For Grandma Ned

...and more

The first ones are of our bedroom, then the hallway. First door on left is the spare room. Second door on left is my sister's room and her bathroom across the hall. Last door on left is the babies room with a storage room at the end of the hall.

Our new place!

Please don't mind the mess...we're still getting settled :)

Just a little off the top

Jack and Owen's hair was really starting to bother us so we finally borrowed some clippers and got the job done! They look so handsome now!

Birthday Cake

Going along with our Jungle themed party, Nick made each of the boys an animal cake. I have to admit, I was very impressed with the end results, and I know Jack and Owen, both, loved them! Owen's cake was a monkey, and Jack's was a giraffe!

We turned One!

Well, we lived through our very first birthday party! It was fun, a little stressful, expensive :( but, again, very fun! It's fun to see the boys with their new toys and all the things they're learning to do. It's definitely been a wild year but it's getting to be so much fun being mom and dad to these two great little boys!

Trip to Idaho

We had lots of fun in Idaho a couple weekends ago. Kara's parents live in Rigby, ID and we were visiting them for a few days. One night we went bowling and the boys rode on some rides while we were there, they loved them! We also met up with a friend of ours we went to Russia with, Shem, and his girlfriend Heidi.

Our new favorite breakfast

I have to admit, giving the boys a waffel for breakfast is a whole lot easier (and cleaner) than having to give them bottles every couple hours or even feeding them baby food. Pros of the boys getting older are starting to outweigh the cons!

iStockPhoto.com

Dear Nick (nick06fbi),

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So, I'm pretty excited. I was initially rejected. The qualification process is surprisingly difficult. They really get you on things like lighting, shadows, focus, and other stuff like that. I've been taking pictures for about two months now trying to get stuff good enough to submit, got rejected, and then just a few minutes ago got the acceptance email. More on this later.

Snack Time

I think the boys are starting to figure out that whenever mom gets frustrated with them they get put in their high chairs-they're just about the only place they can't escape from these days! They love their high chairs, though. They're very happy being able to sit and look at one another and talk- so cute!

Vacation

Not really. There's something I've learned: there's no such thing as a vacation when you're carting along infants. It just doesn't happen. From screaming in the car to not sleeping at night, leaving town seems to be a whole lot less relaxing than just sticking around. As you can see from this first picture, the boys are extremely mobile now and keeping them away from the fireplace, out of the kitchen, and away from anything they could fit in their mouths is a full time job.

On the way home, we had to stop. Several times. But the most relaxing was dinner at Denny's in Tremonton. The boys were pretty good for that trip. It was also a good way to kill time while we waited for our food; we fed them! It was nice to get away, but it's great to be back.

Standing Tall

The boys are getting more use out of their legs and feet, and it's proving to be a challenge for us. They are really well behaved boys; usually when they cry it's only to get our attention, and as soon as they get it, they're smiling little guys. And the weird thing is, is that a lot of the time they seem to understand the concept of crying for attention. They will take turns a lot of the time, like if they're both awake from their naps, only one of them will cry, and he'll stop the moment the door opens and one of us goes in to meet their needs.

Anyhow, reality kicked me at about six this morning when I went in and saw the pictured scene. Mama's working today, so it looks like Daddy has a project to do: lower the crib mattresses.

Tonight we're planning on a trip to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights.

Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa Ward came to play with us today! We don't see them very much so when we do it's tons of fun to play. They brought some of our Christmas presents to us early and even let us open one of them! It was an ornament with our picture in it for our very first Christmas. We think we're going to like this Christmas thing a lot! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa, we love you! Jack and Owen

Christmastime has come...

Last Sunday we spent a little while trying to get family pictures. First we went to the canyon, where we froze our cans off trying to get pictures. The boys didn't cry; I'm pretty sure they were frozen. The location we picked was pretty good I guess. Most of you will see that picture soon enough. After the canyon, we went to Springville and took some pictures at Grandma and Grandpa's house. What you see here is one of them. Jack and Owen's first Christmas.

Warm and Cozy

We're all ready for snow in Utah!

Help!

The boys need some of their cousin Eliza's belly to help them sit up better :)

Movers and Shakers

The boys think they are getting so smart by being able to move around more...and they definitely are! It's fun seeing them be able to go where they want and get to the toys around the room, I'm just not sure I would call it crawling!

This semester has been hard for all of us. I don't think I've gotten a single uninterrupted six hour night for four months. The other day I had this big project due by 9:00PM (turned in online), and Kara was working, so I had the boys to take care of while she was gone. They started crying the very minute she left. I tried everything. They didn't want to play with me, they didn't want to take a nap, their diapers were clean, so I tried feeding them. What you see in this picture is what I saw in real life. For three hours.

But I got my homework turned in anyway.

Pictures

Nick here. Some of you may know, that over the last couple of years I've had a pretty serious interest in photography. Getting a digital camera last year has helped tremendously. We've taken over 2200 pictures. Well, I would like to get more serious. I've already started by beginning the application process for istockphoto.com. It's a buy-and-sell website for photographers. It's fairly serious: you have to pass a quiz and then submit three pictures for review by the judges to see if your pictures are good enough. I've sent in two, not sure which of my pictures, if any, are good enough for the third. Anyhow, I'm thinking about making another blog with just picture submissions from me (and Kara-- she actually helps a lot), and you guys can comment on them, let me know what you like and don't like, any suggestions, etc. The picture you see with this article is one I sent my mom. I wasn't thrilled with it by any means, but one of her coworkers actually contacted me for permission to use it for something. Hope it isn't some sort of, "suckiest picture of the year," contest. Okay feel free to comment.

Little Swimmers!

The boys got to experience swimming for the first time and loved it! We all went swimming with Kara's family in Idaho, warm water and happy babies! We can't wait until summer when we can go swimming more often!