Winter Days

So I haven't written a post for a little while, but not much has been going on! Calvin is getting back into the school routine and Camden and I are enjoying being at home. I'm working hard to increase our rentals at the lodge and Calvin is just trying to make sure he graduates! We're also working hard to sell our house. We'd really like to get things settled so we can make some plans for North Carolina. If you know anyone who wants to buy a very nice house for a great price in Spanish Fork, let us know!

Camden is growing quickly and changing quickly! It seems like every time I do the laundry, I take clothes out of his dresser that have gotten too small. He has two little teeth that have come in on the bottom, and two that are really close on the top.

He is also getting very close to crawling...ah! It is so cute to see him try. He can get up on his hands and knees, and then he just rocks back and forth. He's getting pretty good at the army crawl.

We've been able to spend some time with my family the last couple of weeks, which has been a lot of fun. This last weekend was my dad's birthday, so we went up and had a nice BBQ dinner and just talked and watched a movie. On Saturday we spent time running errands and just enjoying being together.

Well, that's about all I have to say right now! Things are good!

Sweet and Sour!

You know those stories that you tell when people ask, What is your most embarrassing moment? Well, I have a new one to tell.
Last night, my mom came by to visit for a little bit. We decided to order some dinner from a Chinese restaurant in Spanish Fork that delivers, Lucky Five. When the delivery arrived, we sat down to eat our delicious beef and broccoli, sesame chicken, and...sweet and sour chicken. However, much to our dismay, our delivery did not include the sweet and sour sauce! There was only a container of plain, breaded chicken. Well, we simply could not eat our chicken without the sauce! So, I picked up my phone, and from memory dialed the easy to remember phone number, 798-7889.
The person answered, and I began to explain the unfortunate situation something like this,
"Hi, this is Ashton, we just had our order delivered, and there was no sauce, so we were wondering if your driver was still out and maybe he still has it and he could drop it off." In the background, Calvin and my mom are prompting, Sweet and Sour! Just to make sure they brought the right kind of sauce, I added, "Sweet and Sour!" Well, the next thing the person said was, "Um...this is the Menan (or something...) residence." After that, I was pretty much speechless and probably just said, "Oh" before hanging up totally embarrassed! I laughed so hard. I can't believe I did that. So....the easy to remember number was actually 798-7998. Oops! Just to end the story right, we did get a hold of Lucky 5, and they did bring the Sweet and Sour sauce.

Home Means Nevada

Calvin taught me the Nevada state song:

"Home means Nevada, Home means the hills,
Home means the sage and the pine.
Out by the Truckee, silvery rills,
Out where the sun always shines,
Here is the land which I love the best,
Fairer than all I can see.
Deep in the heart of the golden west
Home means Nevada to me"

We have had a lot of fun here with Calvin's family. Camden is constantly entertained with his uncles and aunts, and they with him.

This morning we woke up to trees and grass covered with frost; it was beautiful!

We also took some family pictures.

L-R: Top Row-Walter, Sonja, Laiel, Meagan, Katie, Calvin, Ashton
Bottom Row-McKay, Ivan, Camille, Camden

Santa Claus Came To Town

We had a wonderful Christmas and we have really been enjoying the Holiday and the time Calvin has had off of school. I wish he never had to go back! We spent the weekend before Christmas with my family. On Saturday we had a very fun Christmas Party. With Amy and Danny getting ready to leave on thier Honeymoon to Hawaii, we wanted to make sure we had a celebration before they left. My parents planned the whole day. We had several games and activities and an amazing packing tape ball. If you won a game, you could either pick from a bag of prizes or pick an envelope containing a prize. In the packing tape ball, there were DVD's, lotion, other prizes, and little candy canes. We sat in a circle and rolled dice; whenever you got doubles, you got a turn at trying to rip open the ball and get the prizes out. If you got a candy cane out, you got to pick one of the prizes or the envelopes. Inside the bag of prizes, there were items for all of us to be more prepared-things like light sticks, flashlights, first aid kits, etc. to go in our 72 hour safety bags. Inside the envelopes were gift cards and money. We had a lot of fun!

We spent time during the week making ginger bread houses, going to the Nutcracker Ballet, and playing Emily and Brooklyn's new game, Guitar Hero World Tour with two guitars :)

On Christmas Eve, we went back to our house in Spanish Fork. When we arrived, we found 2 foot snow drifts in our driveway! Calvin braved the cold and wind and shoveled the driveway. We got his truck all ready to take on our drive to Nevada by cleaning it out and putting on the camper shell. It took some extra work because we had left two pieces of sod in the back of the truck and they had frozen to the bed. It took several car washes and a couple of shovels, but we got it all cleaned out. We had fun getting everything else ready for Christmas morning!

In the morning, we got Camden up and went downstairs to see what Santa Claus had brought.

After that, we drove up to Bountiful to see my grandparents and then on to my parents house. We had fun playing with Christmas presents and visiting with the family. We ended the day with a game of Ticket to Ride, a new game my family got. Dad won-of course.

On Friday, we woke up early and headed to Nevada. The drive was long, but we lucked out and got some pretty nice weather...once we got out of Utah. We saw quite a few cars that had slid off the road where there was a lot of snow, but we made it to Fallon without any trouble.

We've had fun here with Calvin's siblings and parents. We'll put up a few pictures of the fun we've had!

Happy Holidays!

We wish you all a happy holiday season! Calvin has finished his finals and now has some time off! We've had a busy couple of weeks with Calvin finishing projects and papers and taking tests. I have enjoyed decorating our house and getting ready for Christmas. Camden is becoming more active every day. He is rolling around and grabbing onto everything. He is so curious and just goes for what he wants. We like to feed him and teach him how to drink out of cups.

This semester, Calvin took a jogging class and he was finishing up his final miles at home on Saturday night. Camden loves to kick his legs and as Calvin was running, it looked like Camden was too! Here is a little video of them together. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to rotate it.

A few weeks ago, my parents were out of town, and we went with Emily and Brooklyn to see the lights. Here are a couple pictures of the trip there...none of the lights. We plan on going again this week, so we'll take some more pictures.

Goodbye Butch

Yesterday we said goodbye to our dear dog Butch. We decided that we had to give him away since we are going to be moving to North Carolina, and probably won't have a place for him. Even though I did complain about him, I really did like him. We found a good home for him where he will even have another dog friend to play with, so that's really good. Here are a few pictures in memory of Butch :)

Amy's Wedding Pictures

Amy got her pictures back from her wedding, so here are some of our favorite ones of our family! Thanks Amy!