Sinterklaas

Each year we celebrate Sinterklaas at Oma and Opa's house. We put out our shoes and go sing songs in the backroom and wait for sinterklaas to put presents and candy in our shoes. This year, Caden said he could hear sinterklaas' horse on the roof! We always get awesome huge chocolate letters, papernoten cookies, and we exchange inside joke/gag gifts with the family. Its always a good laugh to see what creative and inexpensive gifts everyone comes up with to give eachother. Like Autumns princess mirror, ember's treadmill that she has always wanted (and a portable one too!), and Oma's daycare survival bag. My favorite part of the night is when Jonah puts himself on cleanup duty and eats up (stuffs his mouth) all of the little papernoten gingerbread cookies (that Sinterklaas leaves) off of the floor.

The backyard after a snowfall.

I always think it looks like a cool little Forest. Lion, witch, and wardrobe kinda stuff.....

First (well, second) snowfall !!

With all the mounds of snow that we've gotten in the last couple of weeks, we decided to get the boys outside in the snow. Tobin LOVED it! And Jonah could care less about the snow. That is until Jake made him a snowman. Jonah loved the snowman, he gave him hugs and held his stick hand. It was really cute. For some reason Jonah likes immobile human look alike things. When we go to the store, he likes to hold the mannequin's hands and give them hugs. Apparently snowmen too!

Tobin is grounded!!!

Yesterday while Jonah was at preschool, i decided to do a little christmas shopping with Tobin. We were in the store just browsing around and after about 20 minutes in the shopping cart, Tobin started to get cranky (he hates shopping). I decided to take Tobin out of the cart and let him wander a bit to get his wiggles out. So for the next 10 minutes i was following him around the store not getting much christmas shopping done when something that i needed caught my eye. i stopped and looked at it for about 15 seconds (a long time when you count it out) then looked up to see that Tobin was gone (not really surprising). So i continued to wander to find him, but he wasnt anywhere. I started running up and down every isle around us shouting his name and asking anyone i saw if they had seen him. Nothing. Major panic settled in as i searched the entire store with no success; Thoughts started rolling through my head and i didnt even want to think about what might have happened to him. I ran to the front of the store to tell them that i lost my little boy when i noticed Tobin sitting in someones shopping cart at the front desk. i ran over to him and grabbed him into a bear hug while the woman asked if i was his mother. i told her i was and she told me that she found Tobin wandering around in the......PARKING LOT!!!! I started to cry. She told me that Tobin had walked up to her with his arms held out and she took him and brought him in the store hoping to find his mom. I thanked her a million times and held Tobin so tight that i was surprised he wasnt protesting. Of course Tobin gave me a look like, "hey mom, what's up". It took forever for my racing heart to calm down. I learned several good lessons yesterday. Especially that automatic doors WILL open for a little one year old body.

All the Utah Cousins

Left to Right: Claire, Abe, Henry, Jonah, Tobin, Lance, and Reese. We're just missin' those three fauchier beauties!

A monkey and a horse

The kids had a blast this halloween. Both of them loved wearing their costumes. Jake took them trick-or-treating to a few homes in the neighborhood while i passed out candy and then we visited some friends and family. The weather was great! It was so nice to not have to worry about the kids getting cold-they actually got hot. Tobin's costume was great. Whenever he fell or ran into something, he was padded enough that he barely noticed. Maybe i will put him in his costume more often!

Loving the park

The weather has been so great this week that we have gone to the park almost everyday. Jonah loves looking at the ducks (of course) and Tobin loves to walk around on bridge and in the leaves. He will just go keep walking back and forth until we leave. And they both throw fits when its time to go home. Here's a million pictures of our kids in the park.