Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! We hope you all are having a safe and happy day!

What a great morning! The boys were excited about their new bikes, scooters and all their other fantastic presents!


Bikes!

Here's a rather dark video of the boys finding their bikes :)





Scooters!



Hugging after exchanging the gifts they picked out for each other.



We got lots games and we've already played a couple!



Here's a closer look for all of you that also love games. The white boxes in front are full of Magic cards. We'll have lots to play with this holiday season!

Now, it's time for me to go put the ham in the oven. Merry Christmas!

Scientists in Training

Aaron had to only do a very short (20 min) experiment today, so we all went to the lab together. The boys were very excited when Aaron told them they could help. The boys put on gloves and followed their Daddy to the storage room where they retrieved some flasks full of .... I can't remember what.



They concentrated and very carefully poured a beaker full of ? (protein?) into a large test tube with other liquids (boy, can you tell I was more interested in taking pictures instead of listening to the science lecture Aaron was giving the boys?)



They did great! Not a drop was spilled and they even helped wash all the flasks and tubes when everything was done! We were all very proud and when we left, the boys high-fived each other on a job well done :D

Michael and Jessica's Wedding

Last weekend, we made a quick trip up to Oregon for Michael and Jessica's wedding. Lots of fun, stress, food and rain were had. It was a rainy, but happy day :) But it was so rainy, that all of their pictures at the temple were taken in the atrium. It was funny to watch all those people mill around and angle themselves for the group pictures.


Wedding Party


Groomsmen


Bride, Groom and Parents of both

The reception was nice, simple and pretty. The room was decorated with 12-13 Christmas trees, there was a wonderful buffet set-up, a gorgeous cake and a very happy bride and groom.


Bride and Groom

Michael and Jessica sang a lovely duet and a had a romantic first dance. All in all, a great day!

The next couple of days, we all relaxed and played.


Lots of game playing


Holly and Samuel


Little Aaron and Daniel getting to know each other

We hated to leave, but work schedules demanded we go back. We drove all the way home on Wednesday. It's a much shorter drive for us now and we were grateful to be home by dinnertime.

Gingerbread Houses

We kicked off the holiday season with gingerbread houses. This is one of the boys' favorite holiday traditions. This year, instead of one big house, we each made our own little one.



Trying to get a decent picture of them with their houses was impossible. Adam wouldn't quit talking or making goofy faces.



Samuel couldn't keep his eyes open. "The flash hurts my eyes, Mom!" Boy, does that sound familiar!

Anyway, hope you all are starting to enjoy your holiday traditions! They are some of the best parts of this time of year!

Awwww....

This is how he fell asleep last night :)



Do you see that he was reading a chemistry book? He loves anything to do with science. This little boy loves doing things like his daddy.

More Funny

Yes. I started a new diet.

My New Favorite Comic

I found a new favorite online comic. It's part of Shoeboxblog.com. They have several comics, commentary and other fun stuff.

This comic is called "Chuck and Beans".

October

What a busy month! It started out with the open house at the Lawrence Berkeley lab (see previous post) and the following weekend was our Ward Campout. The only picture I got of it was this goofy one of Adam that Samuel took on our way up to the campsite. They also took a looonngg video clip that used up the rest of the battery. Oh, well.



We didn't stay overnight, but just went up for the festivities the night before. This was a good thing since the campsite was actually a half mile away from the parking lot. We would have had to hike in all our stuff. No, thank you! Instead, we enjoyed the S'mores and company for awhile and then went home.

The following weekend, Samuel had a belated birthday party with some friends. The even-numbered birthdays are the ones where they get to invite friends for a party. Since we had just moved on his actual birthday, we let a little time go by (so he'd have a chance to make some local friends) before we did a friend party.



We took the boys bowling and then went next door for pizza and cake. Samuel and the other boys had a blast and were completely hopped up on sugar when it was time to go home. So, it was a success!

The next week was my birthday. We went out to dinner and that weekend, I went and got my hair done (3 hours in a salon without kids = heaven) and got new shoes.

The next week was Halloween. The Saturday before was our Ward Halloween Party and we loved it! The boys got tons of candy and they decided to reuse last year's costumes (wahoo!)


Cowboy Woody and "Super-secret Ninja"

We got all the way to the party before I realized that I had forgotten the camera. So all the pictures we have were taken with Aaron's iPhone.



This is the least blurry picture of us all. Aaron's in his Jedi costume, I'm wearing my medieval dress (and that's my new haircut) and the boys are in a sugar daze.

Those are the most interesting bits of October. There's lots of just plain life stuff, that made up for a busy time.

Car Conversation

A week ago, we were driving around and the topic of Samuel's baptism came up. We reminisced about how nice the day had been and then Aaron asked, "Samuel, how did you feel after getting baptized?"

There was a pause, and then before Samuel could say anything, Adam thoughtfully replied, "I think probably wet."

Synchrotron and Conference

Saturday morning, we went to the Lawrence Berkeley Synchrotron Open House. We finally got to see the machine Aaron got to use to get the data he needed for his grad work! It's located at the top of Berkeley hill at the Lawrence Berkeley Labs. The synchrotron there is called "The Advanced Light Source" and more info about synchrotrons can be found here.



There are all sorts of computers, pipes and all things scientific at this place. But what amused me the most, was all the tin-foil covering bits of equipment. Intellectually, I know that this is expensive and extremely technical equipment, but the foil just makes it all seem like something in some nerd's garage :D Aaron assures me that it's used for temperature insulation or protection against light exposure. Sure, honey ;)



The top of the hill has this fantastic view. That's the clock tower at UC Berkeley in the foreground and San Francisco Bay in the background.

There was also a "Family Fun Zone" where they had a bunch of hands on science experiments for kids to do.



