November 17, 2001

Several years ago, my mom misplaced the negatives of my wedding pictures. I had copies of all the pictures, but I was worried because I had never taken the time to enlarge any of them. Luckily, my mom has been organzing all our family's old pictures and she came across the negatives!! I was so relieved! So for Christmas she got the negatives put on CD and gave it to Adam and I. Since I got married back when digital photography wasn't the way of doing it (that makes me feel old, I mean, it's only been 8 1/2 years!), it is so nice to now have digital copies of all my pictures. It was a great present, thanks Mom! Here's a few of my favorites:

GARTH!

I have always loved Garth Brooks, ever since I can remember. For years my sister and I have talked about how if Garth Brooks EVER came out of retirement, we'd go anywhere in the country to see him in concert. I never really thought it would happen though. So ever since we found out he would be doing weekend concerts at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas starting this past December, Adam has been doing everything he could to get us tickets. Unfortunately, since he's the #1 selling artist of all time and since he's been retired for like 10 years, the tickets to his first set of concerts sold out instantly.
Adam desperately tried to get me tickets for Christmas but the Wynn hotel put VERY strict rules on the tickets so that it was nearly impossible to scalp them. But he got lucky and happened to call the Wynn just as 2 tickets became available. So 2 weekends ago, me, Adam, Kristin, and Kylee headed to Vegas while Ethan and Austin stayed the weekend with my parents.
We only stayed one night, but we managed to fit in lots of shopping and eating out in on our short trip. The concert was AMAZING! We had 8th row seats, which happened to be right by Warren Buffett (richest man in the world in 2008). He was a really funny, nice guy and it was funny to see him standing up and clapping along to Garth's songs. The concert was almost 2 1/2 hours long and it was just Garth onstage wearing a hooded sweatshirt, jeans, work boots, and a cowboy hat playing an acoustic guitar (no backup band). He talked a lot about his life and growing up and what music influenced him. He took requests and answered questions from the audience. SO much fun, I wish I could do it again. Thanks Adam!

At dinner before the concert; Adam came along so he could watch Kylee while we were at the concert... plus he loves Vegas so it was a good excuse!


The security was really strict about picture taking during the concert. If you so much as touched your camera, they'd shine a light on you and ask you to put it away. So I didn't dare try to take a picture til Garth was about to walk off stage at the end. I pulled it out and snapped a picture really fast, hence why this picture is blurry


There's Warren Buffett right in front of us


And here's Kristin and I in front of the stage right before the concert started

2 Months

Kylee is already 2 months old! She is already 12 pounds and 24 inches long. She's smiling all the time and is such a happy baby. And best of all, she is a GREAT sleeper. She sleeps 10-12 hours at night and then takes really long daytime naps too. I don't know how long this is gonna last, so I'm trying to enjoy it while I can.

Christmas

Christmas was so great this year, maybe even the best I've ever had. On Christmas Eve day we spent the afternoon and evening at my in-laws house in Mapleton. We ate a delicious lunch and then all the grandkids opened presents.
Here's the boys waiting to go downstairs to open presents:

And Papa Steve reading them a Christmas story:

They were so spoiled! They got a train table (the only thing Austin wanted for Christmas) and a play kitchen to keep at their grandparents house. Ethan got an art easel, some cool Hot Wheels toys, clothes, and a lot more. Austin got LOTS of Thomas trains. He was in heaven.

Kylee got a high chair, a cute hat, and lots of cute clothes. Once the kids finished all their opening, the adults opened our presents. Adam and I got a TV for our bedroom; you can see from the picture how excited Adam is about it!

After opening presents, we went upstairs and played BINGO for prizes. Ethan loved helping and won both rounds that he played in.

After finishing BINGO, we headed to my parent's house in Saratoga Springs to stay the night there. We ate another big meal when we got there: king crab legs, cheese fondue, meatballs, and lots more. As it got closer to bedtime, Austin started to get freaked out at the thought of Santa coming into the house while he was sleeping. He kept saying over and over, "Santa isn't coming here! He can't!" Poor kid was so scared, he even woke up in the night crying and screaming, probably from some Santa nightmare. At bedtime we went outside to sprinkle the reindeer food Ethan had gotten from school. While we were outside, Ethan swore he saw some of Santa's elves in the sky. I told him they were probably coming by to see if he and Austin were asleep so that Santa could come. That got Ethan worried that Santa would pass us by, so he made sure to get to sleep really fast. I ended up staying up really late wrapping a few last presents.

