Old Cleveland Chums, (But not that old)

Ian went to bed on occasion crying that he lost his friends so I facebooked the Whites and asked if we could visit next time we were in WJ visiting my parents. It took a couple of minutes for the kids to warm up to each other again, but once they forgot their shyness they were out of control silly. We are so glad we stopped by!

*Yes Taylor is still in love with Kyla and plans to marry her, but there are some new girls in his life too which is good since Kyla has a new man chasing after her. Ah the love of kindergarteners

While the Popes were Rexburg we met up with them for an adult only dinner at Big Judds. It was nice to see some familiar faces! And Miriam is still my fave VT Companion, but I guess it is now an x-companion situation.

Okay, so the name should really be Super sized Judds. Miriam ate one of these 1lb hamburgers all to herself. Not really, but wouldn't that be awesome if she could?

On December 26th we met up with the Claytons at Cafe Rio. My first stint so Brooke had to show me the ropes. We'll be back. I had a salad that could have served 4 people. I miss my running partner! So good to meet up with you guys.

We also met up with our favorite neighbors, the Thompsons who are not Clevelanders, but post Oremites. I even remembered the camera, but I forgot to take a pic with them. I am using the excuse that the waitresses wanted us out so bad that they stressed me out to the point where I just couldn't think straight. Lame, but my excuse anyway. We miss you guys!

*Christmas 2009*

Christmas started out early with Ian waking up first, (anybody surprised? You shouldn't be). Ian came in to cuddle early morning and I convinced him to go and see if Santa had come. When he went out he found Optimus Prime and was so excited! He brought it in to show me, but he had Taylor's so I sent him back to find his own Optimus under the tree. After discovering his own he took Taylor's into his room to wake his brother and show him what he got. Taylor woke up and saw Optimus in Ian's hands and struck and fist with all the enthusiasm in the world said, "Yes!" I guess we, I mean Santa, did alright this year.

While unwrapping gifts Ian kept saying that he needed to find BumbleBee. Well, his parents pulled through and after torturing him with some not so fun gifts, (clothes and sheets), we let him open his bumblebee transformer. I dare you to try and play with this while he is around!

A bit bleary eyed, but his willingness to open gifts may be unmatched!
Yay! Letter "E", (Kelby's secretary Laree), gave me Lightening McQueen stuff! And Taylor too.

It wouldn't be Christmas if Santa didn't bring more GeoTrax stuff. This time it was an airplane for Ian, more specifically, Loopy Loco. It will connect to Taylor's airplane track and this airplane will glide through the barn door upside down.

New shirts and pants. Thanks Old Navy!

After opening gifts at home we raced off to Salt Lake to hang with my fam and have Christmas Dinner. Grandma and Grandpa pulled through with small farm toys for the boys, new towels* for all of us, the family edition of the Book of Mormon, the Settlers of Catan extension set**, and a puzzle for me. Holy cow Mom and Dad! What alot of stuff! Thanks!

We got them a record player that plays the records and uploads them to your computer so you can burn CDs. I think they actually liked it. They are so hard to shop for!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

*Have you ever exfoliated every time you dried off? We have and that is why we asked for new towels. No need to lose your skin nowd!

**The extention set was by default. My mom got it for Mari originally, but Mari already had it and as my mom didn't want to return it she gave it to us. Thanks Mari for already having something we wanted!

Getting Ready For Santa Claus Christmas Eve

Taylor insisted that we make cookies for Santa this year. He was to excited that night to notice that we forgot to put them out. Oh well. They were well received at my parents house. While I made the cookies Kelby took the boys down the street so they could get some sledding in. We wanted to build a snowman instead, but the snow wasn't sticking together. Talk about having to be flexible with your plans.

Of course every year we have the traditional Christmas Eve new pajamas from mom and dad. This year Optimus Prime dominated the scene and the boys loved it. We each got new slippers, but does anybody care? No. Why? Because we aren't as cute as the boys and our slippers weren't Optimus Prime themed. Lame.

During the month of December we had the boys earning money so they could get each other a gift to open on Christmas Eve. We loved Taylor's wrapped gift to Ian so much we took a picture of it. Taylor bought Ian a Car's police car and a mini jet plane. Ian chose an autobot helicopter transformer for Taylor, which just so happened to be Taylor's favorite gift this year.

This is the fun part. Everybody got a dart gun and boy was I ever surprised when I opened mine. Okay, not really since I wrapped them all, and I bought them too. We were aiming at each other until I shot Kelby in the eye and Taylor shot me in the face. Kelby then banned us from shooting each other. How boring is that? Then we discovered the pics of ourselves on the wall, what a brilliant idea! The one on Taylor's forhead was shot by me and I am still proud of it, (and probably will be forever). Every so often when we want to kill each other we just shoot the family photos on the wall. Much less violent if you ask me.

Happy Sixth Taylor!

Taylor turns six today! A full blown kindergartener already this kid is growing faster than we imagined!
We let Taylor open presents after chuch since the anticipation was killing him. A helicopter, new pjs, and police car from mom and dad, a puzzle and 4 new movies from Grandma Western, a camera from Grandma Olson, (which he got later), and a birthday card from Great Grandma Tingey. Whew, what a successful birthday and Christmas is just around the corner.

Oh what awesome parents! We got the coveted helicopter from Kohls. I think this toy has lived nine lives already.

Every year Taylor wants a train cake and every year I hate making it. Since this cake didn't turn out obscene like the one last year I did allow it to be photographed. The cone is supposed to be a smoke stack. I got the idea from a website, don't ask me which one because I don't know. Google it if you must. It looks like a train and you like it. Taylor did.

By the way, nobody in our house likes cake which makes it really hard to even want to make the thing. We eat it once and then we chuck it after it starts to grow things. What a waste. I wish he would let me make an ice cream cake!

Of course Ian had to help blow out the candles. Happy Birthday Taylor! We love you.