Christmas 2009

We began our Christmas celebrations by going out to breakfast. We tried a cute cafe in downtown Boise called Goldy's. Wow, was it good!?! They had this gingerbread scone that was so amazing. All of breakfast was just delicious. After that, Phil went in to work for awhile, and then that evening friends came over for dinner and it was lots of fun. We read the Christmas story in the scriptures and did a little gift exchange. It was a really nice evening, and we really appreciate the Harris' for filling in for family this year!

After they left, we kept with tradition and did the race to open up new pj's and put them on. The boys looked so cute! We also fed the reindeer in preparation for Santa's grand arrival.

Here is how our Christmas morning started:



It was a wonderful morning, and I can't think of anything more we could have asked for. Santa Claus was very gracious and left us many presents, (including the new iMac computer, that has me terrified . . . so if you don't see me online very much anymore, that is why!) He also left us a note telling us we have one more present on the way, but we have to wait for Grammy & Grumpy to deliver it. I guess his sleigh was just to full to bring it all the way here! Anyway, Phil is anxiously awaiting his new TV! Well we were very blessed are definitely looking forward to the new year, and family coming to see us, yeah! I hope everyone had as Merry a Christmas as we did! :)

Holiday Lights and Santa's Firetruck!?!

We have been enjoying some of the holiday festivities this week starting off with seeing the lights at the Botanical Gardens. We began the night with dinner at the Harris' (Thanks again-it was delicious!). We then drove the half hour to downtown Boise to see the light display at the Gardens. It was so pretty! And FREEZING cold! I don't really want to complain about cold temperatures after living in ND, but 8* is too cold to be outside looking at lights in Boise, ID! After our little escapade, we had to end our night a little early due to nearly frostbitten toes and fingers!

On Saturday, we went to a free event put on by a shopping center near us, and had lots of fun! The kids were able to see Santa Claus, write him a letter, have some milk and cookies, see Santa's big red firetruck, play games at a fitness store, and received free hot chocolate from the coffee shop! Teegan thought the firetruck was awesome, and LOVED sitting in the driver's seat. Coleman, however, freaked out (which is uncharacteristic for him when it comes to firetrucks). Later that day, we were shopping at a furniture store, and Santa Claus stopped by to make a visit there, too. Teegan decided he had enough with Santa Claus for one day, and was instantly trying to bail off his lap! Silly Boy!


Well, it was lots of fun, and we hope you are all enjoying the holidays too!

Oh no . . . the BIG-3-0

Phil celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday! The poor guy had to work for 8 hours (even though he had traded shifts and it should have been less) before he could start celebrating! We started off by opening gifts. In the picture you can see a cooler. He didn't actually get a cooler, but he did get some ice-cold Dr. Pepper! If you know Phil, you know he LOVES his Dr. Pepper!
Coleman didn't keep this present much of a secret. As soon as Phil walked in the door, Coleman yelled "Happy Birthday, come open the movie!" Nice. I guess we need to work on the element of surprise!

Phil also got a Blu-Ray player to go with the new TV Santa Claus is bringing us for Christmas. Well, when you get new gadgets, you also have to get new gizmos, so with Phil being the lucky birthday boy, he also recieved a Power Strip, and HD cables for his birthday. Fun!


Our friends helped us celebrate and gave Phil a movie! I had to take a picture of him with the present wrapped so nice and pink and filled with Princesses!

Phil, being the Pyro that he is, also had to light his own birthday candles! (He seriously wouldn't let me touch the lighter!)

Coleman and Blake helping sing "Happy Birthday to You!"

Blowing out the candles!

((Quick story-so Coleman and Phil blew out all the candles before Teegan could get a puff of air out, so Phil lit a candle again to let him blow it out. While we were trying to show Teegs what to do, he shouts out "Happy Bur-day" and then blows. It was so cute!))

Thanks Jordan and Jess for watching the boys so we could go to dinner last night, and also a BIG Thanks to everyone who wished Phil a Happy Birthday! I think (I hope) he had a wonderful day!

From Gobble Gobble to HO HO HO!

I know it may be a bit late to be blogging this, but I'm doing it anyway! We celebrated Thanksgiving with Family in Utah. And it was WONDERFUL! We started out the holiday with Teegan receiving his first black eye . . . courtesy of Dad and rough housing! You can't really tell in this picture, but I still had to mark the event!

We ate dinner with the Mott family and Coleman LOVED Chelsea's humongous rolls! It was seriously like eating a loaf of bread! (Love ya Chels!) I also made these super cheesy Pumpkin Turkeys with name tags. They were fun and festive!

After dinner, we went out and watched Cameron shoot off his rocket.

I didn't get a picture of it going off, but I got a shot of where it landed! Haha! It was funny!

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, some of the grandkids helped Grammy build a Gingerbread house. Coleman thought it was so fun, but I think that is because he LOVED spending time with Tyson and Colby! Kathryn, Phil, Cameron, Gregg, and Grumpy kept busy with games during the whole process. It was lots of fun!

