The Water Main

Right before our Disneyland trip we received a letter form the City telling us that our water usage had gone up significantly and that they had sent a technician out to check the meter to see if there was a leak, and the technician confirmed and they suggested we call a plumber. Well long story short, we found out that we had a slow leak in our water main...oh don't we just love home ownership sometimes... After receiving an incredibly expensive quote from the plumber Dan started calling his family. All of the married couples except for us own multiple homes that they rent out. Lucky for us Jerry had to replace a main and new how to do it. I am lucky to be married to a guy who is not afraid to do his research and get his hands dirty, he saved us a pretty penny! We also lucked out because Norbert's cousin owns a trenching business and offered to do the trenching for free. Christian and Evan sat obediently on the steps to watch the trencher work it's magic and after he was finished and turned off the engine Christian stood up and declared, "That...was...AWESOME!"

Christian is 5!

I cannot believe Dan and I have a 5 year old, things are running at lightning speed it feels like some times. Anyway, this 5 year old was very excited for his birthday this year. On his actual birthday we opened presents and then after Dan got home from work we went to the Provo Beach Resort to let the kids play in the 4 story playground there, it's always a blast. Christian was very specific that he wanted a candled that was a number 5 and not just 5 candles. Later on we through Christian a super hero party which was very fun, my battery in the camera died, but Heidi did get some pics on her phone, so someday when I remember to get those from her I'll add those to this post. Christian is turning into such a sweet little boy who has a wild imagination and a thirst to know about everything and how it works. He has a little engineer brain, it will be interesting to see his interest take shape as he continues on in school. We sure love you little boy :)

Christian's Imagination Hard At Work

Dan & Beth: "Christian! Why would you do that?"
Christian: "I wanted to be an X-men"
Beth: "Dan, get the camera. Christian we are going to take a picture but I don't want you to write all of yourself again, okay?"
What a crazy boy! Love this kid :)

DISNEYLAND!!!

Well we finally went to Disneyland and it was so fun!!! Worth the long car ride and the moo-lah to make this trip happen :) We woke up super early at 4:30 in the morning packed the stuff that hadn't been packed and put the sleepy boys in the car and off we went. Our hotel was nice and conveniently across the street from a hospital just in case we needed an ER for Evan- thankfully we didn't.


The next morning we woke up bright and early, took advantage of the free breakfast, put some sunscreen on, packed the back pack with treats and food and we were off as a family to have our first Disneyland adventure :)



Disney knows how to do parades and we watched this one a couple of times, so fun! We spent the ENTIRE day in the park, we kept asking the kids do you want to go back to the hotel and take a rest but they always said "NO!!! We want to ride more rides!" So we stayed for well over 12 hours. We finished the night off watching Fantasmic, sadly we do not have any pictures of that but it was the best. After the show was over we piled the boys into the double stroller where they promptly fell asleep. As we were pushing them down main street we heard Christian muttering something so we stopped so we could hear him and what he said was "Mickey Mouse is TOO awesome for me!!!"

The next day we spent in California Adventure, thankfully California Adventure opens later than Disneyland so we were able to get a little rest under our belts before we headed out. We did the new Toy Story ride which was really fun. While we waited in the line they had a Mr Potato head who would pick you out of the crowd, he kept talking to Christian and it was really funny. We also got to ride the big Mickey Mouse ferris wheel and participate in the GI Joe show, which Christians was really into. We also went to the Disney Jr show which is done all with puppets except for one person who host the show and the kids LOVED it. In general, California Adventure was more of a watch-a-lot-of-cool- shows instead of ride a lot of rides place for the smaller audience. But it was a nice change of pace and we had a great time.


For our third day in California we decided to take a break from Disneyland and go to the beach. Both the boys were excited to go to the beach. Christians was nervous and excited because he was worried about sharks getting him. Christian loved running around in the waves and trying to race them. Evan was more of a sand fan combing the beach for shells and sticks. Dan did his duty as a Daddy and built a sand castle and I sat on the towels and tried to take pictures and enjoyed the view. When we got there we stuck our toes in the water and it was COLD!!!! Also because there was no one in the water we saw quite a few dolphins very close to the beach which was fun. Dan found this shell that had a huge barnacle on it (at least that's what we think it was) which was still alive and moving. Christian and Evan took the shell and studied it and poked at it for about 15 minutes and then Christian suddenly threw it to the ground and said "That's DISGUSTING! YUCK!" ha ha


Our last day of Disney we had a pass that let us into the park an hour early and boy did we get a lot of rides done within that first hour. We had the kids tell us all the favorites they wanted to ride again and tried to ride them a couple of times that day. Some of the favorites: Evan loved the Winnie the Pooh ride and the Gadget Coaster which we rode at least 7 times it was also a favorite of Christians. Christian loved It's a Small World. He though Pirates of the Caribbean was scary and he loved the Haunted Mansion- go figure right? We also loved the Finding Nemo ride, and Christian decided that he did love the Rocky Mountain Railway so me and Dan got to ride a few times with him while we traded off with Evan.

Now for my favorite set of pictures. These are my favorite because Dan started taking pictures of him and the boys on the roller coasters and they are so cute! Starting with the one right above to the left. Christian has luck, almost every time he rode a bigger roller coaster ride he would get the Number 1 spot.


This next picture is what happens when Christian gets the camera and takes a picture of me and Dan when we are trying to decide what to do next. It totally looks staged but it is not :) The bottom right picture is of us riding the double decker bus and you can see how tired we are, but still having fun!

On our third day to the park Christian decided he wanted pictures with as many character as we could. So we did our best to chase down characters. Christian told Dan "I know it's just a person in a costume, but it's still fun anyways!" The characters were so cute with him as well and he would give them big hugs and high fives. Evan was a excited while waiting to see the character but then became shy when the time came for their turn.


We had such a great, tiring, fun fun fun time! Can't wait to do it again in a couple of years :)

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Happy Birthday to Evan!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas but I failed at documenting very well, and the ones I did document don't want to upload for some reason- so I will add pictures as soon as the husband fixes them :)
Christmas was seriously fun this year. We hang up a sheet in the hall way so the kids can't see into the living room. Christian was over whelmed with excitement. He just kept on giggling and falling to the ground waiting for Dan to tell us it was time to come in. Once we let the kids into the living room we tried to maintain some kind of structure, but in the end it was mass chaos :) So Fun!

For New Years I had heard of a formal dance with a live swing band and a desert buffet. We talked some friends into going with us. We got our kids squared away at baby sitter houses and head out to have a great time and... turns out the event was for an older crowd. So we quickly tried to make different plans but everything we came up with didn't work out. So we went to a grocery store got some party food and went back to our house (because our kids were at Grandma's house) and had a dance party. It was really fun and we had a good time :)