Chris's Birthday!

Alrighty. Another marathon blogging session. 6 new posts. Watch out! It makes me sad because I always forget what all the fun stuff like three days later. But...you do what you can do, right?!?

To start out the festivities, we went with some good friends to the temple. Thanks, guys! It was wonderful!

Chris took the day off for his birthday. A nice present to the rest of us too on his birthday! He woke up to Caleb giving him a big hug and his first clue. We sent him on a treasure hunt for his gifts. Once he found and opened the last one (or so he thought!) we were having fun playing games when there was a knock at the door. The awesome Cheneys held onto his last gift for me and brought it over to surprise him. (Thank you, thank you by the way!)

A new electric acoustic. I think he likes it just a little bit. He falls asleep playing it every night. :)

We spent the day together and used one of his other presents that night--tickets to the rodeo/concert.

The weather was awesome and we had a great time walking around the fair grounds and watching the rodeo. In San Antonio, they kick the spurs out of the AT&T Center every year for a couple weeks while the rodeo is in town. It's a big deal here. After the rodeo was a Martina McBride concert. And I must say--I actually enjoyed the concert. I'm not much of a country music fan, but I did like and actually recognize a lot of her songs! Time to move out of Texas? :) Thankfully, my boys are still holding strong. They'd much rather do this

than listen to an ol' country concert. :)

We were also able to sneak away the next day and go have dinner together. Hmmm...was it my birthday or his? :) Perhaps I benefit too from it being his birthday! :) As always, it was great to spend some time together, just he and I.

And lastly, we ended our several day celebrations on Sunday when we were able to have friends over for cupcakes, root beer floats and games. Thanks again, guys!

We had a great time celebrating and love to be able to spend time together! I love birthdays.

Snow in San Antonio!

Our good friends came to visit from Utah. All 6 of them, ready for warm weather and fun! And then this happened:


Could not believe it! What are the chances?!? The first snow in 25 years and it has to be while our friends are here ready for a week of nice warm weather! We unfortunately got caught in an ice storm the night these pictures were taken. Scariest. Drive. Ever!! We watched several cars in front of us just driving along cautiously suddenly slide down the freeway into massive pile ups! People were spinning out and fish-tailing all over the place. Roads were closed. And it took 2.5 hours to get home from a drive that normally takes 20 minutes. I lived in Utah for 8 years--yet I think that was the slickest I'd ever seen roads! It was insane!

But we still managed to have lots of fun that week and are hoping they'll give us another chance soon! :) Thanks for coming! Always so fun to see you and spend time with your cute family!!!!

Valentine's Day

Hmmm...can't seem to find any pictures. Perhaps I didn't take many? The boys did get matching pjs.

(I thought this picture was funny and happened to show their Valentine's pjs. :) They're both holding their cup the same way and reading their books. :)

And then there is that awesome sister of mine. Everyone should have one that is so awesome. She made the boys some Valentine's pillowcases and then later sent a Valentine's package. She is queen of the packages. There were so many cool things in there. I wanted to steal some of them for myself! The boys were seriously giddy and dancing around when they saw the pillowcases! They love holidays and they LOVE those pillowcases!!!! They are always excited to get a package from aunt Nyn! Unfortunately, I didn't turn on the video camera until they settled down enough to open it. They were running around all giddy and excited just before this. So all you get to see is the tail end...but you get the idea!



And as if that wasn't enough...Chris has the sweetest and most thoughtful co-worker who also sent home valentine packages. They were in hEaVeN!

Anyway, we made our usual heart shaped sugar cookies. It was especially fun this year because we made them on Sunday when Chris was home. It was so fun to have him help us decorate them too and the boys had so much fun with him!!!

This year we snuck over to Chris's work and put hearts all over inside his car. Caleb worked hard all morning (and Carson for about 2 minutes :) drawing on the hearts and writing little notes to him. It was fun. That is, it was fun once we circled around and around and around the parking garage where he was parked trying to find the car!



Anyway...it was a fun day and we love our holidays!

Joint Party

Perhaps someday it won't be so fun...but for right now--having birthdays one day apart is awesome!

This year we headed back to Chuck E Cheese for a joint birthday party for the boys.





Carson is already getting kisses from the girls :)



Chris made awesome invitations. They were VIP passes that we put in plastic badge holders and attached a lanyard. Here is the front:


And the back:

Chris is hilarious. He always does such a good job with such things!

Why are there no pictures of Caleb? He was way too busy playing to stop and pose for pics. I love that kid.

