merry christmas!

"What is the spirit we feel at Christmastime? It is His spirit—the Spirit of Christ. With the pure love of Christ, let us walk in His footsteps as we approach the season celebrating His birth. As we do so, let us remember that He still lives and continues to be the Light of the World, who promised, 'He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.'" President Thomas S. Monson

5 months

logan is 5 months (and 10 days)!

these days logan is:

• grabbing at everything! he particularly likes hair (especially when mine is curly), earrings, necklaces, and faces (and he's back to sucking on his dad's nose. although with more power this time).
• growing back hair. he may still look pretty bald in the picture, but trust me. it is coming in. he looks a little less like mr. clean these days.
• really mastering the bodily functions like a true man. some of his burps sound like a grown man's and he has been a little gassy lately (and they are potent).
• you may not be able to tell from the picture, but he seems to have lost a little of his chub. sad. he doesn't have as big of a belly and his legs are a little thinner. perhaps because his favorite new toy is the jumper (thanks pia)! it's not unusual by the time he is finished jumping to find both of his socks on the ground. it's funny because when he wants to get out he starts fussing...but keeps jumping. so he cries and jumps until we get him out.

• he rolled over for the first time on thanksgiving day (thursday, november 26th) from his back to his tummy. apparently it wasn't all it was cut out to be because he hasn't done it since.
• he is sucking on his bottom lip constantly and drooling a lot more thanks to a couple of teeth trying to make their way in.
• coughing. usually they seem pretty fake though.
• sitting up by himself with a little positioning help from mom and dad (sorry for the blurry picture. it showed his sitting the best). eventually he slumps over forward, but he can hold it for a bit)

logan loves:

• zippers - like on hoodies dave and i wear
• smiling at himself in the mirror. it is one of the first things we do after i get him out of bed.
• being sung to
• being held upside down
• giving "smooches"
• being bounced on the bed
• doing "booms" with his daddy
• having bare feet. he rubs his feet together to get his socks off.
• playing with the remote control. he is mesmerized by it!

thanksgiving in breckenridge

almost a year ago, dave's grandma planned a family reunion for over thanksgiving in breckenridge (and i figured i better blog about it before christmas!). besides the coloradoans, family came from arizona, missouri, nevada and utah. we had such a great time and i loved spending 5 whole days with dave. our week included what all good vacations should:

plenty of games

a little pool, a little fooseball, and a lot of wii
(the huge projection screen was awesome to play on)
cheyenne (the only other great-grandchild besides logan) may only be 8 years old, but she was a hardcore wii player. seriously. don't mess with her.

naps

hot tub time

crisp morning runs
as in 29 degrees.
and a huge, long hill to run up

puzzle time

just hanging out

walks

main street "downtown"

a triple date

trying on hats
dave and i introduced the others to our favorite shop. we have to visit it every time we are in breckenridge (and take lots of pictures, of course)

a snowshoeing date

ice skating
it had been a long time since any of us had been ice skating, but it came back...kinda. sterling was definitely the best.

tons of food
i am fairly certain i gained at least 5 pounds before we even had thanksgiving dinner. there was constant food and it was amazing.
and of course thanksgiving dinner itself was fantastic (eaten on black friday since john and erin arrived thanksgiving day and wanted to make the pies. trust me, it was worth the wait)

and a visit from mr. and mrs. claus

i have so much to be thankful for.

kathy's big 50

November 9th has a very special meaning. Yes it it the day the Berlin wall came down, but more importantly it is the day my mom (one of THE greatest ladies I know) was born.

Lookin' good at 50 mom!

These are some of the things we get to look forward too when we turn 50: hemroid cream, tiger balm for stiff joints, and specialized vitamins...no more flinstone chewables.

We celebrated by going out to dinner for some Mexican food (her favorite), and then went back to my parents house for cake, ice cream, and presents. Mom pretty much told everyone that she got to hold Logan all night because she was the birthday girl. We all chipped in and put together a movie for her that was all pictures of her throughout her life set to music. She absolutely loves it! Thanks Kari for organizing everything.

As you can see good looks run in the family. What a mama's boy!

Some things I love about my mom:

• always has an art project going in her home
• she is quite the Nintendo wii player as we found out during thanksgiving
• she has always loved us unconditionally no matter what choices we made in life
• everything I know about the priesthood I learned from her
• she taught me how to treat a lady
• I still love to show her my sketch books
• she will call to check up on her "boy" if it's been a while since we last talked

Happy Birthday Mom... I love you!

sytycd

"so you think you can dance" is on tonight. i can hardly wait! i love the show and get nervous each week for the results show. i am a nerd like that. it is cool that 2 of the contestants in the top 8 are a married mormon couple (married to each other, not just married :) i really want to see the tour when the top 10 come to denver (i am hoping they come to denver). hint, hint dave!!

just because

it seems like it's been a slow blogging week. is everyone still trying to recover from thanksgiving? i keep checking my google reader and there's not a lot of blogging going on. so since i had no blogs to read i decided to post a picture of logan from today. i love this chub chub!

if you need something to suck on...

and your own fingers won't do

try sucking on your toes...

or someone else's finger

back yard bang

a few weeks ago dave's work, the art institute of colorado, hosted an event sponsored by salomon snowboards called the "back yard bang rail jam." it was a snowboarding competition in downtown denver. yes, right in the city. it was awesome! they shut down 2 city blocks right next to dave's school and built scaffolding that was covered with carpeting and then snow.

they had 3 different types of rails and salomon brought in 50 of their professional athletes to compete. dave was on the planning committee and so at 11:45pm the night before the event he went downtown to help build the scaffolding. he worked all night and got home at 5:30am, took an hour nap and was back downtown by 7:30am to start the final setup and organize the students who would be helping him. it was a long night and day for dave (although he got some cool swag, like a free snowboarding jacket and skull candy headphones) and the event was a huge success. the weather was perfect and 3,000 people attended. i am so proud of him. he even got a little taste of my old life (event planning).

they also had a design contest for student and alumni to design snowboards which were then auctioned off. the money will go toward the art institute's scholarship fund.

this was such a cool event! i can't wait for next year!