Last Trip for a Long, Long Time (Snow Day)

We left Friday for Aaron's parents - which takes about 4 1/2 hours the way we travel. We have to stop for lunch in Payson and let the boys roam for a while. And it's still a long, hard trip. And pregnant ladies don't have a lot of patience. The boys were so cute in the shirts Aaron & I got them at Target. I wish they had newborn size too - but they were perfect for these 2 monkeys! And Lucky makes 3. Lucky wanted to ride in Emmett's carseat for part of the trip, which Emmett thought was hilarious.

Alden wanted to build a snowman immediately, but we managed to hold him off until Sat. afternoon because it was freezing! Missy came from Snowflake with Gabe and Corinne and we all had some fun playing in the snow. Mostly walking around in it. There wasn't quite enough to build a snowman and the adults were all too happy to just follow kids around. Then we rode the quads around in the snow and mud for a while. In between we warmed up with hot cocoa.

We were planning to go to church on Sunday, then play a bit Monday morning and head home Monday afternoon. But we have decided not to take Emmett to anyone's house for a long, long time. He is a crazy, monkey, monster at home - and at other people's homes - oh boy, we couldn't handle it. You pretty much have to follow him around the entire time he is awake. Needless to say it was no vacation and we ended up leaving by 9:30 am on Sunday. And the trip home was no picnic. But we are back at our own home to round out the year with our own family!

The Big Game - 2007 Holiday Bowl

Four years in a row! A ten (count 'em 10) win season. Ranked as high as #7 in the nation (see Oct 28 rankings). With low expectations, our mighty Sun Devils entered the 2007 campaign unranked, with a new coach, and expected to go 7-5. Alas, our favorite (apologies to Tara & Cosmo fans everywhere) college football team (ranked #11) was scheduled to play the University of Texas football team (ranked #19) in the 2007 Holiday Bowl in San Diego on December 27.

The day arrived and Dad pronounced the day, "ASU Football Day". We all got dressed in our Sparky best, me and Tara in our shiny uniforms, Alden in his brand new #1 uni (bought the night before at a Target clearance sale), and Emmett in his Sparky shirt too. Only Lucky was without, but we will forgive him this year. The game began at 6 and we had Candice & Family and Will & Family over for a BLT and Bowl Game bananza.

Good times were enjoyed by all, except for our beloved football team which proceeded to immediately lose the game. We suffered through 3 quarters (mostly because we were too tired from all the bacon grease) but finally threw in the towel in the fourth quarter. We enjoyed a great year with our ASU Sun Devils and look forward to another great season next Fall.

Merry Christmas!

Santa managed to find our house again this year, and I guess he was convinced Alden was a good enough boy to warrant the training wheel bike he was asking for. Mom & Dad remain unconvinced. And Santa brought a new wagon for Emmett - which he was a bit unsure about at the beginning. But before long he was begging people to pull him around and didn't want to come back inside to open anymore presents. Good thing the boys got new slippers in their stockings too because it was COLD outside. Santa even remembered Aaron who got a new set of golf clubs.

We ended up with most of the Carpenter contingent at our house for Christmas morning and had a great time. Lots of presents, love, & food! Thanks to everyone for their generous gifts to the boys & Aaron & I.





We made stepping stones for Nana & Papa's garden.




We spent time later on Christmas day with the Blasnek family and had a great time there too. The boys love playing with their cousins. Especially their cousins' new toys! My mom made some great soups & other stuff for dinner and we pretty much cleaned up on the presents. My mom is known for using a wish list as a check list and getting everything on it. I got a fluffy new robe, a new griddle for pancakes (my favorite food), a Fly Lady duster (which I've been requesting for like 3 years), and a beautiful set of pearls! And that was just for starters. The boys got tons of fun stuff, of course, and Aaron got a very nice new blazer. We came home happy, but exhausted. But somehow not too tired to have Candice, Stephen, and Jaycee over and to stay up and watch Transformers on our new big screen tv, which was our family Christmas present - and which has been up for the past month. We love it! The tv, not Transformers, although that was pretty good too.

We hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas day too!

First Christmas Present

We had Nana & Papa over for Sunday dinner and they brought the boys' first Christmas present. It took up our entire living room and took 3 people 20 min. to set up. But what a present! Papa's hobby is building model railroads and he has several great ones at their house, including 2 big ones that run around the Christmas tree most years. This year he started in July and built sets for each of his 3 sons' families. Each has an oval track, about 5'x15', and ours includes an engine, a boxcar, a gondola, and a caboose. The cars are about 18" long and a foot high. It's all electric, has variable speeds, and can run in reverse. The boys were enthralled, naturally, and we are happy to be the owners of this new family heirloom. Don't know where we'll store it, but who cares - It's Awesome!

Pre-Holiday Fun

Aaron "worked" from home on Friday - which means I spent 2 hours shopping, by myself, in the morning during Emmett's nap. Then we all went out to lunch, at a real restaraunt. Then we took the boys to the zoo for a couple hours. Alden and Aaron love the sting rays and spent 20 min. petting and watching them. Later, Aaron & I spent a lovely evening sans kids at the annual Carpenter fondue party. Nice to be with adults and enjoy his family's company.

Saturday morning I took the boys to my parents' ward Christmas party, where we ran into Santa Claus himself. We were grateful to spend some time with the big man, get some pictures, and have Alden remind him to please bring a training wheels bike for Christmas. Emmett threw a fit of course - but his little shaking hand still reached out for the candy cane Santa offered.

