Austin & Logan | Everyday Moments

This past week, while the boys were playing, I decided to snap some pictures of their cuteness. Austin had drug out one of our suitcases to drive his cars on. This is seriously one of his absolute favorite things to do. Whenever we have company or go out of town, he wants to drive on the suitcases.

Logan was playing with the basketball and then Austin wanted it too, so I taught them the "roll" game. They loved it and played so well together. Always awesome when we find a way to keep them both happy.

Both boys wanted me to "take pictures". Austin told Logan to come hold him and they sat totally cute. Of course both boys were making goofy faces at different times. Oh well, silly pictures are great too.

People always seem shocked that the boys are tech savvy. They both love our iphones and love our ipads even more. It's seriously amazing that these toddlers can navigate them better than some adults. Their current favorite video is waltham gangnam style, which is seriously obnoxious, but they love it, especially Logan! He dances like crazy to it, and even does "ride the horse" moves. Insanely cute.

New Year's Eve!

For New Year's Eve we had Becky and Sean and Sarah and Gerret over for food and games. We had planned on getting pizza from a new place that Becky and Sean really wanted us to try but apparently they were closed that night, which was super lame. So they showed up and we just decided to order from Domino's and we also ordered some Chinese delivery. Sarah and Gerret brought cookies, Sean and Becky brought a cheese ball and crackers and some other goodies and we provided chips. We all brought bubbly (sparkling cider). We seriously had like 10 bottles between us. Good thing Ben loves it because we got suck with the left overs when everyone went home!

For the most part we just chilled and ate food. Then we broke out the games. We played a few rounds of hearts and then played a game called sequence. Ben and I had never played before but we both totally loved it and I've decided I'm going to need to go buy it.

Austin and Logan just played, ate food and hung out. Sarah and Gerret had in-laws in town so they were lucky to be child free for the night. Good thing our kids are party animals! At mid-night we did a toast and kissed our spouse and then we hung out for a little while longer. Always fun to ring in the new year with great friends!

Grandma & Grandpa Visit!

My parents drove down from Denver this past Thursday in a u-haul. They were kind enough to bring me a few things that belonged to my grandpa that were too big to ship. 13 hours in a u-haul. I'm pretty sure they love me! We had a good time when they were here, as always. The boys, mainly Austin was going ballistic on Thursday because he knew they were coming but unlike previous times, they were driving and we weren't exactly sure when they would be here. He kept running around saying "I'm so excited!! They are coming in one day!"

For the most part we didn't do too much while there were here. My dad didn't feel very good, which was a major bummer, although he puts on a good front. He helped me put together a cabinet for my studio room, which really helps deal with the mess that was driving me crazy! Ben decided on Thursday he was going to go buy a new TV. We didn't exactly need a new TV, as the one we had worked perfect and it was only 5 years old. But nonetheless, Ben showed up with a sweet new 55" LED TV that evening. So, my dad, Ben and I managed to get our 52" off the wall and put up the one Ben had brought home. As luck would have it, once we got the TV on the wall, Ben plugged it in only to find out that the screen was completely ruined. Almost like it had been dropped or kicked. So we had to take down that TV and put up our old one. But Ben wasn't satisfied. He really wanted a new TV but the store he'd just bought the new one from was a good drive and was closing soon.

A few hours later, after browsing the internet, Ben decides he's found the TV he wants. So my parents watch the kids, while we go to Walmart and "look" at a TV. Ben doesn't look. Ben buys. So we head to Walmart and grab stuff we need and scope out the TVs. Of course, they are out of the one Ben wants, so we have them check another store and they luckily have it. At this point it's almost midnight. Luckily, my parents had put the kids to bed, for their own sanity's sake. We went back to our house to drop off the stuff we'd bought and then headed back out to a different Walmart. When we got there, Ben found a different TV that the other store didn't have that he wanted to buy. A 65" LED smart TV. It took a while to get someone to grab it for us, but luckily they helped us get it into our car, and it fit perfectly! Another reason why I seriously love driving my Escalade. Things FIT when you buy them!  Once we got it home, we brought it in the house, took it out of the box and Ben and I attempted to put the TV up ourselves. However, we didn't take into account that we'd come home with a 65" (ya, you read that right!) TV and we didn't have the arm span to be able to put it up ourselves and we would for sure need my dad. Since it was almost 2am, we decided to call it a night and just wait until morning. My dad helped us the the next morning. The TV is freaking HUGE. Like obscenely huge. But Ben loves it, and it's growing on me :)

