Train Park

Before going to AZ we made a list of things we "must do". McCormick Train park was definitely one of them. I hadn't been there in years and was very surprised when we got there. Troy's sisters and kids joined us along with one of my brother's and sister's. We got to ride the train three times, the carousel twice and then play on the slides. It was so much fun to be with family and see how well the kids played together even though they don't get to see each other very often.

Sebastien loves slides, especially when he can do it by himself.
Sydney, Sebastien and Desiree were getting set to race, Sebastien cheated! :)

Gage and Malcolm riding on the carousel. I love the expression on Gage's face.

Another favorite of the day, the rock wall. Troy cannot wait until he can take Sebastien on a real one.

Alvin, Peggi and Sam ready to ride the horses.

The Cahoon aunts and cousins ready for the train to go.

SMILE everyone, here we go!

Troy and the boys riding the carousel. I did it once and that was enough for me.

Manti was so happy to sit next to Sebastien and not on laps.

We cannot wait to go again next year. Hopefully we can be there when they have all the Christmas things up. The workers were taking everything down when we were there but it looked like it would have been a ton of fun.

First Day Wounds

The first full day we were in Arizona Sebastien and Manti decided to try out the trampoline. Manti pretty much laid or sat and let Sebastien bounce him. It was fun for a few minutes until we heard Sebastien start screaming. We couldn't figure out what had happened until a few minutes later when Sebastien's eye started to swell up and a goose egg appeared on Manti's head. My guess....Sebastien bounced Manti so hard they "crashed heads" (as Sebastien said). Manti was not phased at all and went about playing and Sebastien thought it was the end of the world. It took a good 10-15 minutes to get him to settle down. Poor guy!

Manti came over to check on the status of his buddy. We tried putting ice on it to keep the swelling down but that didn't last long.

You can tell he is just heart broken about this situation. I don't know what was worse...the collision or the ice on his face. He ended up with a little black eye for the first few days of vacation but that didn't slow him down...

The Drive To Arizona

After Christmas and New Year's we got things packed up to head to Arizona. We were all so excited to go visit family and friends. We got the boys up and as I was carrying Sebastien down stairs, I felt REALLY sick. I had to pass him off to Troy really fast and go throw up. I got really nervous for the rest of the day, I was afraid I was going to be throwing up the whole time in the car. Lucky for all of us, that was not the case. I felt great and Troy was a trooper, he drove the WHOLE time.

Sebastien loves to watch movies when we travel and has now figured out how to use the wireless head phones. Troy and I love it because that means we can listen to music while he watches his movies.

Manti is great when it comes to traveling. I thought this was just too cute, him cuddled up with his kitty cat asleep in his car seat.

The boys love the drive through New Mexico. This was one of many trains we got to see.

Sebastien kept asking when we were going to get to Arizona and of course he had fallen asleep when we got to the border. I felt so bad that he was going to miss "getting to Arizona" I took a picture of the sign.
We took this picture as we were driving through Payson. I really miss the Arizona sunsets.

The first thing Troy wanted to do when we got into town was stop at In-N-Out to get a burger. It was so fun because the whole Cahoon family came and met us there. The boys were thrilled to see their cousins. We hung out there for a little bit then went to surprise Ganma and Ganpa Egnew and Aunt Wendi. We pulled into the driveway with all lights off and were very quiet shutting the doors. We walked the boys up to the door and knocked. Troy and I hid behind the other cars and waited for either Ganma or Ganpa to open the door and find two little boys at their door step. It was so fun to see Ganpa's face as he opened the door. He wasn't quite sure what was going on and the boys wasted no time going inside. It was a great way to end the long 15 hour drive.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning was a blast! Both boys were thrilled to see all the presents Santa brought. I will admit, they were VERY spoiled this year and I am glad they are still young and won't know the difference next year when we do things a little different. Rather than explain everything they got, I will just post pictures.

Manti admiring his "ka-chow" pillowcase.

Sebastien loves puzzles and trains. Santa couldn't have gone wrong with this present.

I told you he was spoiled this year!

Santa left this "Cars" ball pit and Manti wasted no time breaking it in.

Troy and I had a nice Christmas gift this year. We found out that the sickness I was having was NOT the flu but from BABY #3! We are very excited to have another little one in the house and cannot wait for July to come to meet him/her.

Christmas Eve

Christmas seemed to sneak upon us pretty quick this year. We got a Christmas tree and decorated, which the boys LOVED! Our tree looked a little silly because the top half was covered with ornaments while the bottom half only had lights. I am assuming that is how it will be for at least the next five years so we are just getting use to that.

Christmas Eve we had Jeff, Jessica, the kids and the missionaries over for dinner and fun. I was still fighting the "flu bug" I got at the beginning of the month and was not feeling well. For dinner we made a yummy roast, rolls, veggies, salad and a sprite/sherbet drink. I think everyone enjoyed it. I on the other hand did not. The smell of the meat cooking made me sick and shortly after eating carrots and having some drink, ran upstairs to throw up!

One thing I do love about the holiday season is baking. This year we seemed to be too busy so the only time I got to make sugar cookies was Christmas Eve. I thought it would be something fun for the kids to do after dinner. They seemed to enjoy decorating cookies for Santa, the missionaries even joined in on the fun and made some cute cookies.

The Missionaries showing off their fancy cookies.

Jake wanted to make sure the cookies were safe for Santa to eat. Good job decorating!

Jace was concentrating very hard on getting that frosting on just right!
Looks like Sebastien liked decorating too.
Sebastien and Jake eating frosting and having lots of fun.

