While the Cat's Away . . .

The Mice Will Play . . .

And those mice will take absolutely no pictures that might incriminate their actions while mom was out of town.

Mom enjoyed a nice warm week in Savannah, GA for some work meetings.

We enjoyed quite a few nights of Subway sandwiches for dinner and no one around nagging us to clean up after ourselves!

What ever else may or may not have happened this week will remain a mystery to everyone but us and dad.

So enjoy our one picture from this week - two very handsome boys on our way to church today.

How could those adorable faces have anything at all to hide???

Chinese New Year - the year of the dragon

Life is good and busy as always. Mom is heading out of town this coming week so we decided to celebrate Chinese New Year a few days early. We ventured to a new little Asian market that opened not far from our house and picked up some things to celebrate with. We also made a few fun crafts that mommy prepared for us. Then we had a yummy dinner at our most favorite Chinese restaurant (the one that is far from the house that we hardly ever go to, but is by far the yummiest!). Happy year of the dragon everyone!

In other events - we did some painting.And did some more painting.

And one night, while daddy was at a late meeting, we played balls - all over the house! So much fun!!! Literally hundreds of balls everywhere!Lastly, a friend of ours that works with dad, gave us these super cool headlamps. We love them - they let us see in the dark without having to hold anything. Imagine that! Could there be anything more fun to play with?
Sam Alert: Howdy everyone - one cute picture of me from this week: Yes that is me eating my bowl of oatmeal for breakfast while using my headlamp! You know you wish you could be as cool as me!
Have a great week!

Nothing Special

January is flying by - and we're as busy as usual. Looking back on our pictures (or maybe "lack of pictures") from this week tells us that nothing special happened this week. We did have a couple more spectacular sunrises this week. Daddy caught one on the camera.We also visited a new Mexican restaurant (twice in one week - really?). They have these cool kid-sized chairs there. One for me . . . .. . . . and one for Sam.

And we played and played around the house. Sometimes we catch dad and mom giving each other a quick glance and a smile as they watch us play. We're pretty creative players! In this picture, we're playing with some cars and a pile of shoes. Don't ask! Have a great week everyone!

Back to Business

Howdy everyone - we had a good week . . . just business (i.e. school and work) mostly. We did have a few minutes one morning as we were leaving for school to watch this beautiful sunrise.

And we snuck in some fun here and there - for example, this is how mom and dad found us one night . . . at least an hour after they put us to bed. Sneaky boys!Of course, there's always time for some active play outside. We rode bikes until our fingers and ears were so cold we had to run in for hot cocoa.

And of course, there was time for our chores. Let's hope for more fun this next week. Sam Alert: Guess what I got to do this week? Well, the story goes that daddy needed to run to the home improvement store early Saturday morning, and since I'll do anything to get out of the house, I said that I wanted to go with him. When we got there, they were having a kid's project day. I got to build a "Savings Shed". Oh, Mason was bummed when we got home and he saw what he had missed out on. Good thing that daddy was thinking and asked the store people if he could have an extra one to bring home. This monthly event is now on our calendar so that we can all go and have some fun!Sam out!

And a Happy New Year!

The week between Christmas and New Years always seems to go by so quickly. We had some great "stay-home-and-play" days. We also got out of the house a few times to do some fun things.

First up - another trip to Thanksgiving Point for story time. This week's story was "The Wonky Donkey" - it was good. We even got to meet Banjo, the donkey at the Farm.And of course we stopped for a pony ride. Second trip - out to the desert to do some hiking and shooting with dad, Uncle Noley, and Grandpa L. Our shooting pond was a little iced over but it was fun to shoot the ice up.

It was a great day!And there's nothing like have a yummy lunch in the back of the truck - out of the wind. Why does food taste so good when you're in the outdoors?
And, of course, we spent some quality time outside riding our bikes and the scooter.
Finally, along came New Year's Eve. We had a nice, quiet evening at our house - mom made her annual Fondue dinner.
And then we had chocolate fondue for dessert. We played games and drank sparkling cider and counted down to the new year (which occurred at exactly 9:10 p.m. at our house). Here's to a great new year.
Sam Alert: Hey everybody - 2011 was great to me and I'm looking forward to 2012. I have three pictures to share this week - - -

1. Me scooting around on my scooter. 2. Me loading the gun out in the desert. Have I mentioned before how much I enjoy being outside?

And me on New Year's Eve - Happy New Year!

Twas the Days Before Christmas . . .

and then the BIG DAY!

In an effort to keep us entertained and stimulated and get our energy out, we did some really fun activities in the days leading up to Christmas.

First up - making a gingerbread train with dad.

Then we headed down to Thanksgiving Point for story time one afternoon. While we were there, we saw the animals on the farm and took a quick (and ever so cold) pony ride.

And you HAVE TO feed the goats when you go to the farm!

The next day we went to a bounce place not too far from our house. It wasn't too busy and oh, did we have fun! In fact we were both so tired after a couple of hours of jumping and sliding and climbing that we took very long naps after we got home. That hardly ever happens at home anymore!
Slide Sam, slide!And me too.Completely exhausted - but oh was it fun! Soooo much fun!We went up to see the Salt Lake Acting Co's children's production that they do every December - this year it was "How I Became a Pirate". It was excellent! Here we are right before the play started.Then, the big day finally arrived. The wait was worth it! We got so many wonderful gifts! Lots of books and games, and things for our rooms, and science and art projects/tools . . . and on and on and on.

Santa brought me a new bike as well.And Sam's big gift from Santa was a new scooter.

Ah - brothers. We got each other exactly what we each wanted. Love how that works out!
We got so many great gifts and can't fit in all of the pictures of us opening each one. But we want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone!!!! It was a great day! We appreciate everything!

Here we are trying out our new outside toys - me on my new bike. It's just right!
And Sam on his new scooter. Check out his new cool helmet! He loves that new scooter! And not surprisingly, he's pretty good on it too!We ended our Christmas day over at Uncle Noley's hanging out with family. Mom had to stay home because she had been so sick. She said it was her loneliest Christmas afternoon ever. Don't tell her we had lots of fun anyway.
Sam Alert: Hey everyone - Feliz Navidad! I have two pictures for this week. First up . . . just a cute pic of me climbing at the bouncy place. I loved this place and was really bummed that we didn't go back the very next day and the day after that and so on!And second - a picture of me making sure all my gifts were accounted for and that nothing got missed. Yes, that's me inside the super giant gift bag. Got it!

And one or two last things that mom insisted that I add to my part of the blog - FUNNY things that she overhead me say this week.

#1 - - - Mason and I were playing with our Little People nativity set the other day and this is part of our exchange:

Mason: "Sam, can Mary go shopping with the fairy?"

Mom: "You mean the angel?"

Mason: "Yeah, the angel."

Me: "Yes, she can push the cart."

#2 - - - me sitting on the couch the other morning just hanging out with my sick mom:

"I'm takin' life easy today!"

Where do I come up with 'em???? Catch you next week. Sam out!