Christmas

This year we finally got a tree topper. Every year I mean to get one the day after Christmas when they are really cheap but I either forget or never get around to it. Well Bryant found a beautiful star, reasonably priced, for the top of our tree this year while out shopping Saturday after Thanksgiving. This was the only decoration on our tree this year because the boys seemed to be completely incapable of leaving the tree alone for more than five minutes. This also resulted in us not putting/leaving any presents under the Christmas tree. So when presents arrived from their great-grandma Cooley we just had to open them so the boys got to open a present a couple weeks early.

Here they are posing, as required, before opening the presents.


Neither of them needed help ripping the paper :)



Here they are enjoying their new toys.



Christmas eve, we put all the presents under the tree while the boys were still awake. We were taking quite the risk. The boys were actually really good at staking them and knocking them down but did not try to open them. I was amazed. As a result we let each boy open one present after dinner (plus it provided Bryant and I the opportunity to sit and relax while the boys played with a new toy).

Here is Tucker with his present. I tried to get him to open a present that I knew was a toy he would enjoy playing with but he insisted on opening this present from his Uncle Jeremy (toy Story 2). After opening presents we watched the movie while the boys played with the present Hunter opened.



Yes I double wrapped Hunter's Christmas present. I did this, originally thinking that the presents would go under the tree more than a day early, so that if the boys tried to open a present and actually ripped some of the paper before Bryant or I could stop them at least they wouldn't know what was inside cause it was wrapped again.



Here is the tree after Santa came to our house.


Tucker really loved the fire engine


Hunter really loved this expanding ball. He laughed every time he pulled it open and then let it collapse back down.




This is Bryant's present from his parents and brother Jeff. Tucker is showing him how to rip the paper off :) He is such a good helper.




It is the Garret Ace 250 metal detector that he has been wanting for a while now. He was so excited!


This is Hunter opening a present, with Tucker encouraging him along the way


Here is Tucker opening the present exclaiming "rip, rip, rip, rip" the entire time.

December

This is Tucker refusing to smile for the camera. Every time Bryant would ask Tucker to smile he would say "noooo." Well one of the times he said no he smiled at the same time and we got thes great picture of him :)


Tucker, Hunter, and I ran around the house pretending to be cowboys. The boys worn the hats, Tucker was nice enough to share my hat with me sometime, and together we raced back and forth through the apartment galloping to the sounds of our own hoof prints. Hunter thought Tucker and I were crazy but he loves hats so much that he wore his the rest of the evening :)





i tried to set up the crib we got from a couple that moved out of ward during the summer only to discover that the crib has no screws. I don't know if the couple gave me the screws or forgot to give them to me. Either way I have no idea where the screws are. So I initially thought Brylee would get to enjoy a sturdy full size crib (the first of our children) but alas she gets the old school rickety port-a-crib that we got from my grandma when I was pregnant with Tucker that was probably the same crib my father slept in over 60 years ago. After I got the port-a-crib set up, Hunter loved "sleeping" in it with the first pink blanket we got for Brylee. Hunter is likely to despise the existence of this picture when he gets older but he is such a darn cute boy :)

Thanksgiving

Bryant's parents and brother Jordan came to our house for Thanksgiving this year. It was strange not traveling down to the valley and seeing both of our families, but it was fun to put Thanksgiving on ourselves. Wednesday night Bryant and I set to work on preparing the big feast. My father and I communicated through text messages comparing how far along each of us was. My sister-in-law Juli was nice enough to be the go between and felt truly sorry to learn that we only have one mixing bowl for our kitchen aid making it impossible to work on multiple projects at a time. It was a lot of fun. My dad claimed the only reason we were ahead in making food was because we were only serving eight people instead of twenty :0P

Fortunately for us, all of our neighbors were with family for Thanksgiving and so we were able to us our neighbors oven to cook the Turkey and our oven to cook the rolls, stuffing, and everything else. Dinner was wonderful! Too bad we didn't think of taking a picture of our masterpiece with all its colors until after we had eaten half of it and started cleaning up.

On Friday we went to lots of "black Friday" deals. No we did not wake up at midnight or go to stores as some other unreasonable hour. We left the house after taking our time waking up and getting ready. Surprisingly, everything we wanted was still at the stores when we got there despite the LATE hour :) Tucker had lots of fun riding in Grandma and Grandpa's truck. He even went with them to Lehi to go to Rod Works. Along the way they saw lots of construction vehicles alongside the freeway. Grandpa tried to point out one of the construction vehicles calling it a digger and Tucker kindly corrected him saying "No, that's not a digger, it's a front end loader (or whatever type of construction vehicle it was)" Tucker knows his construction vehicles well and loves playing with them just as much. Thank you Grandma for getting him some more!

