January 2013

January was busy but unexciting. We finished Winter Break and started back into our normal routine. Grant started his second session of hockey. Cole started a basketball class at the Aquaplex. Tyler just keeps on being his adorable and entertaining self, trying to keep up with his brothers. This month was indescribably cold with snow, ice and unusable driveways (because it's too hard to shovel snow by hand). We had a fun long weekend visit from Papa and Janet. Unfortunately, it was the one weekend that hockey was cancelled due to a tournament and freezing cold, making outdoor adventures undesirable. Also, that weekend the boys had two birthday parties.

(Colar at Pee Wee Basketball)

(Cole in Boots)

(Brothers snuggled up reading a book, oh wait, playing the PSP)

(Tyler trying out the headlamp he received from Papa for Christmas)

(Tyler as Spiderman)

(Tyler with his bag of chips - he demanded it at the store and wouldn't give it up until it was empty)

(Tyler Yoda Mellen getting cleaned up for church)

(Tyler the Hulk)

(Captain Tyler, with Janet in the background)

If you can't tell, Tyler's new hobby is to dress up like his brothers. 

November 2012

We always arrive at Cole's school before the doors open so the boys get some playground time. They both love it. I am told by Cole's teacher that one of his favorite toys is this pirate ship. Tyler loves to play and climb in it and everything else on the playground.

On November 8, 2012, Cole had his Fall program at school. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. The class sang several songs and then showed us their artwork. When it was done we had refreshments. Cole was so proud of himself. Unlike a lot of the kids, when it was his turn to sing he sang out loud and strong. He wasn't shy at all. I was so proud of him. I love how uninhibited he is about performing.

Cole's program:

 http://youtu.be/3tSKQPCFXcg

 http://youtu.be/iRslVHoK0sM

 http://youtu.be/G33ao_cQAu4

http://youtu.be/haBrfsBWmXw

 http://youtu.be/a8EPxT8F5kU

 http://youtu.be/jN8-Ejlumas

 http://youtu.be/_6ElQOroZ9I

 http://youtu.be/e2ptdv4cO1c

On November 12, 2012, we headed to Phoenix for a day at the zoo and Cabela's. We spent a couple of hours at the zoo, making sure to see all of the big animals. We also ran into our friends, the Solorzanos, from Prescott. Chad wanted to explore Cabela's to check out their guns and gun accessories.The boys love the shooting gallery at Cabela's. Tyler found a little car just his size.

On November 20, 2012, Grant had his Thanksgiving program and party. Tyler and I attended while Cole was at school. The program consisted of the kids telling Thanksgiving jokes. It was hilarious. Each child made a hat naming things he/she was thankful for. We enjoyed a little refreshment afterward.

Video of Grant's performance:

 http://youtu.be/2xnPzOCsI4w

 http://youtu.be/JjlSpJ1MZyI

I couldn't resist putting these shots of Tyler in here. What's cuter than a little guy with chocolate brownie mix all over his face?

Christmas and New Years 2012

We went to Salt Lake for Christmas this year to spend the holiday with Chad's family. We left the Thursday before Christmas and spent the night in Las Vegas with the Wadleys. On Friday we drove to Utah. We stopped in Lindon to see Kym and Vance and their kids for a few hours. We ate dinner with them and let the cousins enjoy each other. At about bedtime we headed to Salt Lake to get settled at Barbara's house.

On Saturday, we used some free passes to the Leonardo Museum that Barbara and Trent checked out from the public library. The museum was amazing. We met Kym and Vance and their kids. We spent a few hours there and the kids never stopped finding things to do. There was a huge exhibit about water. There was an entire section devoted to screen and video making. The kids played with a green screen. They made frame by frame animated movies with toys and superheroes. They made Santa dance with their own amazing moves.

Another section was entirely devoted to building and other hands on activities. We made music play and lights turn on by hooking up wires to a power source. There was an entire table dedicated to constructing with these fun wood blocks. After the museum we went to Chuck-A-Rama for dinner. (That's all I'll say about that)

Sunday we went to church and relaxed as a family. We had a family dinner and the kids played all day long with their cousins.

Monday was Christmas Eve. Chad spent some of the day with Brooke and Barbara while I'll took the boys to the Discovery Children's Museum in Salt Lake. There was sooooo much to do at this museum and I could barely pull the boys away when it was time to go. They did construction, played in a big stream, played in a grocery store, discovered what flies and doesn't in the wind tunnels, built a ping pong ball maze and put balls through a giant suction maze. We were there a long time and could have spent that much time again there. Even now they ask to go back to this place.

The rest of our Christmas Eve was fairly quiet and traditional. A huge snowstorm blew in so we had a white Christmas Eve. We had a great Christmas Eve dinner, read some Christmas stories, had hot chocolate, watched the Simpson's Christmas episode, set out cookies and wrote a note for Santa and topped off the night with a giant wrestling match on the bed by the three boys. It took forever to get them in bed but once they finally touched those pillows they were out.

Christmas morning didn't start too early thank goodness but Tyler did sleep right through it like last year. Of course, Santa came and brought the boys slippers and some other small goodies. We all opened our presents and ate aebleskivers. Barbara treated us all to a late lunch at Benihana instead of cooking yet another giant meal. We also went swimming and spent some time playing in the community room of her building. The highlight of the night was the 2-1/2 hour game of Zombies that Brooke, Vance, Grant/Chad and I played. Chad took over for Grant part way through and ultimately won the game. 

 We left on the 26th to go home. The snow storm we thought was coming on the 27th came a day early so our drive home was miserable. We had to go through Vegas instead of Panguich and Kanab and had to deal with the snow all the way to St. George. Once we got there we had smooth sailing until we passed Ash Fork. After Ash Fork we went to a dead stop for 2 hour. We went 30 miles in 2 hours. We should have been home by 10 PM but got home at midnight. Thankfully the kids were amazingly well behaved. Grant slept, Cole watched movies and poor Tyler did the best he could with a poopy diaper. Everyone went straight to bed but I was up until about 1 getting read to head to Phoenix in the morning. We were back on the road by 9:30 to spend a couple of days with Oma, Kitty, Shelli, David, Melissa and Andrew.

We did a whole lot of nothing in Phoenix, except going to the Mesa Temple Christmas lights.

Our New Years was a family night. We didn't have fondue at Christmas so we did fondue for New Year's Eve. Fondue is always memorable. We let the boys stay up until 10 to ring in the New York New Years. We had a dance party to the bands on all the New Years programs. At 10 the boys headed to bed and Chad and I spent the last two hours of 2012 together relaxing.

Non-Christmas December activities

As always the boys have a blast when we go to open gym.

Cole doesn't do well with cold. I picked up three snow hats at Dust Collectors a few months ago. Cole doesn't leave home without a hat on his head now and rarely consents to taking it off even in the house. On this particular day he was so cold he insisted upon sleeping in it.