"Californ-I-A, here I come"

We leave for California tomorrow - yay!! We've been busy preparing to go, taking all of our Christmas decorations down and finding "homes" for our new Christmas toys (we are so blessed!) We also woke up this morning to a fresh layer of snow... which makes everything so pretty. However, I am still looking forward to spring :)

Mom and I took the boys to Elko today for Trent's 1yr check up. He weighs 23.5 lbs and got 2 shots. He's still in the high percentile range for his weight, height and head. And, Tys got weighed too; he's 34.6 lbs. Then, we took them to get "cheed-burders" and Trent got his 1yr portraits done. We missed Katie but, she had fun hanging out with her Papa and daddy!

We are looking forward to spending time with Mom and Dad H. and friends & family, for New Years! My mouth is already watering for ollie bolen! Katie has been singing "Californ-I-A, here I come"!!!

Little Dudes

Three Handsome Little Dudes!
Trent 1 yr, William 11 mos, Josiah 1 yr 2 months

Sledding

On Christmas Eve we met a group of friends at a nearby sledding hill and had fun playing in the snow! The weather was perfect however, there could have been just a tad bit more snow.. the ride down was quite bumpy! There were lots of snow machines/4-wheelers there to take the kids/adults back up to the top (whatever happened to the good 'ole days of climbing back up the hill yourself??) Katie's snow angel

Precious' first time EVER to go sledding or, even play in the snow!!

Tys, Katie and Wyatt... being pulled behind Greg's 4-wheeler. They had a blast!

Katie and Jolena... I have to say I LOVE Jolena's hat and, am keeping my eye out for one for Katie :)

Give Me S'More cake

This "Give Me S'More"cake was very yummy and, really did taste like a S'More! Ri, I thought of you :) You can find the recipe at TasteofHome.com//"GiveMeS'More"cake

Trent's 1st birthday party

We celebrated Trent's 1st birthday last night and about 45 people came to his party!! He is such a loved little boy!
Mom and I served an Italian dinner and, my attempts at making a S'Mores cake from scratch (which included making homemade marshmellow) was a success! There was lots of laughing, kids playing and everyone having a great time. HAPPY BIRTHDAY 'REN! Trent is standing on his own and walking more and more everyday. Once he got over the initial shock of everyone in his house, he became the life of the party!

I made cupcakes for the kids and, of course, Trent got one of his own...

Our good friend, Sandy and Trent

Payton, Jakob and Jolena

Katie, Sarah, Lexie (hiding), Hannah and Payton

Sydney ~ the future Mrs. Trenton Haveman :)

Loving his cake!

Opening presents is very hard, serious business. Between his birthday and Christmas, he's gotten a lot of practice in opening presents this last week!

Enjoying one of his new toys

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas!

Since Casey and my mom were working 12 hour shifts today, we celebrated our family Christmas yesterday. First, we took the kids sledding during the day (pictures of that fun time to follow...) Then, in the late afternoon we got to see and open our presents with Mom & Dad H., Marie, Great Grandma Dora and Jerry, Bernice, Lucas and James on Skype. Yay for internet! It was so wonderful to see everyone :)
We enjoyed a yummy dinner of ham, potatoes, rolls, veggies etc. with my parents ~ thanks, mom, for cooking such a great dinner! Joe also came over to share in the festivities... in the evening we FINALLY got to open presents, The kids (and myself) had been waiting all day! As always, we were spoiled and blessed with many wonderful gifts. Casey got me a beautiful jewelry box this year - thanks honey - and my parents got me an iPod (yay, I'm moving up in the land of technology!) and new 12 piece diningware set. Along with many other great gifts! Tys and Katie really got into opening their presents this year and didn't take quite as long opening them as last year LOL Trent, however, was really into playing with the paper and trying to crawl all over everything... he had a blast!

Tys got to be "Santa" this year and hand out the presents to everyone

Joe was happy to receive his official "Man Card" from Jerry and Bernice!

I'd say Tys was loving his presents :)

Trent, playing with the trash!

My wonderful parents

Tys and his new tools! He got a new Black and Decker work bench, with all sorts of power tools. He also got a new battery powered drill from Oma and Grandpa... he hasn't stopped drilling things since he got it! note: it doesn't REALLY drill through things... it just sort of tickles. I would know because he has been drilling our heads :)

A couple of Katie's favorite toys were her Strawberry Shortcake Cafe and Polly Pockets. She saw this gift, picked it up, hugged it and exclaimed "I LOVE YOU"... she hadn't even opened it yet!

