::morning buddies::

Kris and I have been trying to train ourselves into runners. It's not that easy. We're training for DisneyWorld's marathon weekend in early Jan. I'm going to do the half marathon and Kris will do the full. We're hoping that next Sept we'll get to do the Berlin Marathon with Kris's Uncle Richard, if all goes well. (I'm still not committing to ever really running a marathon, but I can at least train for it!)

So this entails running (or run/walking in my case) at least three times a week. Most times Kris and I end up switching off days and going out first thing in the morning--about 6:15 is when we have to go in order to get kids to school and people to work on time.

The other morning Max happened to be awake when Kris was getting ready to go. This is so very unusual, most of the time we're dragging him kicking and screaming (figuratively--usually) out of bed at seven or later.

But he was awake, and he begged Kris to let him ride along on his bike. Kris is already a good dad and has been taking Sultan along. Poor Sultan is just dying for exercise and fun and loves to go. It makes things way too complicated for me, but Kris is sweet and takes him along.
So there he was, with a boy on a bike and a dog on a leash, both ready for fun and adventure. And he was supposed to be actually getting a workout in.

It went alright, so I hear. It's happened three times since I think. Today Max had a rough time getting up, but he still did it. And Kris took some documentary style pictures as they trundled along.

(It's cold and dark in the morning!!)

(Fabulous cactus flowers.)

I think they make look a bit speedier than they truly are in this photo. They look like they're just zooming along the trails.

Kris says he's not really getting too good of a work out, but the guys are way too excited and enthused about it and he would feel terrible just sneaking out without them.
Isn't he a sweet dad?
I love that Max is excited to go with him and work hard, and I love that he's seeing how we're working and trying hard to be fit and have fun. Hopefully it'll all rub off well on him and he'll be able to see that anything (well, almost anything) is possible if you work hard enough!

::a birthday::

It's Ken (Kris's dad's) birthday today.

We've been thinking about him a lot today and missing him.

We're so grateful for the gospel and the promise of more life after this one. Can't wait to see him again someday.
For now we miss him and just hope he knows we're wishing him a happy birthday today.

Loves.

::in memoriam::

I know Memorial Day is mainly supposed to be concerned with those that have served in the armed forces. And that's super great and important and I'm very grateful for them. But when I think of memorial day I also think of loved ones that I want to always remember and how I want to be able to pass on their memory to our kids.

My paternal grandparents, Clayton R & Betty A. They've been gone for a few years now and we miss them.

This is Max at their gravesite in California when he was three. I wish he could've had an opportunity to visit their wonderful house and swim in their pool. He would've loved it.

Ken:

Kenny:

We miss them both and remember them all the time. Such losses.

And then there are those who are still here physically--but we are forced to miss them as well.

My dear Grandma Jackie hasn't recognized anyone for years now. We miss her and I know my mom misses her terribly. She still deserves to be remembered, though in some ways she's still here.

"I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all."
--Tennyson In Memoriam

::bryans::

Kris's sister Kari's family is here visiting with us over the holiday weekend. We're having a lot of fun with them, but the kids are the ones really having a blast--between the screams and accidents and falls and crashes that is.

It's so fun when cousins can spend time together and have fun.
Today we went to church together and then the kids spent a bunch of time outside. When they were all worn out we watched a movie. The new living room is perfect for that sort of thing.


After that we had a fire and smores with the bigger boys. Now they're all in bed, at least for now.
Looking forward to some more fun tomorrow!

::::

Kris's Aunt Becky and Uncle Richard took an impromptu trip out here to Santa Fe to see if it might be someplace they could move too in a couple of years. They're living in Germany right now on the military base.
We tried to show them all our favorite things and make them fall in love with the city. We'll see how it all turns out in the end. But in the meantime we had a blast hanging out with them. They're so much fun.

Here they are in front of our new house--in their lovely matching parkas.

We'd like to have them as neighbors someday. We'll keep wishing!

::::

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." --Timothy 4:7


Kris's dad Ken passed away this afternoon and boy are we going to miss him. But we are so grateful for the amazing life he led and the faithful example he was to all of us. He loved his family so much and would do anything for him. His sons turned out the same way and I'm so grateful for that. He's truly left a legacy and large shoes for us to fill.

"And may I say that this life never was intended to be easy. It is a probationary estate in which we are tested physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually. We are subject to disease and decay. We are attacked by cancer, leprosy, and contagious diseases. We suffer pain and sorrow and afflictions. Disasters strike; floods sweep away our homes; famines destroy our food; plagues and wars fill our graves with dead bodies and our broken homes with sorrow.

