San Diego Trip Day 1

Nat's mom and dad!

Natalie's Dad wanted to do something special for their 40th Wedding Anniversary in January. We had a great idea that they would go on a cruise out of San Diego, and when they got off the boat, all their progeny would be there to surprise Grandma. As it worked out, Grandpa would pay for and arrange hotels, several activities, and even dinners. The catch would be that Randy would have to take off 2 days of work-- a real sacrifice for him!

But he was able to get out at 2 o'clock, and Natalie had the car all packed and ready to go. We were lucky to have Natalie's sister, Brittany, with us for the ride down, because we knew 10 hours in the car was going to be a struggle. Luckily, we were able to break up the drive. We'd drive 5 hours to Las Vegas the first night, stay with Natalie's other sister, Tiffany, and then do the final 5 hours on Thursday.

The boys loved having Aunt Britt in the van with them.
Seth even wanted to hold her hand of a little while. 

This first day wasn't too eventful. There was a lot of driving, but the boys were great in the car. We planned to stop in St. George for dinner, and we made it just before sunset. This was lucky, because none of the boys have the St. George Temple in their Temple Books. (Mom and Dad do, they did a session in St. George on a trip to California before the boys were born.) So we stopped and took pictures. It was a beautiful evening, and again, we were lucky to have Brittany along to take pictures.

Here we are as a family in front of the St. George temple.

For dinner, we stopped at Roy's Pizza (formerly Fat Jack's) in St. George. This is the best pizza place in the world, or at least we think so, and the restaurant where Randy worked in Ephraim in his younger days. His friend has opened this location in St. George, so we were all excited to try it, even though it took longer than a fast food place would have taken.

There was only one more stop that night. After passing through the Virgin River Gorge, we pulled off an exit and looked at the stars. With no light pollution and a clear, moonless evening, you could see the Milky Way, and the boys loved pointing out the winter constellations.

We made it into Las Vegas just after eight, playing car tag with Bob and Stephanie over the last few miles. At Tiff's we let the cousins run wild for a little while, and then everyone collapsed into sleep. We planned to leave plenty early the next day!

Don't Label Seth

Seth refuses to be labeled. No matter what you say, he says, "No, I'm just Seth." Ask him if he's a big boy. No, just Seth. Ask him if he's happy. No, just Seth. I'm not sure why people call it terrible twos. We've loved the "twos" with all of our boys! Here's a few pics of Seth not being labeled.

Seth loves the Legos, but don't call him a builder.

Seth loves games, but don't call him a gamer.

Seth loves pretending, but don't call him a pretender.

Seth loves vacations, but don't call him a traveler.

Seth loves to be outside, but don't call him an outdoorsman.

Seth loves the snow, but don't call him a ... snowman?

Seth loves food, but don't call him a gourmand.

Seth loves blue candy, but don't call him a Smurf.

Just call him Seth.

Dax's Christmas

Dax made lots of gifts...those are the smaller ones all wrapped up.

Dax has the most thoughtful heart in our family. He always wants to write notes or make things for people. This year at Christmas time Dax started making presents for everyone. It was really cute and he made Randy and Mark little Red Sox pennants out of paper, and a paper train for Seth, and a little family for me. But once he started, he couldn't stop. Dax made so many presents. He would count them every day so that he could make sure everyone had equal amounts. Every day Dax spent some part of it making something for someone in our family for Christmas. There were days that I wanted to pull my hair out because I had to find things for his presents, but I tried to never crush his Christmas spirit. He was very creative in what he gave to everyone. I hope that Dax will always be as generous as he is at the age of 5.  

Dax made this shopping cart for me.
Seth thought it was real and tried to ride in it multiple times.

Dax made Randy a telescope.

Here's the little family Dax created for me.

I had a wooden mitt and ball, so Dax painted them for Mark.
But he had to make a bat too. That's out of paper.

This the train that Dax made for Seth.

Dax also painted these blocks for Seth from scraps of wood in our garage.
I helped a little with the letters, but he did the rest.

