10 days with Daddy

It was great having Josh home and we tried to fill our days with action packed fun. Tonight we took a poll to see what everyone's favorites about our time with Daddy, here are the results...

#10 Family exercise: Who knew this wouldn't be a favorite? I made everyone exercise with me to my Biggest Loser DVD. I got made fun of while we worked out, everyone telling me how nerdy it was, but hey, it wasn't me groaning in pain the next day, was it Josh??

#9 Model building: The boys took some time to build some model airplanes and dioramas over a couple of days. Sam, Caleb, and Josh enjoyed this activity, but Sophie and I didn't get much into it.

#8 Gingerbread houses: Sophie ate WAY to much candy and spent the night puking :(

#7 Just hanging out: We watched several family movies together and the boys spent many hours playing Kirby Epic Yarn, a new Wii game they got for Christmas.

#6 Swimming: I will spare you pics of our pasty white bodies in December, but we visited a local pool with a wave pool, huge slide, lazy river and a whirlpool. The kids always have a blast here, but the party ended abruptly when Sophie puked in the wave pool (see #8).

#5 The Airplane Restaurant: Part of the restaurant is actually inside an old plane and the kids can even go to the cockpit and play with the controls.The kids have always wanted to go here and we finally made it happen. Very cool and good food too!

#4 Roller skating: This was fun for everyone BUT Sophie who cried the whole time her skates were on. They boys on the other hand are getting so good at flying around the ring with a wreck only every other lap or so. Caleb made the comment, "Skating is getting to be a lot of fun, I feel like one of those cool kids who go around the ring really fast, until I have to hold Daddy's hand. That kind of ruins feeling cool." As for Josh and I - I am way faster then him (he begs to differ).

#3 Our New Years Eve Party: Yummy food, movies, and family games including Monopoly Jr. and King Monkey which always brings lots of laughs. Sophie made it to 10pm (it helped that she had a nap until 6 pm that night) Sam 11pm (sooo close), and Caleb made it to the golden hour. Josh and I both WANTED to go to sleep at 10 - but we made it to midnight as well.

#2 Visiting our mountain property: It was a wee bit chilly, but all bundled up and with hot chocolate to help keep us warm, the kids were able to run around, work on their forts and explore. We were really hoping for some snow to test out our new snowboard for the boys, but unfortunately there was no snow up there either. The ice waterfalls were pretty though.

and #1... Christmas with Daddy: We all felt so blessed to have him with us, it will be a Christmas we always remember!

Has it really been 12 years?

Happy anniversary Joshie. I love you.

A few of my favorite things

This year Christmas almost started abruptly at 2:30 when Caleb ran into our room in a frenzy sure that it was time to go open presents. Luckily, we were able to talk him out of that idea and sent him back to bed until all the kids woke up at 6 a.m.

Santa definitely found us this year with presents galore. When I asked everyone what their favorite part about Christmas was, here were their responses:


Sophie: "Ariel Movie!" Sophie got "The Little Mermaid" movie along with a little mermaid barbie, strawberry shortcake doll, lots of magnetic dolls from grandparents, books, markers, candy and clothes. All day long she kept telling us, "Lets go open more presents!"



Sammy: "My remote control car!" And who could blame him! That thing will go over anything, it is awesome! He also loves his new ds game, legos, books, wii game, snow board, candy and he even thinks his new clothes are okay.



Caleb: "My paint ball gun!" That obviously is a no brainier for a favorite gift. He has been wanting that for months now and had actually been saving up for it on his own, but unfortunately all his money was stolen from his piggy bank. It was a pretty sweet surprise to find that Santa had brought one. He also liked his ds game, legos, books, wii game, snowboard, candy and he was excited about the cool new clothes! I guess that means he is growing up.



Josh: "Seeing my family, but the helicopter was cool too!" Poor daddies usually get boring Christmases, but the kids and I really surprised Josh with a remote control helicopter. Even daddies need something to play with on Christmas morning (or that's what Josh tells me everyear, anyway).

Whenever Josh and the kids play Wii Sophia insists on sitting on her daddy's lap

Linnea: "Being with my family." It was so nice to have everyone together again, and I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas. I also love my new jacket, down comforter, lotion, camera strap and I especially love the jewelry that Caleb and Sam made for me. Because they didn't know if their dad would be in town to help them shop for me, they expressed concern to my friend Niki that they wouldn't have a gift for me. Niki was kind enough to supply them with beads and wire, and they boys made me some amazing jewelry.

Merry Christmas!!!

An early Christmas present

Josh has been working out of the country for the last month. At the beginning of the trip we weren't sure if he was going to be able to make it home for Christmas. The last guy on this rotation didn't find out until December 23 that he was going to make it home. When we got a confirmation that he would be home (a week before Josh even left) , Josh and I decided to make it a Christmas suprise for the kids and in the meantime came up with a simple, yet effective, cover story.

The story: I told them an old "college buddy" was flying into town to see his family for Christmas and needed a ride home from the airport - all of which was completely true.
The kids fell for it hook, line, and sinker. When they saw Josh at the airport they were flabbergasted and didn't believe their eyes. Sophie couldn't stop hugging him and kept saying "Merry Christmas Daddy!" They were are so excited! In fact, they believed the cover story so much that both boys asked while leaving the airport, "Mommy, what about your friend? We forgot to pick him up."

