Christmas

Thanks to my in-laws, I have a new camera. My last one broke on my Utah trip, so that is one of the reasons I haven't blogged recently. I have taken some pictures of pre-Christmas activities with my phone, but I am having a hard time getting them to show up on the blog. If I get it worked out, I'll post them later. For now you can see the photos we took with out awesome new camera. 

 Santa Came

 D loves Pokémon. This year he got a Pokémon guide book. He was pretty excited.

 You can never have too many Legos.

 Cocoa almonds. A favorite snack of the whole family. D was nice enough to share.

 Our little monkey.

 This one's for Grandpa Albert. We are all prepared for a hike.

 The fun gift from Mom and Dad.

 I am not sure what he is doing here. Kissing it? He was pretty excited about it.

 Star Wars! Of course, we had to watch the movie later that day.

Power Rangers Megazord. He picked this out himself with money from Great Grandmas. He loves it. We let him buy it on Christmas Eve and he played with it for hours. Christmas morning, before even seeing what Santa had brought, he sat down to play with it some more. Maybe we should let him do all his own toy shopping. :)

 Looking for the hidden pickle ornament.

 Dad even played Star Wars with Dallin. They ran in circles all around the house making all the sound effects. Dallin told Dad he would like being the bad guy because "bad guys can do whatever they want."

 I got a heated blanket for Christmas. I spent more of my Christmas right in this chair under the blanket  It was the warmest I have been in a long time. And, yes, Russ brought snacks to me. So sweet.

 Playing Kinectimals and loving it. 

 D and I are studying up on our Pokémons

Dallin got a kids sized sleeping bag. We decided to watch a movie last night so Dallin got all snuggled up to watch Harry Potter. Russ and I got the last movies in the series, so we decided to watch on every night.

We snacked all day, which was nice since I didn't have to cook anything. I did make a pumpkin pie per Dallin's request, but other than that is was crackers and cheese, chips and dip, cinnamon rolls, etc.  I have decided I am getting too old for rich snack foods though. I spent Christmas night throwing up. Russ was kind enough to let me sleep in till almost 10 this morning and I feel tons better. Other than the end, Christmas was great this year. Hope you all had a great Christmas was well. 

Finally...Catch Up Time

Sorry, I have been a huge slacker. I finally figured I can post pictures still on the blog without the before mentioned added steps by using Russ's google account. Since he never posts, I doubt he will mind. So you can disregard the part at the bottom of the post that says it is buy Russ. You know if will always be me. Here is a catch post.

In October Dallin and I went to Utah. While Dallin stayed with his Grandma and Grandpa Richins, I went to the Grand Canyon with my family. My Dad has hiked the Grand Canyon many, many times and I always have wanted to go. I figured this year was going to be my last chance so I decided to give it a try. It was hard to train with no mountains near me, but I did a lot of running and some long walks. The night before I was so nervous, but I am glad to report I did much better than I thought I would. Also, I learned that blisters, even popped blisters,eventually go numb when you walk on them long enough. Lew and Ty also hiked with us. They are rockstar hikers. Dad stayed with me. Of the 23 mile hike (about 7 down, 7 across, and 9 up), only the last mile or two where really hard on me. I was sure happy to see the top. 

The whole reason for the Utah trip was because my baby brother Ty was leaving on his mission. My mom was able to plan his farewell and temple trip when we all could be there, which was awesome because I am in PA and Ash is in AZ. It was fun getting all together.

Ashley was able to visit one of the weeks I was there. He came with her two youngest kids. Dallin was thrilled to have Katie there. At first Dallin wasn't happy when I said Katie was coming because he only remembered little 2 year old Katie, but when she got there he changed his mind. He said she was a big kid now and they had a blast together. He cried when she left. He was so lonely with just MOm and Grandma to play with.

Halloween we carved pumpkins. We never did when we live in Michigan, and dallin never asked. He just seemed to assume we couldn't because we lived in an apartment since there was so much we said we couldn't do because we lived in an apartment. Dallin and I carved all three of them because Dallin was too impatient to wait for Russ. I am pretty sure Russ was a bit relieved he didn't have to carve pumpkins.

Where we live Halloween is scheduled at the Saturday before from 4-6. It was strange to be trick-or-treating without it being dark. Also, people who hand out candy all seem to sit on their front porches. I guess that makes it fast because no knocking on doors and waiting, etc.  Russ likes the way they do it, but I am still not so sure. It is nice to know you won't have people knocking on your door at 10pm. Also, this year we missed rain from Super Storm Sandy that came on Halloween because of having it on Saturday instead.

For Halloween this year, Dallin wore two different costumes. First he was football player. It was a costume borrowed from my Mom. My little brothers wore the same costumes. (Notice it is Phoenix Cardinals  not AZ) Dallin made Russ wear his old high school football jersey so they would both be football players. After a little bit, they came back and Dallin helped Rus pass out candy. Then he decided he wanted to go again, so he put on his Shadow costume. Shadow is a character from Sonic in case you didn't know. 

Dallin turned 5 in November. He got to have three different birthdays, two in Utah and one in PA. His cake was an easy on this year.

For Thanksgiving we decided since this is the first year it would only be the three of us that we would get out of town. OK, so we only went about 45 minutes to OH and we go that far every Sunday, but still. We went to a movie, out to dinner, and checked into a hotel and spent a lot of time swimming. Dallin loved it. I have to say I thought it was a fun Thanksgiving too.

So now you are all caught up. I'll try to not get so far behind now. I figure I have a couple years will Russ's photo album fills up. We can worry about that then.