How we celebrated Christmas

After sharing the Christmas story and some carols with the whole family, it was time to get the kids to bed so santa could come. The boys opened their Christmas PJs. The long john style didn't come in maternity so I sat this picture out.


All the gifts for 4 families and Gram-E and Papa

Nobody went without this year for sure!

On to Christmas morning. Santa brought Kellon a weed eater. He didn't care about opening other gifts. He just wanted to play with his weed eater.

Santa knew that he needed to bring a chainsaw too so that both boys would have a power tool to play with.

Bright smiling faces on Christmas morning. Our boys woke up first and went downstairs to wake up the rest of the crew.

As part of the festivities the kids made gingerbread houses. They left a plate for santa on the mantle next to all the houses.

McCrae wanted to eat his house a few days later. He attempted but it mostly just crumbled apart.

Kellon playing on Papa's tractor. It was warm enough for most of the time we were in Kanab the kids got to go to the park a few times and play. They were excited because at home all the parks were covered in snow. We spent a lot of time eating and playing games. Fourteen adults and fourteen kids made for a lot of time spent preparing food and a Lot of groceries. The kids played really well together for the most part. No one got seriously injured - always a plus!

Bryan getting practiced up for our baby to come by holding baby Hanne.

Our Christmas letter for 2010

Dear Family and Friends,
Another year has gone and once again the Christmas Season is upon us. What a very special time of year. It is wonderful to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are so blessed to have him in our lives. The year has been busy, but fun and satisfying. As a family we have enjoyed the time we have spent with extended family and friends throughout the year, but most of all we have cherished the time we have spent together as “our” family.
Bryan continues to enjoy his job at the Space Dynamics Lab. His time is spent programming, designing new systems, and setting them up. He continues to travel for work, but this year it has been significantly less than previous years, for which Hayley is extremely grateful. His travels this year took him to the Naval Base in Yokosuka, Japan, which was very exciting. He was even able to visit the Tokyo LDS Temple. His job as scout master in our ward keeps him busy too.
Hayley spends much of her time at home with McCrae and Kellon and wouldn’t have it any other way. She loves being a stay-at-home mom, but is so relieved when Bryan walks through the door at night and can help with the wrangling. When not trying to contain the energy of two boys she is cooking, cleaning, decorating cakes for family and neighbors, and making crafts to decorate our home. She is enduring the last trimester of pregnancy. We are all excited to welcome to our family another baby boy due in March 2011.
McCrae spends much of his time building with Legos, constructing extravagant Thomas the Tank Engine tracks, playing with friends, and running for safety from Kellon. His excitement for Legos continues to grow and that is what he has asked Santa to bring him this year. There is also always a track for Thomas to cruise somewhere in the house, no room is safe. McCrae has started Preschool this year and loves it. The only problem is he never can seem to remember what he learned that day when we ask him. He likes learning new things and has become interested in trying to read, he tries very hard to sound out the letters in the words in his bedtime stories. McCrae turned 5 this year and celebrated his birthday with his first “friend” party.
Kellon is no longer that quiet little baby who would sit so calmly on your lap two years ago. He runs, screams, chases, climbs, hides, and terrorizes his older brother. He too likes to play with Legos, but unlike his brother who builds with them, he likes to stick them up his nose, the total count now is 4, three happened to be at one time in the same nostril. We have been hoping he will grow out of the terrible two’s with great emphasis on TERRIBLE. Its too bad he is such a cute talker and occasionally sweet and loveable, for these moments we guess we will keep him.
We hope this letter finds you happy and well. We cherish your love and friendship. We love you and wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
With Love,
Bryan, Hayley, McCrae, & Kellon

Family Pictures

Thanksgiving with the Wilkins'

Thanksgiving was in Vernal with Bryan's family this year. The weather was frigid cold but with no snow. The boys enjoyed being at grandpa and grandma's house for the long weekend as well as eating thanksgiving dinner at old old aunt Dawn's. I started having a lot of braxton hicks contractions while we were there to the point I had to sit down to try to relax and get them to stop. A trip to the doctor when we got back home quickly revealed that I was not going in to pre-term labor. Whew! I regeret that I did not take a single picture.

November Birthdays

McCrae turns FIVE!!!!

He wanted a dinasour train birthday party this year so Buddy came to the party (in the form of a rice krispy cake).

Cupcakes for his preschool class and his party.

Spin and fix thomas the train from mom and dad.

His first birthday celebrating with friends. They went on a scavenger hunt where they found train whistles, dinasour stickers, made conductor hats, decorated dinasour eggs, played pin the dinasour in the sky and broke a dinasour pinata.

It got a little crazy at times hearding all these boys around but overall I think they all had a fun time at the party.

McCrae turns 5 and Hayley turns....another year older!!!!!!!!!!!

