Beard and Boys

When men are left to their own devices, they do strange things.  I was alone for  a week back in January, and I got the idea that I could grow a beard.  So Amy and the kids missed the worst part of beard growing: the scratchy phase.  In any case, the beard is kind of growing on me... ha, ha... and so far Amy's been very accomodating of the new facial feature.  So I figured I'd post a picture so that those of you who laugh about it behind my back can at least do it with accuracy (that's you, Roz and Jenny).

SUPERMAN!

This super film is super tardy in its posting; it was  created for a ward film festival back in June '08.  I wrote a short script for it with Amy's collaboration.  It's not perfect, but it was alot of fun to put together!

Birthday Boy

(Gideon David Feb 2008)

How can one year fly by so fast?? Our sweet baby turned one today! I cannot express how much I love our little Gideon. He's so full of energy and personality; I enjoy watching his every move.

The funny thing about this gift is that it was given to Jacob on his 1st birthday. The kids have spent time playing with it, but it was put in storage for a while. We decided to "re-gift" it to the new one-year-old and we were shocked that neither kid had ANY recollection of it. They've all had a great time playing with the "new toy." Works for me!

We had kind of an impromptu party at lunch. Tom came home during his break and we were tending some of Gideon's friends at the time so we all enjoyed cupcakes together. Yeah for low-key!

And here's your one-year-old's birthday cup of milk, kid. It's a bittersweet time, but it's time to mooove on to the cow's milk!

The Happiest Girl on Earth (for most of the day anyway)

Allison got to celebrate her 3rd birthday at Disneyland!!

We had a great day together. We drove through a rainstorm to get there, but by the time we arrived, it cleared up and was nice (but chilly) the rest of the day.

Allison's favorite part of the day: riding Dumbo

My favorite part of the day: When we were going through "It's a Small World," I realized I didn't need to hold on so tightly to her so I moved my hand away. She grabbed my arm and put it back around her. I loved snuggling with my cute little girl on her special day.
(and I also loved Splash Mountain with NO line!)

It was fun to see Jacob as a "big kid" going on some of the bigger rides with Daddy and have Daddy be a kid again with him. And it was fun to pick up Gideon from a day at a friend's house--glad he wasn't with us all day, but happy to hug him and have him back!

Happy #3 to a BIG GIRL!

A Potential Disaster

I didn't think Tom would ever agree to let me drive to UT with 3 kids without him. But, surprise! He was ok with us leaving for a week to visit family and trusted I could make the drive. So, we hopped in the trusty minivan and waved goodbye. Seriously, this could have been the biggest disaster ever (screaming, car trouble, getting lost, more screaming, etc). I was even thinking in the first hours of the drive that we still could just turn around and forget the whole idea. I was pleasantly surprised when all was well, even after a few hours.

For better or for worse, the WHOLE, mostly QUIET drive was sponsored by a DVD player and a Leapster game system we borrowed. Seriously, it could have not gone more smoothly driving 1,500 miles with 3 small children. Jacob & Allison ate treats, watched movies and played games together in the back. Gideon slept a lot of the time and any time he made a fuss I was able to stretch back and hand him crackers. He was pretty happy with that arrangement! (Ok, there was one moment where I pulled over and set up a Baby Einstein show for him because I think he was bored out of his mind as he stared at his seat the whole day.) And I listened to a book on CD the entire drive, so I was occupied as well. We stayed the night in St. George at my brother and sister-in-law's place and then caravaned to Salt Lake the next day with my sister-in-law, Melanie, and her 3 small children who also wanted to see family in SLC. It was nice to have a driving buddy in Melanie to make sure we were both safe and could make smooth rest stops.

Anyway, the biggest reason we wanted to get to Utah at that time was this:

My older sister, Emily, was visiting my parents from Minnesota. I haven't seen her in a couple of years and it was time to catch up again! It was great to see her and swap experiences and remember the good ol' days at home.

The kids enjoyed their time in the snow! (Well, maybe not Gideon from the look on his face.)

We went swimming at an awesome rec center!

We enjoyed hanging out with the Omers--they had quite the gathering of family popping in and out over the weekend! We were grateful for the chance to see most of Tom's siblings.

Tom's family waves 'hi' as he misses out on the festivities. How sad for him to miss the fun times! (However, in talking with him throughout the week, I didn't feel too bad about leaving him--he had a week packed full of activities himself: a lot of overtime at work, multiple dinners with friends, movie and game nights with friends, surfing, X-box night, etc!! Live it up, I guess!)

Of course, the trip was over before we knew it and it was time to get back to real life. Our drive home was smooth sailing once again and we were VERY happy to get home to Tom and GET OUT OF THE CAR (you know how car trips are)!