Only daddy...

I have a really fantastic husband. He does a lot to help me around the house and with the kids. Today he took a very grumpy 3 year old with him to do errands and this is the picture that was texted to me while they were out.....

hahahaha! I love this picture. He is waaay to big for this "baby" seat and yet my husband was sooo proud he was able to move him from the car to the cart and keep him asleep!

Christmas Party in Portland, Oregon

Eric and I got a chance to go to Portland for Eric's work Christmas party. His company is based in Portland, Oregon and most of the staff work out of the main office. They flew us in, put us up in a hotel and we had a great time.

We rented a economy car and when we got there they gave us a free upgrade. We thought we were sooo cool. We got a 2010 black Dodge Charger..Eric striking a pose while driving...haha
(of course I forgot to take a pic of the car)

After we toured the company offices and met everyone we drove around and did some site seeing. We found the Portland Temple. It was beautiful and big!

Then we found OHSU (Oregon Health and Science University) Hospital. It is a huge hospital on the top of a hill. You can drive up there but there is also a tram that takes people up including hospital staff. So we rode that to the top in the tram. It was really cool and only mildly scary. From the top you can see the entire city. It was a clear day and we could see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helen. Awesome!! We went into the hospital and had some hot chocolate and enjoyed our afternoon with just us.



It was really really windy and really cold!!

Mt. Saint Helen

Mt. Hood

Then we did some random site seeing. We saw Santa Claus riding a bike, lots and lots of buildings and trees. We decided Portland is a mix between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. It is busy with lots of people and traffic, freeways going in all directions and in the mist of all that there are trees everywhere and the river runs through the town. It's a great mix of city and nature.

After our site seeing we went to the party. It was dinner at the Charter House in Portland and AGAIN..NO pictures..ugh! I have to get better at remembering my camera. Regardless, of no pictures we had a delicious dinner, great company and a great start to the Christmas celebrates to come.

Thanks Wytec Controls for a great weekend!!

2010 Champions

Connor loves basketball and seems to have a natural ability when it comes to playing. He tried out for an AAU team and made the Rocky Mountain JV squad. The team has awesome coaches and was undefeated throughout the season. During the playoffs they continued to dominate and won all their games by at least 20 points. In the championship game we faced the only other undefeated team in the league. B.K. (Bishop Kelly). It was a good game and it was close for the first 3 quarters than in the 4th Rocky Mountain pulled it out and won. It was exciting enough to be a starter on the championship team but then he found out he was selected to play in the Allstar game. It has been a great season and I am proud of how hard he has worked. We have a couple week break and then he starts playing with a traveling club team he made. Go Connor!!

Christmas Devotional

"This joyful season brings to all of us a measure of happiness that corresponds to the degree to which we have turned our minds, feelings and actions to the Savior, who's birth we celebrate. There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the principles sought by Jesus the Christ." - President Thomas S. Monson

I loved this quote by President Monson during the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last night. How true it is that our own happiness is based on our actions and feelings. The entire meeting was wonderful but this was my favorite part!

We have to admit...

WE ARE LOVING THE SNOW!!!

It has been snowing on and off for about a week. We are told that winters in Boise are usually just really really cold and even though it snows, the snow doesn't "stick". That only happened once. Last week they had the worst Thanksgiving weather they have had in decades..that's right..decades! It is really beautiful when it is snowing and we love to wake up and look in the backyard to see if there is new fresh snow. They are right, it does get cold!! The lowest it got (during the day) was 18 degrees. We are trying to be tough and suck it up but there is no denying 18 degrees is C-O-L-D. When we do go out and play we have a great time. We built our first snowman and snowbaby today as a family. We also love that the Gums came for Thanksgiving and played in the snow with us!!

PS I HATE the snow if I have to drive in it. I am still driving like a California Grandma..the driving part is gonna to take some getting used to for me!

Cody Mack

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY

CODY MACK!!

Trains, cars, cake and cousins! What a fun 3rd birthday!!

Cooper the Wrestler

As much as I want a baseball player in my family, I am thinking that a wrestler might be just as fun. Cooper started wrestling and he loves it. There are times when I have to turn my head and not watch because I am sure he is going to get hurt or hurt someone else but so far..no injuries.

