Christmas in Houston

We had a good time in Houston for Christmas this year. Wade was very excited to spend some time with his Grandma and Grandpa Broadbent. We made it to a park one of the first days we were there (while the weather was still in the joyful 70's).

Wade loves the animals in his books and often will give them loves, so you can imagine his excitement to see some live animals. It was all I could do to hold him back from giving this goose a hug.

Wade with his Grandma and Grandpa.

Playing with Uncle Mark and Aunt Amy. He sure loved all the attention.

This was the only picture we got of Wade actually interested in Christmas.

Most of the time Wade was chasing around his Aunt Katie's kitty.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve

We hope that your homes will be filled with the Spirit of Christ this season! Merry Christmas!

Big Boy

Wade is pretty good at feeding himself with a fork these days. I have been hesitant to let him use a spoon by himself because I don't want to clean up the mess that I know will ensue. However, a few nights ago we had mashed potatoes with dinner and I thought it might be a safe start. As you can see, Wade had a great time although I'm not sure many of the potatoes actually made it into his mouth.

Christmas Traditions

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is putting up the tree (and I'll admit. mine was up before Thanksgiving).

From December 2009

In my family, we had the tradition of collecting a new ornament each year as we were growing up. Then when we get married or move out, we have some ornaments to hang on our own tree. The ornament selected usually corresponded to a major event that happened that year. For example:

This was an ornament we got last year (2008) because we spent Christmas in DisneyWorld.

From December 2009

We bought this ornament in Venice (2007) to represent the year we visited Italy.

From December 2009

This is Wade's new ornament for the year. He LOVES phones and is such a chatterbox when he gets his hands on one. We thought it was fitting.

From December 2009

What are some of your favorite traditions?

Christmas Time is Here...

I am actually not posting this picture to show off Christmas decorations, but rather to show off the beautiful mantel that my sweet husband built for me, so that I would have somewhere to put Christmas decorations. Didn't he do an awesome job? (He built it from scratch!)

Thanksgiving

This post is a little late in coming, but we had a great Thanksgiving here in Utah with my family. We had our own Turkey Bowl (which Grandma's team won, don't they look scary!)

We also made it out to see the lights at Temple Square, which has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. I sure do miss going to see the candy window displays at the old ZCMI center though (any one else remember that?) We have so much to be thankful for and are so excited for Christmas!

Nap Time Project

I am by no means a great sewer (unlike my mother, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, etc). But I was able to make this today while Wade was napping. It was SO easy, and I didn't even have to rip any seams and start over. I am really excited about this because I have needed a new bag to take to church. I am embarrassed to admit it, but I have still been toting around a diaper bag, but no more!

If anyone is interested in the tutorial I used, I would be happy to pass along the link. Just let me know.

I looked out the window and what did I see...

Definitely nothing that looked like popcorn. This morning, I was just finishing getting ready when I heard a huge bang and our whole house shook. I immediately ran outside with Wade because I was sure a plane had crashed in our backyard. Turns out one of the refineries by our home exploded. There was a power surge that somehow caused the other refinery by our home to start smoking too. We were a little shaken up, but are happy to report that we are fine, as is our home.

Happy Halloween!

I dressed up as a dragon this year. Most everybody kept calling me a lizard, alligator, dinosaur, or other reptiles, until they saw my awesome tail. It was my first time trick or treating, and I brought in a pretty good haul. If only I could get the wrappers off myself.Hope everyone else had a great time!

A Sad Day for the Cougars

Sadly yes, Saturday's game was quite depressing. However, we still managed to have an enjoyable time with our friends the Hoods, who are die hard TCU fans (they went to school there, and then moved to Virginia where we met them and instantly became great friends). Thanks for a great weekend guys! Hope you made the drive home safely!

Pickin' Pumpkins

I love that everyone gets into Halloween here. It seems like when you live in an apartment (like we have the last 3 years) no one puts forth an effort for the holidays. We had a great time picking out our pumpkins today. Now all that's left is deciding what to carve on them. Any suggestions?

Gardner Village

I haven't had anything to blog about in a while, since everyone has been sick for the longest time and we have done nothing but try to get better. Everyone was finally feeling good enough to take a stroll around Garner Village today. The kids loved running around, but as you can see Wade was less than thrilled about having his picture taken. It was nice to get out and enjoy fall weather though!

Nap Time

I love nap time! A few hours of quiet to myself to get stuff done. However, for about the last week or so, when Wade wakes up from his nap and I go to get him, this is what I find...

He used to try to find his bink which I had stashed in the baskets in his dresser (since we mostly don't give it to him anymore). I guess he figures he has to pull everything out of his drawers just to make sure it's not there....little stinker!

Every Day Should Be Saturday

Last year when we were evaluating whether or not to take a new job in Utah, one of the big factors we considered was that Jen's Dad promised me season tickets to BYU football if we moved back. Apparently that was an empty promise because that didn't happen this year. So, Jen and I were online at 8 AM the day tickets went on sale to buy as many as we could. Yesterday was the first game we could get tickets for and it happened to be when my brother and sister in law happened to be in town. So we loaded up in the Black Pearl 2.0 and headed down to Provo for the game.

Weekend at the Lake

My parents were nice enough to take us down to Lake Powell with them this weekend, This is probably my favorite place in the whole world! No worries, just good times.

Wade loved driving the boat and the sea-doo.

We also spent some time relaxing on the shore,

feeding the ducks,

and wakeboarding.

We can't wait to go back next year!

Aunt Amy

My Aunt Amy came to visit me this weekend. Her and Uncle Mark are going to be moving to Texas next weekend, so I gave her a kiss so she would know that she was always welcome to come visit.

Popsicle Mess

A while ago, my wife set up a babysitting arrangement with her sister so that both her and her sister get approximately 1 or 2 'date nights' a month (with their respective husbands, of course). We generally take advantage of being able to go places with no child in tow, like a movie or a nicer dinner, etc.

The real fun comes on the weekends when we're babysitting though, when we get the nephews and niece.

We had the kids over quite a bit when their Mom was at girls camp. We always want to make sure the kids have a good time, so one night we gave them all popsicles to eat outside.

Doesn't that make you cringe? We took his shorts off and hosed him down before we gave him back.

At the beach

While Phil and I were away this weekend, my family took Wade to the Lake and let him play on the beach. This was his first experience with sand and the pictures were great so I thought I'd share.

anniversary

This weekend, Phil and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe we've already been married for 4 years!
We decided a while ago that instead of exchanging gifts, we would rather spend the time together on our anniversary. This year Phil took me to Las Vegas and we stayed here:

He also took me to see this:

It was phenomenal!

I love you baby and I love being married to you! Here's to many more years being married to the best man in the world!