When the faithful saints depart from this life they “are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow” (Alma 40:12), and they remain in this state until the day of their resurrection.

If we have lived the gospel we shall come forth with celestial bodies which are prepared to stand the glory of a celestial kingdom. We shall continue to live in the family unit, and as Joseph Smith said, “That same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.”
--Bruce R. McConkie, "The Dead Who Die in the Lord", Ensign, Nov. 1976, 106

And in honor of my dear Father in Law, I leave you with a bit of a song.

"I’ll look for you in old Honolulu
San Francisco, Ashtabula
Yer gonna have to leave me now, I know
But I’ll see you in the sky above
In the tall grass, in the ones I love
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go"
--Bob Dylan

Ken, we'll really miss you. Thanks for being you.

::phoenix in january pt 1::

Kris has his orthodontics course about once a month. We drove out with him in September for a fun little getaway. He went on his own in October, and then took Max with him in December (and almost earned the title of a saint for it).
He was excited that this time we were all up for the trip.
We planned it well--lots of stops, and no more than four hours of driving a day.
We left on wednesday evening after work and drove to Gallup, NM. We stayed in a crazy old supposedly famous place called El Rancho. When we drove up in the dark Max said he thought it looked like Las Vegas.

Supposedly this is the place where all the movie stars stayed when they came out to make movies and such. There were signed photos all over the lobby--if you can call it a lobby.

I'd say their claim here is a little overstated. It's charming--at least in the lobby, but the convenience of tomorrow was sadly not that present.
Check out the crazy lobby.

It's hard to even tell what's going on in here with the balconies and the stairs and all the crazy furniture. The overriding theme in there (besides the movie stars) was bull horn furniture. If I hadn't had my arms full of baby when leaving the next morning I'd have gotten some shots. They did have some fun vintage vending machines and some other stuff in there. Overall it was charming, but also 100% overwhelming!
Then, when we went up the stairs and headed through a door towards our room, this is what we saw.

Cinderblock halls! The charm was gone! Besides the paintings of indians along the way.

The rooms were ok, they attempted to keep the theme with wagon wheel furniture. The best thing though was the bottle opener/corkscrew attached to the doorjamb in the bathroom. Just in case.
We froze all night, not knowing how to turn up the heat. Sandy slept well despite that though, so that was nice. Max tried to get him to do some stomach exercising, but it didn't work out so well. He didn't enjoy it much. The pictures are cute though.


I love how his little feet are pointing up. Max sure loves his brother!
We got up to head our four hours towards Phoenix. I enjoy this part of the drive because we get to drive through AZ's northern mountains and then down towards Phoenix there are tons and tons of the big cactuses. They are so fun to look at. I wish I had a picture, but it's tough to take a good one from a speedy car. We did get some video though, but I don't have that to post right now.
The drive went well. Sandy does so great in the morning, he mostly just sleeps and smiles. Max was attentive to him in the back and popped his "peaceifier" as he calls it, back in for him and blocking the sun.

I love those baby mirrors.
It was definitely cold in NM and northern AZ. At one point we drove into a big foggy cloud and I thought it might be stormy, but luckily it was just frosty instead. I thought it was cool looking.

We were all really happy to arrive in Phoenix in the early afternoon. It was sunny and in the high sixties. The baby was able to wear short sleeves outside for the first time in his life!
And that's as much as I'm going to say about it all tonight. Oh, except that I'll say we had a great time and I was a little sad to have to get home....

(If only he was always this jolly!!)

::christmas report pt 2::

I don't ever want these Christmas reports to turn into a big list of gifts received, but sometimes it's hard. We appreciate the gifts that the family sends so much, and I like to express that here! So you'll get to see at least a few of them.
Max loved his suitcase and Star Wars sleeping bag. What a great present Grandma & Grandpa!!

He's slept in it every night since on his bed. I don't know if we'll ever be able to talk him out of it.

We also got some fun pictures that we love from them and a photo book and a family recipe book. Loved them!!


Kari's family sent Max some pieces for his hexbug habitat. This was awesome because he got some other pieces from some other people and so now he has one big enormous fabulous habitat complete with bridge battle. It's very fun.


The bugs are really fun to watch. Lots of times it seems like they really must have minds of their own.
And Cammon & Lorri, omnisciently sent Max big packs of batteries. He was in heaven. One of his hexbugs immediately ran out of batteries, and we were able to start him up again. It was amazing. Nice work guys!!


