Video Games Live! FTW!

The Friday after Christmas Jaaromy and I went to the Video Games Live concert at Abravanel Hall. I have been waiting for this concert for forever and was so excited to see that it was part of Utah Symphony's season. Jaaromy was excited for a chance to wear his Cthulu shirt that I gave him for Christmas to a place where people might actually understand it.


It was quite the show. We went to Play: A Video Game Symphony last year and, while fun, it wasn't nearly as awesome as this one. They really get the audience involved and their video game choices were better. There was a costume contest and also before the concert they had a Guitar Hero competition in the lobby and then during the concert the winner came out and got to play it live with the orchestra. It's not my game but it was super fun and exciting to watch. I'm sure it was pretty awesome for the winner too.
The young girl sitting next to me was pretty happy to be there and would squeal every time they played songs from her favorite games. Honestly, about half the time(at least) we both squealed for the same songs. For example, the second encore was Still Alive from Portal and we both(me and the girl, although Jaaromy thought it was cool too) Squeee-ed with delight and sang along.

I know this was super nerdy, but it was also super fun. There is a lot of good music out there in video games. I can't wait to go again next time it's in town.

Christmas Scooters

Nathaniel and Jonathan each got a scooter from Grandma Bonnie for Christmas. This was my idea. I was hoping that it would be a good, simple way for them to learn balance so that, ideally, riding a bike would be easier.


So, on the day after Christmas I suggested they go outside to ride them. Jonathan was happy to try it out. Nathaniel was less so. I sort of had to force him to come out and give it a try for a specific amount of time. He took his time getting dressed and ready so that by the time he came out, Jonathan was already getting the hang of it.


This was frustrating for Nathaniel. He kept saying that Jonathan was better at it than he was and I told him that it was because he had been practicing longer.


He toughed it out and rode his scooter for as long as I made him.


Jonathan was nice enough to keep riding with Nathaniel even though he had already been out riding for a while.

We'll have to keep trying, I'm sure it will get easier as it gets warmer too.

Christmas

I was just about to make the late-post excuse that at least it hadn't been a whole month since Christmas but then I looked at the calendar and I realized that it's been exactly a month since Christmas. Uh, well, I guess then at least it hasn't been more than a month since Christmas. Whew, dodged a bullet there.

Anywho, our Christmas was great. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Well, not really. But I will try, for posterity's sake, to remember it like it was yesterday.

Christmas Eve was nice. We had most of the day to relax and since it was Saturday, Jaaromy was there with us.


We turned on the Christmas Tree train and the boys watched it for quite a while.

We went to an family party that night with Jaaromy's extended family and had some good food and opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Hand and some white elephant presents for the kids. The adults did white elephant presents too, but we didn't bring anything to share and so didn't participate. I think I'm okay with that. I've never been a fan of white elephant presents.

After that party we stopped by my parents house for a quick visit. Rachelle and Don were there which was nice because I don't think I've seen Rachelle on Christmas in years. We watched A Christmas Story and Nathaniel played Dominoes with some of my siblings. It was time to go but he was having fun and he even won a game so I didn't want to make him stop.

That night the boys opened their presents from Jaaromy and I.


Pajamas! Wow, were they surprised. ;) After they put on their pajamas we watched Little Drummer Boy and then went to bed. After making sure everything was ready for Santa, Jaaromy and I went to bed too, we were so tired and we had 9:00 church.

There are few things that I'm willing to wake up earlier than absolutely necessary for and it looks like Santa isn't one of them.


I covered up the stairs with a sheet and we took the boys to church. It was a beautiful meeting though, and though I would have preferred a later start time, it was wonderful to have Sacrament meeting on Christmas Day. I sang a few songs with the choir and even played in a cello quartet like last year. It was a nice way to remember what Christmas is all about.

When we got home from church I had the boys put their pajamas back on and we went about the morning as if we had just woken up.


I always take a picture of them waiting on the stairs but they usually look a lot more sleepy. There really isn't much of a difference between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning in this case.

I think the boys found that it was all worth the wait.


Nathaniel got a lot of books all about his favorite things.


Jonathan got lots of awesome space things!


Brigham got lots of cool things too, but his favorite by far was his Space Chase. He watched it all morning.

Since we had to wait until my parents were home from church before we could go over, we had a lot of time to hang out.


Like father like son? Think about it, won't you?


His very own cardboard rocket!


Seriously, all morning.

Finally it was time to go to my parents' house for "breakfast", the Best Meal of the Year. This year my dad made sausage patties! I didn't think the Best Meal of the Year could get any better but apparently it can and did. Because of church everyone had a smaller window of time to come over which meant everyone was there at the same time. Except three of my siblings, we were all there and it was very busy.


My mom wanted to watch all the kids open their presents so we were sort of taking turns. This turned out to be cruel and unusual punishment for those of us who had to wait so in the end she gave up and let us go.

Then it was on to Jaaromy's parents' house. We weren't quite ready to eat again so soon but we managed. Schedules didn't quite line up as one of Jaaromy's siblings had to leave almost as soon as we got there, so we got right to the presents. Jaaromy's mom made us a cute advent calendar. It will be fun to use next year. Also, she gave each family a mini cupcake maker! I'm excited to try it out.


I'm terrible at taking pictures at large family events, so I made it a point to get some. Especially with Jaaromy's family. It was so busy, but fun.

Thanks for sticking around to the end, it was a good Christmas and I didn't want to leave anything out.

"Christmas Eve"

I had already written my Christmas post when I realized that I forgot to post about "Christmas Eve".

"Christmas Eve" was a whole week before Christmas this year but that was okay. We also celebrated December birthdays, birthdays such as Jonathan's.



