Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas! We sure had fun watching Marcus and Holden open up all their goodies. Marcus especially loves his tricycle and "Cars" cars.
Photo 1 - Baby's first Christmas.
Photo 2 - Marcus opening one of many gifts while Holden learns from the master...
Photo 3 - Shawn and his basket of goodies.
Photo 4 - Kjell displaying his new slippers, Olivia her socks, and Holden his teddy bear.
Photo 5 - We've been trying to teach Marcus to pedal for months to no avail, but this tricylce did the trick. He jumped on it this morning and started to pedal around. THanks Uncle Tom!

Kitchen

A couple of months ago my friend Barb and I came across a picture of a kitchen on the Internet that really inspired us.

Turns out we weren't the only ones. Today I found a couple of websites that call it "the most requested kitchen among kitchen rehabbers".

Our kitchen is not quite as refined, but will someday soon have cream cabinets, dark floors and countertops and maybe even a subway tile backsplash....

FYI, the kitchen is from the movie set "Something's Got to Give." Never seen it.

Final stretch...

It's going to be a cold week here in Utah, not the best weather for stucco-ing, but certainly a perfect time for insulation and sheetrocking (all scheduled over the next few days). Richard is our contractor and he's holding Holden in the photo next to Shannon the master carpenter. It's been a great experience working with them.
I've made frequent trips to Lowe's lately where Marcus begs to "sit on potty" when we pass the toilet displays. He also asks to go potty at home quite often at which time he sits on the toilet for about 10 seconds, wipes himself (actually throws a piece of toilet paper into the bowl without actually touching himself), and flushes. Then he wants candy for going potty. Is it just me, or is he forgetting an essential part of this process?

Christmas Parties

All photos this week were taken by my good friend Pam. Her mom Juanita is in a couple of photos and is Marcus and Holden's "pretend Grandma". Juanita is now in Minnesota until Christmas and the boys sure miss her. Pam accompanied me to Marcus' preschool's Christmas program on Wednesday while Kjell took the scouts to the pool for their swimming lesson. At the party Marcus sang songs (actually he's not much of a singer...yet), sat with Santa and did other crafts.

On Friday we went to Kjell's partner's cabin about an hour south of Provo. It was a staff party for Summit, the company Kjell and Spencer own/run. We ate, played games, pulled Marcus on the sled, went 4-wheeling (Marcus' favorite), and hot tubbing. Next week is the company party for Summit.

Holden is quite the reacher and grabber. He particularly likes to shake his rattle.

Decemburrrr

Since this photo of our house was taken about a week ago, windows and doors have been installed and the roof is near completion. It's starting to feel like a home as the renovations continue. Our projected move-in date is January 15th if not sooner.
Saturday brought our first snow storm, much to the delight of Marcus. He played outside for hours, whereas last year he only lasted about 5 minutes. It was perfect snowman making weather, as can be seen in the photos. Let's be honest, Kjell was working on his giant snowman for quite a while after Marcus was inside with his hot chocolate:)
Shawn, Shea (Shawn's date), Mike & Melissa Smith (Kjell's childhood friend and his wife), and I attended the Christmas Devotional at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City this evening. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang beautifully and it was especially touching to sing 'Silent Night' with them for the closing hymn. The talks were inspiring as well. Since the Conference Center holds 21,000 people we sent Kjell running to get the car after the program was over. Shawn, Shea and I leisurely walked among the crowds but when we got to the car Kjell was nowhere in sight. After 30 minutes of wandering around the massive parking gargage, a chagrined Kjell found us waiting for him. He's a good sport about the teasing he's been getting.

Holden loves to sit up and shake things in his hands. I've got a few cold weather outfits that I love to bundle him up in. It's very special to have a baby in your home, especially around the holidays.
Friday night Kjell had a sleep-over with the scouts and I had my first girls' night in many months (years?). We ate dinner in SLC and went to our favorite thrift store - Deseret Industries. Kat and Merrily have been my D.I. buddies for many years now. Of course we all found lots of treasures and enjoyed ourselves greatly.