Trenton 1 Year Old

Merry Christmas and Happy 1st Birthday, Trenton! I find it hard to believe that this time last year you entered this world and became a precious part of our family. How time flies by so quickly! While the snow fell heavily outside, I labored in our local E.R. Your safe delivery at 1:05 p.m. was an answer to everyone's prayers!

Watching you grow this past year has been such a huge blessing and joy to see! Your beautiful eyes and smiles brightens our day. We all love the sound of your laughter and tickle you often just so we can hear it. I have loved watching you grow through each stage as a baby: sitting up, rolling over, finding your fingers and toes, crawling, recognizing and watching your siblings, finding your likes and dislikes, sleeping through the night, saying words, squealing from delight at the sight animals, pulling yourself up and learning how to walk! These are just a few of the many things that I have loved to see you grow in. Each moment of every day with you is cherished! WE LOVE YOU!
12.25.08

12.25.09

Green Acres

My husband's early Christmas present.. isn't it a purdy thang (LOL) It is a 1957 Case 300 (for those of you who know what that means!) The good news is, it runs. The bad news is, it needs work. He got a sweet deal and couldn't pass it up... it's a Dutch thing! Tys loves it! This is a picture of it before he brought it home: For some reason, the theme song from "Green Acres" keeps playing through my mind....

Sugar Cookies

Katie and Tys helped me do some more baking this morning! I made a batch of sugar cookies and they got their own batter to do what they wanted with. They had a great time making shapes and baking them in Katie's "kitchen" set in her room :) I have to say that sugar cookies aren't my favorite cookies to bake... but I do it for the kids and am thankful I only have to do them once a year!! Anyhow, while I rolled, cut and baked my batch, they had fun:

Rolling and shaping
Cutting

Frosting their one special cookie

(their smiles make the whole-messy-sugar-cookie-baking-process worth it!)

And, adding as many decorations as possible!

Tys' cookie

Katie's cookie

Christmas photos

Before church this morning I took a few pictures of the kids in their Christmas outfits...

My beautiful daugther, who grows-up more and more everyday!

I'm not sure where the boys got those scratches on their faces but, inspite of that they were looking pretty handsome!
Trent began walking on Friday night!!! While he was with our babysitter (I was at a Christmas party) he took his first steps. Then, he proceeded to take up to 8 steps!! I couldn't believe I missed seeing him do that and, was so bummed. However, he's been taking steps for us ever since so, that's been fun!

Fav. holiday cookies

Every year since the year I was born, my mom has made our family favorite almond bark cookies for the holidays. Last night we took the kids around town to see all the Christmas lights (which, they loved!) then, came home and whipped up a batch of these cookies! Sadly, they're loaded with peanuts and peanut butter so Tys will never know what they taste like. But, he was our big helper anyways and had fun making them! The kids also made a batch of no-bake chocolate cookies yesterday afternoon. I found a recipe that Tys can eat. Then, I made my own batch of no-bake cookies since I love the peanut butter in them!

Candy Cane cookies

The kids and I baked Christmas candy cane cookies this morning! I rolled the cookies out and shaped them while, they sprinkled them with crushed peppermint and red sprinkles. They had a great time and made a wonderful mess :)

Trent was our official "taste tester".... from his big smiles I'd say he approved!

Saturday's parties

This last Saturday was a busy and fun one for me as I had three parties to go to.. It began by waking up to a fresh layer of snow that covered the mountains.. a view from our back door At 10 am friends began arriving for our friend, Justine's, bridal shower. She will be marrying Matt the end of January and came down from Idaho for the weekend. It was a wonderful time filled with laughter and marriage advice for Justine :) We look forward to having her and Matt living here and, getting to know her better.

We ate a yummy brunch & drank mimosas

Got to meet Justine's sisters and mom for the first time....

played the Get-To-Know-You-Toiletpaper-Game

Let our hair down and laughed lots!!

Watched Justine sweat a little as she answered questions to the How-Well-Do-You-Know-Matt-Game (she only had to chew 5 pieces of bubble gum!)

After the bridal shower, my mom and I spent the rest of the afternoon at our friend, Corkie's, house. She always has a wine tasting party at her house around the holidays.. it's always an afternoon full of good times with friends and great wine (and, some not so good wine!)

That evening Casey and I went to his work's Christmas party at our local steakhouse. For some reason I look forward to these work parties... they're always entertaining and, it's nice to hang out with "the guys" wives. I am reminded that my husband works with a rough group of guys... just like last year, a fight broke out between a couple of guys. ~ This year's party was bittersweet. With Dyno closing next month, it was hard to put on that "cheerful" face.. this years topic of conversation was "so.... what are you going to do"?? Inspite of that, we enjoyed our evening out!