Marbles

Just bragging about one of my talented relatives.   My niece Kaia won first place in a regional competition for this painting.   She has had lots of offers from interested buyers.   Way to go, Kaia.

Zach's Tag Fettish

Those of you who know about Zachary's obsession with clothing tags need no explanation, but for the rest of you:  I was so sick of trying to find a tag for him to hold while driving, or waking up during the night or even just to calm him down, so I made this:

Weird, kind-of cute, kind-of ugly.   But it has made both of our lives easier.

Happy Birthday Zachary

It is hard to believe that Zach turned ONE on Sunday.   

We love this kid and are so glad that we were entrusted with his care.   He has brought such a happy spirit into our home.    Grandpa Berge was right on when he said there is nothing as good as having a baby around.  They boys love him and are so sweet with him.  Although soon they will realize that all of their toys are in danger.   (That is if he decides to move around a bit more.)

We celebrated his birthday in Park City with my sisters, their families and my mom.   It was a pretty low key affair that included a cake and a few presents.   I had visions of beautiful cakes and what we got was pretty disappointing.   I had pretty much destroyed the cake and Erik saved it a bit.   At least so we had something to get a picture of.   Zach improved the cake by making us laugh while he ate it.  He just leaned right in and took a few bites.   He received some sippy cups and a drum to play from us and Grandma and Grandpa Weeks and a great quiet book and finger puppets from Grandma Berge.  He even got wishes and gifts from the Berge and Harrison families who are far away!   Thanks Everyone!  I will try to get Erik to post a video clip.

I love you Erik!

 Yes it is quite late, but I still wanted to acknowledge Erik's birthday.   He became another year older on December 30.  Here are some of the things, I love about him:

He is very talented.

He is handsome

He is athletic

He supports me (and even indulges me)

He is fun

He loves ME

He is a hardworker

He has a strong testimony

He wrestles with the boys

He is kind

He takes out the garbage

He can do anything he sets his mind to

He respects his parents and mine

He teaches our children great things

He always tries to do what is right

He is always willing to help others

The end of the festivities

We spent the rest of the holidays, hanging out with each other, playing games, sledding, riding the snowmobile, building icicle cities, shooting the guns (Nick for the first time), and celebrating birthdays.   Within five days we have three birthdays (Erik, Hans, Kjersti) New Years Eve,  and New Years Day, so it gets pretty exciting and kind of makes you never want to see food again.   (At least until the next day).  Besides, the fact that everyone spent at least of couple of days not feeling their best, we had a great Christmas season.  Thanks for some of these pictures Jocelyn!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

We headed to Newton for Christmas this year.  It started snowing around dinner time on Christmas Eve and didn't stop for two and a half days.  It was so good to spend time with Erik's family.   It was the first time we had everyone together for a long time.  Christmas Eve started out with a wonderful meal and a great (and hilarious) reenactment of the Nativity story.  All of the kids participated (except Ben, surprise surprise).  We stayed up way to late, I am sure Santa was getting worried about the children getting to sleep on time.

Nick woke up first on Christmas Day and had a very hard time waiting for Ben.  Finally, we got to see what Santa brought!!!   He surprised us with a Wii and lego sets and pj's for the boys.   Zach also got a fun toy to play with.   Our stockings were stuffed to overflowing.   We are very happy with what he gave us.  (Nick was a little surprised not to receive coal this year, I think he was a bit worried :)   We spent the rest of the day eating, opening presents, playing with said presents, eating again, opening more presents and playing some more.   (Zach spent the rest of the day doing whatever Uncle Billly was doing).  What a great Christmas. 

We had a wonderful Holiday Season this year.   Because of the many different celebrations we have had in the past two weeks, I decided to publish a series of posts.   We started off the season on the 22nd with our annual cousins gingerbread house party at Aunt Amy's house.   Everyone brings some candy or frosting and the gingerbread houses are made with graham crackers glued together with a hot glue gun.   My boys love this tradition and it is always exciting to see what they create.   Such different personalities in this group!   Thanks, Amy.

We then had our "Weeks" family christmas party on the 23rd.   This year we are going to be with Erik's family for Christmas.  I forgot my camera, so no pictures of the family party.  We had a great "dinner" which is mostly appetizers and it was delicious, of course we all ate too much.   The cousins exchanged gifts and Grandma and Grandpa gave them all fun sweatshirts.   Thanks for a great party everyone and for the fun gifts.