Friday we just hung out, watched our new TV and ran a few errands. We had left over prime rib for dinner that night and Ben and I were going to go to a movie, but he and my dad got sucked into watching some movie on TV so we stayed home and I highlighted my mom's hair. Saturday, my mom and I took the boys to the mall and let them ride on the carousel and we had lunch. We  tried to do some shopping but the boys were tired. Although my mom did finally buy herself a pair of Uggs after drooling over mine for years. We ended up taking the boys back home to nap and then headed back to the mall with my dad. My dad sat and people watched while my mom and I shopped at Buckle. I talked her into a pair of Rock Revival jeans! My mom is seriously in style. We ordered chinese delivery and relaxed. My mom fixed a pair of Ben's Rock Revival jeans that he had managed to rip and in the middle of trying to sew my sewing machine from 1986 died. So we ran out an got a new one, which I am super excited about because I've been wanting a new one but felt bad about throwing away one that still worked because I don't sew but rarely. But it worked out!

I didn't pick up my camera near enough while my parents were here dang it. I had a few pictures on my phone of my mom with my boys from the carousel, but they managed to get deleted. We took my parents to the airport earlier today. Always a bummer to see them go. Always makes me wish we lived closer but it was a good visit! My boys are already excited for them to come out again in June while Ben and I go to Cancun!

Christmas!

Christmas was awesome, as usual. This year, Ben and I both slept until almost 11:30am! Ben woke me up when he heard Austin playing upstairs. Austin had apparently FORGOTTEN it was Christmas!! He hadn't even bothered to come downstairs, so he must not have been awake very long. Ben ran upstairs and woke up Logan, who was totally still sleeping. Yes, we are a sleep loving family! I rolled out of bed and  peaked outside to see if we'd gotten any snow. None, but it was raining and I was a little bummed since the weather man had said snow was a possibility. After throwing on some sweats grabbed the camera to prepare for pictures!

The boys came down and were totally excited that Santa had come! It took us nearly 5 hours to open all the presents. That may sound like a really long time, but we aren't a family that just let's the kids go crazy and tear into things and have it be over in 20 minutes. We take turns starting with the youngest. We all watch as that person opens their gift and then we move on. Ben and I let the boys play with whatever it was they opened. So there was a lot of setting up toys and playing with toys before we moved on to the next one, which I totally love. It makes the Christmas fun last so much longer. I took a TON of pictures this year, nearly 15GB, which on my camera turns out to be nearly 550 images! Crazy, I know.  Our kids had a ton of gifts to open, which was probably overboard, since they have a ton of toys already. We are going to need to do some "spring" cleaning and donate some of their old toys. The boys actually got sick of opening gifts at one point because I think they were just overwhelmed and wanted to be done. Hopefully we will learn and do better next year, especially since Logan wasn't super into the presents. He actually was super excited about his stocking full of candy!

About an hour into opening presents, Ben noticed it had stopped raining and was SNOWING! I practically went ballistic with excitement! The best part was when it kept snowing. And snowing. And snowing! HUGE beautiful flakes. It was unbelievably awesome! We got almost 5 inches of SNOW! Seriously amazing!! Austin was anxious to get out and play in it, so he and Ben went out for a little bit. Logan wanted to go out too, but after walking outside, started crying that he was cold and wanted to come back in. I think it was only like 24 degrees outside, so it was cold! Ben and Austin had fun, but came back in after about 15 minutes because they were cold too.

After we got done opening all the gifts and cleaning up mounds of paper, we showered and got ready for the evening. I made homemade chicken and corn chowder, majorly yummy. Our good friends Becky and Sean came over to hang out with us and have goodies after they had eaten dinner with some other friends. We played a few games and just hung out. Then we decided to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation since Becky had never seen it. One of our all time favorites, so I was happy to sit down and watch it again even though I'd already seen it like 12 times this season.

This was one of the best Christmases. Although we didn't get to spend it with any of our family, it was nice to be able to hang out with our own little family and some of our fabulous friends. Ben and I are truly blessed and are grateful for the Christmas season to remind us of the true meaning of our, Savior Jesus Christ.