Salt Lake Lights

On Friday night we made our annual trip to Temple Square to see the lights. We really chose the wrong day to go though because it was the MoTab and David Archuletta concert and the place was a zoo! It was hard to find parking and there were thousands and thousands of people there.

We always eat at the Lion House so we carried on that tradition even though the wait was an hour long. The food was super yummy though so it was worth it. The kids helped pass the time by playing Simon Says with Uncle Johnny.

We were happy to have Tanner and Mary, his friend from Romania, join us for the trip. Hopefully she wasn't too overwhelmed with our crazy family and with all the chaos at Temple Square.

Before we left, we went to visit the Christus statue. I was lucky to be able to get this picture of Wendi and Kate as the room was extremely crowded.

And there's Eli. Such a good boy the entire time.

Merry Christmas!

I won't be able to mail Christmas cards to everyone this year so I am posting a "card" instead. Chad took these picture in our kitchen with our little point-and-shoot camera. Not too bad, eh?

We wish you the very merriest Christmas of all and hope this finds you all happy and healthy. We love all of you dear friends and family! Love, hugs, and kisses from the Bohn Family

Birthday and Annual Tree Getting

We have had an eventful couple of days. First it was Eli's first birthday. He still is leaning to swallow his spit, so please disregard the thread of shimmering slobber extending from his lower lip to the neck of his shirt.

You can plainly see Wendi's handi-work of the bear cake. It has become tradition for Wendi to slave away for an hour or two decorating the bear. We consider it a success if the child dives into it, decimating the cake and dying their skin the color of the frosting. However, this go-around, Eli was not impressed. He just stared at it at first, then I unintentionally scared him by moving it closer. This put him on edge and he just cried until it was taken away. So much for his first tastes of all-he-could-eat chocolate cake.

The next day was our annual tree getting. We travel into Idaho (with permits) to get our sad little Christmas tree. Yes, the trees are sad. Never as full as the ones you can get from a tree lot, but we enjoy the traditional search for the tree for traditions sake. So here am I, "swords" in hand (as I mistakenly called them by slip of the tongue) with little Kate.

As soon as Carter got out of the car he was sledding down an embankment the snowplow had made off the side of the road. We hiked half way up a small hill where we found our Christmas tree. While I sawed, Carter decided to roll some snowballs which ended up as big as he is. He only stopped because he couldn't move them anymore.

For some odd reason, and I think it was deliberately planned, we didn't get any pictures of Wendi on this trip. The trip in which she looks better than ever and she is camera shy. We may have to make the trip again, make her stand in the snow and take a picture for picture-taking sake. Wendi's brother Tanner accompanied us on the trip. He was invaluable in helping to get the trees and take care of the kids.

We had an enjoyable time picking out our trees and enjoyed a chicken nugget lunch and pizza dinner afterward. Next year we will try to bring Eli. He was getting over a cold and stayed home with grandma.

ADDENDUM:

Well look at this little gem that was just sent to me from Tanner. There were some others but I am sure Wendi would not appreciate the photos of her when she fell down and was struggling to get up because the snow was so deep.

Birthday, Party, and... Other Stuff

Carter turned six years old this month! We just love this boy so much. He is smarter than smart and is such a good helper. This year Carter has learned to snap his fingers, whistle, ride a bike, and to read and write. That's a lot of milestones I think!

We had a Harry Potter birthday party for Carter this year. Luckily it was still fairly warm so we kept everyone outside. Next time we are not inviting 16 kids! We had fun making wands, playing "seek" the snitch, and pin the wand on Harry. In the picture below the kids are holding their golden snitches which are spray painted ping pong balls with feathers glued on.

Sadly, this was a true statement. Carter got a journal from Primary for his birthday and this was one of his first entries. He wrote it by himself and when I found it laying on the kitchen table, I had to laugh. Poor Kate did have diarrhea for a few days and would hardly eat a thing. Luckily, no one else got it.

Halloween

A cute little turtle.

A Stinkerbell... I mean Tinkerbell

And Harry Potter.

Blogs, Shopping Lists, and Leaves

For my birthday, Chad published our blog starting clear back in 2007. It was such a great gift and as I looked back, I realized I have totally become a boring blogger. Sorry. Life is busy but I still need to be better at recording what we're up to. So I'm going to try and do better.

