Winter Sports

Kyson and Kodi got a snow tube for Christmas from Santa and all week I've been wanting to take the sledding. The temperatures have been in the teens for the high and it was stormy on Tuesday and Wed- nesday. Today, however, was beautiful! I ran next door and asked the neighbor girls if they wanted to go with Kyson and they jumped at the chance.

We all headed over to the school because they have some great hills and we jumped on in to the snow. Kyson seemed to really enjoy it even though ti was a challenge to get him to wear a hat and gloves at first. Once he got started, he was happy as a clam. We started on a "bunny hill" which was nice and easy, but Kyson got adventurous and wanted to go over to a black diamond area with jumps. We did a few runs on that hill, but one time it knocked the wind out of me. It was a nice little jump.

The "Bunny Hill"


The "Black Diamond"

While the sledding was fun, Kyson wanted to play on the playground and it was so slippery we couldn't even walk on it. It was funny to watch Kyson try to walk across the bridge, but I had to hold on to him the entire time to catch him when he would fall. By the end of it, we had been there for about an hour and a half, I was tired and hungry and Kyson didn't want to leave.

Fishies and What?!

As my time at home dwindles, we are trying to take advantage of it. This week we went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. I had heard it was pretty lame, but I found it quite inter- esting. The prices aren't ridiculous either. We bought memberships for Kris and I because we only need to go back once in the next year and it's paid for itself, and the kids are free.

Kyson loved looking at all the fish. He found a Nemo and was following it all over the tank. He liked the sharks, the jellyfish, and the seahorses. He was neighing at the horses - it was pretty cute. His favorite thing though was the frogs. Unfortunately, his enunciation of "frog" isn't exactly what it should be and it comes out as a very clear f-bomb. They had a big statue of a frog and he was so excited he was cussing all over the place. We got some dirty looks from parents, but come on, it's obvious he's talking about the frog.

I have to say, if you have kids, it's worth going to. And if you''re an adult, it's worth seeing at least once. It was pretty interesting. They have South American penguins coming in March and we're excited about that.

Merry Christmas

Another year passes, and another Christmas comes. I remember last year after Christmas we said, "Next year will be more fun because Kyson will really enjoy it." Well we were saying the same thing after Christmas this year. It's so much fun having a toddler for Christmas, but he doesn't understand the concept of Santa. On Christmas Even we tried to get in the Christmas mood and teach him about Santa by watching Rudolph and Santa Clause is Coming Town. He watched them each for about 10 minutes then wanted to watch Incredibles, and let me tell you, nothing says Christmas like The Incredibles.

Christmas morning Kyson came downstairs and saw a couple of things from Santa that he really liked - Goldfish and a car. Then we waited for my parents to come so they could watch him open his presents. They brought my grandpa and he held Kodi the entire morning and it was so adorable. Kyson opened his presents, but didn't really care about what was in them, just enjoyed opening them once he got the hand of it. Of course, Santa didn't bring him very interesting things, he was very practical since Kyson didn't really care - clothes, sheets, a snow shovel, etc. He did get a few toys, but I think my dad enjoyed them more than Kyson.

After we finished opening presents from Santa and Mom and Dad, we went to my sister's for breakfast and did some present exchange over there. Breakfast was fantastic, but time got away from us while we were there and we were rushed the rest of the morning to get everything done before Bailey and Kelley had to go to their Mom's and Kyson needed to get down for a nap.

After my sister's we went to my parents' house and finished presents there. There was on gift from my grammy Tinsch in New Hampshire that was a hit. It was a dog that barked Jingle Bells. After Kyson opened that gift, he didn't care about anything else. He absolutely loved it. Grammy also sent all the boys shirts. We made them all take a picture in their new shirts because they looked like Al Borlin from Tim the Tool Man.

Later that evening we went to Rusty and Amy's house and Kyson played with the kids and their toys while we visited with their parents. Overall the day was very nice. We got to see our families and enjoy the gifts. The best present of all was Kodi slept through the night that night and has every night since - Merry Christmas to me!

The next night Kris's parents came over for a welcomed visit. It was so nice to have them over. Fran was a little excited and wouldn't leave poor Errol alone though.

Kyson's presents from Santa and Mom and Dad
Kodi's presents from Santa and Mom and Dad

Franni Faye's presents from Santa and Mom and Dad

Christmas Begins with Christ

With the hubbub of the Christmas season it's so easy to forget why we celebrate it in the first place. It's not an excuse to get out of school, or to buy presents. It's a time where we remember the birth of our Lord. I hope everyone will slow down this season and take a moment to think about what Mary went through to bring a Savior to us. How grateful I am for her courage, faith, and sacrifice.

Happy Thanksgiving Part II

Because my mom had surgery the Monday before the real Thanksgiving, we post- poned our dinner until December 13th. It was kind of fun celebrating two Thanks- givings this year. I just love getting together with family. We kept it very simple, but my sister did 90% of the work, so I guess simple is a relative term here. We didn't do anything in particular, just ate, sat around, talked, and watched some football. I got some great pictures of the family though so I was excited about that.After our tasty dinner, we celebrated Kelley's 16th birthday. We were supposed to have her party on December 3rd, but she got the flu and it was canceled. It was a real red-neck birthday. She got car parts for her presents and she loved them. Most 16 year olds want a car, Kelley was fine with just the parts.
The entire day was a success and it was nice to spend time with everyone - I just love the holidays!

