What's a guy to do?

  Life gets a little monotonous and downright boring when your dad goes to work and your big sisters go to school every day and you're stuck home with mom.  The frequent trips to the grocery store hardly count as a good time and a guy's got to do something to keep his sanity.  Sometimes the best idea is a play date with your best buddy.

 Saving the world from evil is a tall order, even for these two smans.

 It's important to refuel between light saber fights.

 Sometimes when your best buddy isn't available, you drown your lonely sorrows in a warm tub.  And pretend you are Daddy.

When you are really missing Daddy, you put on your white coat and brush up on your doctoring skills.  Wonder what's wrong with that guys intestines?  Dr. Klive always knows what to do - shots for everyone!

And finally, sometimes it just gets to be too much alone time for one guy to handle.  The crazy takes over and your sisters come home to find you in your windshield wiper glasses with a laser pointer tucked into your undies.

Cross Country

 Kolby, June and I got away for a fun family adventure in January.  We joined some fellow residency friends for a weekend of cross country skiing.

 

 As promised, we let June put her money where her mouth was and try to eat a Big Judd's burger on our way up to the mountains.

 Can you believe she ate half of that burger?  I gave fair warning and assured her there was a tummy ache in her near future but it didn't slow her down.  She was wishing she had listened to her momma as she spent over an hour in tears on the toilet that night. 

 We hit the snow hard from the get-go.  June just kept strapping on her skis and making us take her out for hours!  Kolby and I would have been happy to rest our sore legs, arms and backs and just enjoy the scenery from the lodge, but June made sure we got our money's worth of skiing.  

In addition to all the skiing, we did some sledding, played board games at the lodge, ate some tasty meals, snuggled by the fire, and enjoyed the company of the fellow resident families.   Plus, it's rare that we get to do things with one kid at a time and it was so nice to make the weekend all about June.  I think she's now a skier for life!

Merry Christmas 2013

We enjoyed a lovely and restful Christmas vacation in Genola with the Johnsons this year.  Kolby used his seniority at the residency to get the whole holiday weekend off to spend with the family.  Here's a look at our holiday happenings.

 Santa had his work cut out for him this year.  Winnie's only wish was for some new, beautiful, sparkly, pink high-heel shoes.  You'd think that would be an easy thing to find.  Not so.  It took a strong dose of Christmas magic to locate such special shoes in a size 2.  The girls also got some little video cameras to document their dramatic lives.

 Daddy got a beautiful new snowboarding coat.  Now if only we had some time and some cash to hit the slopes.  Next year maybe!

 Klive's love affair with the Avengers continues.  Santa delivered some sweet new super suits to help him in his pursuit for justice.

 Once again, great new (big) presents with nowhere to store them.  Just doing out best to create tiny hoarders.

 Here's the token one picture of me from the whole season.  I'm sure it's a mom thing.

 Kolby took this great panorama shot of the annual Johnson Family Christmas Party.  Look closely - you'll find one sneakster pictured twice.  Magic!  Sorry, I was too busy stuffing my face with Uncle Dave's amazing chili and scones to take any pictures of the Hansen Family Christmas Party. 

Christmas Day = Hobbit Day!  Can I just say that I was so depressed when the LOTRs movies ended and we no longer had a big blockbuster holiday movie to help us celebrate Christmas.  Thanks Peter Jackson for bringing the magic back!  Poor June, she got a terrible cold on Christmas night and coughed through the whole thing.

 We finally quit dragging our lazy feet and made a trip to Provo Beach with Yaya and the Botts.  The kids (and I'm pretty sure the grown-ups too) loved it!

 

Ice cream sundaes, 4-story jungle gym, arcade, bowling, ropes course, laser obstacle course and a little ride on the carousel.  Maybe next time we won't be packing our extra holiday poundage and we will be brave enough to try the indoor surfing.  Maybe.

Winnie's Magical Night!

 On a cold night in December, Winnie's dreams came true!  To kick off the special evening, she lost her first tooth.  I guess it fell out from sheer excitement . . .

 

 Later that evening, Winnie and I dressed in our fancy dresses, channeled our inner Disney princess, and made our way to a very special tea party.

