What a Jolly Holiday!

On December 10, 2009 all the stars aligned. Jared was done with finals, we woke up an hour late and still made our flight, the boys were awesome on the five hour trip and we made it to Utah for the first time since we moved out. We saw my mom first, who took us to the mall while we waited for 3 other flights to come in (all within 2 hours). Noelle met us there and the boys had a great time at the DinoDiscovery Zone (I made that name up).

On top of the slide

And down! Noah was extremely grumpy when he woke up, so it was good to see him finally get into playing.

Next we met EVERYONE at Sweet Tomatoes. It was utter chaos. In a good way.

Isaac was happy to be reunited with his cousins, his old pals.

At the hotel, Noah got tickles from Uncle David

and acquainted with Schaffer

We have all been waiting for the moment we could meet Schaffer. What a cool, sweet baby!

Grandma had something in store for the little ones: early Christmas gifts to play with!

Isaac was thrilled

So were the adults

It was all-out war and even the dog was hit (a lot).

Trace, Kennedy

It was soooo good to see all my brothers and sisters!

Bobbie, Danny, me, Corky, Noelle, David, Traci. ALL HERE!

And have my kids get to know them all.

Isaac and Kennedy lead the way to the ice skating rink

This is Cat. She's awesome. We are hoping to add her to the batch soon.

Cat, Noelle, Mom, Corky, Ashton, Bobbie

Danny, Kennedy, Dad

Ashton, Corky

My padres

Isaac, Ashton and Kennedy attack David

At Dad's house, the scary life-sized Santa sang and danced with Kennedy.

And Faith remembered Isaac.

Noelle was sick and Danny was sleepy.

Then we ditched the kids to go nightskiing. Sorry, no pictures of that, put here's an awesome bruise Jared got from it:

I cannot stress enough the amount of joy Isaac felt from being with his cousins.

Here they all are.

Ashton, Danny

The Gibson Family

The girls: Terree, Bobbie, Cat, Noelle, me, Mom, Kennedy, Traci

The guys: Danny, Dad, Corky, David, Isaac, Schaffer, Ashton, Noah, Jared

There's those crazy kids again

Isaac and Ashton strike a pose

Isaac put up with a lot by sleeping with Noah. Every morning they woke up like this (Noah perpendicular), but usually there was some loudness involved in the night with Noah falling off the bed or screaming from nightmares. We all could've used a lot more sleep, but we were having too much fun.

After we said goodbye to David and Trace we had one day to see Jared's side. We went to Orem and Kamas to see Jared's grandparents (Noah posed like Mr. Roboto). We didn't get a picture of the Laneys.

We also saw a bunch of cousins at a little shindig in Santaquin, but I wasn't smart enough to get the camera out of the car for that. Anyway, we were constantly on the go, but it was so worth it! I cried as we lifted off from the runway. It was good to be home, though. Two days later, we got hit with a wonderful snowstorm. Endless winter!

"I love snow!"

Before:

After:

It snowed and snowed and snowed. So beautiful! Of course, life in Maryland stops at the first flurry, so when a storm like this comes, everybody's buying toilet paper the night before.

View from our backyard

Noah, Jared, Isaac

After a while, we let the kids warm up and watch a movie while we played like crazy children in the snow. Now to get ready for Christmas....

The Laney Visit

Forgive my tardiness...there were too many events in too little time to put it all into one post. Jared's parents came to visit a couple of weeks ago and we didn't take nearly enough pictures...but here are some highlights. It was nice to just hang out and relax while they were here. Isaac and Noah enjoyed all the extra attention. Here they're deep in thought, listening to a story from Grandma Laney.

We went to Jump On It! along with some preschool friends, which was enjoyed immensely.

It was impossible to catch them for a good picture.

Noah cooperated once (the camera didn't).

This only came with intense persuasion. They were never this still again.

Jared even got to meet up with us once at Fort McHenry.

Isaac's worried the gate locker is going to lock us out. We stayed right up until closing.

I don't know what I would've done without Mama Laney on Halloween. She baked the pies for the Trunk or Treat, crafted a sword for Noah, metallicized Isaac's boots and performed other miscellaneous tasks of magic. Incidentally, she's definately a good person to have around when coming up with clues for a treasure hunt. Our personal favorite: "In the bathroom there's sometimes a stench, but you won't find that in the piano bench!"

That's one happy knight. Thank you, Bobbie and Ashton for the costume!

Grandpa was dressed up like a banker.

Sir Isaac and Firefighter Timmy

A frog prince with a dragon in his lap?

A knight and his dragon

Of course knights don't hug dragons, but have you ever seen such shiney boots?

That weekend Jared's brothers flew in to join the fun. Isaac and Noah were all the more pleased.

They posed

And played

And hiked

And of course eventually gave hugs goodbye.

They missed all the visitors right away. Noah could be seen at the window for days at odd times saying "Uncle went outside? Uncle! Uncle?" It was surely fun to have them. Now I'm back to being their only playmate again. And it was such a nice break, I daresay I'm actually ready and willing.

"Hey, Mom, I'm Four!"

So...Isaac's four. He tells me every day now. We celebrated several times.

While Jared's family was in town there was an early celebration (mmm, chocolate lava cake...with...tea candles on top....).

Here he is with his very most favorite gift EVER: a double barrel shotgun. It has kept him occupied about 98% of his waking hours since he got it.

We had a fun and busy day on his birthday, which ended with his first bowling experience. If it looks like the ball is just sitting there, well...that's about what it felt like to watch it wander down the lane.
It was a late night, but we couldn't skip the cake.

Then we hosted a party at preschool the next day with some friends. Silly hats weren't the only activity, but that's when I remembered the camera. He was so glad to have friends to party with!

I can't even believe how much he's grown, and not just his little body.

2 days old

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

My big 4-year-old

I've never met such a sweet, happy, helpful boy. He surprises me every day by the things he seems to understand, the ways he's able to help and the patience he shows with Noah.