Bunk Beds

The boys real Christmas present this year was bunk beds! Randy and Glen (our brother-in-law) worked really hard to build this amazing bed. Glen designed the bed from a few pictures that we sent him and then he and Randy spent countless hours building, sanding, and staining the bunk bed. This bed is AWESOME! It has a dresser under the stairs so no space is wasted. There are huge drawers under the bed and it is super sturdy. And it was designed to fit in our tiny bedroom. It's perfect and the boys love it. They love to sit on the top and read. They call it "the nest!" Now all three boys sleep together in one room. Mark and Dax on the bunk bed and Seth in the toddler bed.

While we were putting the bed together, all of the boys had to sleep together in one room. We crammed two beds and a crib in Seth's room for two nights.

This is the room while we were waiting for the bunk bed to be built! 

Awesome bed huh?

Glen and Randy worked so hard on this bed!

The dresser under the stairs. It saves so much room!

The bunk bed is perfect!

The boys knew about the bed...this is them waiting for Glen to deliver it.

Randy's Birthday

Does Randy look 41?

Randy's birthday comes every year the day after Christmas! His present from me every year is that we clean up Christmas after the boys go to bed on Christmas. But I also gave him another present this year--we went out to dinner and a movie. The boys used some of their money they earned for Christmas gifts to buy their own presents for dad. It wasn't a fancy birthday at all this year, so I hope he had some kind of fun!

Dax and Mark worked hard to buy these gifts for their dad.

Seth loves to help open presents.

These boys love their dad SO much!
Happy Birthday Randy.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year! It started on Christmas Eve...dad was busy building a surprise Christmas present, so the boys and I made gingerbread houses. Each boy designed his own home and ate a TON of candy in the process. I was worried about doing this project without dad, but we did okay even tough we missed his creative mind!

We are all ready to go!

Seth's gingerbread house. He made two cars on the left, and
on the right are gummy bears that represent our family!

Mark's house!

Dax made a nativity. Those are all animals outside and in the mini tents.

We had a lot of fun!

Christmas was very nice and relaxing. The boys slept in until almost 8 am. Then we went and saw what Santa brought. Each boy had a new gift and a stocking full of candy. After we played with these toys for awhile, we headed up to eat breakfast. After breakfast we opened the rest of the gifts. This year we had the boys earn money to buy each other presents. All three of them did extra chores so that they could buy something at the dollar store for their brothers. It really made Christmas more meaningful for them. They were so excited to give their gifts to their brothers. One of the better ideas we have tried in this house.

Seth got a new train set.

They really just wanted to eat the candy!

We all received a lot of puzzles!

Santa brought big Lego sets. One with standard legos and one with the duplo legos. We spent hours on Christmas creating lots of fun things. Dad is awesome at Legos!

Seth kept pretending this face was a camera.

The boys love Legos!

They think the best part is digging through to see what Legos are in the pile.

Seth really wanted to make a castle.

 We were worried that we might have a green Christmas. It hasn't snowed much this winter, but we awoke to snow on Christmas. That made everyone's day! So we went out and did some shoveling, and of course ended up in a small snowball fight.

Dax is an excellent shoveler.

I love watching all the boys work together to shovel.

Seth is about to throw those snowballs at me!

Mark getting his dad!

Randy threw that shovel full of snow right on top of Dax.

So Dax had to retaliate.

 Grandpa Ockey came over in the afternoon and spent some time with us. Then after a restful afternoon we had a delicious Christmas dinner. No one was sick, everyone loved their gifts. It was a simple, but perfect Christmas. I couldn't have wished for a better day!

The boys with Grandpa Ockey

We are ready to eat our Christmas ham dinner!

Christmas Piano Recitals

Mark and Dax are both taking piano lessons. Unfortunately they are taking from different teachers...it's a long story. So that means two different piano recitals.

Dax had his first and he played two different Christmas songs: We Three Kings and O Come All Ye Faithful. He practiced so hard and I never had to remind him to practice once. And he played perfectly! Dax has learned so quickly in the past 3 months that he's been taking lesson. I am so proud of his determination to practice every day...and his hard work pays off.

Dax's cousin Daniel takes piano from the same teacher.
They sat by each other and I think it helped them relax.

Mark's piano recital was the following week and he also played two songs. I didn't know he was playing two songs until I showed up and read the program, but apparently he knew because he brought the correct music. I had made him practice Joy to the World tons of times, but Mark also played Riverboat Jazz that he is memorizing for a festival competition in February. He played them both well and I am proud of how proficient he is becoming at the piano.