Christmas vacation...

We enjoyed a wonderful two weeks spent with the Dahle family down in Fort Worth, Texas. Four of Jim's five siblings and their families were able to come this year. The girls had a blast playing with their cousins even if it was a love-hate relationship at times. Maren learned the word "mine" from the other two 2 year olds. Whitney asked when we were going to move to a bigger house so we could have a trampoline and swing set like her cousins. She spent many hours outside playing with her big cousins so it was a huge loss coming home.

Maren was officially the vector this year. She was healthy when we got there but started coming down with symptoms the middle of our first night there and eventually shared her cold and conjunctivitis with just about everyone else. Whitney picked up some kind of stomach bug the last few days which included losing the contents of her stomach on the (luckily) tile floor on our trip to Cabela's to see the fish and stuffed animals. Luckily we had no incidences on the flight home that evening unlike the mom three rows behind us whose daughter puked all over herself and the seat before even leaving the gate and they ended up leaving the plane before we took off.

We enjoyed the time spent reconnecting with family and exploring the local area. We lucked out and had a beautiful warm afternoon our 2nd day there so they pulled the boat out and we headed to the nearby lake. It was amazing to see such smooth water in the middle of the afternoon. The outside temps were in the mid 70's but the water was in the 50's which is probably why there was only a handful of fishermen on the lake. We all had a blast taking our turns wakeboarding and the kids enjoyed the boat ride.

The next day we headed over to Grapevine to ride the historic railroad that is transformed into the North Pole Express for the holidays. They do a nice production that the kids seemed to really enjoy.

The following day was Sunday which we spent at church and then had a combined birthday party for the four family members with December birthdays. The next afternoon we visited the Fort Worth Stockyards where they herd the longhorn cattle down the middle of the road. It was interesting to see the longhorn cattle up close and we enjoyed watching Jim and the other guys take their turns on the mechanical bull.

Tuesday was spent visiting the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and learning more about the production of our currency. We enjoyed acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve. The cast is growing each year but Grammy did a great job with the costumes for everyone.

We enjoyed a relatively quiet Christmas day. The girls actually slept fairly late and Whitney needed a little reminder about what day it was and then she hopped right up and was headed downstairs. She was excited to get a new climbing harness among other things. Maren has been enjoying her new Baby Signing Time DVD's and other gifts. Maren is sporting the cool hat that Aunt Cindy made her.


We made a trip to Gainesville, TX one day to visit the zoo and meet the adopted grandparents of the family that live in Oklahoma.

The highlight of the trip was being able to be there for the oldest cousins baptism and the baby blessings of the two youngest cousins born in October.


One of our last adventures included visiting the National Cowgirl Museum and the temporary Museum of Science and History kids exhibits located there. The kids loved the hands-on exhibits that they had and we also enjoyed an IMAX movie.


We enjoyed visits with some friends from college and Jim's residency. There was also an almost daily outing to play disc golf at the various courses nearby. Thanks to the Bakers for hosting the entire family over the holiday!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

I'm a month late in posting this but we wanted to remember Maren's birthday. We flew out on our trip to Texas on Maren's birthday so we celebrated at home with cupcakes and a couple of gifts a few days before leaving. She also had a second party with her cousins in Texas as there are two others with December birthdays. Here is her with her favorite new toy:

Happy Birthday little bug! We can't believe it has been two years since you joined our family. We are grateful for the joy you bring to our home and even your mischevious antics.
We love you!

Kite flying adventures....

Since it's been a month since I last posted, I guess time to get to work. I still need to post about our fun Christmas vacation but that will have to wait for another day. Today we took advantage of the warmer temps and nice weather to go have some fun. We met some friends for lunch and then headed over to a nearby soccer field to fly their new kite. It took a few tries for the girls to get the kite up high enough to catch the wind coming over the trees that lined the field. However, once they did they had a hard time trying to keep the reel from spinning out of control.

Maren had a great time running around and filling her diaper (see pic).

Afterwards, we met Jim at a nearby disc golf course to play a round. We had to try out our new discs that came in the mail this week to add to our growing set. Disc golf has become the new family obsession especially after all the rounds played over our vacation. It's great because it's cheap, doesn't require much time to play, and we can take the whole family.

Temple lights and Breakfast with Santa...

I enjoyed a trip to the Washington DC temple with our church youth yesterday evening to see the lights and visit the temple visitor's center. It was a long (3.5 hour drive each way) but fun trip and the 16 youth we had go all seemed to have an enjoyable experience.

This morning after a short night's sleep I took the girls to the base for Breakfast with Santa. They enjoyed meeting Santa and Mrs. Claus, eating breakfast, and getting to do some crafts. Maybe we'll get around to putting up a few decorations today. I haven't wanted to get decorations out until we got the house back together which I can officially say is done now with the completion of the office this week!

Whitney decided to dress all fancy this week with her fluffy scarf. This is her on her way to preschool one afternoon:

Lastly, here is a picture of what happens when Mom goes to book club:

It's a....

BABY!
Okay so that is obvious but I'll give you a chance to try and figure it out first. We'll see if you can make anything out of the grainy snowstorm! I'll give you a hint the head is cut-off from the image but you can make out the arms, heart, and legs.

If you guessed that we are having the first Dahle male heir you are correct! If not, well we won't hold it against you. We are all ecstatic about adding a little boy to our home. Maren is celebrating the upcoming arrival of the 2nd anniversary of her "birthday" by frequently being found running around in her birthday suit. The problem is she has also recently figured out how to get her diaper off in addition to all articles of clothing. No, big accidents yet. But I'm sure she's just waiting until the new carpet is installed!

First snow!

We don't get a lot of snow where we live so it's a big deal when it actually snows. When I walked out of the gym this morning at 6:30 it had just started to snow so I went home and got Whitney up because I was afraid it wouldn't last very long and she would be very disappointed to have missed it. Luckily for the girls it snowed for another almost two hours! Although it did all melt when it hit the ground much to Whitney's dismay. She was really hoping to be able to make a snowman. Nonetheless, they had a blast dancing around outside in the falling snow in their PJ's, hats, and mittens. Afterwards, they came in to warm up with some hot chocolate. It made for a fun adventure this morning though I may have some tired girls later!

Girly girls...

Whitney has been bugging me for the past few days to paint her toenails so we finally get around to doing it tonight. As she is sitting there getting her nails painted, Maren decides she wants in on the action and sits down right next to Whitney so she can be next. We're in for trouble now with two little girly girls here in our house (though they still like to wrestle with Daddy!)