The moment the boys realized that it was their Daddy walking towards them.

Josh buried in hugs.

One of the many Sophia hugs for her Daddy.

A buzz cut for Christmas

Some lessons you have to learn the hard way. Sammy learned today that its not always such a great idea to try to give yourself a hair cut. To put it nicely - it didn't turn out well. To make matters worse, Sam is obsessed with having his hair look nice. When he saw what he had done, he almost had a break down.

Caleb on the other hand, couldn't care less about his hair, and when Sam insisted that Caleb get a buzz cut too so he wasn't the only "stupid jerky looking guy," Caleb was thrilled. Who wouldn't want to get out of combing their hair for two months?

Sophie wanted to cut her hair too for a few minutes, but I artfully suggested she would much prefer "Tangled" hair (Rapunzel) and so she opted to grow her hair out instead.

Yes, it is December 23 and yes it is warm enough to play outside without a coat on :(. Caleb and Sam had just gotten back from building forts with friends in this picture and Caleb had gotten in an argument with a friend - hence the sad looking face.

Brazilian Cowboy

Our little Brazilian Cowboy (Notice Sophie is still in her princess dress)

This week the kids had gallery night, a night where the parents go to school and see all the cool things that the students have been working on all year. Caleb's class has been working on a board game dealing with plains, valleys and mountains. I was able to play it with him tonight and it was actually a pretty fun game!

Sammy's class has been studying all the different countries so he was asked to dress up in "traditional Brazilian attire." Well, if you have ever googled Brazilian clothes you don't get much besides bikinis and speedos. Since it is only 25 degrees and Sam didn't have any clean speedos ;), we decided to make him a Brazilian cowboy (there are lots of cowboys there right?) with some clothes from Sam's friend Carson. He was so dang proud of himself in his cowboy duds. And no, we did not take the toy gun to school.

Sam spent a good portion of the night checking himself out in the mirror.

A new kind of date night

This month we started something new with the kids: Date night. I thought it would be nice to do so we could spend some one-on-one time with each kid. We had a drawing to see who got the first date with mom. Sam won, but not understanding the concept of it, he didn't want to go so by default Caleb got the first date.

Caleb planned our date (with a little help from me): Pho 54 (a Vietnamese restaurant) and glow golf. When hearing what a fun night we had planned, Sam got mad "what, I didn't know you could you could do that kind of stuff!" Caleb was quite thrilled and Sam sat at home grumpy with the babysitter (Josh is out of town on a work trip). It was so nice to spend some time with just Caleb. Sammy already has next month planned for us. I can already tell this is going to be a tradition that we all love.

Caleb was not to thrilled with pho (Vietnamese noodle soup pronounced "fuh"). Although I was sad for him, I was secretly happy because I got the leftovers the next day - yum!

Obsessed much?

If you wore the same thing for 2 weeks in a row would it be considered an obsession? That is the stage we are at with Sophie and her white "princess dress." I'm not quite sure why she has singled out this one as her favorite, but for 2 weeks now it is a fight to get her to wear or sleep in anything else. Sometimes its not worth the fight, so she wears it in public where people only fuel her fire by telling her what a pretty princess she is.

This white dress won't last long. After two weeks of being worn and washed daily, it is already torn, stained and tattered. But in Sophie's mind she is beautiful when she wears it. So should I continue to fight the fight or give in and let her wear her tattered dress until it loses its appeal or the dress completely comes apart? Based on the rate of the dress's deterioration, I'm afraid Sophie is going to be a princess for a few more weeks.

Winter Concert

This last week the boys had their first "Winter Concert" with their new school. The kindergartners dressed in Chinese attire and preformed a "ring dance" and Caleb's class did an Native American dance. Both boys were soooo nervous. Not even the bribery of a McDonalds ice cream cone calmed their nerves. As you can see from the picture above, once they were done performing they were both extremely grateful it was over and started acting completely normal...well, at least normal for them.

Getting in touch with our manly side

Each time we go home to Payson to visit family Josh somehow manages to smuggle a couple of his guns into the car and insists that we go target shooting. Josh and my dad love it, the boys think its cool (that is unless their toes freeze off like they did this time) and when Josh is lucky, I go with them and shoot a few rounds to please him.

Caleb's first time shooting a pistol. Caleb is shooting a .22 caliber pitol that was actually used by our military in WWII for training new soldiers. I'm not crazy about guns, but Josh makes sure everyone is safe.

Josh bought an M14 parts kit and built this rifle mostly himself. He was so excited to see it didn't blow up when he shot it. Note the shell still in mid air near the front of the barrel.

Here the boys are going to see what destruction was wrought on the targets.

Shooting that little WWII .22 trainer was actually fun.

While in Payson the boys also worked in the shop with grandpa making wooden toy guns and tool boxes. The girls were more crafty: with grandmas help we made Sophie a new skirt which she LOVES!

Thanksgiving with Josh's fam

Thanksgiving this year was spent in Logan, Utah with Josh's side of the family. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins. One of the added benefits of visiting family while on vacation was that Josh and I were able to escape for a night to celebrate our anniversary. And who can forget about Black Friday shopping, we scored this year with dutch ovens, fishing poles and cool shoes. Now we just have to wait 6 months until we can actually use that stuff!

Sophia and Emma had a great time together.

This was a crazy game Josh's sister Lisa had us play.