Easy Bake and flyboat

Alex is doing his Easy-Bake oven right now he got from Santa. He loves it! He can even do it all by himself. He made sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies and right now a cake is cooking. He likes to make stuff for me and Nathan. He is going to be a cook like his Daddy! Nathan was helping him and he would say, "Nathan, I have a special job for you!"

The cake with chocolate frosting Alex made for Nathan:

Alex said, "Did someone order a yellow cake with chocolate frosting??"

Yesterday night Nathan had a dream that the WonderPets "flyboat" (as he calls it, in the show they fly in a boat) came through his door, into his room. He got on the "flyboat" and met all the WonderPets and flew around. When he woke up he said that his dream was real and he called it "the true dream". The boys in their jammies went in the backyard to look for "clues" to see if it was really real. They played WonderPets all day, and they couldn't wait to go to sleep so the WonderPets would come again. At night Nathan said, "If you hear walking around, it's just me and Alex getting on the flyboat." I told him to make sure and be home by morning.

When I woke up Nathan this morning I asked if he went on the flyboat with the WonderPets and he said, "They didn't come last night, but maybe they'll come tonight."

The Artists' Gallery

Nathan's self portrait:





Nathan's picture of Mommy:


Alex's picture of Mommy:

Fun Christmas trip to CA

We spent the week of Christmas at my Dad's family's in the San Francisco Bay area. My parents and siblings all rented a big house there. We had a great time. Allison said it was her favorite family get-together. Some highlights include:
KERRY TOLD US SHE IS EXPECTING!!
seeing the Pratts who have been in Germany for 100 years
Alex crying almost the whole way home because he missed Dallin
Nathan thinking about numbers the whole way home--adding different numbers, counting to 100 3 times and counting to 1,003--he wanted to count to 2,000 but it was 2am so I told him he had to go to sleep
going to see A Christmas Carol play in San Francisco with everyone
taking our boys to see A Tale of Despereaux movie--we liked it
going on a walk in the redwoods- very beautiful
going to the aquarium in S.F. and the boys got to touch a REAL SHARK
lots of toys on Christmas-- and we really lucked out-- Spike was broken (not by us) so the boys could play with it and then we took it back and got our $100 back!! The boys were just fine with that. We told them we'll use the $ to go see the Pratts.
Kathryn was the best baby ever
Iron Chef Pizza, but Kerry was feeling sick so Todd just made the most delicious pizza known to mankind

Dallin really loved baby Katie

In baby Kathryn's stocking, she got a cute little pink bear and her first bottle of baby food: sweet potatoes (see the link below for pics of her covered in sweet potatoes)

Two beautiful girls:

The boys making gingerbread... crumbles (the houses turned into crumbles)

Dad was so nice to watch Katie while we went to the Christmas Carol play.

For more and better pics go here

We're home

Well, we got home this morning at 5:30 am and came home to our front blinds totally thrashed by our dumb dog and while trying to get in the driveway slid (lots of snow here) into our neighbor's TWO parked cars with damage to both of them and our car.


Welcome home...

allison's social security number

347564373648736547

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

We finished reading this on the way to CA. It was great! I think this will be a book we read every Christmas. I highly recommend this book for your kids/you! It was funny and had a great Christmas message.

My Dream

My dream house would definitely be to live in a cottage in one of Thomas Kinkade's paintings which he completely surrounds by the most beautiful gardens:
http://coloradoseasons.com/shop.php?cPath=18

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww....

I was playing Christmas music on my flute for the boys before they went to bed. They really liked it. Nathan kept saying, "Will you sing another song?" I ended with Silent Night and Alex had tears in his eyes.

What sweet boys.

I love music.

Store and snow

Alex and Nathan are learning how to use coins so for school we played "store". I went to ToysRUs.com and printed out pictures of toys and wrote on them how much they cost. They had a lot of fun and so did I. (Nathan's first purchase was Spike the Dinosaur).

We are leaving for CA (San Francisco area) tomorrow at 4am and we are driving. Here's what the weather looks like right now:

Yikes!!

Tuesdays with Morrie

This was a really great book. I recommend that everyone everywhere read it. I'll read it to my kids when they're a little older. I really liked the chapter on aging because I turn the big 30 in March. I'm going to read it again and again.
Next I think I'll read The Secret Garden. I got it for $1 because the page numbers got cut off and it was my favorite as a child. I think because it was one of the only books I read as a child. Kathy sent it to me when I was younger.

Christmas poem

As I grow my toys will wear,
But family love will grow all year.
So don’t you worry all that much
Of spending money on gifts and such.
In my home I’ll learn to share,
Things and money and love and care.
What do I want on Christmas Day?
Lots of stories, lots of play,
By your side I want to stay.
Checkers games and talks by the fire,
Of time with you I’ll never tire.
Teach me truth, and to be kind,
Charity and love in you I’ll find.
Let’s serve others with open hearts
These are memories that never part.

These are presents filled with joy
That can’t be felt by any toy.
Time, love and teachings are gifts that last
When Christmas toys are in the past.

Baby Me

Here is my baby picture. Do you think Katie looks like me?