Grandma Bonnie gave him some fun presents.

During the prayer on the food Jared announced that Kristy is pregnant. Yep, you read that right, during the prayer. What a goon! After a super tasty dinner we sang to the birthday people.



Right as I was taking a picture my camera batteries died. Kyle was nice enough to take some with his phone and share them with me.

With fresh batteries in my camera we got started on the Nativity. Rachelle was in charge and with church meetings and birthdays and Christmas, she wanted to make sure our time was used efficiently. She had all the costumes organized with the kids names on them and special helpers in charge of getting them passed out and put on.


Nathaniel was one of the Josephs.


Jonathan was the Innkeeper.


Brigham was a shepherd.


He tolerated the costume but decided there were more fun things to do than sit around waiting for his turn to sit around some more. Not a big deal, there was no shortage of participants.


Since we had two babies, we had two Mary and Josephs. Nathaniel and Tia were Mary and Joseph to Brielle's Baby Jesus. She didn't much like being in the manger. Davin was happy to step in for Baby Jesus and the Nativity was a success.


Well, as successful as it can be with 25+ individual personalities at various stages of maturity.

Chaotic, but fun!

School Christmas Concerts

All three of my boys were involved with Christmas concerts this year. It was a lot of fun to see them perform.

Brigham's school did theirs on Monday, thankfully, so I didn't have to try to be in two places at once.


Brigham didn't really sing, but neither did any of the kids in his class really. It was still cute and I still recorded it.


The Kindergarten sang two songs and the first one was quite long and so less than halfway through the second song, one of Brigham's teachers pulled him off stage because he just wouldn't stand still. The second song was Jingle Bells and although he didn't sing it then, he did sing it for us several times at home which was super cute.

So Tuesday was Nathaniel and Jonathan's concert day. In the morning was the band concert and I was able to go without children and Grandpa Jay made it over to watch too.


When I chose a chair I had to guess where Nathaniel would be sitting. Luckily, I guessed right and was able to sit right up front on the same side.


Jonathan's class was close by too! These are the only still pictures I took, the rest I grabbed from the videos.

That afternoon was the Sing-A-Long. This time I had Brigham with me which was interesting. Thankfully, a neighbor saved me a seat so we weren't too far away.

Jonathan's class went first.


His class sang I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas and it was adorable. Jonathan even sang! I was so proud of him. Right before the song ended my memory card filled up! I guess I should have uploaded the old videos before I came to the Sing-A-Long. Fortunately, I still had my phone. Unfortunately, Brigham was playing with it. So during Jonathan's second song you can occasionally hear him crying in the video.

By the time Nathaniel's class came out there were a lot fewer parents. I was able to get a seat in the second row right next to our Bishop, which was fortunate because I would need my phone again to record Nathaniel's songs and I didn't know if Brigham would like that. It was also fortunate because I can't zoom in with my phone and we would need to be much closer to see anything.


Sorry it's fuzzy, my phone isn't as great as my camera. Nathaniel's class sang Jingle Bell rock and even required some dancing.


I'm proud of Nathaniel for going along with it. He did great!

It was fun to see my boys perform and if I've learned anything, it's that I need a memory card larger than 1 GB.

It's great to be eight!

Jonathan's birthday was last month and I think it just may have been the best birthday ever.

We started out with a trip to the Planetarium. Do I even need to say that? Of course we went to the Planetarium, that's what you do on birthdays. We hadn't been in a little while and they had made a few changes in our absence.

First new exhibit was the cloud maker.


It was pretty cool and the boys agreed. Brigham eventually thought it was cool, once I put his hand in to show that it wasn't dangerous.


The second new exhibit was the lightning ball thingy. I honestly don't know what they're called so I hope you know what I'm talking about. There were a lot of other kids around putting their hands on it which kind of made the lightning not as impressive. Perhaps next time we'll get a better look.


We finally got to see Secret of the Cardboard Rocket. We haven't seen it in ages because they stopped showing it on Saturdays and then they stopped showing it during the summer. Well, it's back and it's on Saturdays so we're all very excited.


Gotta get a picture on the moon.


Jonathan's favorite planet.


Another new exhibit was this life-size model of the Mars rover Spirit. Pretty cool!

Jonathan was especially excited to pick out a present in the Planetarium store. So many cool things to choose from. In the end he decided to get a solar system model kit. The kind that you have to assemble and paint yourself. I was a little concerned with how this would go since Jonathan never seemed to have the patience to color pictures, let alone whole spheres.


He got right on it when we got home. I did end up helping him for the finer detailed work but he did great and had a lot of fun painting.


He loves it and it even came with glow-in-the-dark paint so it's even better!

That night he opened his other presents and we had treats.

More planets to paint! I didn't plan it that way. We got these for Jonathan's cousin for Christmas a couple years ago but we changed our minds and it's been kicking around for a while so we just decided to give it to Jonathan.


This awesome tent/tunnel combo is something that I've wanted to get him for a long time.


He and Brigham both thought it was pretty fun and it stayed up in our family room for a while.


Jonathan had a great birthday. He had been looking forward to it for a long time and when it was over he was genuinely sad. Jonathan is a happy kid and I'm so glad he is in our family. Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

2011 Yearbook

There was a sale on photobooks at Shutterfly so I've been working really hard to get our 2011 yearbook done on time. Take a look.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly offers exclusive photobook layouts so you can make your book just the way you want.

This is the longest book I've made so far. Probably because I was mostly caught up and events were more recent so I was actually able to journal a little more. Also, I think that I probably took more pictures because I knew I was going to put them in the book. I hope that doesn't deter any of you from viewing it.

I'm excited to get started on this year's book.