Horses

We love having a membership to Thanksgiving Point. Thank you so much, Becky. It is further than I usually like to drive, but it is always well worth the trip.

This time the weather was actually pretty nice and there was hardly any wind, so we spend most of our time at Farm Country.

My knight was very excited to be riding a real horse. He got lucky and in addition to a few ponies, they had our favorite big white horse.



Then we went on to feed this cute foal and his (rather greedy) mother.


After visiting all the other animals, we warmed up in the Dinosaur Museum. We only played in the water/wet sand (building dams) and in the dry sand (digging for fossils). Those are the only two areas Noah really cares about. That is fine with me. Max and I just get to hang out and play while Noah is busy.

Thank you Jen, Eric, and Rubie for joining us this time. We are so excited you got a membership as well. Fun times ahead...

Sitting up

I made it! I can sit up all my myself. Now I can better watch Noah play and see what is going on around me.

Here I am still practicing in a toy box. I like the box much better than the Bumbo thingy I told you about earlier. Don't ask me why but I do. Maybe 'cause I can grab things better and grabbing things is what I like to do.











But, as you can see, I don't need the box or the Bumbo anymore. I am big now.





Ok, gotta go. I am busy figuring out the crawling thing.

Hoppe Reiter

It was snowing all night and the snow plow is clearing the parking lot. Noah is not quite as obsessed with it as last year, but almost. It was taking a really long time, though, so Noah got bored and came up with this little trick.

Deutsch

Noah und Papa arbeiten mit der Bohrmaschine in der Küche. Nach einer Weile geht die Batterie leer.

Papa: "Die Batterie ist leer. Lass uns sie einladen."

Noah: "Papa, nicht EIN-laden. AUF-laden. Wie AUF-geben."

DUH. Wie konnte Papa das nur vergessen?

Friday

Friday was a pretty crazy, nevertheless rather normal, day. I thought it would be fun to write about it, so here we go:

1 am
Max cries. I send Karl down to give him his pacifier or do whatever else it takes to get him back to sleep.

4 am
Max cries again. This time I go down myself, feed him, change his diaper, try to climb up two flights of stairs without falling asleep on them.

4:30 am
I frantically try to go back to sleep since I only have about another hour before the alarm goes off and I really need the sleep. But frantically trying to sleep does not work. So here I am lying in bed trying not to think of anything.

5 am
I think I am sleeping.

5:30
Alarm goes off. I grab my swim bag and head out the door before any of my kids decide to wake up and need me. I clear the car (I am not biking because even Karl crashes and falls in these conditions and that means a lot!) and head over to my friend Melisse's house to pick her up. I don't know how she manages to look cute even now but somehow she does.

5:58 am
We manage to be the first ones at the pool. Yeah! Kathy is there as well which makes it even more fun but then we end up talking too much and I get frustrated. Next time I will tell them, we can't talk. I am serious.

7:03 am
I manage to get home almost on time so Karl can go to work. Unpack, eat, check emails, make bed, stretch, etc.

7:20 am
Both boys decide they are done sleeping. We play, eat, play, get dressed, play, brush teeth, play, play, play.


While playing I am trying to find a second here or there to get ready to go to Jen's house. I don't need much, just the diaper bag, snacks, drinks, my work out clothes, snow clothes, the chariot sling, sleds, favorite toys...

By now I am already tired and could take a nap but this is just the beginning.

9:40 am
We made it to Jen's! I am putting on my running clothes although I really don't feel like it after I just took a nice shower a few hours ago and still feel clean.

10 am
I am on the road with the Chariot and two cute bundled-up babies inside. One blue and one pink: Max and Rubie. I decide that, really, I don't want to have twins next time.

10:30 am
This is the 5th time I am stopping to adjust the front wheel on the Chariot. It is pulling to the right like crazy. Instead of running I am getting an upper body work out just trying to go straight. I am extremely frustrated (as those of you who know me well can easily imagine) and NOT having fun.

12:45 am
I am hoping Jen will be back from her run soon. By now Noah, Eric, Max, and Rubie decide they would like to have more than one crazy Mama taking care of them all. Actually, today went pretty well. Noah entertained himself the entire time with two boxes. Eric was entertained watching Noah. And Rubie and Max entertained each other. Not bad.

3 pm
I can't wait for Karl to come home. The weekend is so close! Noah, as usual, is using our new piece of furniture to practice his cool moves and tricks onto the bean bag. We now wish we would have established a "no-climbing-or-running-on-furniture" rule before he developed this talent.


4 pm
Karl is home! I decide to use my "free time" wisely and clean. NOT my favorite thing to do but I also don't like things messy or too dirty.

8 pm
I am trying hard to stay awake. Noah is trying hard to stay awake, too. But I am done for today, Karl's turn.


8:30 pm
While Karl is getting ready for his winter triathlon tomorrow and our one-day adventure to Soldier Hollow (which seems more like we are going on a 3 week snow expedition), the phone rings and Megan (our neighbor) is wondering if we would like a late-night snack.


And then Jesse brings over these absolutely delicious, fresh, home-made crepes. I could not even wait to have a bite until I took a picture (as you can tell). Not the ideal pre-race meal for Karl but pretty close... Thanks, Megan and Jesse.

