Christmas prep 2014

Wow- it has been an incredibly busy December with a wonderful last minute trip to Bellingham where Gus got to see cousins! We got home in time to visit with   grandpa Chuck and Grandma Carol and to meet Gus' newest cousin, Atticus!

Then last night we picked up my Dad from the airport and are preparing to drive to Phoenix tomorrow to meet up with the rest of my clan. Here are a few pictures...

Holidays in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake is so beautiful over the holidays! Today Gus and I met up with my aunt Coreen and cousins Emily and Tim downtown to wander around and visit. Here's Gus in the lobby of the Joseph Smith Memorial building:

I love this lobby- takes me right back to my days on temple square:)

View of the temple today:

Photos of my favorite quotes in the North  visitor's center: 

Gus with the Harkers!

Reunited with Dad!

Pile of our family's shoes:

Gus' first Thanksgiving!

We travelled to Logan to celebrate Thanksgiving with Rachel, Micah and Rosy!  Here are the boys just before we left home:

Group shot with Rosy!

Rachel's homemade rolls and delicious sugared cranberries!

Micah, Rosy and I went for a walk so I snapped a few pics of the Tabernacle.

We walked to the home Micah's great-grandfather built and where his grandpa was born!

Rosy checking out the Christmas windows on Main St.

My plate!

Love this little! She only wears her mom's gloves:) 

Scrabble

I think it was Gretchen Rubin who suggested in a book that every couple should have an indoor and an outdoor game. Calvin and I decided scrabble is our indoor game and last week we played a lot of it culminating in my win in our best out of five games last night! Here's Calvin live tweeting our final game:

It was a close game! I won with 314 and he was a close second with 308. I have to commend his skill because I got most of the powerhouse letters while he got mostly "I"s. Lol- better luck next time Calvin!!!

Nuit Blanche/White Night

It still fills me with joy to see how happy Gus is when Calvin gets home from school! It's crazy how at such a young age, he already has individual relationships with people!:) 

Last night was a tough one. After months of sleeping through- Gus was up every hour from 3am on. I think he's teething or growing. I'm so fortunate to have a husband that helps me during tough nights and never loses his patience or temper with our little baby (or me!)....even when Gus keeps us up the night before Calvin has an exam!!:) 

We love you Calvin!!

This is a WIDE awake Gus playing at 5 something am:)

Book baby!!

Today I took Gus on a mommy/baby date to the book baby event at the library in North Salt Lake. My friend is a librarian there and she facilitates events for children! They do all kinds of fun things including sleepovers at the library for kid's stuffed animals! Anyway- today I took Gus after intending to for a long time. We read stories as a group, sang songs, pet stuffed animal puppets and played with colourful scarves. Jessie did a fantastic job of engaging all the kids. It was really sweet to see Gus look around at everyone and smile. I definitely want to take advantage of more of the libraries activities! We also obtained a family pass to attend four museums in Salt Lake including the Leonardo! I have always wanted to go but haven't yet so now we have no excuse not to! Always ask the librarians if they have passes for local attractions. I know in Toronto you can get access to the AGO and all kinds of museums and attractions. I love the library. 

Gus trying to crawl during Book Baby:) 

Love this little guy so much!!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Life lately

Just read Tamar Adler's "An Everlasting Meal" for book club and I enjoyed it so much! It's not so much a recipe book as a philosophy of cooking book. It does include lots of great recipes and meal ideas though. Here's a picture of my not yet scrambled eggs in the book's honour.

Here's Gus just a few minutes before writing this post:)

Yesterday we went to Logan so I could connect with four friends there! We used to have epic girls nights but now I miss out on them most of them time and so does Amanda who moved to Hawaii. But  Amanda was in town with her three kids- including her baby born only four days after Gus! So Jessee, Tasma, Amanda and I all gathered at Michelle's beautiful home in Logan for lunch and a play date! Look at these trees!!

It was a great day to be there because Calvin had the day off school and he was able to have lunch with some friends visiting from Alaska and Scotty from Smithfield!  

Here's Tas and Gus:

Then Calvin and I went on a date to see a movie while Rachel and Micah watched Gus. Highlight of being at Rachel's was seeing Rosy's reaction to coming home and seeing her mom and Gus there! She was so happy and sweet with Gus. We all ate dinner together which was great because it's been forever since we've seen Micah! Here he is with Rosy in the greatest outfit ever:) 

Temple Square

On Sunday we went to spend a few hours walking around Temple Square in Salt Lake City. The weather was perfect and Gus loves being outside, sitting in a blanket on the grass and looking around. Ran into an old friend from my mission too!

When we got home we made homemade caramel to dip honey crisp apples in! We invited a few friends over and caught up.

And a picture of the sunshine streaming in our kitchen to end it off: