Merry Christmas!!!

Well, Christmas has come and gone, but we're all still enjoying the gifts. We only had an hour of Church on Christmas Eve and then spent the afternoon watching Christmas movies. Later that evening we got the idea of making a Nativity movie with the kids. So we quickly made some props, wrote a script (basically the scriptures) and made a pretty cute 3 minute clip with the kids as the stars. They each played multiple roles including the angels, Joseph, Mary and the Shepherds. It may be the start of a fun tradition. We'll see. By the time the kids are teenagers we may have our own full blown set of Bethlehem in our backyard. But for now, construction paper, tin foil and bath robes work just fine. Then we opened one Christmas present each (PJ's). We then made a little bed on the floor of our bedroom for Brooklyn and Isaac to sleep on. Sort of a Christmas Eve campout. They enjoy sleeping on our floor.

Santa's elves were busy putting together Christmas gifts until late Christmas Eve. We woke up Christmas morning around 7:30 (although I woke up at 5:30, 6:15, 6:45, 7:15 - I guess you never outgrow some things) We got the video camera out and all raced in to enjoy the gifts. Here's a quick recap of what everyone got:

Tami & Kevin - Tami claims that the two big gifts were more for me, but she was the one that pushed for a new video camera. So we splurged a little and bought a new Digital Camera (my 5-yr old Olympus had seen it's last days) and a new Digital Video Camera. The Digital Camera is a Canon PowerShot SD600 Digital Elph (6MP). Very small camera, but lots of fun features. The Digital Video Camera we got is also a Canon (Canon Elura100) and is super tiny. About half the size and weight of our old VHS-C video camera. Hopefully they will both last a long time. Tami also got me some Snowmobile rollers. Basically 3 rollers that allow you to move snowmobiles on dry ground. I've been borrowing some from a coworkers father and Tami figured it was time to get my own. They look very similar to these sold at Cabelas. I got her a pretty necklace as well that she was not expecting.

Brooklyn: This year Brooklyn really wanted a doll house. Her Great Grandfather, Leo Nielsen had made her a doll house that we've had for a few years, but Santa decided to paint and install flooring as well as furnish it. Here's a picture of her next to the finished product. She also got some little pet dogs and other animals to go along with her very first Barbie and quite the assortment of clothes to go along with it. This furniture set even has real silverware in the drawers and a fax machine that makes little beeping noises. Crazy. For Isaac, it was the year of the train. We got him a GeoTrax train system and also received an additional track set from Grandma and Grandpa Fenn. He loves the train and likes that he can start and stop it with his little remote control, which also makes fun train sounds. I guess this GeoTrax system can get pretty elaborate as you can see from this link. Here's Mr. Train Conductor himself.We also got other little things from family such as movies, books, etc. Tami's parents came over along with her brother Brian, sister Kaley, sister Stephanie and her husband Ben and we had a nice early dinner and then all piled into our new Trailblazer and went for a drive through the Spanish Fork Festival of Lights park. We had 10 people in the car! Nice to be able to do that. And when the park is only a mile away on residential roads, we were lenient with the seat belts. The evening ended with eggnog shakes (frozen eggnog, vanilla ice cream and Sprite all blended up in a blender) which is always a holiday favorite.

And I almost forgot . . . This year, Tami's parents all gave us 3-day park hopper passes to Disneyland/California Adventure. We're planning a trip as a family at the end of April. Should be tons of fun! Here's to a Happy New Year!

Out with Saturn . . . In with Trailblazer

So, we bought a new car today. We knew we had to get a larger one with more seating as soon as the new baby came along, but Saturn offered us a deal we couldn't refuse. We traded in our Saturn VUE and just about bought a Toyota Highlander, but the 3rd row was way too cramped even for our kids. Saturn had an incredible deal on a used 05 Chevy Trailblazer (22,000 mi) on their lot and although our last two vehicles have been Saturns, we still got the same great service, but jumped to Chevy. We are an all Chevy family now with our old Chevy Cavalier that we've had for almost 10 years, which is still going strong. We finally have something that seats 7 people, is a true 4-wheel drive and will be able to tow our snowmobiles much easier. It's also the EXT model, giving it a little extra length. Can't wait to see how it does in the snow.

13-foot Christmas Tree

So, we finally have a high enough vault in our house to put in a pretty decent size Christmas tree this year. I cut this tree down myself in the mountains up near Tami's parent's cabin in in Scofield, Utah. We were only aiming to get a 10-foot tree, but I saw this one up on the side of the mountain in a little grove of trees, and although it wasn't a Clark Griswold (Christmas Vacation) moment, it's still a very nice tree.

Cute kids!!!

We just inherited a new recliner at the cabin and it's just big enough for Patrick and the kids. The picture speaks for itself.At Thanksgiving this year, Brooklyn had a blast playing with her cousins on Grandma's side of the family.While trying to raise our TV in the little hole above our fireplace, I couldn't reach back to plug in the TV, so I sent in Isaac, my little "trunk monkey" to do the dirty work for me. He seemed to like it in there.