Quick Post #3 The Snowman that Came to Life

Meet David.  Jack and Zack built him two days ago out of our first snowfall of the season. 

Each night we share with each other our best and worst parts of the day (thanks to the Rich's for this great tradition).  Two nights ago Jack said the whole day was his best part, but his worst part was too hard for him to talk about for a few minutes.  When we revisited the topic, Jack, head hung low, told us it was when he had to say goodbye to David the snowman.

The next morning Jack was anxious to visit David.  I got a bit ahead of the boys and saw that someone had taken our snowman's head, hat and scarf and made a new snowman a couple of feet away from where we left David.  I was immediately worried about how Jack would take the news and angry with whatever person was mean enough to decapitate a little kid's snowman.

When Zack saw what had happened, he immediately went into a story of how David must have come to life and moved during the night.  He made a game of it and Jack was elated to have built a real life magic snowman!

And I remembered all over again why I married Zack.  His optimism (among other things).  Sure it can infuriate me at moments when he tells people how blessed we are in life and all I want to do is scream "REALLY!!! Are you paying any attention to what we are going through???!!"

And then I realize that's just it, he is paying attention to what's really important and choosing to focus on that.  He is a testament of optimism and gratitude and I need that reminder in my life. 

This morning Jack woke up and wanted to go see how David made it through the night.  Did he find a new spot in the field?  Nope, overnight he GREW.

Before just a few feet tall

and After.  Wowza! (Jack and his friend Aruzhan)

We can't wait to see what magic tomorrow brings!

Quick Post #2 - The Day we cut down our Christmas Tree

We drove an hour out of town to a quaint little tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree New England style.  Our dear friends the Bowens were awesome and joined us on our adventure.

Things you need for a successful Christmas tree cutting down adventure.
1. The right shoes

I honestly thought I was making a good shoe decision that day.  I chose closed toe shoes which even Annee will attest is a HUGE step forward given my flip flop Utah winters.  :) Still, what the heck was I thinking?  I will just chalk it up to a California girl's mistake.  Christmas tree cutting down adventures require boots.  (maybe cute leather ones with heels? It's a process right?)

2.  The right pants

This trip will always be known as the day Jonathan's pants split.  Good times follow the Bowen family, that's why we hang with them. 

3.  The right tree

 4.   A Strong handsome man to do the hard labor.

No pants were harmed in the cutting down of this tree...

5.  A possee as sweet as mine to make memories with.

Quick Posts - Day 1

I am a super lame blogger.  I think of blog posts everyday and write them in my head and never get them down onto the computer.  So I am going to post one quick thing I meant to for the next 7 days to try to spark some blogging energy back into my life.

I want to remember the month when Jack was Mario.  He wore this costume day and night for nearly a month prior to Halloween.  It was one of those moments when I saw Zack in his delight that strangers were looking at him and commenting on how cool he was.  That's so not my shy away from notice personality.  I love him so much and am grateful that the man I love the most in this world is shining back at me in Jack too.