Where's waldo?

When Kerry decides to go visit family in Utah its never for a weekend, or a week....or two for that matter.
Yeah - spring break is an excuse to take a MONTH off. (who cares about kids missing school! :) )

So - proof that the kids are still alive at least - here are some photos my sister Kiera and brother-in-law Josh took yesterday.

I of course am in Washington working, and will head back to utah to finally bring everyone home this weekend. Enjoy - Aaron
Eric


Ryan


Maya


Jordan

Just What Every Mother Wants to See

This is just what every mother wants to see her baby playing with when she walks into the room:



And yes...it's a toy!

AEROGARDEN!

Aaron bought me this Aerogarden for Christmas. I took this picture a few weeks ago, so now the herbs are quite a bit bigger. We have chives, basil, oregano, thyme, mint, and dill. The thyme and mint grow like crazy! It's pretty cool to have fresh herbs, but I'm still not sure how much to use when I'm cooking because I always just used the dried stuff--I have a bit of a learning curve there. Anyway, it's fun to have this mini garden in our kitchen ,and it's always a nice conversation starter when people ask if we're growing pot or something. :)

Our Little Elf

Whenever my sister Lisa comes over she always tells me that Ryan reminds her of a little mischievous elf. Maybe we'll dress him up like that for Halloween next year.


Ryan loves to eat frozen blueberries, thus the blue stains on his face in this picture. These are other foods he enjoys: bananas, kidney beans, soy or rice milk, raisins, pancakes, edamame, fruit smoothies, eggs, etc.


Up until recently, Ryan has mostly ignored Eric. He's starting to like to help out with him whether it be by smiling at or talking to him, bringing him a toy, bringing me a clean diaper for him, or by feeding him, as shown in this picture (gotta love his tongue hanging out--just like his big brother).


We took this picture of Ryan just the other night when he was actually using the mouse correctly to play a computer game. He was so proud of himself! Other activities he likes lately are: helping Mom vacuum (he holds the suction tube and sucks up the "ickies" by the baseboards while I vacuum the main parts of the carpet), helping us with other chores, playing outside, shooting baskets in his little hoop, wrestling with Jordan and Maya, playing cars or trains, watching his favorite shows ("Tom and Jerry", "Dora the Explorer", "Wall-E", etc.), and TALKING!!! He is very verbal and asks lots of questions.

"I Bless Myself"

Last night I stayed in Jordan's room while he said his prayer. He asked Heavenly Father to help him be "polite and respectful". He then said, "I bless myself to be kind to people with different colors of skin that people are mean to." We've been talking about racial equality recently so it was great to hear that he seems to get it. We obviously, however, need to do a little work on the prayer structure...like that we ask God to bless us and not bless ourselves. :)

Aaron's Hidden Pasttime

Here's something you probably don't know about Aaron: he LOVES storms! He bought the instrument pictured below so he could monitor our recent cold/snowy/windy/rainy weather systems. He kept calling out numbers and percentages--how many inches of rain or snow had accumulated in the past hour, what the wind chill was, how strong that last gust of wind was, etc. Before one of the wind storms he got everything ready for a possible power outage: generator, flashlights, weather radios, extension cords, heaters, etc. etc. I was almost disappointed when we didn't lose power because of all the effort he put into it. When he was on his mission in Southern Mexico he was hoping he'd be there for a big hurricane...lightning and thunder bring a smile of glee to his face. You get the picture. Maybe his interest comes from living in the mid-West with all of its rain and tornadoes...I just don't know. When I was 12 or 13 a freak tornado hit the city where I lived (Albuquerque, NM). It only touched down in a few places, including our house. When I looked out the window and saw debris flying around in the sky and then saw one of our big trees start to come down, let's just say that I wasn't all giddy the way Aaron would've been. "It's the end of the world as we know it" was going through my mind! :)

Da Boyz....and the girl :)

Christmas Day 2008

Twilight Mania

Okay, so here's my contribution to the recent Twilight mania--the guy in this video is my sister Lisa's friend (he's an ex-BYU Young Ambassador)... maybe I'll actually read the series some day so I can be in the "in" crowd! ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0fVb0SA0qs

Can I Please Get Just One?!

Can I please get just one picture with all of the kids looking and smiling at the camera at THE SAME TIME?!




I didn't think so....

The Start of Basketball Season

The new basketball season for Jordan and Maya just started a few weeks ago. They've had two practices so far and the games will begin some time in January. This is Jordan's second year with the program so he's old school now. :) This is Maya's first year and she was pretty nervous to go to her first practice. Fortunately, Aaron took her to it and stayed with her the whole time psyching her up about it....she hasn't seemed nervous since.

Wish List

So every year Aaron buys the big daddy newspaper with all of the store ads that come out right before Black Friday. The kids go through the ads and circle toys and things that appeal to them. There are a LOT of circles on the pages by the time they're done!

Christmas Tree 2008

So the kids decorated the tree this year, which is already dead, by the way. ("And Charlie....light a match!") I decided to let go of the control of having a nicely decorated tree--I'll have plenty of nicely-coordinated/decorated trees some day when the kids are older.

Cheese

I have to write this down before I forget it. The other day Maya grabbed something away from Ryan and then I kept hearing him whine to her, "Give me back my cheese." After listening to this for a minute or so I went to stop their little altercation. What Maya had REALLY taken away from him was her little play Barbie camera. You see, whenever Ryan sees one of us holding a camera he really wants his picture taken and he sports this huge fake grin and says, "CHEESE!" Hence, she had taken away his "cheese".

My sweet little pumpkin seed butter ball chunkerooni

Busy busy busy!!!

Yes, that's a handful of a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie:


Ryan LOVES to play with the water in the kitchen sink:


Look at how cute and innocent I am....NOT! :)

Jordan's Baptism and Eric's Baby Blessing

Jordan was baptized by Aaron on November 8th. Eric had his baby blessing the next day. We were fortunate to have many family members in attendance: Bamma and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Josh and Aunt Kiera, Aunt Lisa, and Aunt Tori. Thanks to them for making it an extra special weekend! We are so pleased with Jordan for making this important decision. Below are photos taken during the family visit:

Maya's 1st Tooth Loss & Skin Ailments

Maya lost her first tooth about a month ago. We had caramel apples for our FHE treat and it came right out...sorry for the gory picture. Also, she's had eczema or some kind of skin problem on a spot on the right side of her mouth as well as her eyelids (as seen in photo below), for months and months. After two regular doctor visits and creams that didn't work, we finally got her into a dermatologist who prescribed other creams. They've helped a lot, though I wonder how long she'll have to use them.



I jokingly said that maybe we should bandage her problematic/itchy skin patches so she wouldn't touch or scratch them...had no idea she'd actually do it: