Christmas Fun

James has a wonderful job at Goldman Sachs.We are so blessed. There is only one tiny downfall... Money doesn't sleep and the stock market rarely closes. Unfortunately, this year James only gets 1 1/2 days off for Christmas...which means no travelling for us. Boo! Even though I'm really missing family, we feel lucky to have so many great friends here in Utah that make Christmas time special.

This Christmas is especially fun because of Koby's excitement. He is finally old enough to understand what's going on. He has learned all about "Jesus' birthday". Lately, he has been making "nests" (mangers) out of blankets when he goes to sleep. It's pretty interesting what details kids choose to remember the most.

Koby wrote a letter to Santa this year and what do you think he asked for? I'll give you a hint...

That's right, "games" and "guys". 

He is so proud he wrote most of his letter all by himself.
 

And of course Linc wants anything to do with the Disney Cars characters. Our neighbor let Lincoln borrow a big McQueen toy for a day last week. He never let it out of his sight.

Last Saturday the boys got to meet Santa at our church's Christmas breakfast. Lincoln, of course, didn't care for the jolly old man...

Koby was a little intimidated, but I think he enjoyed the experience...

"I will tell Santa I am good, but sometimes I don't like to share my toys."

Since we have now lived in our house for over a year, this Christmas we actually have friends in our neighborhood. I can't even count the amount of goodies that have been delivered to us this last week. Yesterday I was up to my elbows in peanut brittle trying to give back to our neighbors. Add our neighborhood treats to the dozens of Christmas cookies we made with the Finch's and you got yourself some sugar high Huntington's. Needless to say James and I are plumping up a bit, but at least we feel loved!

Yesterday I found my new favorite ornament on the tree.  Lincoln has broken half of our ornaments and I guess Koby was tired of a bare tree. Yesterday I found captain hook getting good use out of his hook.

M: "Koby! Linc! Quit playing with the ornaments!"
K: " We are just pretending they are our punching bags mom!"

It will be a miracle if any of our Christmas ornaments last through the holiday.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Goodbye Fall

The last month has flown by so fast!

Lets see. Halloween came and went...

Then, Our first "big" snow happened...

On November 14th we celebrated James' 28th birthday. Emily, Shane, Sherry, and her boyfriend Cameron came over to help us eat some cake. It was a fun day, but I am pretty sure James' favorite thing was a Jimmy John's sandwich delivery he received at lunch time. The Finch's sure do know the way to his heart- a hot sandwich. It gets him every time:)

The boys and I caught a mean stomach bug that lasted for a couple weeks! Poor Linc threw up 4 times one evening. The next day he was super floppy and made me hold him all day.

Our poor little guy was wiped out for a couple days after...

We celebrated Linc's 18 month b-day by taking him to nursery! Woohoo! He went like a champ, but then fell asleep for a good hour and a half- of course ruining his nap for the day.

Linc has grown up alot lately. He is still a sturdy thing,  but he has been thinning out alot. He is obsessed with Disney's Cars- The movies, the cars, the books, you name it, he loves it. He is still quite a bit of a mama's boy and he hates crowds, but he has been becoming more adventurous lately. He and Koby are beginning to play together- they chase each other around giggling a lot. Overall, he's a sweetie.

Koby has quite the imagination lately. He loves playing with G.I. Joe toy guys, "Koby and James" to be exact. They do everything together. He is always building Disneyland rides for them.  It is funny to watch him play. Thanks to his Halloween costume he has been dressing up as a prisoner all month long. He does everything in handcuffs. This is also quite entertaining:)

Monday we learned about the story of the 10 lepers and what it means to be thankful. I think it stuck with Koby. He now knows God gives us our blessings...

K: "Hey Mom, can we go to Disneyland sometime this week?"
M: "No, you need lots of money to go to Disneyland. We don't have any money to go."
K: "Mom! I have lots and lots of money. It's in my football bank and my soccer bank."
M: "Koby you needs hundreds of dollars to go."
K: "But mom, I have hundreds of dollars."
M: "Oh yeah? Where did you get hundreds of dollars?"
K: "Heavenly father gave it to me and I was just so happy!"

I can't wait to have some sweet conversations with Linc too. Although Linc does have his own little way of communicating with us ...

L: "Caaahs, Caaahs"
M: "You wanna watch Cars?"
L: "grunt, grunt, Cahs!" ...runs to the couch.

James' family came out for Thanksgiving...And what a fun weekend we had. i forgot to take pictures, but it involved the new Twilight movie- Breaking Dawn, a tumbling gym(to celebrate Karen's 18th birthday), and too much good food. They camped out in sleeping bags in our cold basement so we were able to see a lot of them which was nice! And hey they didn't die from hypothermia down there.... Anyone else want to come camp out?

I love Thanksgiving. It's  nice to have a holiday to remind us to Thank God for all our blessings... After all,"All things denote there is a God."

Starting a petition

We must end Daylight Savings! Hello 5:45 a.m. ALL week long...

I sure do love making breakfast at 6 am.

I officially have man hands.

 After 40 minutes of the punching bag. What was I thinking? Dang it.

It's my own fault so I have no right to complain, but typing this blog hurts.

Saturday was Emily and Shane's last weekend being zipline guides up Provo Canyon so we thought we better hurry and take advantage of their offer for a free zip down the mountain.  Linc was too little so he and I ran errands in Orem while James and Koby met up with Em and Shane.  

They had so much fun! Linc and I showed up to see them zip down the last part.  It looked awesome.  There may or may not have been a daredevil going upside down too!  

 

Well it was just a Finch kind of weekend.  Sunday, Shane and Em came over and carved pumpkins with us again.  It was a fun night.  

Shane brought a ginormous pumpkin and we all couldn't help but crack up when he pulled the top off and realized just how thick it was and how challenging it would be to cut.  Haha.  He accomplished the task using the largest knife we own. 

Using the smallest knife, Em did a very intricate tree.  It was very cool.  And thankfully I didn't have to compare it to my usual kindergarten looking pumpkin.  

This year I got to carve Koby's pumpkin.  He drew the face and I carefully followed all the little squiggles.  Isn't it the cutest.  I love that he is starting to draw actual pictures.  Last week I told him to draw people for the first time and I was very impressed with his skills...

I love his little handwriting too.

James is last on the blog because, well it took him FOREVER to carve Linc's pumpkin.  He had this 3-D idea, that he realized soon after starting, wouldn't be a quick job.  Haha...He widdled away well after the rest of our pumpkins were done.  It is pretty darn cool though...

Grandma Takako sent the boys some Mr. Patato Head parts for pumpkins too...So much easier than carving:)

... They make us laugh.

Bring on Halloween.

And I just have to add a picture of this little Mr. who is getting so big.

A whole lot of everything

We have not been good bloggers lately and for good reasons.

For the past few weeks James has spent pretty much every night working on essays for grad school applications. Lucky me, as his wife, I get to help. James, of course, does most of the work. I just swoop in after the first drafts are done and we work together to revise and polish them.  Last week there was a night we stayed up until four in the morning! When I set an alarm for James it said he had 1 hour and 35 minutes to sleep. Sick! I was fortunate to get about an hour and a half more than him. Wednesday his last application will be submitted! Just in time too, the guy is starting to look like a zombie...

Another reason was we had more car drama. Story of our life. Our car hydroplaned on the freeway in heavy traffic during James' commute to work. Thankfully nobody was hurt. That was not the case for our trusty explorer. Our car was totaled. I have to mention this car wreck was just one day before James had to fly out to New Hampshire too! I was almost stuck home for two days with two kids and no car!

It all turned out to be ok. God always blesses us even when we don't see a way. We ended up finding a great new car for our family- a 2008 Ford Edge. I highly recommend this car. It is so roomy, gets way better gas mileage than our explorer, and it's pretty:) It has no problem fitting my double jog stroller in the back too!

Exhibit A...

Rach and Sean came into town this last weekend and made our weekend fun. Friday we went to the Mitchell's with the Quigley's and the Finch's. So glad Crystal is friends with all of our family! The kids had a blast playing together. It was really fun to see cousin Charlie. The little guy is so fun to play with. I wish my boys had cousins close to play with more often. Someday.

Saturday night Joanie and Bruce hosted a fun Halloween Party. James and I went all out (for us anyway)... we dressed up as a zombie bride and groom. I am proud to say my wedding dress is way too big, but I can still fit into my prom dress I got when I was 16! (Just threw on an undertee and it looked close enough to a wedding dress). Anyways, if you know my sister, Rachel, you know she loves LIVES to tease me. I was nervous all day. I just knew she told us it was a dress up party and we would show up and be the only ones in costume. Thankfully, this was not the case! It was such a fun party and everyone dressed up!

Here are Big Luigi and Little Mario...

Sean is rockin' some size 20 Women's Capri's! Rach claims they were the only ones in the thrift store, but we all know her better;)

I wish I had a picture of everyone, but as always our kids were too crazy for us to watch and photograph it all. Rach did rock her pregnant batman costume though!

Joanie and Bruce, or "Broanie and Juice" as Koby calls them, had several fun activities and games for us. The boys loved it.

We turned each other into mummies...

We ate donuts...

Sean and James kept getting a little too close for comfort.

We bobbed for apples...well maybe just reached in and grabbed one.

As well as many other fun activities. Thanks for the invite to a great party Quigley's!

James had to go straight home and do essays all night, so Amy and I went out for a girl night. I am glad I have such a sweet friend who was ok taking out a zombie. I did not have time to go home and clean up...we got a lot of stares.