Check out that stance..!!

Cooper applying a half nelson..that's my boy!!

Brothers

My kids fight and argue...a lot!!! It drives me crazy and I am always telling them that they should be best friends and watch out for each other and love each other more than anyone else but they don't listen....or do they?!?

In school, Cooper is learning about positive role models and being polite. He had to draw a picture of his role model...guess who it is...his big brother CONNOR!!

I would have never guessed Cooper would pick Connor to be his role model....maybe behind all the fighting and arguing they do love each other!

Date Night!

Eric and I had a must needed date night on Saturday.

We went bowling! (for the first time in forever...our scores show how lame we are!)
Then to dinner....(no pictures..we were to busy eating!)

Then 3D BLACK LIGHT mini-golf....this was sooo cool and fun!! Eric hit the hole-in-one on the 18th hole and the dinosaur talked to us!

Then a little Christmas shopping and finally we picked the kids up...oh and did I mention FREE babysitting for the evening... THANKS TESSA AND JAKE!!!!

Date Nights are the best...!!! I love you Eric!

Walmart.....

So I walk into Walmart this morning and a cute little old man says hi to me and Cody and hands Cody a weekly ad. Cody took it and off we went to shop. Then I look down and see what I thought was a picture of President Monson. I took the ad from Cody's hand and sure enough....front and center at the top of the instore Walmart ad is a picture of President Monson. The ad was announcing the new book about him that is coming out. Right under that is the weekly sale on Mac-n-Cheese. I honestly, didn't know what to think at first. My initial thought was "oh my gosh I have to tell my friends in California!" Never would you see this in an ad in California and certainly not on the front, in big bold letters!! Then I thought, wow..this is really strange! As I walked around I thought about it more....and here is my reaction to this ad.....

I am lucky to live in a community where this is acceptable and where the general population is actually interested in the Prophet of God. I am happy to know that the ad the little old man is handing me and my son has a picture of the Prophet on it and not a group of girls in bikinis drinking beer. I am happy to know that I don't have to drive 30 minutes to a church book store to get uplifting church reading material. Seeing this ad really made me happy today and I am a little embarassed that my first reaction was that I thought it was odd and inappropriate.

(My friends back home are probably rolling their eyes at me....but that's ok! :) Life is good here in Idaho!)

On a very funny side note, the bottom part of that ad is full of specials on food storage! I am not joking either, I wish I had taken a picture of that before I had to use the ad as a napkin!!!!

Getting ready..

This weekend we went home to California for Brock's farewell talk and to get all the rest of the stuff he needs for his mission. Eric, Brock and I spent Saturday going from store to store, checking off things from the list, buying this, buying that, trying on this, trying on that....I leave them for 2 minutes and this is what I find them doing......

HAHAHA!! I love these guys!!

The Spirit of Boise

The Spirit of Boise is a 3 day celebration that celebrates...well I guess Boise, I am not really sure. But what I do know is that this year they brought back the "hot air balloons". They haven't done this for the last 3 years so the Jones Family made sure we were part of the celebration. We got up really early...went to the park, put down our blankets, had some hot chocolate and waited.

Then they start inflating the balloons. I didn't realize how close we were until they start filling up. There were 23 balloons lined up and they raced to see who could fill up and take off first. There was some kind of race to see who could circle and knock down a port-o-potty with the basket of their balloon first..but we didn't stay for that part of it.

If there is one thing we have learned...these people are C-R-A-Z-Y about Boise State! This balloon was heavily cheered for!!

It was soooo cool to see them fill up and take off. They filled the sky. It was worth getting up early. It was very cool!

Then we left and went and had breakfast..yes there were 4 adults and 7 children in a restaurant at one big table. It was crazy but the food was yummy!

Later that night, we went back to the same park to watch the final balloon event. We got there and had to wait a little longer than we did in the morning. The kids killed the time by giving horse rides, playing with my camera and eating popcorn.

And then... The count down..."3-2-1 burn". All the hot air balloons light up time and time again. It was really cool. You can see there are a ton of people there. They were going crazy when they lite up the Boise State balloon! This is an event we will attend next year for sure!!