9 pm
I am out

I am a knight

I got this awesome knight outfit for Nikolaustag (poor Americans don't have that one, so don't worry about it) and all I have wanted to be since is a knight (actually, my neighbor has introduced me to super heroes a few days ago, but that is a whole different story, mainly because I don't have a super hero costume).

Anyway, here I am as a knight in shining armor. Yes, I am also wearing my pajamas. The knight armor is the first thing I put on in the morning before I have time change into clothes. That is o.k. though. Mama assures me knights wear pajamas as well. Personally, I think it is just a trick to get me into mine...




Check out that dragon.
I think it is so cool.









Here I am getting ready to be a fire knight. I made that one up myself. I need red gloves and my firefighter clothes (on the floor behind me) for it. Oh, and my rain boots.


Here we go. But where are my red gloves? Well, you get the idea. I only dress up like that about 3-4 times daily, so it is no big deal. I can do it almost by myself, almost.


I also like playing in the snow. Here I am kind of sad though. I am missing something...


My swords, of course! Now I feel better. Now I am a snow knight.


I need the head lamp for fighting dragons in their deep dark caves. Or something like that.
Gotta go, the princess needs help.

Christmas Time

Christmas time brings letters and pictures of loved ones. This is one of our favorites. Noah's German friends Lara and Luc. We miss you, guys.


Christmas time also means that dear friends come to town. This year Natalie and Thomas came and we met up at Jen's house. We love you, guys.

(in case you can't tell because Noah's sword is covering her face, Rubie is absolutely adorable)


This Christmas we took Noah and Max to Temple Square to look at the beautiful lights and the gorgeous temple. Neither Noah or Max had ever been, so we were excited. We took the Trax from Sandy to avoid insane traffic and parking and to make it more fun, which it was.

Here is Noah in the train. I had to post this picture since this is the only one we took all night. Oops. The lights were really pretty though, so was the temple. Noah, however, was disappointed that we had come all this way just to look at some lights. Thus, we spent a lot of time in the Visitor Center which he loved.

Afterwards we were hungry and found a little Christmas Market with German food and Belgian waffles. That made the ride back more pleasant since it was getting late and the kids grumpy.
Note to self: Next year we will start this adventure at 11 in the morning. Not at 3 in the afternoon.


Christmas morning brought many presents, especially to Noah. We had been successfully hiding the big box from Germany that made it here in time. Thank you!

Here is Noah trying out the new finger puppets for Max.


Before we could go to Grandma Becky's, Noah wanted to take a bath and try out is new coloring soap. I would say it was a success. He used it all up in just one bath.


At Grandma Becky's we all got spoiled. Among many other things, the boys got this huge present. Everyone loved unwrapping it. In it was a wagon for Noah and Max. We can't wait for warmer weather and for Max to be able to sit up, so we can use it every day.













Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and got spoiled some more with more presents , good food, and great company.

Christmas time is also play time in the snow. We loaded up the car with Noah's new skis, Karl's skis, two sleds, snowshoes, the chariot plus skis and pulling harness, lots of warm clothes and boots, snacks, etc. Then we tried to squeeze in with all the stuff and headed up to Big Springs. Karl and Noah sledded and skied while I was holding Max. I can't wait to take Noah up to Sundance and attempt to teach him how to ski. I had so much fun skiing as a little kid.



After lunch we put the boys in the chariot and took off for some snowshoeing. Here is Karl working hard pulling about 80 lbs. up the hill. After taking the picture, I helped him by pushing in the back and we took turns pulling. We decided to go somewhere with less hills next time although it was a good workout.


Here they are all bundled up. Max passed out the minute we put him in there and Noah (in the sleeping bag he has had since he was 12 months) shortly thereafter. If Karl and I had not been breathing so hard getting them up the hill, we could have actually had a meaningful conversation...


After our adventure, we met up with the Ellis family at their stake center where the kids brought all their new and old vehicles (scooters, bikes, skate boards, unicycle, etc). Noah had a blast riding his bike and new scooter around the gym and racing the other kids. Because he learned how to balance on his pedal-less bike, he is amazing on his scooter already.

The next day we went up to the Ellis cabin for more fun. We did a lot of sledding right outside the cabin and built this good-looking snowman. Since we were already up there, Karl and I took turns skate skiing at the Sundance Nordic Center and loved it. Then we played inside by the warm fire.


We did many more fun things (which we did not take pictures of) such as

• spending an afternoon with the Marre family. We loved catching up with them, meeting the twins, and playing with Max and Ada.
  
• taking cousin Spencer to the Lehi pool and going down the big, dark, green slide many times.
  
• spending New Year's eve with Eric eating chocolate fondue. After the kids were in bed, Karl and I hopped on our trainers and watched the movie we had gotten in the mail that day: "Steve Prefontaine". Then we went to bed. Nerdy, I know.
  
• joining Kenny and friends on his New Year's ride up the snowy/icy road to Squaw Peak.
  
• painting a tea pot at ColorMeMine. Now we finally have a safe place for our boiling tea water, since we can't use our Nalgenes anymore. (Thank you, Emily, for the gift certificate)
  
• ice skating at Seven Peaks with Nate and Jesse.