The morning of my birthday Bryan and I went to the doctor for baby's 20 week ultrasound. We knew he was a he but we were happy to see all major organs and limbs of our little bambino in tact. I got what I really wanted for my birthday a dinner date with the hubby and an ice cream cake from coldstone. It was YUMMY!!!!

Our family picture with the camera timer.

Twas the night before Halloween

and all through the house,
there were costumes, and candy but not
one little mouse. Just the big bad wolf and the
three little pigs.


Little pig little pig let me come in....
Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin
I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down.


The boys getting ready to go trick-or-treating. They were only gone for about 15 minutes and came back soaked from the rain.

Our Jack-O-Lantern pizza was so tastey for dinner!

McCrae and his coffin sandwich he made for lunch.

Showing off their festive shirts to celebrate the season.

Happy Halloween everyone!!!!

It's a...............

We couldn't be more SURE or excited to make Mom REALLY out numbered! We are having another BOY!!!!

What we've been up to lately....

We have a preschooler!


McCrae started going to preschool at the beginning of September. He goes three days a week. So far he looks forward to going each time. He is sounding out letters to read words and is already getting better at writing letters.


If you have been to our local Sam's Club snack counter you'll get what this picture is about. The same cheerful lady is always at the snack counter and wears a big chef's hat. One night as I was getting the boys in the bath McCrae says "look mom I'm the pretzel lady at Sam's Club". He made pretend pretzels for all of us.



Gas-popper!! Kellon came inside to proudfully exclaim he had caught a grasshopper.
I knew when I heard him saying gas-popper that he had brought the catch inside.



McCrae had 'Fireman David' come to school one day. He loved that the kids got to climb inside the firetruck and even hold the water hoses. He learned about fire safety and what to do in an emergency.

Naptime got postponed too long. He fell asleep during lunch.

Kellon LOVES Grandpa! He wanted to be just like grandpa during dinner.

What have I been up to Lately?

Well... a LOT of nausea, a little puking, and mostly just trying to get through each day!

We are excited to be expecting number 3!!!!!

The Progress

Our basement is fixed!!!!! Bryan has been working very hard to get the basement done and put back together. I feel like I can go down there again to maybe watch a movie or do something more than just laundry. Everything from the guest room and laundry room was piled up in the family room. It was WAY too cluttered and messy during the clean up. But it is all finished now Hooray!!!!

The before:


During:

After:

Our flooded basement

The first lawn mowing day of the year Bryan turned on the back faucet to clean off the lawn mower. Little did we know it had froze during the winter and split the pipe on the inside. It sprayed water inside the walls. That night Bryan happened to go downstairs for something and discovered the MESS! We called our neighbor to help pull up the carpet and turned fans on and went to bed. The next day Bryan cut into the walls and pulled out all the wet insulation.


Stuart kindly came up the first part of June to help re-insulate and put up new sheet rock.


We hired a guy to come and mud the walls and now we (Bryan) is waiting for spare time to paint and get things back in order.



The same weekend Grandpa and Grandma came, little cousin Karter came to visit too!

Giving the dog a ride in the fixed up bike trailer.

Keebie and the kids found a spider.

Our journey to Lake Tahoe

Bryan couldn't take more time off work so we went to Lake Tahoe with out him. We definately missed him while we were there. We met up with Gram-E, Bayden & Mandy and Kami & Kai in Winnemucca and then made the rest of the trip together.


We went to Virginia City one day. I didn't take any pictures that day :(. WE saw cowboys and outlaws, took a trolley ride and McCrae's favorite, a train ride which included riding through tunnels. It was fun learning about gold and silver mines and seeing the history.

This is how Kellon and I spent our pool time. Too bad it wasn't inside the pool! He wanted to be everywhere EXCEPT in the water.

Uncle Bayden and Kellon becoming good friends.

In front of the castle

McCrae hitched a ride because he was "running out of energy". I knew I couldn't carry him. Uncle Bayden saved the day!

All the cousins taking a break from hiking.

On the trail down to the sweedish castle. Proof that Kellon was there. He had the best mode of transportation for the steep hike back up.

A beautiful waterfall way above the lake.

It wasnt' hard to wear out the kids each day. A hike mixed with too much sun does it every time.

For the trip home I did not anticipate throw up when I packed an overnight bag for the three of us. We started home and stayed the night at Kami and Kai's house. The boys slept the whole trip from Carson City to Winnemucca so when I took them in the house McCrae went right back to sleep. Kellon was an entirely different story. He wanted to eat so as I was finding something he gagged and threw up. I had to borrow jammies from Laina. I guess this is how he would look as a girl?

The rest of the way home was an adventure as well. I took a wrong turn in Wells, NV and we ended up in Twin Falls, ID rather than Snowville and Tremonton OOPS! It made for a VERY long day and a grouchy mom the whole trip.