While we were with Grandma and Grandpa Roylance, we went and enjoyed some Christmas Lights. We drove down to Salem Ponds (one of my favorites!) They have Lights in the shape of Christmas trees floating on the water, and it is so fun to see!

I know the picture is really dark, but here is Andrew and Coleman hanging out!

We also drove through the big lights display in Spanish Fork, and Coleman really liked the penguins!

Teegan was such a trooper with all the driving, but totally crashed and slept for the last half of our light tour!

Thanks family for making our Thanksgiving even more meaningful! Love you all!

And on an ending note, here is our cute house decked out in Christmas lights! I wish they were straight, but apparently that is impossible with the type of LED lights we got. Oh well! Thanks Phil for trying!

Our House . . .

. . . "in the middle of the street, our house . . ." now that I got that song stuck in your head, here are some pictures of our house! I still haven't gotten any good shots of the front, but maybe when we finish with Christmas lights I'll post a few.

Just to clarify we are RENTING this beautiful 2400 sq. ft. home (while we save up for a down payment to buy a house). It has 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, a formal dining/office, large open family room, kitchen has granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances with a gas range. It has a covered back patio, and includes a 3 car garage. And I LOVE it! It takes about 10 minutes to get to anywhere you need to go (which really bothers Phil after only needing 10 seconds in Grand Forks), but you take what you get! We, or I mean me, are taking a LONG time to finish off the unpacking. Our office still sits with decoration and craft boxes waiting to be opened and put away. Someday it will happen! Anyway, for family and friends who have asked, I hope this helps visualize where we are living! We would love to have anyone come out and see us! We have a spare bed in the bonus room! It is already set up and ready to go!

Also, here are a few pics of our outside activities at the house.
The landscaping is supposedly maintenance free, unless you have two very wild little boys like mine, then you get to sweep these stupid rocks back into the flower bed nearly EVERY DAY!

We also have attempted to put Christmas lights up. By attempted, I mean we have tried twice and still aren't finished! Oh well, the joys of living in a home!


Well that's all for now!

Fall Festivities

I have compiled the last month's pictures filled with all of our fall activities!

When we first arrived in Boise, my parents came up and we went to this place called The Farmstead. We had so much fun watching pig races, eating a dutch oven dinner, homemade doughnuts, and cotton candy. We went through the corn maze and rode the cow train! All in all it was lots of fun!

Later on in October, we got together with our friends, Jordan and Jessica. We ate dinner and carved pumpkins! We always have so much fun with the Harris family. Thanks guys!

Because we didn't have enough pumpkins for all of us, I bought more and carved pumpkins for Coleman and Teegan too. So Yes, I got to clean up that disastrous mess twice!

For Halloween, Coleman was a pumpkin and Teegan was a spider (Coleman's costume 2 years ago). The pumpkin costume I frantically sewed after getting back from Hawaii and recovering from a terrible cold. It definitely isn't the best thing I've ever sewn, but I'm grateful to my sister for helping me figure it out. And I'm grateful to Phil who helped me design the pumpkin. We are starting to think that maybe he should have been a costume designer instead of a Nurse Anesthetist! (I'm sure we would have made more money the other way around!) Anyway, on Halloween, we got together with Jordan and Jess again. They made us a delicious dinner filled with spaghetti and ribs! Yum! They made it look incredibly edible too (not)! :) We went Trick-or-Treating and watched movies, and laughed at Coleman and Blake frantically RACING to the door to help pass out candy to the other Trick-or-Treaters! It was a blast and hope yours was too!

Hawaii

Aloha!! We just got back from a week long vacation on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Here are few highlights of our trip:
*Waking up to the very loud rooster every morning at 5 am
*Going to Sacrament meeting in Hanalei.
*Going Boogie Boarding, lots and lots of Boogie boarding!
*Building Sand Castles, lots and lots of Sand Castles!
*Going to the Luau.
*Hiking the Kailua Ridge Trail along the Na Pali Coastline.
*Watching a Monk Seal
*Sitting on the Beach in Hanalei.
*Going to the Farmer's Market and getting delicious tropical fruits and flowers!
*Phil and I going tubing down the mountain. So fun!
*Snorkeling at Lydgate Park.
*Getting EXTREMELY sunburned.
*Snorkeling at Tunnels.
*More Boogie Boarding in Hanalei.
*Geocaching in Princeville
*Watching the sunset from the St. Regis hotel
*Receiving a BEAUTIFUL pearl necklace from Phil (Love you so much!)
*Touring Oahu
*Shopping at the Flea Market
*Seeing Pearl Harbor
*Eating a Shaved Ice from Matsuimoto's
*Walking around the grounds of the Lai'e Hawaii Temple.
*Enjoying the Food Festival at BYU-Hawaii

I know that was a long list, but it was such a fun week. Teegan got sick towards the end, and I severely burned my legs on the second to last day, but other than that, it was perfect! Here is a slideshow of a few of our pictures. We took about 300!