A Tribute to Todd

(Todd is on the far left)
The year we met--Freshman year in college

Us Nov. 2008

Todd is THE BEST husband in the world. He sure puts up with a lot and is so patient with me. He is a wonderful father and I have learned so much from him. One day when Alex was very little (but walking) I was frustrated because he kept going in the parking lot in front of our apartment instead of staying on the grass. Todd went over to Alex, bent down and touched the black pavement and said, "No", then touched the grass and said "Yes". Alex stayed on the grass after that. He always does simple things that the kids love. He makes the coolest paper airplanes and brings one home for each of them from work. He also tells the best stories at night. He started telling them a story each night about the adventures of 2 little boys who go in a different magical door each day, leading them to different adventures. The boys call them "door stories". For Nathan's 2nd birthday party he learned how to do balloon animals and magic tricks and dressed up like a clown. He can also make the boys giggle giggle doing a hand puppet (just his hand) whom they named "Oobi." One day he brought home materials to make sock puppets for him and the boys to do together.

He goes along with my crazy ideas. I'm sure he knew what he was in for, though: our freshman year of college I made him dye Easter eggs with me. However, it was very cold and we had to do it outside because (I don't remember why) but then it started to hail. He said, "Kristie, it's starting to hail. Can we go in now?" Then right after we were married we got in sort of a fight because I wanted to have a cow someday and he said we probably would never have a cow. Then he found some "cow seeds" and gave them to me to make me smile. (By the way, I still want a cow, and those cow seeds never worked.)

Do you know how I know Todd loves me? He gave me the last eclair. That's true love. You'd know if you've ever had one of his eclairs. Which leads me to my next point: Todd is the best cook ever. I cooked dinners when we were in school, but since he graduated, he's made dinner ever since! And gourmet dinners at that. I'm so spoiled.

There's not a person who's met Todd who doesn't like him. He is a very likeable person.

There's not a thing he can't do (well, except be a salesman). When he got back from his mission, I had taken some cake decorating classes and I was practicing some roses, and he tried it and did it better than me the first try.

At Todd's work, everyone calls him "Google." You can type anything into Google to get an answer. Ask Todd anything, and he knows it. He is very smart, that's where the boys get it from. That is one of the things that first attracted me to him. Another thing was how sweet he was. When we were still "just friends" I thought to myself, whoever his wife is going to be is going to be really really lucky. Yep, I'm the luckiest girl in the world. I definitely married up!

I love my Todd!!!!!!

Nathan's birthday

For Nathan's birthday, he wanted to go to the Dino Museum (of course). So we brought 3 of his friends--5 little boys and Katie and I. Their mothers told them to be good and I squeezed them all in the car and we were off. Keeping 5 little boys together when they're excited is hard, and keeping them from having "potty mouths" is even harder. What is it about little boys and potty mouths??

I thought it was funny--one of the boys kept calling me "Kristie Carlos-son" --Like the name "Carlos" with a -son at the end. "Look, Kristie Carlos-son!" He also said about 3 times, "The dinos lived FIFTY YEARS ago!" (I thought I saw a T-rex in the background of my dad's baby pictures!) After we went through the Dino Museum, I asked who wanted to go through again. All their little boy hands went up in the air--"ME!!" We went through 2 times and had ice cream sundaes.



(Katherine got burned on her arm a little from the lighter when I was holding her lighting candles, poor girl:()

Nathan's birthday snow:

Rocket playing in the snow:


Todd not playing in the snow:

For dinner Nathan chose salmon-the-fishy with peach sauce, broccoli with broccoli sauce, baked potatoes, white cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate ice cream.

Todd's doing:

My doing:

(yes, that's a match for a candle)

After baking the cake, I found this small bolt in the bottom of it when I was frosting it. I guess one of the machines making the cake mix broke! Good thing no one ate the bolt:

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY, NATHAN!! (3rd post of the night)

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY, NATHAN!!

I let the boys stay up until midnight and we had a birthday countdown. When I got out the camera right before midnight, he asked, "Are you going to watch me grow?"

CUTEST BABY GIRL EVER

We got Katherine's pictures back that we had taken back on Dec. 2 and they are ADORABLE!! She's in the tutu I made, the last one is in a frilly dress I got for her. We had a really good coupon, so the tutu pictures are all 10X13 so they didn't fit all the way in the scanner so they're cropped a little bit.
WARNING: ADORABLE PICTURES BELOW!!

A Candlelight Christmas

Today was a fun day. First, the kids played in the snow with a friend. Then we went inside and had hot chocolate. Nathan said, "It can't get perfecter than this, huh?"



Then we went to A Candlelight Christmas in Salt Lake with Todd. It's a place where they have old pioneer homes and at Christmas at night they have lots of fun activities. I could never have lived back then, but I think that time period is so romantic. I would love living in one of those old houses and having a big fire in the fireplace. Each pioneer house had a craft or activity in it and was lit by fire and candlelight. They even saw Santa. The flash on my camera made everything look bright, but really it was a soft glow from the candles--so pretty.

In the real stable with real stinky animals, they had a live nativity. It made me teary eyed and everyone was whispering because it was spiritual... in a stinky stable....wierd, huh?

The kids with the wisemen--it was cold but they had fires and the snow made it more Christmasy:

Notice the wiseman giving the peace sign...

Nathan's Rudolph craft:

Alex's Rudolph craft:

Todd looking at the map:

One of the houses with a fire in the fireplace:

Another craft (again the flash made it look bright):

Yet another craft:

Cute baby bundled all up. She had footy pj's on, sweater and pants and socks, a winter coverall, 3 blankets and a hat. She just sat still and silent sucking on her binky the whole time, only moving her mouth to suck on her binky and moving her eyes (movie below). SO cute!

The boys in "Santa's workshop" making toys:

We had a really fun night! (I wish I took better pictures to give you a better feel of the place) We'll definitely go back next year!