The other day, I had such a random shopping list and I thought, "I should post that on the blog because it's so weird." So I think I will and here it is:

ping pong balls

gold spray paint

feathers

onions

green peppers

lime juice

cilantro

garlic

candy

glow sticks

So obvious what I was doing right? Making "snitches" for Carter's birthday party (ping pong balls, paint, feathers), making salsa, and getting ready for Halloween. Random, I know.

Now here are some pictures of the kids playing in the leaves. Posts about Halloween and Carter's birthday are coming soon....

Farm Day

We have been having fun enjoying this beautiful summer/fall weather. We have been trying hard to enjoy family time on Saturdays while no one is at school or work. Today we went to "Farmtastic Fall" at the American West Heritage Center. It was hot but the kids had fun jumping in the hay and running around. It was very reminiscent of last year but with one important difference. I was pregnant last year and hurting quite a lot so I had a TON more fun this year.

Carter going down the slid and Kate "captured" on the pirate ship.

Sweet Eli was such a trooper even though it was hot and he was tired. Do you like how we tie a burp cloth around his neck. That is just his trademark because he is such a DROOLER!!! Isn't he cute though? Last week at his 9 month visit he weighed 19 lbs 13 oz and was 30 in long. He also had a significant ear infection which was a big surprise to me because he hasn't really been acting sick. Poor little guy.

Booty Shakin' and Kindergarten

No, the two subjects are not related except that they both exist in my life.

First, let's talk about Kindergarten. Carter started Kindergarten yesterday. I went with him on his first day and neither one of us cried. I had always imagined that my firstborn would cling to me and I would tearfully peel him off and leave him with his annoyed teacher. In reality I only got a little choked up when I was helping him write his name and I looked at his little hand gripping the pencil and saw the sweet, concentrated look on his face. My kids' hands always get to me. I don't know why. But their little hands always get me choked up - chubby baby hands, messy toddler hands, little hands holding my hands... So sweet.

Anyway, he didn't act nervous at all and seemed ready and excited to start this part of his life. He's such a little smarty, I know he is going to do well.

Now on to the booty part. I only wish but am maybe really thankful that there are no pictures for this part.

Today, I got out of my comfort zone and went to a HipHop Kickboxing class. Now,the whole time I was there I was remembering Karen trying to teach me how to "kick it" and "get down" in our apartment years ago. And then I remembered how I never really got it and was unable to be that comfortable with my feminine self and we only tried that once. If you really want to know the truth, Chad can shimmy better than I can. Now you know the truth even if you didn't want to. And I'm not lying, it's true. And he really has no boobs - not even moobs (man boobs). So anyway, this morning at 5:30 am I found myself listening to an instructor say, "I know your butt is jiggling. It's supposed to jiggle with this move!" Well, listen instructor, first of all it's not just my butt jiggling but pretty much every part of my postpartum self and second of all, I guess I didn't get the memo about the dress code. Let's just say there was bling, chains, and cleavage - lots of cleavage going on up in the front of the room. And then I thought about Karen again. Let's just leave it at that.

Now, I do have to say that I had a blast, got a good workout and the instructor was very encouraging and very nice and I will be there again next Friday bright and early.

I guess I better go buy some chains.

New Back Yard

We moved...again. One block over. It was really fun. I love moving. Yes, I am being sarcastic. So now, we have another fun back yard. This one does not have a pond or a zipline but it has...

a ravine for Carter to explore and get really dirty in... (Never mind that last fall there was a mountain lion hanging out there. I'm trying not to be too paranoid.)

and a swing set... (We bought the baby swing for Eli. And yes, it is pink. They only had pink ones. He's really confident in his masculine self ok?)

and lots of shady trees to keep us cool.

Spontaneity

Tonight we were done with dinner early and I thought, "It's hot and what are we going to do to kill the time before bed?" So, I said, "Hey everyone get long pant and shoes on. We're going for an adventure!" And I grabbed the hotdog sticks, stuff for s'mores, the bug spray, and we piled into the van. Aren't we so lucky that just minutes from our house is this kind of beauty?

We hiked around, looked at the beautiful "tinkerbell flowers" as Kate called them and enjoyed
being out of the house on a lovely summer evening.

Kate and Carter of course had fun throwing things in the water. I had fun making sure they didn't fall into the water.

And this little guy. I cannot tell you how in love with him I am. I simply adore him and cannot stop kissing his chubby cheeks. This week he started given kisses back too. They are very slobbery. Today he went from laying down to sitting by himself and moved on from saying "dada" to saying, "baba." He is literally changing every day and is too, too, too cute for words.

