Washington DC

We had a great opportunity to go to the Washington DC temple and do some sightseeing a few weeks ago.  Normally, if we want to go to the temple, we have to swap babysitting with someone, so we spend the entire day at the temple.  But, our ward had babysitting set up for us so we could all go to the temple together as couples, and it only took 2 hours instead of 5... which left us plenty of time to go sightseeing.  We went with our friends, the Torgerson's and Green's.  

We took the metro (super easy and cheap!) to "the Mall", and went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (free!).  We went to the obelisk, and saw the capitol building from a distance.  

After the sightseeing, we went to a great Mexican restaurant, Alero (right off the Metro-line, bought $25 gift cards for $10 at restaurant.com)  Sorry for the fuzzy picture, but it was a cute little restaurant.

It was a nice family trip.  And it was totally easy and affordable.  We are thinking of making this a monthly excursion.

Sledding

We actually had a snowstorm with snow that stuck around, so Xander and I went sledding with some friends in our backyard.  We have the perfect little hill for Xander.  It's not too big, but big enough.  It is surrounded by buildings, so no sliding into the road.  Xander had so much fun.  He probably could've stayed out there playing all day...  too bad Mommy couldn't.

Sixers vs Celtics

A couple of weeks ago, we went to a Sixers vs Celtics game.  It was totally last minute, but we got a great deal ($5 tix on stubhub), so we went to cheer on the Celtics (our "last name" team).  We shared our great ticket find, and brought along some friends, the Farnsworths and Rogers.  It was a great game.  Celtics made a winning shot in the last second of the game.  Even I was into it. 

Video

Ok, so I just have to say that I haven't posted anything in awhile because I keep trying to post this HILARIOUS video of Xander, but it keeps taking forever, then not loading.  I've even tried uploading it to youtube, with no luck.  So I spend 20 minutes trying to load the video, then give up on blogging for the day because I can't get it to work.  So annoying, because I really want to post this vid.  So I'm just going to post some other pics instead.  Maybe I'll get the video on here someday.

Bouncy Lil

My Favorite Outfit

I know it is kind of a silly outfit, but this is my favorite outfit of Lil's right now.  These were my overalls (if you can't tell by the 70s motif).  And I love her monkey shoes, and her button headband (thanks Andria), and her legwarmers (thanks Kim).

Growing like a weed

These were taken before Christmas, but... just to show that, somehow, even though he doesn't eat anything, he is still growing like crazy. (This happened to more than one pair of jammies)

Really out of touch

Ok.. So I realized that I am WAY behind on my posts.  I never even posted about Thanksgiving.  So you may get a Thanksgiving post in April.  I want to document all of our adventures, so I can remember them, but it may take awhile. 

Kane Christmas

Every Christmas since we got married, we have spent the days leading up to Christmas, Christmas Eve, and Christmas morning with Brian's family; then flew to NH on Christmas Day for the Kane Family Christmas.  This year was the first year that we stayed in UT the whole time, my parents came to UT, and we had Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with the Kane Family. 

We spent Christmas Eve at the Winterton's enjoying a yummy feast.  Xander and Papa W played with a train.  Xander loved it!

We were all staying in Heather and Denver's house (and by all, I mean all... Buddy, Grammie, Us, Katie, Rode, Olivia, Hez, Denver, and Gunner).  It was packed, but fun.  It was kinda like when we were little and would all sleep in the same bed on Christmas Eve.

We filled each others stockings this year.  It was great.  Xander and Lil were too spoiled.  I had all their presents, then I went shopping at the Park City Outlets on Christmas Eve... bad mistake.  They got way more than I remembered getting for them.  Ooops!  Funny thing is... I got a whole bunch of stuff for Lil, and she slept thru most of Christmas morning. Not like she would have known what she got anyway.

Denver made us a yummy breakfast.  A New Orleans treat for Brian... I don't remember the name of them, but they were like scones.  Sooooo yummy!  Thanks Denver.

Then we packed up and drove thru a snowstorm to Eagle Mtn, to have Christmas Dinner at Brian's moms house.  It was delicious.  No pictures, sorry.

All in all, a GREAT Christmas break.

PS - thanks Hez and Denver for your hospitality in letting us stay at your house, and also for the comfy new couch to sit on.

Lil's first Christmas

The cousins

Xander spent most of his time opening Buddy's presents.

Xander's big present... a dollhouse (ok, a Little People house... and he LOVES it)

Boston Family Christmas

The weekend after Christmas, we went up to Logan to have Christmas with the Bostons.  Friday didn't go exactly as planned, since Grandpa was sick.  We ended up just going to dinner at Firehouse (YUM!), then watching "Dark Knight" on the big screen at Kelsi's while the grandkids played upstairs.... while poor Grandpa spent the evening at insta-care.  

Saturday morning was family pictures.  It was fun, but very cold.  Once we figured out that we could take pictures on the stairs of Old Main, and wait inside between each shoot, it got a little better.  The outdoor pictures are beautiful thanks to the photographer (Kelsi's friend) and the constant snowstorm UT had while we were there (everything is snow-covered).  I will post pictures once I go thru them all.  Thanks Kelsi for setting it up.

We spent the afternoon opening presents.  First we did white elephant gifts.  The highlight of it was when Andria and Joe gave away a book they had borrowed from Grandpa but didn't remember that's who they borrowed it from.  

Then we opened our Christmas presents.  

Sunday was Brian's birthday, so we had a little birthday party for him.  Erica made a yummy peanut butter/chocolate cake.  She wrote "Happy Birthday Brain" on purpose as a joke.  That's what most of his birthday cakes growing up said.  For some reason, there are a lot of dyslexic cake decorators out there.

We also played "The Newlywed Game".  It was definitely interesting playing with Grandpa & Grandma Boston, and Kelsi & Chris (only dating).  We had candy bars for prizes (Skor, Big Hunk, Hot Tamale, Rocky Road, 100 Grand).

It was a great weekend.  Thanks for letting us stay with you Bostons.  Thanks AJ and Michael for your rooms.