Saturday was also the Carpenter Family party and the boys had fun playing with their cousins and Nana & Papa. We ate, had a white elephant gift exchange, and then Auntie Candice helped everyone make gingerbread houses.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

I have been getting more and more upset about my broken computer, especially since my primary presidency was released yesterday and we have to turn over everything to the new one. And as the secretary, of course I had almost all the data. And it turns out that despite Aaron's magic - we only managed to recover the folders and subfolders, not any actual documents. Somehow I forgot the most important thing - even more than backing up. I hadn't prayed to ask Heavenly Father for help. And once I thought of it I knew everything would be okay. I said my prayer and told Aaron that the laptop would work just fine now - long enough for us to get the primary info off, and maybe some other stuff too. And you know what? It did. The Lord gave me a Christmas Miracle! Not as miraculous as the birth of His Son - but timely for me this year. And I remembered to thank Him too. My computer worked just fine for 5 hours last night. I pulled everything off and backed it all up. And then just surfed the internet for a while. And it's still working today. A miracle, I tell you! Aaron says it's still shot and not to save anything on it - we're still accepting donations for a new one! But apparently we're getting a little repreive. Thank the Lord! Literally.

Uh-Oh

Have you ever gotten the blue screen of death on your computer. It can mean different things, but apparently when it is accompanied by weird noises from the right side of your laptop, it means your hard drive is shot and your beloved computer is kaput. Very sad. I feel so lucky to be married to a computer guru. Aaron is so talented, not to mention magic, I swear. He was able to get quite a lot of my data from the hard drive using some new magic technology. I am still hoping he can get a little more, but at least all is not lost. And since he is a computer guru, he always seems to have extra computers sitting around (for work), so he is loaning me another laptop until Santa can save up for a new computer for me. Donations happily accepted.

Cute Pix of the Boys (Their mother says)

The boys in front of the biggest Christmas tree I've ever seen. Like 40 ft. tall and covered in huge shiny balls. Fake of course, like a huge cone, but cool nonetheless. It was outside at one of our favorite shopping centers



Emmett loving on Lucky, Alden trying out cousin Jaycee's jumper, and Maam posing with her 3 youngest grandsons at the mall (Rainforest Cafe).

The boys playing in their favorite toy out back (don't know why I bought a bike trailer) and Alden falling asleep on the couch during a movie. He slept for over an hour - apparently he still needs naps sometimes.

Love the MAC

Every Thursday through the fall there was a free concert at the MAC (Mesa Art Center). Alden has been taking a class there which ends just before the concert so it worked out perfectly for us to attend a few. My sil, Missy, took daugher Corinne to most of them and these pictures are from the last concert, where my other sil, Candice and her sweet girl, Jaycee, joined us. Aaron even made it to this one since he was working from home that day. We took a picnic lunch and sang & grooved along with the music - lots of fun!

Incidentally, Candice teaches art classes for the little kids at the MAC and Alden attended the last session. The 3-5 year olds go to art, drama, and music and on the last day they have parent sharing for the last hour so I learned all about what they do there. I was very impressed and will sign Alden up again sometime in the spring. Anyone who lives here in Mesa should check it out. They have classes for all age groups. The last picture is of Alden showing off his monster puppet named "Alden." The kids all told the parents what they named their monsters and what sound they made, then they acted out a whole visit to Monsterland, including the bus ride. Pretty funny. The best part of parent sharing was when Alden's class demonstrated the "magic rock" game where they learn to freeze on command (and be a rock), then each kid takes turns picking an animal for everyone to dance around as until the music stops again. They were butterflies, then dogs, then Alden picked Transformers! The other kids didn't know what to do but Alden proceeded to show all 20 or so adults in the audience his "Transformer Dance." Needless to say the other parents were quite impressed. I thought I had it on video but only got the first part. We have to get this dance documented soon. Ah, the joys of 3 year old boys.

The Carpenter Elves

I have received e-mails from several people with their elf family video. Some are pretty funny and I finally broke down and did ours. Thanks Office Max.

The Carpenter Elves

Family Photo Shoot

Last Sunday the Blasnek family met for a picture session - which everybody hates. Lots of complaints, especially from the male contingent. As if us moms love corralling screaming kids who have already ruined the outfits we carefully picked out for them. Needless to say, the big group ones leave a lot to be desired. But we got some good ones of the original Blasneks and our Carpenter family ones turned out pretty well. We got there a few minutes early and got ours done first, which definitely helped. And I have to say, Aaron is the best and most supportive husband. He didn't complain, and he helped with the kids, he wore whatever I told him, and he even smiled in the pictures. What a guy! Plus he's super handsome.

This & That & Christmas Cards

Just a few pictures and things going on in our busy lives. Here is the new puppy - he thinks he's king of the house. And speaking of Kings - below is Alden with his preschool buddies when we did the letter K.

Above we have the boys playing with one of their favorite toys. They love to sit up on the picnic table and when they inevitably fall off it's not that far.

We spent part of Thanksgiving weekend up at Aaron's parents. It was freezing cold but it didn't stop us from riding the mini-quads and enjoying the bonfire Auntie Candice and Uncle Steve-O built. Alden even stayed up there for 5 more days to play with Nana & Papa so I could spend my time getting ready for the bridal shower I threw last Sat. It went well and we are very glad to have Alden home - we missed him in spite of the peace & quiet.

Candice & I spent some time up North working on Christmas cards and taking pictures of each other's families. Theirs turned out better than ours but these practice ones are cute.

Here is their Christmas card - imagine it as double sided, then tri-folded. It turned out great, even if I did make it myself. Candice seemed pleased with it, which is what matters. Of course anything with pictures of sweet Jaycee is bound to turn out great.

Here are a few of the pictures that we considered, but somehow rejected. There were some decent ones too but we held off for the Blasnek family photo shoot last Sunday and got some better ones. I am posting our Christmas card too - hopefully you'll get one in the mail in the next week or two!