Happy Fourth of July

We went to Idaho Falls for the big Whittier bash this weekend! We started off the festivities with the parade and we froze! It was only about 50 degrees and the wind was blowing. Of course, I had not packed warm clothes but luckily I have cousins with kids the same size as Carter and Kate so we begged some jackets off them. I swear the parade gets more and more lame every year but the kids still had fun getting lots of candy and being with family.

Here is Carter and Kate snuggled down to watch all the rednecks drive by.

Mommy and Eli trying to stay warm.

It did eventually warm up enough to take off our jackets. Here we are at Grandma Whittier's for the big pre-fireworks barbeque. We had so much fun and the fireworks did not disappoint. We didn't get the kids to bed until after midnight but Eli was a champ and slept awesome in spite of being moved three times after he went to bed in the pack-n-play at 8. Every year I wonder why we do this to ourselves and every year we do it again because I think it is a great tradition...in spite of the tiredness.

Eli is close to crawling and is just as cute as ever!

Busy, Busy, Busy

We have had a very busy week! Last weekend we celebrated Memorial Day more appropriately than we ever have before. My brother, David, came home from serving as a Marine in Afghanistan. We are so grateful to have him home safely. Especially since two Marines in his company were killed by IEDs. Dave said there were a lot of mornings where he woke and up and thought, "I wonder if I'll get blown up today?" Well, we're really glad he didn't and really, really glad he's home now. His wife was followed by Channel 5 News, so you can see details and more pictures (Carter was in some of them) if you're interested at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=10971432.

Here we are with Dave, Angie, and Noah.

On our way home, we decided to stop at Temple Square and let the kids see the Christus. It was a quick trip and a long day, but we had fun exploring the visitors center and eating lunch at the Lion House!

Then, today we were able to go to Ogden for the baptism of my sister-in-law, Debbye. Here she is with the missionaries, my brother, John, and their kids, Braydon, Mallory and baby Allison. John also blessed Mallory and Allison. We had a nice lunch afterwards and spent the afternoon visiting at John's house. Can I just say that I really love my family. I know they would do anything for me and I hope they know I would do the same for them.

So, we had another fun-filled and busy week. This is a picture of Kate on the way home today. I know exactly how she feels.

Thanks Mary!

Dear Mary,

Thank you so much for the cute clothes you sent the kids! I finally took some pictures of Eli in his outfits so you can see him.

All dressed up and ready for Church!

A Lot of Stuff

Did you think I dropped off the face of the earth? I did not...but here is what I did do.

1. I worked a lot of day shifts. I stopped working nights and now I work from 3am to 3pm. Maybe that's still working nights since I get up at 1:50am but whatever.

2. I snuggled my kids a lot. And also got mad at them a lot too. But I think I loved them more than I was mad at them.

3. I tried to exercise a lot but sometimes I was really tired.

4. I tried to read my scriptures a lot but Eli was crying a lot...and spitting up even more.

5. Speaking of Eli, I fed him a lot, changed his bum a lot, bounced him a lot, and washed a lot of his burp cloths.

6. I cleaned the house a lot.

7. I cooked a lot of meals.

8. I went to the grocery store a lot.

9. I prayed and cried a lot.

10. I thought a lot about all the things I wish I could do better and felt bad about the things I wasn't getting done. Like posting on my blog and showing everyone in cyberspace cute pictures of my darlings.

So, I feel like I did a whole lot of nothing but isn't strange how sometimes a whole lot of nothing adds up to a whole lot of something. I have been living life. Just like everyone else and when it's all said and done, it's the little things that count. Tonight Carter wanted to sit on my lap and rock and even though I felt rushed, we did it. And I'm glad we did because as I swung his not-so-little-anymore body up on my lap I thought about how someday soon, he will be bigger than me and he won't want to rock at bedtime anymore. I'm sure all moms feel like their children are the cutest and the smartest and the best. But I have to say, I'm pretty sure that mine actually are.

Baby Animal Days 2010

Here's our annual Baby Animal Days trip. Carter is so funny and still scared of any animal bigger or louder than a chick or a duck. He wouldn't go near this cute, little, sleeping, calf and the "baaa-ing" momma sheep and her baby about pushed him over the edge. Silly boy. Kate had no fear when it came to petting, holding, and otherwise bothering all the little animals.

Finally a picture of Carter. We found an animal that's more his style. A cute little baby duck.