part 1 of 12

I saw this on a blog (I don't know who's blog it was, I just found it and can't find it again to put a link in, sorry), so I decided we would do it. The wife gave this as a gift to her husband for Christmas. A gift of dates, 12 of them. There is an envelope for each month with a predetermined, prepaid date in it (gift cards or money etc.). We did it a little different, and collaborated together to come up with the date ideas.
For our first date, we were supposed to go ice skating at Centennial Olympic park and then to dinner at the Vortex. The weather made us change our plans slightly. Instead of ice skating, we went indoor mini golfing at Monster Mini Golf. It was fun (more for me than for David).
After golfing we did a favor for a friend, and took pictures of a surprise scavenger hunt at the mall for her sister-in-law, then we went downtown for dinner. We ate at the Vortex in Midtown. It was delicious. I got the Cardiac Arrest, aptly named.
It was a great night. Thank you grandma & grandpa Rygmyr for watching the boys. I can't wait until our date next month.

AJ is 4 months old already

Anderson turned 4 months old on Saturday. We took him to the doctor for his well check, here are his stats: height 26 inches (86%), weight 16 lbs 3 oz (67%) and head 16 inches (21%). They said everything looked great.
Here are a few pictures of AJ from the last couple of days.

Nathan used to make this same face, a big smile with his bottom lip tucked under. It is interesting to see the ways they are similar and different. Also like his big brother, Anderson likes to jump in his jumper too.

For the most part, Nathan is a good big brother. The other day AJ was sitting on the couch by Nathan and he flopped to the side. Nathan said "mom a little bit of help here, we have a problem". It was sweet that he wanted to help his brother.The best picture last. Look at that sweet, loving smile. It is so adorable, just like Anderson!

Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam!

Nathan graduated from nursery this year and is now a Sunbeam! Today he got his CTR ring and he was very proud of it. It was really cute. His teachers said that he kept walking in circles saying "I am a robot. I am a robot". What a silly boy.

Our Christmas vacation

We flew from Atlanta to Jackson Hole on Dec 27th. Both boys did great on the airplane, Nathan watched shows on the Kindle, and AJ slept for most of the flight. Our non-stop flight had to make a stop in Salt Lake because there was freezing rain at the Jackson airport so no planes could take off or land. After our slight delay (1 1/2 hour) we landed in Jackson Hole where Aunt Heather picked us up. When we got there the snow was slushy and melting, little did we know that that was the most snow we would see on our trip. Nathan and David were able to build a little snowman at Heather's house, but mommy didn't get a picture of it and the next day it was mostly melted.

We went out on a animal seeking adventure. Nathan was on buffalo lookout, daddy was on moose lookout and mommy and Heather were on elk and deer lookout. We saw elk at the refuge, and up past Moose, WY. we saw a herd of buffalo.
Nathan was so excited to see them. Nate wanted to get out and see the buffalo, but when he asked us if they had eyes to see us he got a little nervous..
We went into town to go see Lynn at the candy store (Yippy-I-O Candy Co.) and mommy got a new pair of snow boots. Nathan thought the arches were pretty cool, he wanted to try to climb them.


Nathan played with some of cousin Braedon's toy horses while we were at their house and he loved it (we don't have any for him to play with at home, I never knew he liked horses that much), so uncle Scott let us go look at some of his horses (and mules). The mules were HUGE!After all the fun we had in Wyoming it was time to go to grandpa and grandmas house in Idaho. We got to see big grandma and big grandpa Ross (great grandparents).Here is big grandma meeting Anderson
We played out in the yard, and in the tree house grandpa made. There was no snow, but we decided to put AJ in his snowsuit to see how cute he was- super cute.We went up to big grandpa and grandmas house. Grandpa held AJ for quite a while, holding him and talking to him, Anderson loved it.Nathan had a lot of fun stacking the cups (yogurt cups they save for grand kids to play with). He stacked them taller than he was. In true Nathan fashion, he enjoyed knocking them over more than he enjoyed stacking them.Nathan being a good big brother to AJAJ in one of his winter hatsNathan wearing one of AJ's 3-6 month shirts that grandpa dressed him in. Nathan really liked the shirt and didn't want to take it off.
After almost a week in Idaho we rented a car and drove down to California to see Sherri and Dan. It was a really long drive (14 1/2 hours) but we made it in one day. The kids again were great traveling.On Saturday we went to the Cerrito's library. Inside they have a little aquarium, T-Rex bones, and a green screen tv for the kids to play with. Nathan and Keane had a lot of fun seeing themselves on the tv. Just outside the library was a fountain, when Nathan saw it he said, "look, geyser's". We didn't know Nate even knew what a geyser was. Keane wanted to play in them. Sherri kept telling him that if he didn't move he was going to get wet. He hovered over one until it shot right up his shirt and nose. It was very funny. Keane took it like a champ though. After that we headed over to Heritage Park, a Paul Revere themed park. Nate, Keane and Beckett had a lot of fun climbing and sliding. They even had this little pirate ship for the kids to play on. One of mommy's old roommates Gina Hafen met us at the library and came to the park with us, we even got to see her Sunday at church.



Saturday night for dinner we went to 4 different places to eat. We had to make sure we both got everything we wanted! David had to have his In-N-Out and I had to get my Jamba Juice.
On Sunday night we decided that Anderson needed a haircut, and who better to give him his first haircut, than the person who cut mommy's hair the most, Sherri! SHerri did a great job and evened out his hair. AJ was pretty good, as good as a 3 month old can be for a haircut I guess. Here he is sporting his new look.



We had such a fun trip, we only wish it lasted longer. We had so much to do and not enough time. Thank you to everyone for letting us stay with you, we love you all!