Thursday, January 14, 2010

4 wheeler for Tian

12.24.09
It was the morning of our departure from Bend, and Tian didn't want to leave. He led me to the shop where the 4-wheeler is parked. He wanted one last ride, which Grandpa Bend obliged.






mustard

12.23.09
Tian will eat just about anything. And tonight, it was MUSTARD. I don't know if it was the color that caught his eye, but he couldn't get enough of that yellow stuff.



games

12.23.09

This was one of the most fun nights! We really aren't big game players (Justin's family is into games like nobody's business. Mine, not so much.) but this night we played and laughed, and cried-because we were laughing so hard. We played a game Justin has named "Signs", because we don't know WHAT the name is. We played with UNO cards. Each number is assigned a sign, and when the dealer lays down that number, the first person to act out the sign wins the card.

Some of the signs we made up were:
#2-we pounded our chest. When you first begin pounding your chest, you don't realize how hard you are doing it, which makes everyone else laugh, and you are left with bruises!
#3-we would have to say, I am a Tree, and hold our hands above our head like we were a tree.
and my favorite one was...
#9-we would say, Doin' time, and place our hands behind our back as if we were being handcuffed. This one was Roberts idea and he had the funniest accent when he said it. This one was the one that made me laugh the most.

I wish I would have remembered all of the signs because my brothers made up some great ones!

This night will always be remembered with such fond memory!
The following pictures are a "reinactment" of our card game. Of course I couldn't take a picture WHILE I was playing! Notice my mom in most of them, she was crying!














Christmas Dinner

12.23.09
My Dad went over the top this Christmas and served a delicious dinner. Justin said his slice of meat was the largest piece of meat, and the most delicious, he has ever eaten. Although the meat was pink, I had a slice myself and agree, it was soooo good! He also made ham, just for me and my Mom. I barely touch the ham because there were so many other things to choose from.

Thank you Dad for the delicious Christmas Dinner! You always treat us to such nice cuisine!
Love you Dad!






Monday, January 11, 2010

Wii

12.23.09

Trey spent a majority of our Christmas vacation playing the Wii with Derek. Derek was a great teacher and was so kind to let Trey play with his Wii. Trey was excited to come home to find his cousins got a Wii for Christmas and he was able to show them how good he was at it. He truly is pretty good and schooled both Robert and Taylor, my younger brothers. Of course he couldn't beat Derek who is the all-star running champion at any Wii game he plays.


Taylor, Derek and Trey

What was supposed to be a nice stroll...

12.23.09
...turned into a nightmare-ish 1/4 mile haul.

While my Dad, Robert and Justin were at the movies watching Avitar (one of the greatest movies Justin has seen in a long time. In his words of course!), we decided to take a walk to the mailbox. This is not just a walk out your front door and up the sidewalk, this is a 1/4 mile walk down my parents dirt driveway. Trey needed to express some energy, Tian needed the fresh air, and my Mom and I enjoy the time spent together doing just about anything! So, we bundled up the boys, Derek grabbed his bike, and we were off.

Not too long into our walk, Tian wanted to be held. This was a bad sign and I should have turned back, but didn't.


This is Trey after running the whole way down the driveway. Notice the transformer in hand. (Dumb Mrs. Claus didn't read the packaging at Wal-Mart and got a Transformer Figure, NOT a real Transformer. Oh well, he didn't seem to mind.)




Here is sweet Tian walking beside my Mom...



and here is monster Tian throwing a royal fit because I wouldn't hold him the entire way back. I know, I am the world's worst mother, but I HAD to take pictures JUST to prove to those who THINK Tian is all smiles and happy ALL OF THE TIME. He is not, and these are the pictures to prove it...






No, he is not hurt, just refusing to walk.



Look at this sad face. This is actually the face he made on a regular base during our Christmas break. More on that later!!!
Needless to say, my back ached for days and days after our walk due to carrying this 23 pounder 1/4 mile.



We made it home, alive, and in one piece.

Wal-Mart Boy

12.23.09
Every year my parent's stake put on a Saturday "Free for All." The week prior, people bring clothes, household items, books, anything they want to get rid of. The public is invited, and the following Saturday, you come and take whatever you want. My Mom is usually involved the week leading up to Saturday. This year she found a real winning duo......





a "sweet" outfit for Trey that she made me swear I would never take him out in public in.

He opened the outfit on our Christmas morning and didn't take it off until the following day when we left for Idaho. He thought our spa flip flops from our spa day added the pefect touch to his Wal-Mart outfit. It looks like and warm, with the sun shining, but it was probably 13 degrees.

Christmas Morning

12.23.09
First of all, for as many pictures as I take on a daily base, I am pretty disappointed in myself for the minuscule amount of pictures I took on Christmas morning. I guess I was just excited watching the boys open their gifts instead of taking pictures.


(very random and boring pictures, but it does prove we did have a Christmas morning!)





I was very excited for Tian to open this particular present. As you can tell, it was from Santa. Tian LOVES balls and I knew this would be the perfect present for our little guy. He wanted nothing to do with it, and instead, wanted EVERYTHING to do with.....

...the cereal Santa brought. He enjoyed sampling every one's cereal from Santa. His favorite: Blueberry Frosted Mini Wheats. No surprise!


Poor, poor Derek. The boys woke him up and he barely stayed awake through present time. Sorry Derek.

The boys waking up Robert and Taylor, who had stayed over Christmas Eve. Robert and Taylor didn't get much sleep the night before and was woken up a little too early for their liking.


Later in the afternoon, while Tian was napping, I found Trey playing with all of Tian's toys. I guess someone enjoyed them!




(actually, now that I look back at these last 2 pictures, I think Trey was hiding from us. He had eaten about 10 packages of "snack sized" starbursts. I think he was hiding his stash in these presents. That sneaky little guy.)

Christmas Tree


12.22.09
After the boys went to bed, it was time to place the stockings and Santa presents out. Santa wraps his presents in paper with SANTAS all over it! (this was an idea I got from my coworker Heidi many years ago.) The presents from Santa is wrapped in different paper then the rest because it came from the North Pole of course!

Gingerbread Boy Cookies

12.22.09
This year we planned on celebrating Christmas on the 23rd of December. It was my year to work on Christmas; thankfully my family is happy to celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Easter for that matter whenever we are in town. (Thank you family!!!)

After a night of jumping and eating pizza, we came back to the house and decorated Gingerbread Boy Cookies! My mom's sweet friend Satu brought "cookie kits," with the intent of my Mom decorating with her grandchildren. So sweet!

Trey thought each cookie needed to be doust in as many sprinkles as could possibly fit on the cookie. Santa sure got a sugar rush after tasting some of Trey's delicious cookies.

Derek got in on the fun of decorating. Trey was happy to be decorating cookies with Grandma Bend and one of the world's greatest uncles: Derek!
These were the cookies prior to being showered in sprinkles.
Grandma Bend's "job" was to frost the little guys.
Can you see through all of the sprinkles?!
Notice the cookie with all of the gumdrops? That is a dentists worst nightmare!