Saturday was spent similar to Friday, with Grandma spoiling Tucker even more. We received quite the snow storm Saturday night through Sunday morning while Bryant's family was trying to pack up to head home. Tucker and Hunter had lots of fun playing in the snow that was on the balcony and getting hit by snowballs thrown by Uncle Jordan.




After being hit with of few of Jordan's snowballs, Tucker started throwing snow at Hunter. The boys had so much fun playing outside!



After Bryant's family was all packed up they said goodbye. Tucker did not realize they were leaving FOREVER until they started to pull away without. He immediately exclaimed quite distraught "Oh no! I need to go in Grandma and Grandpa's truck!" I explained that Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Jordan were driving home to Arizona and he said "that's sad." Tucker truly enjoyed spending lots of time with his Grandparents and Uncle Jordan and continuously asks when they are coming up again.

After church, Bryant and Tucker sat down and watched "How to train your Dragon" and finished off the popcorn that Grandma bought for Tucker :)

November

Here are my handsome boys


Tucker has really caught on to having things similar as others, especially wen he is similar with Bryant. Bryant drinks 2% milk which comes with a blue label. Tucker drinks soy milk, which comes in a blue carton. Whenever both of them are having a drink of milk, Tucker explains that he is drinking blue milk just like Daddy's blue milk. So when Tucker climbed up on the back of the couch (which is against the rules) and exclaimed "Look mommy, I'm just like Daddy" I could not be upset with him for climbing on the back of the couch bu instead took a picture of him being just like Daddy :)


This is Bryant trying to stay warm in our apartment while I'm home. When I'm away at work he turns the heater up to 76 degrees most days. When I get home I turn it back down to 73 degrees. Well Bryant started out with the boys just sitting on him but eventually...


It turned into quite the game of peek-a-boo with all three of them under the blanket :)


Hunter had SO much FUN!


Something we have been doing a lot lately is building a tent in our front room. It is made from our card table and the boys blankets. Hunter asks at least once a day to make a tent :)


Here are Tucker and Hunter playing peek-a-boo from under their tent.


Here is Hunter chilling on the couch miraculously posing for a picture

Playing in the leaves!!

It took forever for the leaves to fall off the trees this year it seemed. Most of the time only a few were on the ground at a time. Finally, the parking lot at our apartment filled with leaves from the trees over the wall. The boys had a lot of fun running through the leaves after we got home from grocery shopping.




After the above experience, it got really cold and all the leaves nearby us had been cleaned up. Then we went to church on Sunday and the trees had just barely lost their leaves, so while it may not have been a "Sunday activity" by some people's standard, we walked to church after dinner and played in the leaves as a family. The sun went down quick making it hard to capture some good pictures. I was glad we took the opportunity to go play because the next day it rained and made everything wet. Surprisingly there was not another chance to go play in leaves because they all got wet.



I am almost 34 weeks pregnant with Brylee :)

October

Here is Tucker building a tower and Hunter surprisingly happy doing his own thing and not trying to knock it down :)


Tucker was very proud of himself for getting his shorts on his own head.



Here Tucker is brushing his teeth wearing one of my snow boots and one of my red heels. I don't know why but both shoes are currently my boys favorites.


Hunter was not feeling well and as a result was very docile. This is a rare occurrence in Hunter's life.


This is Tucker's "happy face." Anytime I ask to see a smile or a happy face he puts on the saddest look in the world. He is such a silly guy.


Here is Hunter playing with our neighbor Ivory. Hunter enjoys playing with her just so long as she does not want the same toy he has, which when you are under 2 is whatever toy the other person is playing with.


Ivory has the same problems keeping her pants up as Hunter. No wonder they get along so well :)


Hunter loves to help. He sat on the table the entire time Bryant was getting the stew ready. He put everything in the colander and then pulled it all out and put it on the cutting board over and over and over and...


Here Hunter is showing off his climbing skills again and showing off the fact that he was able to reach the light switch and turn on the hallway light. He is such a resourceful kid. If there is something he wants, he usually figures out a way to get it without any encouragement.


Hunter is such a sweet little boy.

Pumpkin Carving

This year the boys helped carve our pumpkin. We had a neighbor over as well. The boys loved digging in the pumpkins and pulling out the insides. It was a lot of fun!