The next morning everyone got up early so they could watch the boys' faces when they saw all the presents. With presents for 11 people, there were so many presents under the tree, and Ethan could hardly contain himself. We opened stockings and then ate breakfast. Kylee slept through it all.

After we got ready, we finally got around to opening presents. My family likes to make the present opening go on all day! Ethan and Austin got a cool wooden fire and police station playhouse to share, as well as ANOTHER train table from my parents to keep at their house. The whole month before Christmas Ethan kept telling everyone he wanted a "Pretend Big Bad Wolf." I don't know why he came up with such a random thing to want, but it was seirously the only thing he'd talk about wanting, besides an IPhone, which he obviously wasn't going to get. So I managed to find a "Big Bad Wolf" at Build a Bear.

Adam and I had agreed not to spend much on eachother this year. I followed our rule, but Adam didn't. Good for me, bad for him I guess. When Adam's brother Landon was on his church mission in the Philippines, he had a local artist there draw charcoal drawings of our 2 boys. For Christmas, Adam had them framed for me. I LOVE THEM!

But the very best thing that Adam got me was tickets to see Garth Brooks in concert in Las Vegas next week!!! It was such a surprise because the concert had sold out in 30 minutes and we hadn't been able to get tickets. And the scalpers were selling them online for close to $1000! Garth has been retired and not touring for at least 10 years, so this concert is a really big deal. But Adam got lucky and called the hotel where the concert was right after someone else had canceled their tickets. So my sister and I are going to the concert, my mom is watching to boys at home, and Adam is coming with us to Vegas to watch Kylee while we go to the concert (she is nursing so I can't leave her home). I am so excited!


This is me with my brothers and sister, with an awesome present Eric and Lara got us (it's a record of this Christmas tape we listened to as kids and we've never been able to find anywhere, but they found one on Ebay!)

And here's Kylee, almost 2 months old, in her Christmas sweater.

Weekend in SLC

We decided to go spend the weekend in Salt Lake last week. We've been cooped up in the house so much since Kylee was born, so we just wanted to get out of the house and do something fun for Christmas. We first went and saw the lights at Temple Square. It was FREEZING and it was way crowded, but the lights were beautiful as always. We spent the night at the Embassy Suites. The boys LOVED the hotel because of it's big glass elevators, swimming pool, and they got their own room.
The next day we went to Park City and did some shopping and eating. That night we drove up to Bountiful for the annual Winn family Christmas party. Santa always visits the party every year and reads a naughty and nice list for all the kids there. Even though Austin had visited another Santa the week before and wasn't scared at all, he got so scared of him at the party. We finally convinced him to sit on Santa's lap with mommy, and then he got over his Santa fear pretty quickly.


The whole family at Temple Square- Ethan was COLD and tired of walking around.





The boys swam while Kylee and I watched from the side.


Kylee in my lap while at the pool


Ethan riding the elevator...


Ethan telling Santa he wants an Iphone and a Pretend Big Bad Wolf. (strange gift requests, I did manage to find a big bad wolf for Christmas though)


Austin told Santa he wanted a Thomas Train.


Kylee's first time in Santa's lap

5 Weeks

I can't believe Kylee is already 5 weeks old. She started smiling last week and we are loving it. She isn't giving out her smiles very freely yet, but when she does, it's the best. Unfortunately we haven't gotten any pictures of it yet, but here's a few cute pictures with no smile.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at my parent's house this year. The night before, all the girls went to see "New Moon" while the boys stayed at our house with the kids and went hot-tubbing. After dinner on Thanksgiving, my parents gave the grand kids matching pajamas and a Christmas train set that they played with all night.

O, Christmas Tree!

Every year, Adam and I debate the merits of real vs fake Christmas trees. I love real, he prefers fake. I ultimately win out every year because I feel more passionate about it than he does. Plus, this year Ethan was old enough to add to the pressure of wanting to go pick out a real tree (thanks Ethan!). We found a beautiful tree (even Adam admitted it was the prettiest one we've ever gotten) and decorated it yesterday. Ethan insisted on putting EVERY ornament on, which resulted in them all being in the same 2 square foot section of the tree. I, of course, had to go back after he went to sleep and rearrange all the ornaments.

You might notice Austin doing this same silly face in every picture lately. Every time we ask him to smile for a picture, he opens his eyes really wide, but doesn't actually smile.