of trees (which will esp be beautiful when there's leaves on the trees)

My parents have been preparing to move into their new house the past couple of weeks. With the holidays and everyone coming into town, they decided to wait on moving until after Christmas and I was left to help (yeah, thanks! :) It's been fun to see their new house evolve over the past year and it turned out better than we could've imagined. It really is breathtaking. After 20 years of living in their prior house (which was a little sad leaving!), we are excited for this adventure. Probably my favorite part of the house is the location and the landscape. Tons of sycamore and oak trees throughout their property, a creek, beautiful views, and all kinds of wildlife-deer, turkeys, and even coyotes!

Christmas 2008

Christmas Eve-acting out the Nativity story (missing a few family members though)


What a cute little shepard Austin is with his "sheep dog"!


Mary, Joseph, the Shepard and Baby Jesus (Carson was supposed to be Jesus, but he was asleep)


Austin with his gift from Santa, a pirate ship! ARGHHH matie! (And boy did he love that present)


Auntie Trish with Carson


A race track from Trish, which both boys loved as you can see!


Carson playing with one of his gifts


Austin playing with his other favorite gift, a helicopter


Everyone opening their stockings from Santa


Our gift to my Mom and Dad-a wall gallery of our family in their new house!


What a cute little Santa Carson makes!


Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Merry Christmas from CALI!

We leave for CA today for 3 weeks (Eric, not that long) to spend time with my family for the holidays. It will also be super special because my parents are moving into their new house they built the week after Christmas. Lots of good times and pictures to come and I'm going to TRY (key word) to update as I'm there so I'm not backlogged with posts/pictures when I get back!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!!!

More family pictures

I got the rest of our family pictures back that we took last month-there were just TOO many great ones to choose from. I gotta owe it to Tiffany, one amazing photographer for capturing our family so beautifully! ENJOY...



How cute is he on that little chair?!


Having a ball on that ole' tire swing


Such a Momma's boy!


Do they look like brothers or what?


What a great moment and great fun!


What a mischevious little half-grin, love it.




Sitting inside that tire swing wasn't as comfortable and fun as it looks! :)


Notice the blue eyes in this black and white, what a little heartbreaker he is!


Especially love his little belly showing, so cute!

Christmas Traditions

Some of our Christmas traditions started with our own families as we were growing up (and still continue), and some we started on our own. I'm sure as our family grows, we will add even more traditions too. Here are just a few we love!

1. Picking out a REAL tree and decorating the tree/house as a family




2. Writing "love letters" to each member in the family and giving them on Christmas

3. Making and delivering treats to friends and neighbors



4. Driving around town to see Christmas lights and finding the "nuttiest" houses!



5. Adopting a family in need and providing them a Christmas (Eric's family tradition-which we were in charge of this year and always a neat experience)



6. Feeding the homeless in S.F. on Christmas Eve. This consists of making 50+ sack lunches (consisting of ham sandwiches, drink, orange, and cookies), putting together hygeine kits, and blankets and delivering them to homeless people on the streets (my family tradition-and one of our faves we've done for 15+ years now)

7. Reading or acting out the story of the birth of our Savior, singing Christmas songs, drinking wassal, writing letters to Jesus (our gift to him being something we want to work on/improve on for the next year), and opening a gift (usually PJ's) on Christmas Eve (my family tradition)

8. "Santa's helper". An elf that comes out the day after Thanksgiving and is coveniently located in a different place/room each morning until Christmas Eve as to "listen" and "watch" to see if the kids are behaving good!


What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?

First "real" snow

We finally got our first real snowstorm last night and today that actually stuck to the ground! I have to admit, although I HATE driving in it, it sure is fun! Especially with Christmas right around the corner! Plus, it means sledding, snowball fights, and our favorite...SKIING!!!

HO HO HO

We had a great time at our Ward Christmas party last night-good food, good friends, and good entertainment! So many people were there too-those things always draw out everyone (it must be the free food!). Probably the highlight for most of the kids though was a surprise visit by Santa. Austin was so excited, he nearly wet himself waiting in line (good thing we were near the front of the line)! Last year Austin wasn't so sure about the big bearded man in the red suit and I practically had to bribe him to sit on his lap (for a picture, of course). However, this year he pounced on his lap and couldn't wait to tell him what he wanted for Christmas. My favorite was, "Santa, where did you park your sleigh?" Everyone around us that heard him had to chuckle. As you can tell in the picture, Carson was equally fascinated by Santa and wouldn't even look at the camera! Too mesmorized by this jolly man!!! It really makes Christmas a little more fun with Santa!

Gotta love Girls Nights!

What would we do without our girlfriends?! And "Girls Nights"?! Practically a necessity once and awhile when you've got kids and need a little break from home! Seriously though, isn't it great to get together, act like a bunch of high schoolers-giggling and laughing over stupid stuff, catching up, and not worrying about distractions aka kids, laundry, messes, dinner, etc?! I am really starting to enjoy, cherish, and look forward to these evenings, even if they're not always frequent (because we all know it's nearly impossible to coordinate that many schedules)! I really am blessed with some great friends that I've made in my lifetime-from my favorite high school buddies, to my dear college roomies, to friends we've made in all the places we've lived-Logan, Salt Lake, Cincinnati, CA, and now Boise. So many wonderful girls and people that have touched my life immensenly! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Dear Santa

Today Austin wrote a letter to Santa to tell him what he wanted for Christmas. Well, technically I helped him, but he thought of the words all on his own! He actually had a whole bunch of other things on his wish list, but I told him he could only choose one present. We decided to keep the letter short and sweet, but he also wanted to write, "Santa, can you please bring my baby brother a present too? He can't talk yet, so he doesn't know what he wants. And he's a good boy too." Isn't that sweet? But my favorite was, "I will make sure to have some Oreos out for you because those are my favorite cookies!" What a character that Austin is.

Sick Mommy=No Fun

For someone who normally just gets head colds, getting the flu the last couple of days has been a real drag! I can't remember the last time I felt this sick all over-body aches, fever, throwing up, diarrhea, EXHAUSTED. And moms, you'll empathasize here-the worst part is that you still have kids to take care of! Luckily, my dear friend, Tiff, took Austin all day practically and Carson for a couple of hours. It really helped out so that I could lay down and run to the bathroom ever 5 min without distractions! Austin has been really sweet and helpful too-what a good boy! Hopefully by the weekend things will look better and let's PRAY the kids don't get it (so far, so good)!!!