Down right COLD!!!

I don't know about you, but it's bee pretty chilly here in Spanish Fork the last week. It all began last Saturday. Since then, lows have been below 0 and highs around 10. I've gotten up several times this week and the thermometer on the computer has registered Spanish Fork at -6 and as low as -8! However, the cold didn't stop Brooklyn, Isaac and I from playing outside last Saturday. Tami was up in Salt Lake all day attending a friends bridal shower and the rest of us bundled up for the sub 10 degree weather for a little snow fun. It's been so cold that the roads within the neighborhood are snowpacked and so I knew it was time to get the snowmobile out and play. We got some interesting looks as we drove around the neighborhood, but the kids had a really good time both riding as well as getting pulled in the sled behind the snowmobile. Below are some video clips and pictures that we hope you enjoy.

Isaac and Brooklyn were pretty proud of their snow angels.And finally here's a little clip of the kids being pulled behind the snowmobile. It was a little tricky recording and driving at the same time, but the kids still had fun.

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy New Year everyone! We all had a wonderful weekend at the cabin with family. We went up midday on Friday with the snowmobiles in tow with our new vehicle, which pulled them up the canyon very nicely. We ended up staying through Monday afternoon (New Years Day). The weekend was filled with sledding, snowmobiling and playing games with family. Tami's parents came up as well as all of Tami's siblings and spouses at some point during the weekend. Even baby Abby, Brooklyn's new little cousin came up. Here's some cute pictures as well as some fun video clips.



My new digital camera takes pretty decent video clips with audio. Here's a clip of Brooklyn holding her baby cousin Abby at the cabin.

Next is a clip of Isaac riding down the driveway at the cabin on a snow scooter with Tami.

And this year at the cabin we were able to send both Brooklyn and Isaac down on sleds all by themselves. Once they realized how much fun it was, we couldn't keep them off the sleds. You can tell by Brooklyn's reaction to the sledding experience how much she enjoyed it. Isaac had a little encounter with the snow at the bottom of his run, but it didn't seem to phase him much.

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.

Go BYU!

I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to take Brooklyn to her very first BYU football game. It was the game against New Mexico and we had a great time. I was worried when Brooklyn started asking how much longer the game was before the 1st quarter ended, but as soon as she figured out my little set of binoculars, she entertained herself the rest of the game. Of course we had to buy root beer and kettle corn during halftime. It was an exciting game because it was the game that decided the Mountain West Conference Champions, which BYU earned without any problems. We even stayed after the game to watch the awards ceremony and to listen to the official invitation to the Las Vegas Bowl. Brooklyn really liked the Cougar growl that plays over the speakers pretty often. Everyone rushed the field too after the game ended.

The Thanksgiving "Marathon"

This year Brian decided to coordinate a 5K run Thanksgiving morning before our big family meal. He made shirts and everything. The kids were also involved and ran probably 1/2 K, but they called it a marathon nonetheless. They were so excited to run their "marathon". We held the race on a very cool Thanksgiving morning at about 10:00 am. The wind was blowing and it was pretty chilly. Brooklyn talks about how she was so exhausted after she ran. I ran the 5K and Tami pushed Brooklyn and Isaac in a stroller for the 5K.Here's the rest of us that ran the 5K.

Where's baby Abby?

So, for those who don't already know, Tami's sister Marinda had a baby last week. However, baby Abby had some respiratory problems and is still in the hospital. This has been confusing especially to Isaac who went to the hospital with Tami to see baby Abby last week. Tami was able to see her, but not Isaac or Brooklyn yet. Isaac was confused because he wasn't able to physically see Abby and knows that baby Abby is no longer in Marinda's tummy. So he asked, "Is baby Abby in Mike's tummy now?" (Mike is Marinda's husband). At least he's a curious little boy!

It's all in the suit!

So I've wondered why my colleague always swims so much faster than I do. The suit I was wearing before was the standard baggy swim trunks that went down to my knees. With every stroke, I could feel the suit flapping freely underwater. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. However, I finally decided to buy one of these "Lycra" swimsuits. Just as good as a Speedo, but quite a bit more modest. Here's a picture of the one I bought. I like the red accents on the sides. They even match my red tinted goggles. These are pretty much like Spandex, but with a swimsuit lining for support. As soon as I got in the water and pushed off, the difference was immediate. Like a hot knife slicing through butter. I swam a half mile in 16:45 (previous best was 18:40) and I swam a mile in 33:40 (previous and only other time was 42:30). Don't worry though . . . I'm not about to shave my body. I'm not that serious.

Happy Halloween!!!

So, we have successfully made it through another Halloween and the kids really had a good time this year. We put up some scary decorations around the house and carved 5 pumpkins this year, a record for the Fenn family. The kids came to my work again for the annual "cubicle" Trick-or-Treat. They actually get about 98% of their Halloween candy at work, which makes our evening much shorter. Plus, by about 6pm, it was in the upper 30s outside and the kids didn't have much tolerance to go to more than about 5 homes before they were chilled right through. This year I also entered my infamous BYU pumpkin into a work contest and won 2nd place and a $25 gift certificate. I was ousted by someone who made a Novell pumpkin. What do they think this is? A work contest? The fact that BYU is doing so well this season helped boost my numbers though.