Adam headed for the bubble experiment area first. Here he is blowing gigantic bubbles against some plastic on the table. The guy running the booth said that Adam had definitely gotten the biggest bubbles of the day! I didn't get a good pic of them, but they were huge!



Then he moved on to blow bubbles into a tank of dry ice to try to freeze them. We got it to work a couple of times, but it was difficult and he found the next booth much more fun.



He thought it was very cool to stand in the middle of a large bubble!



Samuel thought so too! He and Aaron caught up to us at the end of the trip.



Samuel had been busy making an airplane and racing it against some other kids. He came in second and was pretty happy about that.

We had a great time and it was fun to see where Aaron did such an important part of his work.

Samuel's 8th Birthday and Baptism

Samuel was such an excited boy all day! He had a great day at school and we took rainbow sherbet cups instead of cupcakes for his class birthday celebration. His school has a pretty strict policy on sugary sweets at school (even for holidays, birthdays, etc), so I thought this was a pretty good compromise. Samuel wanted me to bring in the big cupcakes with two inches of frosting on top :)


Samuel picked out an Oreo ice cream cake. Yum!

Aaron's parents were able to come down for his birthday and baptism. On Thursday, Samuel's actual birthday, we all went out to dinner. The food was delicious, but service was very slow due to there being another large group in the restaurant. It was getting late by the time we got home, so I made the boys get on their pajamas before doing cake and presents.


Lovin' the money!


Little remote controlled car from Grandma and Grandpa Brewster. Loves it!

He was very excited about all his awesome presents and he could hardly wait until today to use this birthday money to go buy more Legos! This boy looovveessss Legos!

Saturday was his baptism day. It was at the Stake Center next to the Oakland Temple. What an amazing building! It has two chapels, one of which is more of an auditorium with individual padded stadium seats and balcony.



Samuel's baptism was in the North Chapel which also housed the baptismal font. It is much smaller, but still a pretty good sized room. Samuel was so excited, he couldn't keep himself still enough to be very reverent, until the meeting started. Even then, it was difficult for him.

Aaron's parents gave beautiful talks: Susan spoke on Baptism, and Jon spoke on the Holy Ghost. It was wonderful and Samuel loved it, and we did too! We had an OK turnout considering we've only been in the ward for a few weeks, it was Saturday (and not Sunday), and it was after Stake Conference (so announcements about it hadn't been heard for two weeks). We had about 10 families come and so that helped to make it special.



After the baptismal service, we walked across the parking lot to the Oakland Visitors Center. They have a beautiful photography/art exhibit going on featuring the life of Christ. It was a nice way to keep the spirit of the day and still do something fun.



It was a beautiful day, both spiritually and physically. It was warm and sunny and made the temple grounds look even more beautiful! We are so grateful for our little boy and love him so much! We are proud he took this important step and he is very happy about it too.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend started out rough for us. The Wednesday before, all three of my guys came down with food poisoning. Ugh! I was very glad I had picked something else for dinner. Samuel and Adam got over it quickly, but Aaron had it the worst. He was even worried he wouldn't make it to PAX.

PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) is a big convention for gamers. Video games, board games, etc., if it's a game, it's there! This expo is a 3-day thing and he and 8 other friends were meeting up on Thursday in Oregon to travel to Seattle for it. The boys were fine and Aaron was feeling better, but not well enough to drive all that way by himself. So, we all headed out early Thursday morning (instead of Wednesday night) to meet up with his group in Salem, and made it close to being on time!

The kids and I then headed over to the Brewster Estate and had a great time hanging out with whoever was available :)






We picked blackberries and went out for pizza with the other PAX widows :D



We went to the Children's Museum with Amanda and her kids and had a fantastic time!



The next night we had an impromptu picnic at a park with all the family that was around.



We got to meet Michael's new girlfriend Jessica. Aren't they cute!?



Watched Heath climb up on the rafters of the table cover.



And watched the kids climb everything!



On Sunday, I finally got a picture of pretty Jenny :)



Sunday night, the guys (Ben and Aaron) got home and showed off their loot and told all about their adventures. Aaron's game bookcase was pretty full before we left, but now it's packed! He got 3 new games for really good prices and he's been saving up for this trip for awhile.

Monday, around noon, we started for home and pulled in to our place just after 10pm! It's so nice to have the trip cut in half! I was sorry to not see some of our friends, but the boys still had tender tummies and were seriously whiny. Hopefully, our next trip will be longer and won't be so impromptu.

The Jack O' Lantern Smile Begins

Adam lost his first tooth! He's only 5! Apparently we lose teeth on the early side in our family. Adam is so proud. He had complained for part of the day that it was hard to chew and it hurt when he tried to eat. Tonight, after dinner, he was sitting and wiggling his tooth and it suddenly popped out!



He's declared today as his "special day" and decided he got to choose which game to play with Daddy tonight. We didn't argue :)

Funny Commercial

Check out this funny commercial! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwcYbo7pjto

Aaron's brother Ben and his family came for a visit earlier this week. They stayed for a couple of days and we did a trip into San Francisco. It was cold, overcast and windy in the morning and cleared up nicely for the afternoon.



We first stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge (on the nice side this time) and walked part of the way down it. We stopped at the first main cable section.



I stood at the bottom and took a picture of the pillar straight up.



After the bridge, we headed to Golden Gate Park to have a picnic and let the kids run some of their energy out.



Adam found a great spot to take a rest. Then we wandered down to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf.



We saw (and smelled) some sea lions and walked along the shops there. This is an awesome (tourist trap) and fun place! There were some street performers, lots of product demos and we bought an enormous bag of taffy.



We also got a great view of Alcatraz. Well, as good as you can get without actually paying the $50 per person to go out to the island.



We left soon after this picture and stopped for dinner on the way home. We had a great time and loved having them come and visit!