Christmas and our time in Utah

Sammy and Jakie had a great Christmas. Here they are showing off their new Christmas "Thomas the Tank Engine" jammies. They must have been good this year because they got a ton of stuff from Santa and our families. Some highlights were new tricycles, a wooden train set, new homemade comforters, new clothes, books, music, etc. We enjoyed Christmas Eve here in Waco with our little family and friends we have made here, it was a great time. Christmas day we spent in Waco as well, that is, until we realized that we might have hit a storm if we left for Utah when we planned. So, we left at six o'clock in the evening Christmas Day. We drove all night and missed some of the storm but still hit it a little before Gallup New Mexico. After more than 23 hours we surprised Alan's family by showing up unannouced. It was fun to surprise them. We then headed to Minda's parents house where we surprised them as well.

We had a great time visiting family, here are the boys bowling with Minda's family. We were able to see three of the four of Minda's brothers and their families.

We were able to visit all of Alan's family before his sister left for her first semester at BYU-I. Here are the boys with their cousin Gavin.
The boys with Grandpa Boppus.
Playing games!

Alan's Mom wanted to take the boys to the Monte. L Bean Science museum, they loved seeing the animals, as long as they didn't move.
Unfortunately we all got sick while we were in Utah. Alan mended pretty quickly, but the rest of us were sick most of our time there. Minda got three different sicknesses so she was down and out for a lot of the time. But, after being cooped up for days and days the boys were done being in the house. So, we took them to the Kangaroo Zoo, a place with a lot of bouncy toys. They loved it, especially the slides. They quickly learned to climb the ladders and slide down, they were quite agile.



We wanted to thank our families for taking such good care of us during our stays with them, and we were sorry we didn't get to see everyone we wanted to. We are finally mostly over the sickness and are happy to be home and sleeping in our own beds after sleeping very little on our car ride.

Something Funny

So a week or two ago Alan found Jacob and Samuel in the bathroom brushing their teeth in the sink. It was just too quiet and I knew something was up.

The boys have also enjoyed copying the things we do. For instance they like to take turns putting my purse on and going to the door and saying "See ya later, Gotta go, Bye Bye." It is pretty funny, but I don't think Alan likes the fact that they are carrying around a purse.

Another funny thing that Jacob has done recently happened first a couple of weeks ago. We were at Alan's school and Jacob kept saying crocodile, I want to go to the crocodile. We didn't understand him, we just couldn't figure it out. Then we asked him if he wanted to go with us on the elevator. And then he got really excited and kept saying alligator. And then it dawned on us. He pronounced elevator as alligator, but he was confused and called it a crocodile instead. It was really cute!

All Aboard

I know we have blogged about our children's museum before, but we love it. There is tons for the kids to do and inevitably the kids will ask to go there at least ten times a week. Right now there is a Christmas train exhibit at the museum. We have been twice now. Here are the boys enjoying their time looking at the trains.


The boys really like the music room in the museum too. There is a giant piano and this giant cello. Jacob calls it his "mootar" we don't know where he got this from, but we assume it is his attempt at saying guitar. They are always coming up with the most random stuff.Sam enjoying a quiet moment with Mom. Recently he has been hugging us around our necks and saying Mommy/Daddy I love you so much. It melts are hearts to him every time. How can you get upset with a kid who is doing that?

Deck the Halls and Noodles

For family home evening this week we decorated our Christmas tree. The boys were so excited!
Jacob and the tree
Mommy and the boys decorating the tree
We also gave the boys Ramen noodles for the first time. When I was a kid my mom would bribe us to be good with what she called Crazy Noodles. She would only let us eat these when we were really good. I didn't know until later that her Crazy noodles were really Ramen noodles and that other people complain about having to eat them. Aw the innocence of childhood. Our boys loved to play with them, they didn't eat too many of them, but they did enjoy them overall.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful thanksgiving with our friends Brad and Cassidy here in Waco. The boys loved playing with Brylie and Brody and we had a fun time eating and playing games. On Friday after a little Black Friday shopping, we headed to Houston. Alan's MTC companion Jeff and his wife Tahlia live in Houston with their daughter Lily. We had a great time visiting with them. The boys especially loved the trolley ride we took around the Woodlands, as we watched Christmas lights and saw the holiday shoppers. Thanks so much for hosting us!
Jacob, Samuel and Lily
Jeff, Tahlia, and Lily
Samuel and Mommy
Jacob and Daddy
Waiting for the trolley.

Fun with Cousins and More

Last Friday the boys and I had the opportunity to visit my uncle Tracy and his family just north of Dallas. Here are some pictures of our visit with our cousins.
Noah showing the boys his trampoline moves, they were really impressed, although they totally were freaked out when they tried the trampoline themselves.
Uncle Tracy played with the boys, Lily was so cute, we love our cousins.
Abby was so adorable playing with the boys too!

Cute sisters!Thanks for letting us come visit.

Recently the boys have started playing alone by themselves and together without me in the room. It has been wonderful to actually get some things done and not have to constantly entertain. So, this week I was making dinner one night and noticed the boys were not trying to grab my legs or yelling at me to play with them. So, I went to see what they were up to. Jacob was so cute, he was reading his scriptures. Sam was playing with his kitchen. They are such good boys.

Another milestone for us this week was the introduction of big boy beds. We have had the beds for a while but the boys were not sleeping in them. The original plan was for the boys to get potty trained first, well I tried that, we had to take a break. So, I wanted the beds to be an incentive for the boys to get potty trained. But, unfortunately they were just growing out of their cribs too fast. They really seem to enjoy their beds, but we have had one afternoon nap that didn't turn out so great, but hopefully things will only get better from here.

Tonight I decided to let the boys help me make dinner. Their favorite PIZZA! Here they are helping mommy get the dough onto the pans.Here they are adding some cheese.

And watching the final product in the oven. It was yummy by the way, thanks Cindy for the leftover pork, we used it on the pizza, so good.

Our week

Today was so cute, Jacob was very sad about something and was crying about it, meanwhile Sam decided he wanted to go play with his play kitchen. After a little bit of time he called "Jakie come here, I made you a hero party." Our boys love Winnie the Pooh and in that movie they give Pooh Bear a hero party. So, Sam wanted to make Jakie feel better with a hero party too. These are some pictures of their party.

We had to find hero hats too to make the party complete. On the movie they had party hats but this was the best I could do on short notice. It was too cute, I was so proud of our little Sam, he is very kind and observant, they are lucky to have each other.

I took some pictures this week of the boys, I decided I haven't taken very many so I kind of went crazy, here are some of the best ones I got.
Jacob
Samuel
Jacob

Samuel
SamuelJacob


Brother Time: Jacob and Samuel hanging out on a Sunday afternoon.
We decided to see if the boys still fit into their coats and boots from last winter, they do, score! We don't have to buy any new ones, hooray! I doubt they will need boots any time here in Texas, but they will come in handy when we go to Utah.

Gas Prices

Today we filled up our tank, 13 gallons for under $25!

A Beloved Grandmother

We will miss our Grandma "Nell". After a long and wonderful life, she has passed on to the reunion awaiting her on the other side. She no doubt is happy to be with her family there and we are very happy to have had her in our lives and that she and Grandpa are together never to be separated again. We love you.