After the cookie fun, the missionaries shared a very special message with us. They talked about the birth of our Savior and the TRUE meaning of Christmas. I know my boys didn't understand the whole thing but they laid on the floor with their cousins at least pretending to understand. It was another great night with the missionaries and after their message they had to leave.

Jadyn, Sebastien, Jake and Jace listening very carefully to the missionaries talk about Jesus.

I really wanted to continue with the Christmas Eve tradition of playing the dollar game. Jeff and Jessica brought the gifts and we all sat around in a circle to play. I never thought that game could be a quick one. Growing up it always lasted for at least 30 minutes and I think we were done this year in 8. Everyone still had a lot of fun, maybe next year we will have more family around to celebrate with. Jeff, Jessica and the kids had to head home shortly after our game because it was late and they still had about a two hour drive home.

We did our own little family thing before going to bed and let the boys open up their Christmas jammies. They were so cute and very excited for Santa to come. Sebastien had a hard time staying in his bed because he wanted to see Santa and we ending up having to put the baby gate up in his doorway.

Sebastien was too excited about opening his present to look at the camera. I think you can still see how excited he really was.

Manti had no problem smiling at the camera.

Here are the boys showing off their jammies. So cute boys, now time for BED!

Once the boys were asleep some friends came over to hang out and help wrap the final presents. We had such a great time visiting with them and are very thankful for the friends they have become.

December Happenings

This was not the best month, for me anyway. December 1st I woke up and felt so awful. I had the worst headache, was completely exhausted and felt so sick to my stomach. The flu!! I was the only one in the family to NOT get the flu shot and knew this had to be my punishment. I honestly did not know how I was going to be able to take care of the boys. Troy was suppose to be out in the missile field and I knew my mom wasn't close enough to come bail be out. We must have had snow that day or something because at 10:30 Troy walked in the door and said their job had been canceled. Thank goodness!! My prince charming had come to save the day. Needless to say, all I did was rest.

A few days later our ward had a playgroup set up to decorate gingerbread houses. I still didn't feel the greatest but knew the boys would love it and I kind of felt I owed it to them. Sebastien LOVED all the bowls of candy to choose from and Manti wasn't disappointed either, he got to sample all the candy Sebastien chose when I wasn't looking. It was a great way to break up the sick days.


These are a few pictures I got of Sebastien's creation. He loved showing it off to daddy so I know it would be happy to show it off to you. We never finished eating it but the pieces we did get to enjoy were sure yummy!

The next weekend, the base had a tree lighting ceremony with an appearance from Santa so we planned on going to that. Still feeling a little crummy I followed through with my promise to the boys and took them even though Troy was working. We got to sing Christmas songs, watch all the lights get turned on and see Santa! Santa came riding in on a firetruck which was an added bonus. He even walked right by us and the boys went wild!

Here is Santa after he got off the firetruck and said hello to most of the kids.

This was the best picture we could get of Santa's fancy ride. Good thing there was a reflection so you can see it better.

With it being December, we ran into Santa all over. We saw him at the commissary, the mall, the tree lighting (above) and at a party we went to. The boys did great with Santa every time they saw him. I was very impressed and of course had to get pictures EVERY time. As you can imagine, we got a few pictures of the boys and Santa this year.

This is the boys with Santa at the mall. It was cold and snowy that day so they are wearing their snow pants. They loved the reindeer hats Santa gave them even though Manti's didn't stay together long enough to get off Santa's lap.

Here is Manti with Santa at a Christmas party we went to. It was so cool because Santa even brought all the little kids presents. Manti got a cool puzzle that he loves and almost has it all figured out now.

Here is Sebastien with Santa. I think I took the picture as Santa was putting Sebastien down but at least we got one. Sebastien was very excited about his present. He couldn't wait to open it so when the time finally came, he was even more excited to see it was a Lightning McQueen car! Yay, great job Santa!

This is Santa at the commissary. They had this cool chair set up for him made out of cases of soda. Isn't it cool! I think Santa even gave the boys a bag of treats too which made the shopping trip even better for them.

This is just a close up shot of the boys and Santa. I wish Sebastien wouldn't have put his hands in his mouth right when the flash went off.

Another fun thing we did this month was we drove down to Loveland, CO to meet Jeff, Jessica and the kids for lunch. The boys are always extremely excited when I tell them we are going to see their cousins. The boys watched a movie while I drove (of course, Troy was working that Saturday). It is very nice to have a dvd player in the car, it makes road trips so much more enjoyable. :) We ended up eating at Red Robin which the boys love because of the balloons and tv's in the floor. They have some benches right outside the restaurant and I got a couple pictures of the boys. Sebastien was too anxious to go inside and kept playing by the door. I told him over and over to move because people won't see him. He eventually learned his lesson and not in a good way. As he was standing right by the door a guy came out of the restaurant in a hurry and just plowed right over Sebastien. He felt so bad but at the same time it was the only way Sebastien would figure out that what I was telling him was true and I wasn't just being a nagging mom. He ended up with a couple of scrapes, bruises and a little blood. As soon as he saw his cousins he started to forget about his battle wounds. Maybe next time he will listen!
I thought I had taken pictures of both boys but I guess not. Here is Manti sitting on the bench waiting to eat! He doesn't look too happy but I promise he was.

We thought about sending the boys of to Ganma and Ganpa for Christmas but the box we had was just a tad bit small. The boys had fun playing in it anyway. Then again, what two year old and 17th month old wouldn't like that??

We could not get them both to look at the same time! Still cute boys and you can tell they enjoyed this. It was actually quite the fight to get them out of the box and clean up. No surprise there, right?

We have a lot to post about Christmas so look for a post all about that to come later. We hope your December was full of fun like ours!