 Every year, Pocatello hosts a beautiful Disney princess tea party at the Stephens Performing Arts center for all the little girls in the area.  We've never gone before because I'm simply too cheap to buy the tickets.  But this year, Winn enlisted the help of her best friend Emma to wear me down.  It was totally worth it to see her face as we arrived at the top of a beautiful winding staircase and a handsome prince (a kind-hearted high school boy) dressed in a tux, offered his arm to lead Winnie to her seat.  Talk about melting a little girl's heart!   

 Some very talented high school choir kids in costume sang EVERY Disney princess song while a slew of "princes" danced with all the starry-eyed little girls.  Winnie and Emma (Merida and Ariel) danced the night away.  They also enjoyed a dinner fit for a young princess - chicken nuggets, fancy macaroni and cheese, green salad, and cookies.

 They had an on-going raffle throughout the program.  Naturally, Winnie (short for winner) won three times!  They rounded out the night by inviting all of the little girls up on stage, introducing them to the crowd, and presenting them with a bona fide princess certificate.

They even got a little time to mingle with all the older princesses.  I'm pretty sure it was the most magical night of Winnie's young life.  I have a feeling we will be going back next year!

Fall 2013

 Time has really gotten away from me over the last few months.  So it looks like I'm going to be rolling all of Fall into one big post.

 Auntie Audra got a new job as the manager of the Real Foods store in Salt Lake.  They had a grand opening party to celebrate and guess who she suckered into painting barnyard faces?  Me and Nana Deb, who is actually an artist - no pressure though.  I haven't done anything resembling art for many, many years now, so I was pretty worried that my face painting would be a disaster.  I practiced for a few weeks on these mugs.  I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do.  We painted over 40 little faces, and I'm pretty sure you could at least tell they were some form of a barnyard animal.

 Before we knew it, the cold air swept in and trees shed their leaves.  It's always exciting to welcome the cold weather.  Even though we know it's going to last for like, ever.

 October was great - we loaded up on pumpkins from Grandpa Kyle's garden and got carving before they molded out completely.

 We always impress ourselves with our carving skills.

 Wreck-it-Ralph, Harry Potter and the minions.

 Halloween was a breeze this year - we saved our costumes from June's HP birthday party so mom didn't have to start any sewing projects, get overwhelmed, and enlist the help of Nana Deb with her sweet sewing skills.  You're welcome, Nana.

 Speaking of Nana Deb, we lucked out this year.  Nana and Papa attended the girls' Grandparents Day at school.  

  Chubbuck Elementary was no fool - they held their bi-annual book fair simultaneously.  You've never seen such a line of grandparent suckers in all your life waiting to buy armfuls of books for their little ones.

 Thanks Nana and Papa for going out of your way to make it to our special events!

 Nerd Day at school.  Lookin' good girls!

 This one may not be in school yet, but here's proof that he's getting ready.

Klive being Klive.  He's always cracking us up.  It's so hard to get after him when he's being naughty because we are usually stifling our laughter while scolding.

Winnie has sure enjoyed first grade.  Her teacher has the kids do a monthly family homework project.  In November, we got to disguise a turkey.  Winn chose Si from Duck Dynasty as her model.  Hey Jack, that's what I'm talkin' about.

This dude is always sneaking a snack from the candy bucket.  Occasionally, he thinks he can get away with murder.  He asked if he could have some cotton candy.  As usual, I said no.  But after being hounded relentlessly by his treat request for over an hour, I finally gave in.  Next thing I know, he came into the living room with a bucket full of cotton candy and a spoon.  Nice try buddy!

The girls participated in Soccer again.  I have seen a lot of athletic growth in both girls over the past year and a half.  Winnie no longer cries or gets anxious on the field.  She's intense and competitive.  Who knew she had it in her?  June learned a lot about playing positions and setting up plays.  It was a great season.

Here's the only picture we took on Thanksgiving.  Kolby made another epic turkey and we invited Nana, Papa, Audra, Nati and the Halversens to share the day with us.  We played games, played music, and took the kids to see "Frozen" on Thanksgiving day and we all loved it.

We are lucky we have so many people who love us and want to spend time with us.  When you string it all together, turns out we had a pretty great Fall!