Thanks to all of you that helped us celebrate the birthdays of our boys and helping them to feel so special and loved. And thank you to all of you that sent fun packages and cards. It was so fun checking the mail every day before their birthdays. They were giddy with excitement and anticipation each time we checked the mail. In fact...they still are!

Caleb's Five!!

The day after Carson turned two, Caleb turned five. Sniff sniff again. Time is just flying by too fast for me!

Another fun day! Carson's birthday was on Sunday and Caleb's was on Monday. So Chris took Monday off from work to spend the day with us. Always fun!

Caleb woke up to his bottom bunk bed decorated and his presents hiding behind.



Caleb also had a lot of support opening his gifts:




My favorite of his gifts? Well, since you asked...

We have had hours and hours of fun together with those dominoes!

And in case you were wondering...Caleb is definitely still a liner upper (want to reminisce about his lining stuff up habit? See here, here or maybe here, or if you're still bored, here ):



We had a fun filled day together that ended in yet more candles and cake:



Caleb, Caleb. He is also made of 100% pure ham. The kid just cracks us up all of the time. There is constantly something funny coming out of his mouth. Yet he is such a good boy and makes friends wherever he goes. We laugh because he has no problem playing with anyone of any age--from 2 to 62--he will play with everyone and anyone!!

We love our Caleb!!

Carson's Two!

Sniff sniff.

I can't believe my baby is two!!

We had a fun day. Carson woke up to his door decorated and presents galore.



He had lots of support in opening those presents! :)

And he blew out those candles like a champ!!


Carson is such a ham these days. And that kid can TALK! He amazes us all the time with his vocabulary. We count 8-9 word sentences all the time. We took him to his 2 year appointment and unfortunately, although he'd been hanging on to the tail end of that weight chart...well, we finally fell off. He's a pretty good eater...just so small. But oh so cute. And snuggly. He is also a champion sleeper! Hurry! Knock on wood!

One thing I love about my Carson--he runs, skips, hops, or jumps his way around everywhere. There is no walking from place to place for him! I seriously giggle every time because he is just so darn cute with his little jumps and runs here and there.

Another thing--it's interesting--there have been several people who have confided in us that they just feel something so special about him. We do to. He is a sweet little guy.

Carson has come a long way in the last year! He went through a very bad case of stranger anxiety for awhile, but is coming out of his shell a lot. He goes to nursery at church like a champ now. Even when we are visiting other wards (or congregations) with Chris.

We love our Carson!!!!

Day #10: Potty Humor

Day #10: Potty Humor

Warning: This video contains some potty humor. Not for the faint heart or anti-potty-humor enthusiasts.

What is it with boys and potty humor? And who knew it could start at such a young age? Silly boys.

Day #9: Do YOU have...

Day #9: Do YOU have...

Caleb is getting really good at playing games. It's a favorite at our house.

I love the inflection in Caleb's voice each and EVERY time we play Go Fish when he asks if you have a certain card:

"Do YOOOOOU have...."

And I love how we are teaching such good sportsmanship. Got to start them when they're young, right? :)

Day #8: Mayhem

Day #8: Mayhem

Mayhem. It's pretty much the norm at our house. Especially if Chris is home. :) There is forever someone wrestling. Forever someone singing. Forever someone dancing. You get the idea. Here is a random sampling:

I love how Carson takes a break from the wrestling action to play a little Ring Around the Rosies by himself. "Ashes. Ashes. Ashes. Ashes. Ashes. Ashes. Down!!!!"

I love our mayhem.

Day #7: Hamper Head

Day #7: Hamper Head

We have this almost daily ritual at our house. Carson goes into Caleb's room and pulls out all the dirty clothes from the hamper. Meanwhile, my little OCD Caleb is trying to toss them back in as fast as Carson is tossing them out. Caleb really does not like his room to be messy or have things out of order for long. Oh, he will play with toys for awhile and make a mess with the best of them. But he will NOT go to bed until his room is clean. And things like clothes on the floor just bug him.

So I'm chuckling about their little daily exchange as I'm typing this because I find it so very funny. But anyway. Eventually, Carson will win with the clothes hamper thing. At least very temporarily. The whole purpose of removing all the clothes? Carson loves nothing more than to walk around with that hamper on his head. The more objects he trips over or runs into, the funnier he thinks it is. He is seriously a little nut.

Unfortunately, I accidentally clicked the video camera off before he trips over that car garage in the middle of the floor. He laughs hysterically every time. Sometime I will have to get the whole exchange start to finish on video so I can laugh about it always.

Hours of daily entertainment right there. They are both such hams.