I'll try to blog pictures of our house in the near future. It's too dirty to take pictures of right now, though!
Mahalo!

~Megan

Bad Decisions

I just feel like SCREAMING!!! I just spent the last 8 1/2 hours in the car with my three year old, my one year old, and Phil. It has been a very long day. It has been a very long WEEK. It is moving week. Right now we are in Rapid City, South Dakota on our way to Boise. We left Sioux Falls at 10 am, and just barely made it our hotel. I drove for a little bit today, which was big mistake #1. This mad Phil go crazy. Then Phil thought it would be fun to visit the Badlands, which it was interesting to see, but this became big mistake #2. Coleman PUKED all over the place. He got totally car sick winding through all the crazy "big rock mountains". Then after seeing 500 signs about "Wall Drug" we decided to check it out and this became big mistake #3. What a dump! I think we were the only ones there under 75! Anyway, I just needed to vent while waiting for the pizza to be delivered and Phil to come back from doing the vomit laundry. I guess that is all for now. Soon we are headed to the water park that is part of our hotel. Hopefully it won't turn into bad decision #4.

Need More Time

I know I'm supposed to post about Coleman's birthday, BUT . . . right now we are in the middle of trying to potty train Coleman. I feel like I only get short 5 minute spans on the internet to do anything, which means, definitely not enough time to upload the Gazillion pictures I have. With a whole lot of hoping and a huge amount of luck, Coleman will get the whole idea of the potty down soon, and I'll be able to spend a bit more time to blog. Until then, please feel free to give me any tips or advice, so I don't stick this kid back in diapers and call it good! :)

Happy Happy Birthday!!

I have spent the night (well since Coleman went to bed) preparing this:

Tomorrow is Coleman's Birthday and this is what he is waking up to. I can't believe he is already turning three. It amazes me how time flies! Anyway, I just want Coleman to know how much I love him, and I hope he has a wonderful birthday!

Oh and I'll try to be a bit more on the ball and post the activities of the big day!

Graduation Weekend

I realize I am soooooo behind on blogging. Graduation weekend actually happened about two weeks ago, but you can read about it now anyways! It started with Phil's family joining us on Wednesday where we showed them some of our favorite parts of Grand Forks, like the river walk and the parks. My parents joined us the next night and it was lots of fun and playing from then on. I didn't get very many pictures of everyone and I appologize for that. We are so grateful for everyone who joined us in celebrating Phil's great accomplishment!

Coleman playing on the monkey bars with Grandpa Roylance.

I LOVE this picture! I didn't realize how crazy his hair was! :)

All the boys on the slide. Looks to me like one of those boys is a little large to be up there!

Teegan swinging with Uncle Andrew

Phil doing "under-dogs" to Coleman

Phil doing "under-dogs" to his 28-year-old younger brother, Andrew! Nice!

I thought this was hilarious! We were just hanging out playing the wii, and we decided that Phil's parents should learn how to play Guitar Hero. Here's to you Kyle and Cindy!

So both Grandpas decided that even though it was like 50*, the boys should still play at the splash park. Oh well, they had lots of fun, and besides that is what Grandpas do best!


Phil and I enjoying LOVED having all the family in town! We got so much help with the boys! I almost forgot I was a mom! :) (Just Kidding!)

Phil's graduation ceremony actually wasn't too bad. I had lots of help from the grandparents and Andrew's phone, and the whole thing only lasted about 1 1/2 hours. Just an FYI, the next few pictures are a bit fuzzy, because apparently, there were finger smudges on the lens. Of course, we didn't figure this out until afterwards. Oh well! If anyone got clear pictures, please send some my way. Thanks!

Walking across the stage to receive his fake diploma!

As Phil was doing his little processional march out of the auditorium, he passed right by us, and Teegan decided he was going with Dad. Too cute!

Grammy made all of us a lei to celebrate Phil's graduation. They were filled with money and candy! SWEET! :)

We decided to have a pre-birthday party for Coleman while family was in town. We drove out to Turtle River . . . in the pouring rain, and found a shelter to celebrate. Grammy decided Coleman should have a "Lightning McQueen" party, and he loved it! Here he is getting ready to blow out the candles!

Coleman working on the principle of sharing. Frosting, yum!

Riding his new tricycle from Grandma and Grandpa Roylance

Coleman opening up presents from Grammy & Grumpy's (Leapster Leap Frog, Animal Book, Outfit, "Cars", and Magnadoodle)

After the little party, we decided to use Grumpy's GPS and go geo-caching. We started out on our adventure, that was later nicknamed "The Death March". The hike wasn't so bad, besides the mud, but the mosquitos were HORRIBLE!!! Every time you stopped walking, they would swarm you. We all put on bug spray, but it had no effect on those darn bugs.

It was so pretty on our little hike. This is where the GPS told us the geo-cache would be, but we couldn't find it. Maybe next time (when the mosquitos aren't out in full force)!


Hopefully I'll be more on the ball, seeing how I still have tons to post, but this is all of our Graduation celebrating, so I'm heading out now!