Ten Years!

We celebrated our tenth anniversary on Wednesday. A year ago we had big plans for #10, but in the end, we went to dinner and Wal-Mart. Dinner was very good though. We went up the canyon to Rusty's. We've gone there for our anniversary for the past 6 or 7 years. Jason's parents had called ahead and paid for it, so for once we didn't have to share an entree (thank you, Mom and Dad Murray).

This picture came from our wedding invitations. My brother took one look at it and said "It's nice that neither of you bothered to do your hair that day."

Yes, well, this picture was taken in Washington with a light drizzle all day long, and being pressed for time, this is what we ended up with. But, truth be told, ten years later things aren't a lot different. We still don't bother to do our hair most days. I'm glad I have a husband who doesn't care about that. Or at least says that he doesn't. I'm grateful for the last ten years I've had with him. He's a wonderful husband and father.

Maybe in ten more years we'll shoot for somewhere a little more romantic than Wal-Mart to spend our anniversary.

Snow Caves & Broken Bones

We went up to my parents a few weekends ago. They boys were in heaven with all the snow. All their cousins came over and they spent the evening digging tunnels through the piles of snow.

It wasn't all fun and games though, Spencer got hurt later that night.
My Mom has one of those basketball shooting games. A couple of the smaller cousins crawled into it while Spencer was playing and it collapsed on his hand. Of course, we weren't able to determine what had happened until hours later when he had calmed down enough to tell us.

We heard the screaming, but with Spencer you never know how serious it is. After about 30 minutes of non stop screaming, we decided to take him in. My brother, a pre-med student, has access to the x-rays at the hospital, so he and Jason took him in. As it turned out, he had 2 broken fingers. A doctor there made a temporary splint for him until we could get home and have it seen.

After getting through the initial shock of it, he's done surprisingly well. In fact it doesn't seem to bother him much at all. He did have one moment of panic the other night when he found some of his cuticle peeling back. He was convinced that all the skin was peeling off of his broken fingers. He screamed for about twenty minutes about how scared he was. Eventually, I was able to convince him that it was normal and he's been fine ever since.

Back At It

Okay, I know you're all getting tired of seeing "Christmas Vacation" every time you get on my blog. An update is long overdue. I think I lost every bit of creativity I had (which isn't much) with the coming of the New Year. Since then, I seem unable to receive inspiration for clever or interesting posts. Or maybe I'm just having trouble finding any humor in the day to day drama of my boys. Either way, I'm trying to get back into the mode.

Now, for a few things that I need to catch up on...

As you already know, Regan turned eight in November. The age of eight comes with a baptism and the beginning of Scouts, both of which he has looked forward to for a long time.

He was baptized the first Saturday of January. It happened to be on the same day as his good friend Trenton. My Dad gave an excellent talk, and we had a dinner afterward at the church. Many of our good friends came and supported us. It turned out to be a very nice day.

And then there's scouts. Regan could hardly wait to wear his uniform. I had bought him a shirt and all the patches for Christmas. The cost was over $40! For a shirt and a couple of patches?! Then, one of my friends told me that she had a shirt her son didn't need anymore and that we could have it. I decided to wrap the new one and let him open it and then return it after Christmas. Well, on Christmas morning, he opened the present and before I could say anything, he ripped the tags off of everything. So much for saving a few bucks.

Thankfully, my Mom sewed on all the patches. Otherwise, they'd still be sitting in the box.

Along with scouts comes the long anticipated (and dreaded) Pinewood Derby. Somehow important information, like the date of the derby, didn't get passed down to the appropriate people. As it turned out, we found out the night before the Derby that it was to be held the next day. Everyone in the ward were scrambling to get their cars done. Thanks to a good member of the ward for the loan of his wood shop and a handy husband, we were able to finish the car minutes before the Derby started.

Regan's car didn't win, but it didn't lose either. He seemed to think that it was the coolest thing yet this year. I'm glad he enjoyed it, but glad we won't have to endure another one until next year.

Christmas Vacation

We spent this Christmas in Springville at Freddy & Laurie's (Jason's brother and his wife) home. We had a lot of fun. The best part was having Jason back. He had been gone for 2 months by the time we saw him.

The boys and I headed up to Springville on Dec 21st. My Mom had bought tickets to A Christmas Carol at the Hale Center Theater for the 22nd. Regan and Spencer really enjoyed that. They had front row seats and were able to sit with their cousins. It was a lot of fun.

On the way home from the play, I was talking with Jason, who was driving down from Washington with his parents. From what he was telling me on the phone, they were still a few hours away, but when I pulled up to his brother's house he was waiting outside for us. I was so excited to see him that I slammed 2 of my fingers in the car door. Smart. Aside from my bleeding swollen fingers, it was a joyous reunion.

Christmas day was fun. Santa brought Regan a remote control dragon fly. I think Jason's had more fun with it than he has.

Santa brought Spencer some Harry Potter wands. Due to a last minute request, Santa could only find some $2 locally carved wands. Spencer saw them next to his stocking and was a bit confused. "Sticks?". He didn't immediately recognize that they were wands.

Santa brought Ben a little car that he can scoot around on. All the kids seemed to like that. Unfortunately, Santa didn't build it with an off switch. After a few days of listening to the Tow-Mater song, we were all ready to chuck it out into the snow.

(Here's Ben with a few of Spencer's "sticks'")

We spent Christmas afternoon up at my parents house, where we all scored with another load of gifts.

We did some fun things with the remainder of our vacation. One day we went cross country skiing. Even I was able to participate in that. Ben rode on Jason's back in the backpack and seemed to enjoy himself. Regan and Spencer seemed to have a lot of fun as well. Just as we were starting out, Spencer told me that this was one of his best days ever. About two minutes later, he fell down and started bawling. So much for being a best day. Luckily, it was short lived. He skied the rest of the way with Grandpa Murray, and although they both fell down quite a bit, they had a great time. Regan was like lightning all over the place. He would fall down about every two minutes, but it didn't seem to bother him any. He was back up as quick as he fell down and on his way again.

On one of the days we went to some of the free museums that they have on the BYU campus. We thought they were quite impressive.

We also went on a few sledding outings. The kids really enjoyed that.

Towards the end of our trip, Jason's mother fell down the stairs outside Freddy's house. It was pretty scary. She ended up in the hospital for 3 days, but luckily no broken bones or permanent damage. We extended our trip an extra day until she was released from the hospital. She was still in some pain, but they were able to make the drive back to Washington. We're thankful that she is okay.

We came home on Jan. 2nd. It's nice to vacation, but always good to come home to our own beds and get the kids back into some routine.

It's a Boy!

We're excited to welcome another little boy into our home. The hardest part will be coming up with another boy name.

An Early Education

Regan and Spencer took Ben downstairs to play while I was on the phone today. This his how they returned him. It was obvious that they were quite proud of themselves.
By the age of two, he ought to be a professional. After all, he's being schooled by the best.

Nuttin' But Trouble

Looks can be deceiving. Nearly everyone thinks he's just a sweet, precious little thing. But I know better. Aside from his one twenty minute nap a day (he dropped his morning nap), and of course bedtime, I get no relief. His latest mission is to find things that I may need, such as car keys, toothbrushes, socks, shoes or spices, and put them in a spot where they may never again be seen. Or at least not until I've long since given up hope and replaced the item.
Today, I caught him stuffing his treasures into a new hiding place. The mail slot on our front door.

There goes the Spiderman mask.

There goes a hat.
I think he's learned to reach into the laundry chute and pull out laundry. That may explain why Regan's underwear was sitting on the front porch under the mail slot.