Getting Ready for Christmas

About a month ago we started getting ready for Christmas. Here are a few pictures to walk you through it.

It's a good thing there was snow for Thanksgiving because I don't know if there will be enough for Josh to play in for Christmas. He loves playing in the snow!

We unpacked the Christmas containers to start decorating the house and found the elf hats. I LOVE this picture. I have 3 cute elfs working in my house!!

Josh was so excited to help decorate the tree. He helped put on ornaments which, thankfully, don't break when dropped on the tile. If you look closely you'll notice the bottom of the tree is very ornament heavy. We had to move a few around after Josh went to bed.

Josh and Aiden were able to visit Santa after the movie that Grandpa Boehme's work holds in the movie theater. Josh was excited but nervous to sit on Santa's lap so Aiden went first to show Josh how nice Santa was.

After Aiden, Josh climbed right on Santa's knee, looked at the camera and grinned. Too bad Santa wasn't looking! Josh couldn't come up with anything to tell Santa he wanted for Christmas but was pretty excited to sit on his lap once his little brother showed him the way.

Hopefully I can post Christmas pictures sometime before Valentine's Day! Merry Christmas to you all!!

Yellowstone Vacation

We went on a short family vacation to Yellowstone during the middle of October (3 days, 2 nights). We all had a really good time! Our first stop of the trip was Old Faithful....a good introduction for Josh into geysers. We saw a lot of them and Josh was fascinated. Suffice it so say he is still talking about seeing the geysers.

The next morning we got up early and headed out for some driving/hiking. Poor Aiden wasn't moving and got a bit chilled. He was a good sport but look at how red his little face is!

I thought this was a lovely picture from our stop at Mammoth.

Josh was this happy nearly the entire trip. He was pretty good for having to ride in the car so much and he never wanted to go back to the hotel. He wanted to see more geysers (although he did not appreciate the steam from them).

Another nice picture I thought I would share.

We hiked down to see a waterfall and had to descend like a million and one little metal stairs. (I am super scared of heights so it was not fun going up or down the stairs but the view was most likely worth it...haha!) Josh was not phased at all as I held his hand and helped him on the stairs. Brandon carried Aiden all snug in his jacket. What cute boys I have!!

It is always hard to get a good family picture because someone else has to take it. I thought this one turned out well of all of us.

We had a really good time together enjoying Heavenly Father's creations. Josh is already talking about when we can go see the geysers again! We'll definitely be going back when the park opens again.

Halloween (Two Months Late!)

I don't know what I get done every day, but I know that updating the blog has definitely not been it. Here are some pictures from Halloween that were just too cute not to post (even if they are almost 2 months late).

Brandon's sister, Jen, made the boys matching Halloween ties. They looked so handsome in their matching ties.

Josh was pretty excited to dress up as a firefighter for Halloween. He really got into the trick-or-treating this year....there was always one more house he could see that we hadn't visited yet. He made a good candy haul for a 2 year old.

Aiden was a super cute chicken for Halloween - his chubby cheeks fit the costume perfectly!

Josh, Aiden and Brandon worked on pumpkins while I was at an orchestra rehearsal. Brandon said Josh LOVED putting the face pieces into the pumpkins and he was pretty proud of them.

This was just too crazy not to share. We were driving into town and saw The Headless Horseman.....literally. We had to turn around and take a picture. Pretty lucky that we had the camera with us!

A Cute Picture of Aiden

Aiden is growing up so fast. He has big brown/hazel eyes and they almost always are open just like this. He is such a cute boy and I thought this picture was too cute not to share.

Josh-a-roo

Josh's great Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda got him tickets to go see Toy Story 3. It was the first time he had been to a movie theater and we bought the HUGE popcorn to share. He LOVED it!! I had a hard time getting him to look at the camera even though it was just the advertisements on. We walked out when it was over and he asked, "Can we go see it again...right now?" It was a hit.

Josh is getting pretty creative lately. He plays A LOT, all day and uses his imagination to make very interesting things. Here is his train and coaches. He was moving the chairs around for at least an hour to make different looking trains.

We go visit Brandon at work and make a library run around once a week. On this occasion we took a stroll around the greenbelt and checked out the waterfall. It was a sunny day so we applied sunscreen and went out for our walk......

and then Josh did a face plant in the dirt (it was a serious spread eagle) and came up looking like this. The sunscreen helped the fine, powdery dirt really stick to his face. Too bad it's not chocolate like it looks, huh?!

My Grandma invited me and the boys over for lunch and she shared some corn on the cob she had just purchased. Josh really, really liked it - he ate almost the entire cob on his own.

Josh wanted to get out his table and chairs and do playdough. He made all sorts of things: airplanes, trains, people, and this spider. He was pretty proud of all the things he (we) made.

He's a cute boy and he is growing up SO fast. It's fun to see his little mind at work. You wouldn't believe how many times he asks where certain things come from (from different foods to buildings to whatever his little eyes see at the time). I proceed to explain and then he ALWAYS respons with "But why?" He definitely loves to learn.

Aiden's Accomplishments

Aiden is growing up pretty fast. We tried out the Bungee Bouncer and he LOVED it!
We also tried rice cereal. This was his first attempt and you can only see a little on his bib. He gobbled it right up.

Two days later we tried the rice cereal again. This time I sat Aiden up in the high chair - he would open his mouth for each bite. Think he likes it much?

I can't believe he is already 4 months old. Love ya buddy!

4th of July Weekend

We had a really busy 4th of July weekend. It began Friday morning when we left our house at 4:30 am to head to Driggs for the hot air balloon festival. It was worth it! I love watching the balloons fill up and head into the sky at sunrise. Brandon took the day off and we met up with my mom and dad, my brother Greg, his wife Kirsten and their baby Paxton. After the balloons we drove over to Jackson and hiked around Jenny's Lake. (We only hiked one way and rode the boat on the way back).

Here is Greg holding Aiden bright and early in the morning.

Josh had a really good time watching the hot air balloons fill with fire and prepare to go into the air. They had some fun balloons like this beaver one. They also had a gremlin and a pumpkin besides the normal balloons.

Josh was so excited when we put him in the car at 4:30 that he didn't go back to sleep for about an hour. Here we are in our early morning glory. We were grateful that Josh took a 2 1/2 hour nap on the way home from Jackson.

The next morning we headed over to Brandon's parents for a 4th of July breakfast. From there we went into Rexburg for the parade. It was a pretty cold morning - nothing like a good quilt to keep you warm at a 4th of July parade (crazy right?). Here are Brandon, Josh, Brynlee, Jen and Jess getting ready for the parage to begin.

Thankfully it warmed up enough to take off our jackets. Josh and Bryn couldn't see well over the people in front of us so they made camp with Aunt Jess in front of the curb. I think the view was much better for them.

We went and played at the Squires house after the parade and had a barbeque lunch. Brandon's dad flooded the lawn and Josh went out and played for a while. That night we went to Idaho Falls and met up with my parents for the Melaleuca fireworks. (They got there around 4:30 pm and roped us off an area - by the time we showed up at 7 everything was pretty packed.) We were so busy entertainig kids that we didn't get any pictures of the fireworks. It was a really fun day but by the time we got home at 11:15 pm we all felt the aftereffects of a busy weekend!