Here's Isaac as a pirate. He was going all over the house saying "Aaarggh Maties" and "Pillage and Plunder". We caught this picture right as he was saying "Aaargh".Brooklyn wanted to be a fairy princess, so we dressed her up nicely.However, we modified their costumes a bit as you can see from the final picture . We ditched the fairy wings and put a vest on Isaac and some waterproof mascara for a beard. They sure looked cute. You gotta love Brooklyn's little signature smile.Here's the two pumpkins I carved this year. This Sponge Bob one turned out pretty cool and of course "The Beast" also turned out pretty scary looking. These pumpkins sure take a long time to carve but we always get a lot of compliments at the door.And of course we can't forget the kids pumpkins. They actually drew the faces on paper and I transferred it to the pumpkins. Isaac's is on the left and Brooklyn's was on the right. Isaac really wanted the rabbit teeth on his for some reason. I think he's been watching too much "Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit"

One Mile!

So, about 2 months ago a friend of mine at work talked me into swimming with him to try to get into some sort of shape. I've been feeling extremely un-athletic lately and Tami laughed when I told her I was going to start swimming 3 days a week. She didn't think I'd last 2 weeks, but it's been easier than I thought. The first day I could hardly swim 4 lengths of the pool without feeling like I was drowning with every stroke, but it's gotten easier and my breathing rhythm and technique has improved quite a bit. I usually try to swim at least 800 meters each time, but today I decided to just keep going and surprisingly, the second half mile wasn't nearly as bad. I finished a half mile in 18:30 and a mile in 42:30. We go to the Provo Rec Center which is actually part of Provo High School. For those wondering how long a mile is, it is 64 lengths of a pool (the Provo pool is only 25 m long). We go during lunch and can get there, swim and be back at work in about an hour and 15 minutes. My buddy swims a mile in about 30 minutes, so I have work to do.

Stephanie's Wedding

Tami says I blog too much about projects and need to start including family things more often. So, here we go. Stephanie (Tami's sister) was married earlier in September and we ended up with some pretty cute pictures. I don't want to include all of them, but here's a few. It was a full day event and the kids did relatively well but were pretty tired by the end of the night. So were Tami and I. This first one at the Jordan River temple is kind of funny. We told Kaley that while we were inside to not let the kids get wet, especially Isaac. However Kaley swears that she only turned her back for a second and sure enough, Isaac was in. Luckily it was just his socks and sandals that got terribly wet.We happened to snap this little impromptu family picture there at the fountain near the temple entrance. It's been awhile since we've done professional family pictures. We'll need to do some soon.And of course we have our little "best friends" picture of the kids. Our little blonde-haired twins.As Stephanie and Ben came out of the temple, we had the kids walk up and congratulate them. Isaac was a little shy, but I included this one more so that those who haven't seen a picture of Ben yet could get an idea of what he looks like (and the height difference between Steph and him. They have a few more between them than Tami and I.)And of course we can't forget the reception. It was done at a pavilion at a park in Sandy. Actually a nice little place. Always good to get away from church cultural halls sometimes. Adele made Brooklyn's dress and bought Isaac's stylin' 3-piece suit. He looked pretty darn handsome. We tried to keep the hoards of girls away, but they just couldn't resist!Another cute picture of Brooklyn and Isaac together. Tami tied Brooklyn's hair in rags again the night before, which helped give her bodyless hair some density to it.And of course the whole family was done up pretty nicely. Boy were we ready for bed at the end of that night. 3 down . . . two to go. Come on, Brian and Kaley! What's the hold up? :)

Study done and other projects

So I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything. Life has been busy. However here's a few things. We finally got the study done. It's actually been done for quite awhile. Here's some of the finished pictures. The mud, taping and texturing actually went pretty well. The room looks like it was part of the original home, which is all I care about. I just need to paint the new doors white and buy the hardware, but that can wait.
I've also begun installing shelves in a closet in our theater room. We had the builders put in a very basic shelf, but we needed a place to store all of our DVD's, videos and games. So I've been busy building some shelves. With a little paint they should turn out very nice

New Study Moving Along

Our new study is moving along quite nicely. I just finished the sheetrock late last night. I was able to use 4x10 foot drywall sheets and with the help of a drywall lift I borrowed from a neighbor, it went pretty well. If all goes well I'll probably start mudding and taping this weekend. I appologize for those who have never been to the house and have no reference for these pictures, but oh well. This first picture is looking from the bottom of the stairs towards the theater room on the left and the cold storage room on the right. This is looking back towards the door at the bottom of the stairs (right) and the other two doors going to the unfinished parts of the basement.This was the drywall lift that made installing the 4x10 foot sheets of drywall on the ceiling a breeze. Two telescoping arms can be extended on each end to fit up to a 4x12 foot sheet.

Brooklyn Style Pizza

Ever since we first saw the commercial on TV for Domino's Brooklyn Style Pizza, Brooklyn really wanted to get one. She gets a kick out of her name being on TV all the time. So, a few weeks ago when Mom was off with some friends, we had a "Dad's night out with the kids". We went and got some Brooklyn Style Pizza and then rented a movie and watched it together. We ended the night with some Root Beer floats, the kids new favorite desert. It was good fun.