Gram & Grandpa sent an awesome rainbow tent--you probably saw the youtube video below. It has a tunnel which just takes it over the top for coolness.

My mom has also been working her little bottom off making all her old analog photo books digital. It's billions of hours of work and when she gets done they look amazing. I look forward to getting the next installment of the family photo albums every Christmas, and she did not disappoint. Thanks so much for all the hard work mom!!

Lechelle made us the cutest ties for the boys. Max wore his to church the day after Christmas and it looked amazing!

It's the perfect size! Sandy's is perfect too, see?

I can't wait get him a little button up for church. Then he and Max can match adorably. And best part? I can match too!!

Love it!

We spend the rest of the day playing with presents and each other and eating yummy things like tomato soup and 3 cheese grilled sandwiches, and german pancakes. Mmmmmm.


(No we don't just leave the baby on the table, we were keeping a close eye on him. But he was loving watching Max play with his trucks.)
We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but a good tired. Everybody behaved themselves well and it was a great day. Well, except for little Sandy's hour long screaming fit at the end of the day, but that's to be expected when the day is way too exciting for good naps.
It was a great day, thanks to all the friends and family that contributed to it. We missed you all. We love you, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

::proximity::

This weekend we took a quick last minuteish trip to UT to see Kris's dad. He's been really sick and had to be in the hospital for an operation.
It was great that we could be there. We had some really good family time (minus Kelly & Lechelle whom we definitely missed.)
The fact that we were able to just go when we felt like we should was so nice for us.
We took our sweet van. Sultan got the whole back all to himself, the luggage went on top, and I alternated between front seat and middle seat next to Max so that I could put my feet up.


We were only out there for about a day and a half, but we got to spend at least a sliver of time with everybody which was nice.
Max had enough time to step in dog poop with his shoes, then take his shoes off and step in dog poop with his bare feet. Here's my mom lysoling his feet. Lucky guy, right?

Grandpa Ken was in good spirits and we got to spend a lot of time visiting with him at the hospital, which was nice.

Max and his cousins made some fun art for the hospital room wall which I think Grandpa really appreciated.

And Ken also didn't let the hospital get him down.

I hope you appreciate my censoring there.

Max had such a blast, we had a super tough time getting him in the car to go home. He loves it out there and who could blame him.
It's so nice to be so close. We love you all, family.

::more visits::

My brother Cammon is visiting us this weekend with his wife Lorri and cute little 2 yr old boy and 3 month old girl. We're having lots of fun mostly just hanging out. Kris did a quick dental exam on the little guy yesterday when we gave them a tour of the office. He did awesome--Max got to do the exam first and was a good example thank goodness.
They've been playing together really well, Max and Scooter. Lots of sharing and messing around. And lots of piano playing.
We're lucky to be so close to family finally. How nice that family can come see us, we love it!!

(yes they're wearing matching shirts--thanks Gram)

::max's party part 1::

Kris and I got back from New Mexico on thursday, had a day to recover and then we had Max's birthday party on Saturday.
It was basically a Star Wars themed party.
Max was thrilled. He couldn't even wait until 4PM when everybody was supposed to come.

(yay!! yay!! birthday stuff!!)
I made him a banner--the drawings on either side are his renderings of R2D2 and R4 (or whoever the red R2D2 is.)


Max had fun playing with his cousin Jennifer. They're a good age to hang out together.

We had some fun present opening time (thanks everybody!!) and then we went outside to break the pinata!! What's a birthday without a pinata, right?
And it's even a star, which sort of fits the "theme".
We started out hitting it with a croquet mallet.


Some of the little guys weren't entirely sure if it was ok to raise the mallet above their knees, but Derek was cool with it.

Somebody decided that the mallet wasn't good enough, so we moved to the nerf bat.

Really, these store bought pinatas are basically indestructible. I remember a few homemade ones that were pretty tough to break too though.
Anyway.


Big strong Parker managed to knock the pinata off it's little hanger. So Kris pierced it with his garden rake and the show went on.

THEN, that same somebody decided we weren't making enough progress STILL, and so went and found a crowbar. (A crowbar!??! Yes, that's what I said, kids trying to hit a pinata with a crowbar, yikes.)

Luckily it didn't take very long to demolish the thing with the crowbar.
And out came the goodies.

Robots and treats.


Then we went in for some singing and some cake. It's always nice to feel like the star when everybody sings to you. Well, except for me, I'm always embarrassed. I don't think Max has that problem though.

(good singing Charlotte!!!)

(I love all the little helpers watching so closely at Max's side)

Hooray!!!
Then we moved on to the next and last activity......to come later......