Christmas at Home

We had our own Christmas with just us. That's only the second time we've ever done that. On Christmas eve, we frosted cookies for Santa and acted out the nativity. Bob and I were Mary and Joseph, Seth was baby Jesus. Rachel was the angel, Danny was a wise man and Aaron was a Shepherd.
And then the kids opened one present. They all draw names among themselves and they get to go shopping for the person with me sometime in December. They were all very thoughtful about what they got each other and those presents were some of the favorites for each of the kids.

Danny came in at 5:50 Christmas morning, but we held them off until 6:20. Bob and I had fun listening to the kid's excited whispers while they waited. We opened presents for about a half hour and then we woke up Seth so he could see his presents. The kids all got scooters and skateboards so we've been out riding those quite a bit. They got a few new Wii games and board games and other toys. The kids also got snow sleds and snow gear to start going to the snow.

Disneyland at Christmas

We had a great time at Disneyland this week. It was the first time any of us had been there to see all their Christmas decorations.

Here were our favorite things:
Bob: Space Mountain and "Riding the train because then you get to sit down for a long time"
Jean: It's a Small World with all the Christmas decorations and the huge Christmas tree on Main Street.
Danny: Pushing down on the dynamite plunger and making it explode with smoke
Rachel: Using her money she'd saved up to buy a stuffed unicorn at one of the gift shops.
Aaron: Buzz Lightyear. That was the only ride we went on twice because he loved it so much.
Seth: The Buzz Lightyear ride too. Really he was amazed by all the rides, but he was mesmerized with Buzz Lightyear.

Magic Secrets Unveiled

You might have heard that Vegas has some pretty exciting and entertaining magic shows. We happen to have our own and it's put on by our kids. Free of charge.

Untitled from jean45 on Vimeo.

Any Aaron Can Tango

This was a special Thanksgiving performance put on by Aaron's Preschool class a couple of weeks ago. Note how quickly he transitions into a serious dancer as soon as the music is queued.

Aaron Does the Tango from jean45 on Vimeo.

iPhones & Carrots

Jean just got an iPhone today. Somehow she thought this might help her to better play with her new toy:

We unleashed the full impact of carrots on Seth yesterday. He looks very nice in orange. His blue eyes compliment and balance the orange nicely.

Here's an oldie/goodie of Aaron doing the same kind of 'treatment'. Does wonders for the skin.

Straight-A Students

Time to toot two of my horns. They're named Rachel & Danny.

Jean and I went in for their parent-teacher conferences this morning. They're both doing well - straight A's this past trimester. They're awesome students and even better kids! They make parenting look easy . . . most of the time.

They've really been enjoying this school year - art, music, PE, etc. Danny and Rachel usually finish first or second (out of 2-3 classes) in their monthly mile-long runs for PE. Danny has been running his at a 10-minute mile pace. I told him that most adults can't run that fast. Won't be long before they surpass their parents.

Triathlon #2

So, I guess I'm addicted.

I completed my second triathlon in St. George, UT last weekend. I did much better this time around; nearly an hour faster than the last one I did in mid-October. This tri (look at me talking the lingo) consisted of a 400m swim (thankfully it was indoors - it was ~40 degrees outside at start time), 10 mile bike ride and a 5-k run.

I completed the event in 1:16:05 (10:03 swim, 35:15 bike & 27:12 run) - a minute off of my goal, but still fast enough to finish in the 73rd percentile (41/153). I'm just shooting to do better each time. There are some impressive times put up by people that are older than me - gives me something to stay in shape for.

Rachel Answers a Question

Rachel's first grade teacher asked her to write about being a super hero. Here's what Rachel had to say:


"My name would be Super Heart. My power would be to turn things invisible." That's for those of you who don't speak 'Rachel'.

Updates

Seth is crawling and pulling himself up to things. He's so proud of himself. He's such a great baby. The other day he knocked over the DVD stand and had a great time.
Bob took Aaron to the Nellis Air show. Aaron has never liked loud noises, so he fell asleep during the Thunderbirds show. But he had a great time and he gave Bob a thumbs up in every picture.
The boys all went to see a BYU Men's Volleyball game at a tournament here in Las Vegas. So now our front room is home to a new sport. Aaron and Danny spend hours a day with a beach ball practicing their volleyball skills.

Rachel often makes comments about boys and wonders who she will marry. (Already?!?) The other day a boy in her class gave her a gift and she said he was looking at her all day. She was pretty flattered and said to me, "I think he has a curse on me".

The kids all love to ride bikes. We go out just about every day. Here's the biggest kid having a great time:

Halloween

The kids had a great time trick-or-treating this year. They came home with buckets full of candy. (Aaron got happier after we put the camera away.)

Interviews

Here's a snapshot of our family right now. We all answered the same questions.

