A Quick Update...

So we brought Rachel home on Monday. She's doing fabulous! Here's a few more pictures for you all to enjoy:

Going home outfit

In the car seat, bundled up against the Cleveland chill.

After her first bath a home.

Brushing her hair. What do you think? Should we do a faux-hawk?

Mindy will give a full update and relate all the details (well, maybe not ALL of them) when she gets a moment.

It lives

I did not want to post anything after the announcement of Rachel because I thought my silly post would be just well....silly. But I think enough time has passed and let you all see that tradition still lives in our house and the vacuum tree is still around.

It is not the best quality photo but what fun we had decorating the vacuum. Does everyone know why we decorate our vacuum? A quick history: during our first year of marriage Christmas was coming and I went outside to ask Rob what we were going to do about a tree. He told me about how in the MTC (missionary training center) he and his companion decorated the Church's vacuum because they did not have anything else. So, it was decided that Rob and I would do the same that year and we wrapped lights around our tree (the same one we have today) and for that month we avoided vacuuming. :) Every year since we have pulled out the vacuum and held a place for the vacuum tree. I think it is fun. We have made decorations for it, Willy's favorite was the family photo one. The only thing different is that instead of no vacuuming we just unplug the lights and vacuum the house with a decorated vacuum. The boys love it.

Welcome Rachel! A Little Preview...

Rachel's finally here! 8lbs 1 oz, 21 1/2 inches long!

We have a winner!

Remember this....

We were able to attend an assembly today at Heartland were Caleb was honored and was able to receive this....

He received a very cool medal, a certificate and some other coupons to do fun stuff. I guess now his project goes on to another level of Reflections and I do not know what after that. We are just so proud of Caleb. He was so surprised when they called his name and as we were leaving school today everyone was saying goodbye to him and good job. How fun for him!

Tis the season

We are geared up for Christmas! I love looking forward to everything and planning it all. And having kids just makes it more fun because you kind of get to plan even more things just for them. Yesterday (the 1st) we got things going by decorating the tree, doing a gingerbread house, and dancing around to fun Christmas music. At times our attitudes were not so festive; like the time when Caleb did not want to do his homework or the time when Willy was getting into everything in the kitchen and I was in the middle of dinner. Those were not such fun moments, but the rest of the day was good. Just a few photos of our preparations:

This is our version of an advent calendar. I got some of the activity ideas from different people and the conjured up some of my own. The boys helped me color the little pictures and then I finished it off. Tonight we will be drinking hot chocolate and reading a Christmas story. It turned out pretty cute.

This is the tree before the decorations and music. Peter was so excited to be able to play with his Bambi in the tree. The vacuum tree is not up yet but it will be soon. :)

And Willy's favorite activity of the day...eating the candy from the gingerbread house. He started off being satisfied with just the graham crackers, then he moved on to a small dab of frosting on the graham cracker. But once he got a taste of those white chocolate chips there was no turning back. Caleb was less interested in the candy because he was gooping up the house with frosting but Peter and Will could not wait to get another piece.

The Rob Grays in Rhode Island

We had a good time in Rhode Island and Boston. The boys loved playing with Jackson, Cooper and Douglas! Some of the things we did while on vacation were:

Visited the John Alden house in Rhode Island. The boys wished they had more time to run around and play but alas, Grandpa Gray had bigger plans.

Visited the Mayflower II, how did those Pilgrims do it? Peter was the coolest kid there and he spotted the seal swimming around in the harbor. We had such fun watching for the seal to pop it's head out of the water.

We visited Plimoth Plantation and my boys had a blast running around and chasing the chickens there. They also liked seeing what the Indians used to live in back in the day.

We roamed around Boston and had fun looking at all the different buildings and sharing a donut together.

We got a ride on the ferry which was short but fun.

Got in some good cousin time and played a lot. The boys made way too much noise for certain people in the condo but they loved playing duck, duck, goose; hide and seek; and super heroes with Jackson's capes.

The boys looked so cute in their turkey hats! Happy Thanksgiving!

We visited the New England Aquarium and among other things we saw this gigantic lobster, 3 sharks, sting rays, seals, jelly fish, turtles, a barracuda and so many other fun things. But boy oh boy, that place was packed to the gills!

My boys had fun managing the subway system. Caleb even saved our skin by reminding us where to get off at one point in our journey.

And last but not least, Willy enjoyed finding any way possible to push buttons. Whether it was in the condo and pushing the buttons on the oven or in our hotel by turning on the electronics, he was having a blast!

Thanks everyone for the fun time and Grandpa Gray for organizing it all. There was so much more we wanted to do like explore the forests that lined the roads there in Rhode Island or go for an Awful Awful, but that is okay. We had fun! Love you all (we missed you Jason and company)!

Late Autumn Hike

At the beginning of November, on the last really warm day in the valley, I took the boys on a hike on the Mill D Trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a good thing I threw a bunch of warm clothes in the trunk of the car, because it was COLD in them there hills! There was snow on the lee side of the mountains, so I took the boys up this trail since most of the first leg is on the west and south face of this particular mountain. The trail was dry for the most part, with just a few muddy spots. Jonah was sure nervous about falling off the trail and down the mountain in some spots. Kinda weird when hiking up the trail.

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We only hiked up about a half hour due to the position of the sun. We turned around with enough time to make it back down with the last remaining sunlight. Jon-Jon kept asking how high we were going to go. "I'm real tired! I don't have enough oxygen 'cuz we're so high up. When are we going to stop and take a break?" We eventually did stop and the boys fueled up on Capri-Sun flavored water and Wheat Thins. Good thing Dad had so many pockets in his cargo pants and jack-vest!