a few photos and stories

We spent some time at my mom's house for Christmas Eve, reenacting the nativity story. We had plenty of babies to fulfill the role of the Christ child, but all girls. The boys dressed up as kings.

Emmy is flanked by her cousins Eva (left) and Elizabeth (right).

Erika suggested a fun getaway in January when the boys had a couple days off of school. We got on a plane and went to Legoland in San Diego. As Matthew put it, we had gone on a plane and we had been to an amusement park, but we had never done both together!

Our hotel was a short drive from a beautiful beach.

A few of us met my mom at a chinese restaurant downtown (Golden Phoenix) to celebrate her birthday. It's conveniently located close to my office. Stephen and Jeana had just come from the new Draper LDS temple open house. Erika recently had the opportunity to take the boys there and they loved it. I think it's going to be dedicated this week. This June, the Oquirrh temple down the street is going to open.

I thought it would be fun to make heart pancakes for Valentine's day. My mom babysat for us that night so we could go on a date. Thanks to her, we've been enjoying a date almost every weekend lately.

Here are a few nice photos of the children Erika has taken over the past few weeks. They are all doing so well. I'll post a video or two of them in a minute.

(for some reason the blog software is turning the photo above sideways, so you'll just have to bend your neck a little to get a good look at Emmy's funny face.)

Last night Erika and I went downtown with some friends (Hewletts and Christiansens) to hear a Beatles imitation band, 1964 The Tribute, play. The band enterained us with music and Jason Hewlett, our neighbor who impersonates celebrities for a living, entertained us with his wild dancing--especially on Twist and Shout.

Yesterday, Thomas and I started a new project -- we're building a miniature golf course hole in the basement. We got the idea from an episode of Ask This Old House. So far we have built the hole and a loop-de-loop. Matthew had a bit of a fever yesterday and today so he's been resting. I think it is partly a side effect of some of the sedatives he was given when he had his top front teeth pulled by the dentist a couple days ago. (The dentist was worried the permanent teeth might not be able to come in straight if he didn't pull them now.)

That's all for now.