Is it too late? Christmas 2011

So, is it too late to write a post all about Christmas?!  In an effort to catch up without missing too much, here is a gigantic post all about what we did over our Christmas break.  

The festivities began when Calvin finished his finals on Friday, December 9th, one week ahead of the end of finals!  He crammed all of his tests into the first week so that we could have as much time off as possible.  That night, we went to our ward Christmas party.  I cooked a turkey and entered my lemon sour cream pie into the pie contest.  I didn't get a picture, but it looked and tasted great!  We had a nice dinner and Camden frosted a cookie.  We enjoyed visiting with our friends before heading out to see our families.

Camden was too focused on frosting his cookie to look up for the camera-he did try to smile though :)

We first went to visit Calvin's family in Fallon.  We had a great time there.  Here are the boys on Christmas Eve in their Christmas pajamas that I sewed!  It was my first sewing project in quite a while.  Thank you to both my mother and my mother-in-law for all of the help, I couldn't have done it without their help and advice!  

The boys had a wonderful Christmas morning-which began very early!  They both were happy to see that Santa had found us in Nevada. 

Even Coulton enjoyed his new toys.

It was a nice morning and we were happy to be able to attend church on Christmas Sunday to be able to help us remember the true meaning of the holiday.

We also had a lot of fun preparing for the holidays with some of our favorite traditions-sugar cookies and spudnuts (not pictured). 

Camden frosted all of his cookies blue.

These are my angel cookies, I know, they are amazing.

Coulton loved hanging out with all of his aunts and uncles.

And here are my boys, they also loved spending time together.

 

We also helped with some work while we were in Nevada.  Camden helped get 2 loads of firewood and was a big helper.  Coulton and I also came along for the ride once.  It was a beautiful day!

 Look at those tough guys!

Can you spot Camden?

Coulton will be more help next year :)

Camden took this picture of Coulton and me!

One day, Grandpa Winder took us to his work to show Camden all of the big equipment!  Camden was in heaven, he made sure to sit in each and every piece of equipment in the lot.

After our fun trip to Nevada, we made it out to Utah to visit my family!  Our trip started out with a stay at the Bear River Lodge in one of the beautiful five-bedroom cabins and a fun snowmobile ride!  Luckily there was enough snow to ride on the highway.  This was Camden's first real ride on a snowmobile and he had a great time! 

We also got to ride our sleds down the road to the fishing pond and the sledding hill.  We had a lot of fun! 

Camden really enjoyed playing in the snow.  He was having too much fun to pose for the camera.

We also discovered that Coulton loves to wear cowboy hats!  He was content to keep Camden's new hat on without even bothering it.

We had so much fun visiting our families!  I wish I had taken even more pictures to document all of the fun things we did.  Christmas was wonderful and it was so nice for Calvin to have some time off from school.  Now just pray we can all get through this last semester of law school and make it to graduation!  We are enjoying the rest of our time here in North Carolina, but can't wait to move on to the next chapter in our lives!

Camden's Photo Shoot

Camden got a hair cut two days ago and yesterday we got him dressed and he looked so good, we decided he needed his own photo shoot too!  This is our good-looking 3 1/2 year-old boy!  He is becoming a wonderful big brother and a great helper.  He is growing quickly and learning so much. He is a hard worker and loves to help his dad.  We sure love Camden! 

Coulton's Photo Shoot

The other day, Coulton and I were hanging out in the morning, waiting for the rest of the family to wake up. He looked so cute lying on his belly on the floor that I decided to take a few pictures. He did such a great job smiling for the camera!  He is 4 1/2 months old and we sure love this little guy!

Fall in North Carolina

Of the three years we've been in North Carolina, Fall this year has been the most beautiful.  The weather has been nice for such a long time that the fall colors stayed for a very long time.  We may finally be to the end of our 70 degree days-so here's a recap!  I love my boys!  We were able to have a few nice picnics outside while enjoying the beautiful weather and colors. 

Here's a picture from a walk on the trail near our house.

I also thought I'd take a few pictures around our complex so that our family members who haven't been here could see what it's like!  Below, you can see the end of our favorite bench and our hammock down by the pond.

Here's Camden sitting down by the pond, we were outside riding his bike and he asked me to take his picture.

This is the front of the building where we live.  You can see Calvin's black truck and my blue camry.  Our door is right in front of Calvin's truck and the windows on the bottom and top left are our house. 

Here's another view of the pond and the back from the sidewalk.

This is taken across from the pond, if you turn right on that street, that goes to our building.

Here's the playground at our complex.  Camden loves to climb up the ladder and across the monkey bars above the swings.

We went again this year to the North Carolina State Fair.  Camden got to milk a cow and afterward got some chocolate milk from their dairy.   

Coulton had fun at the fair too!  We got to see animals, huge pumpkins and watermelons, and watched some freestyle motocross riders and BMX bikers.

I got to climb the wall and I made it to the top :)   We all had a lot of fun at the fair!

I also got to take the boys on an outing with some other ladies and kids in our ward to see Farmer Mark at his local farm.  Although we could see most of these things at our parent's houses, it was fun to get out and see some animals :)

Camden liked the chickens-I can't wait until I can have some of my own!

A big pig!

Then we got to pick a pumpkin from the "pumpkin patch." 

It has been a beautiful Fall and we have really enjoyed the beautiful weather and leaves!  We will miss these warm days!

Fall Break-Utah & Nevada



Coulton took his first flight on our fall break trip!  We were so excited to be able to go and spend time visiting for a week.  Calvin spent a lot of the trip traveling.  However, it was all worth it, as he has now accepted an offer to work with a law firm in Salt Lake City next summer.  We are really excited and very proud of Calvin. 

I love our stroller, I wasn't sure we'd be able to take it through the airport, but they said it was ok!

When we got to Utah, we were greeted with much cooler temperatures than we've had in North Carolina!  There was even snow up at the lodge.  It was beautiful up there with the changing colors and white snow from the night before.

I love our family of four.

After our stop at the lodge, we headed to the BYU football game.  We got everyone bundled up for the cold temperatures and the 8 pm kickoff time!

 Oops, sorry Camden!

Camden had a lot of fun at the game!  Here he is yelling, Go Cougars, and joining in on the chant, "That's another Cougar, First Down!"

We were able to spend some time with my parents at their house in Morgan that they are building.  They have done a lot of work!  We saw this family of deer near their property.  The Fall weather was beautiful!

Here is Coulton, relaxing with Grandma on the couch after a long day of work!

We also had another adventure while on our trip-buying some cows!  We are working on starting our own herd with Calvin's dad and here are the lucky 13 that will start it all.  We drove up to Idaho to purchase these 13 heifers that were born this spring, then drove them to Calvin's parents' house in Nevada. 

Camden was so excited to be able to see his Winder family too.

It was a fun and adventurous trip, we were so glad to be able to spend time with our families and can't wait to get back there for Christmas!

Camden the Swimmer

Camden had a lot of fun taking swimming lessons!  He loves the water.  Now that he is 3 years old, he was able to take a class all by himself, without Mom!  He was never afraid to jump right in-even without his life jacket on...his teachers had to catch him a couple times :) 

He was always first to get back in line to jump off the board!  The teachers had to coax some of the other kids into the water-but not Camden.  He even got really good at swimming all the way down to the other end after jumping in.  Calvin got to come and watch Camden's last lesson.  Camden did a great job and we are very proud of him!

Here's a video of Camden jumping in, and being a little goofy.