Let's Go See the Lights!

Every year we try to go see the lights with Kris's parents and every year sickness prevents it from happening. Last year it was our nephews, and the year before that it was Carol and Errol. This year we had one night open this entire month that we could go so we called up Carol and Errol and asked if they wanted to go. They said, yes."

The evening started out pretty well. However, we went to load the car when we realized we would be short one seat in the Yukon, so I volunteered to sit in the back with the stroller and the coats. If only I'd known what would be ahead. Our adventures started at Carl's Jr. where Kyson played in the play land and we laughed at him. It was nice to help him get some wiggles out.

I insisted on going up to temple square. I wanted some pictures and that was what Carol seemed to want to see with us. Boy, I made a big mistake. There was con- struction on I-15 and they closed the carpool lane and the fast lane, which had traffic backed up to 21st south. We were planning to exit at 4th south in the carpool lane so we had to cross all the way across the freeway to exit at 6th south. That was not an easy task. Downtown, I suggested that Kris go down West Temple so we could go around the temple grounds to find a place to park. Mistake #2 - West Temple was backed up for 6 blocks because they also had construction and made 3 lanes go to one. We sat there for a very long time.

Carol and I tried to make the best of it by taking pictures of lights as we drove by them, or taking pictures of us in the car. At one point Carol pointed out some lit up deer in front of a hotel. Kyson liked them, but Kris's comment was, "Great, I could see those at my neighbors house." We couldn't help but laugh at the clever comment. After sitting in the car for literally an hour and half, by the time we made it up to the temple grounds, we decided it wasn't worth it to try and find a parking spot - we left without even getting out of the car. I found out later that night, I chose one of the owrst nights to go downtown. There was a Jazz game (14,000 people), a concert at Abravanel Hall (2800 people), and a performance filling the conference center (21,000), plus the poor schmucks who went downtown just for the lights - add 6 to that tally.

After getting out of traffic we decided to go see a couple of "sights" that my mom told us about. First we went to Christmas Street. It was okay. I had never been (at least I don't think so) and some of the houses were pretty cool, like the one who had done "Utes." But my favorite was a house in Murray. Once again, we sat in the car for about a half hour to drive 200 yards. There is a house in a circle that has its lights synchronized with a radio station. Unfortunately, people literally park there so people can't see the lights. Once we made it back to the house literally it was like a drive in theater with people parked in the circle to watch the house.

Even though we spent 3 hours in the car and basically saw a couple of houses, it was an adventure that I'll remember for years to come.

Grandparents Time is Priceless

The last couple of days we've had the privilege of seeing our grandparents. Kris's grandma came up from Vernal for one night only and we jumped at the chance to see her. We are what some might consider party crashers, inviting ourselves over to Carol's and forcing Grandma to split her attention. I was so grateful to have the opportunity to get a 4 generation picture considering it's not very often we can get all four generations together. Getting three together isn't a problem, It's getting the fourth in the same place and time that is difficult. Life is precious and you never know when the next oppor- tunity will be when we can get us all together.

It was also great for Grandma to meet little Kodi for the first time and to see her grandson, Kyson, that she hasn't seen since last summer. Carol and Errol were able to see their grand- children too. They haven't been feeling well lately and Kris and I have been so busy lately that they haven't seen their little grandkids but twice in the past couple of months. I know all of us enjoyed our time together.

After visiting with Grandma Zufelt, we were able to visit with my Grandpa Gunn. I haven't seen him since Kodi's blessing and because there were so many people, it was nearly impossible to give him undivided attention. It was so nice to visit with him and give him his Christmas present a little early. I think he really enjoyed the visit. While sometimes it's hard to visit with grandparents, it is worth the time to do it. I'm giving this advice to myself as well as readers, because I'm guilty of letting life get me too busy to enjoy the people around me as often as I should.

What a Happy Baby!

Kodi is now two months old and the doctor said that we might start seeing more smiles and interaction with her. Well, she has been happy since we brought her home from the hospital, but in the past couple of weeks she just lights up with you talk to her and interact with her. It's so cute to see her smile. Today she was blowing bubbles so she looked like she was foaming at the mouth. I asked her if she had rabies and she grinned from ear to ear.

Happy Birthday Colin

Sunday was Colin's birthday party and I think he liked it. He just turned two on December 3rd and it was fun to get the kids together to watch them play. Well, I watched the other kids play, Kyson was anti-social until everyone left. He played with plastic refrigerator food by himself while the other kids were playing. Once everyone left, a different Kyson came out though. Colin got a riding toy for his birthday and Kyson seemed to really enjoy pushing Colin around. He's not a very good driver though.

Kids and Dogs - What a Great Match

Franni Faye has been in our family now for a year and half. We bought her when she was 8 weeks old, the weekend of the 24th of July last year. It was a spontaneous purchase, but she has enriched our lives very much. Kyson and Fran are best friends. They play all day long and even though Kyson can dish out the abuse, so can Franni. They both can dish it out and take it. I do wish they were gentler with one another though.

Since bringing Kodi home, Fran has been by her side a lot. Often we have to sop her from licking Kodi's head (which I hate), but it's Franni's way of showing affection. I think it's great to raise children with an animal. I was raised with pets and I don't think that I would have turned out the same if it weren't for the many pets who passed in and out of my life. I'm excited that Franni Faye will most likely be with us until Kyson and Kodi are teenagers - because, I think they like her.