Rachel
Favorite Color: Pink
Favorite food: shrimp
Favorite activity: swimming
Favorite possession: Easy Bake
Favorite subject in school: art
Friends: Jaclyn, Savannah, Kami
What she wants to be when grows up: horse rider
If she had a million dollars:
She would buy a humongous freezer and make lots of huge ice. Then if she had any money left she would buy a horse.

Aaron
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite food: pizza
Favorite activity: playing with legos
Favorite possession: cars race track
Favorite subject in school: cutting (he's really good)
Friends: Collin, Nathan, Cannon
What he wants to be when grows up: zoo keeper
If he had a million dollars:
He would buy a cool monster truck. It would be giant super duper sized. Bigger than our house.

Danny
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite food: pizza and Norwegian pancakes
Favorite activity: riding bikes
Favorite possession: bike
Favorite subject in school: recess
Friends: CJ, Isaac, Kyson, Ethan, Russell
What he wants to be when grows up: football player
If he had a million dollars:
He'd buy a giant life-sized robot

Seth
Favorite Color: Blue (this was determined by putting many colored balls in front of him and he chose blue)
Favorite food: cheerios
Favorite activity: crawling
Favorite toy: paper (also could be considered favorite food)
Friends: Danny, Rachel, Aaron

Bob
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite food: pizza
Favorite activity: traveling
Favorite possession: collection of maps
If he had a million dollars:
He would buy a Cougar-blue truck to drive to his lifetime season tickets to BYU basketball and football games. He'd also have unlimited churros and sprites at those games.

Jean
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite food: pizza
Favorite activity: going to the gym, playing with fam
Favorite possession: Super-sized washer and dryer, cordless vacuum
If she had a million dollars:
She would buy a machine that would clean the house and pick up all kid/toy clutter automatically.

The Many Faces of Rachel

You gotta love this little girl.

I've been collecting photos over the last little bit (when I've remembered) to document Rachel and the food she eats. I don't necessarily take these photos while she's eating, rather, I take them after the fact. It's not difficult to deduct what she's been eating - all you have to do is take a look at her mug and you've got a good idea. You guys are novices, but I'm betting that most of you can tell whether Rachel last ate a dessert or main course just by looking at these photos (you may need to click on a photo to get a better idea of what's stuck to her face; the smaller thumbnails don't do justice):

Bob's First Triathlon

I completed my first triathlon last weekend (October 17, 2009). I competed alongside two of my brothers-in-law, Casey and Dustin, and about another 1500 people. The race consisted of a .75 KM swim followed by a 20 KM bike ride and finishing with a 5 KM run. I am happy to report that I survived the swim, rose to the challenge of a ride that started at 1200' and finished at 2520' (most of that climb coming the last 4 miles) and somehow managed the 3 miles at the end.

Here's an image of the elevation profile for the bike ride:







A link to my event photos

Casey's photos

Dustin's photos

Click here for the race results

My times: 2:14:30 (swim 24:16, transition 1: 4:01, bike: 1:11:53, transition 2: 2:19, run: 32:03)
Casey's: 2:13:20 (swim 18:52, transition 1: 4:10, bike: 1:15:29, transition 2: 1:22, run: 33:28)
Dustin's: 2:58:40 (swim 23:54, transition 1: 4:48, bike: 2:01:08*, transition 2: 1:12, run: 27:40)

* Dustin had some technical difficulties with his bike, hence the lengthy bike time.

Aaron is 4

Aaron is 4 today. He had a party over the weekend with his Grandma and Grandpa and Uncles and Aunts, who were all in town to celebrate with us. He had a Monster Truck cake and a football pinata. And at night we went to a UNLV football game.

Aaron is our bundle of energy. I'm always getting comments from neighbors and friends about how they are impressed with how fast Aaron can run. He's turning into quite the athlete with Danny's tutoring. Aaron is a wonderful big brother; he loves to play with Seth and give him hugs and kisses. He's very focused when he recognizes something he wants. He started preschool this year and he loves it. His teacher says he is always very excited to learn and participate in whatever they are doing. We love you Aaron!

Visalia and the Zoo

Last weekend we went to Visalia. Grandma Monte and Grandaddy Gene were visiting my mom since the Seattle Temple was closed. So, we decided to join them. It was a great weekend, other than the sickness we brought with us. Rachel was getting over Pneumonia, Aaron was getting over his cold, Seth was in the middle of his ear infection and I was at the beginning of Bronchitis. Sorry Mom for bringing all that to your house!

We did enjoy the great company while we were there, though. We spent most of the weekend listening to conference, but we also went to the Fresno Zoo on Friday. The kids had a great time.

BYU Football

Bob had to get his annual BYU Football fix last weekend. We went up to Utah for the game against Florida State. Bob and I went to the game with Casey and Kami. Casey won 4 tickets to the game plus VIP parking and food before the game and at half time. BYU lost big, but it was still fun.