Temple Square

Boston wanted to see the temple on our quick trip.  He never passes up a chance to visit the temple.

For once Boston wanted his pictures taken. 

Tanner's Party

Boston and I were able to run down for a day to be at Tanner's 1st birthday.

Boston loved helping unwrap the presents.

Vanessa has a great library.

Work Party

Ayen helped Boston get his cookie and sprinkles.  

We love Ayen!

Samantha needed help with her cookie sprinkles.

Again he asked for a fire engine, pogo stick and football.  At least he can get a football from Santa on Christmas.  We are working on the fire engine.  But the pogo stick is a little tricky.

Good bye Santa!

Preschool Party

Boston decided when he talked to Santa at preschool that he wanted a pogo stick, a fire engine and a football.  Now he can talk about nothing but a pogo stick. Up until this time he said he didn't know what he wanted. We have no stores here where you could find a pogo stick and now that we would have to pay big shipping charges does he suddenly know what he wants.  Luckily I think Santa is going to make a surprise delivery in Salt Lake.

This in the gingerbread house he made at preschool.  The licorice strings hanging over the edge are "sucker uppers" to suck up alien heads.  What happened to my sweet little innocent boy?

Mail

Great Grandma Coleman has started a fun tradition, she sends Boston a card once a week until Christmas.  He looks forward to checking the mail for his card.

The Magic Cupboard

He still fits!

Boston loves playing hide and go seek.  This is one of his favorite places to hide.  He also likes to hide in his dirty clothes hamper, in the shower and under the bed.  He likes to hide better than he likes to seek because he is worried you will "Boo! him".

Yellow Submarine

Thanks Grand for finding me this great ornament.

Spelling

I really like to play with you.

We were spelling simple words when Boston accidentally spelled eye. He asked me to read it. I said "eye" and he thought I meant "I". He used "eye" like "I" to make this sentence.

Decorating the Tree

Boston is quite concerned about having a star at the top of the tree.  We do not have a star for the very top so we hung these three close to the top. We had a great time looking through the ornaments we have received as gifts, bought on trips or made ourselves.

Looking for a Christmas Tree

We took a Tuesday afternoon to search for a Christmas tree.  It took us a while to find an area that we could actually get into.  Then we had to find a place to pull over and start the hunt.  It was much later in the afternoon than we would have liked by the time we got started.  We all hiked to the top of a hill then Spencer went off to scout out a tree.  He came back and said he had found three "a little ways over there" and told us to follow him. What a "little ways" means to Spencer is much different than what "a little ways" means to me.   It was difficult for Boston to ride in the sled because it kept tipping over and it was difficult to carry him because we were so bundled up so he had to mostly walk.  The snow was at least knee deep for him so he was quickly worn out.  He was also cold because he was playing in the snow while we waited for Spencer to come and got snow in his mittens and the back of his coat.   As we trekked past each tree that he liked and I vetoed (2 of them were the very long needled type) the sun sank lower and it got colder.  Finally we reached the last tree on our loop (which happened to be the closest to our starting point) and decided that it would be perfect.  We had to bribe Boston so that he would not be crying in the photo of us with the tree because he was so done with hiking in the cold through the deep snow.  It was quite a family bonding time.  I am sure at one future time we will look back and having forgotten the cold and deep snow hike weremember how much fun we had.

How am I doing Dad?  Thanks for reading!

Mittens

Last year we got these Canada mittens as a Christmas gift.  We finally got a good picture of us using them.  We love them.  Thanks Art and Barbara.

Writing

In preschool Boston has to write his name on each paper that he does.  So he has taken to writing his name on everything.  I have a whole notebook full of his name (so that I would not forget it), his name is on the grocery list, the back of the envelopes from the mail etc.  Here he is writing his name on the shower door during his shower.  I am hoping all this practice will soon be evident in his handwriting.

-The B is on the left of the photo.-

Our Lights

One day on our way to preschool we saw our neighbor putting some Christmas lights on his house.  We watched him for a minute and Boston thought it would be a good idea for us to have some also.  That night we drove past and the neighbor's house and their Christmas lights were not turned on.  He was very disappointed and I assured him that they would  be on another day.  The next morning Boston came into my room very early and says, "Come on Mom.  I am very sorry but you are going to have to come out in the cold."  I am thinking he means out of my warm bed into the cold living room to play with him.  "Go ahead.  I'll be there in a minute." I told him.  Then I hear he has shoes on and is walking to the front door.  Spencer jumped out of bed "Where do you think you are going?" he asked.  Boston replied, "I have to go and see if Todd's lights are on yet."  It took a little bit of convincing for him to believe that the lights would not be on in the morning and we would look for them that night.  We made a special point of checking the neighbor's lights before bed (they were on) and decided to get our own Christmas lights so that we would not worry about him leaving the house so that he could check out the neighbor's lights.

Look at me!

This is how Boston woke me up the other morning.  "Look at me! I am Santa!"  He is wearing some of Clarence's golf club protectors on his feet.  One has the number 1 and the other a number 2.  He called them "Thing 1 and Thing 2."  

Uncle Clarence's Trains

Spencer and Boston set up Uncle Clarence's trains in the toy room one afternoon.  It required a trip to the store to buy C batteries. Then began the work of figuring out which trains still work.   We have one good working engine, that puffs smoke and about 15 cars.  It was fun to pull these out and remember our great Uncle Clarence.