Papa Peeten and EE-EE

Every little boy needs a grandpa that is a good buddy!

A papa that will take you to a hockey game!

Introduce you to the Steelhead bear!

Buy you a popcorn!

Make Rice Krispie treat trains with you!

And do it all while Mommy and Grammy go to a Relief Society dinner and shopping!

Play Time!

The other day I heard Ethan say, "Caden, do you want to play with me?" Even though Caden didn't respond I know he was thinking YES, YES, YES! He loves watching his big brother play and run. Now that he is more mobile they can kind of play together.

The other night Ethan and Clark were playing a game Ethan made up called Cheetah. Basically you run from one corner of the room to the other while jumping over toys. Caden was on all fours watching and grinning! He looked like he wanted to play so much, so Clark picked him up and included him in the game as seen in this video:

I'm sorry I filmed it the wrong way! But it is worth it to tilt your head 90 degrees to watch, it is that cute!

Wanta (rhymes with Santa)

This little one loved Santa and his beard...

This little one loved Santa, but not his beard...

He about fell off Santa's lap trying to keep his beard from touching him.

Clark loves Santa so much he's been putting up Christmas lights so Santa can surely find our house...

(This is not really our house, but it is impressive in the night and in the day. They really make their days "merry and bright!")

On the First Week of Christmas...

This first week of December has been filled with fun Christmas festivities! Christmas time is so much fun with kids, it keeps getting better and better as Ethan gets older and understands what everything is.
His stocking is hanging and he knows about Santa, (or Wanta) as he says. We've written Santa a letter.

Everytime we ask him what Santa is going to bring him for Christmas he says, "a candy treat and a green present." Talk about easy to please...I'm sure hoping Santa can deliver this year!

Sending the letter was a little more difficult. The Santa on this mailbox was terrifying to Ethan, you can see his letter hanging on the edge of the box...he was too scared to push it all the way in.

Ethan has enjoyed finding a little treat in the count-down-calendar every morning. He checks every number regularly throughout the day just to make sure there are no more treats.

He knows all about mistletoe now.

He's learned the story of Jesus' birth a few times and loves pointing out baby Jesus. He knows he's not supposed to touch, but I'm somehow always finding the cow and sheep in different positions.

Since we are leaving this week, this is our only Christmas tree. Ethan is quite proud of it though, because he put all of the little light bulbs in himself.

He's ridden the Christmas train.

He got to see Santa come to the library in a fire truck!

Ethan was way more excited about the fire truck than Santa.

Really, this was the coolest Santa delivery I've ever seen. They spun the tower around and lowered him down right above our heads. Seriously, who needs Rudolph when you have the fire department?

We haven't had any snow yet (yay!), but that hasn't stopped us from making snowmen...

and eating them while watching the Christmas Devotional.

A very serious cookie decorator.

Caden likes Christmas too!

And of course, our annual family picture with Clark in the reindeer suit!

As you can see this first week of Christmas has been fun, busy and a little tiring as you can see here in:

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

I'm sure those sugar plums are dancing quite a jig in his little head!

Thanksgiving in Durango

We went over many rivers and through a lot of woods to get Ethan and Caden to their grandparent's house this year for Thanksgiving! It was a quick trip...we figured we were gone 120 hours, and traveling (airports, planes, cars, etc.) about 41 of those hours!

This picture was taken in our hotel in Alamosa, CO after about 13 hours of travel. It was 12:30 a.m. when we arrived, but both boys got their second wind! The balloons were given to us in Colorado Springs by the Wendy's employee. They worked great to keep Caden entertained our last hour of driving.

But all of the travel was well worth it when we got to Durango on Thanksgiving Day! Everyone was there: Clark's parents, his 6 siblings and spouses, our 20 nieces and nephews, a new nephew-in-law, and us...altogether there were 39 of us! It was great to see everyone! We had a wonderful day feasting, playing, chatting, breaking a pinata, listening to our talented nephews and nieces play the piano, and listening to Vaughn teach us about the Monticello Temple and the miracle of the green windows.

All of the grandkids in order by age.

Just the boys.

The girls who are little in number but big in personality!

Oldest to Youngest (except Caden being held in the middle)

I thought little Sara and Ethan looked so cute next to each other!

Aunt Patty helping Caden stand up for the line-up.

Karin (21) and Caden (6 months), the oldest and youngest (currently) grandchildren.

Erin is so good with babies!

Delanie designed and made this awesome cake! She is the real Cake Boss!

When it was time to eat Clark and I were too slow finding a seat, so Ethan got to eat without any parental supervision. It was quite a relaxing dinner for us, sorry to everyone else!

This is Ethan reciting his Tiny Tim Turtle poem, he started strong and then ended in a barely audible whisper when he realized everyone was watching him.

Pinata Time!

The lovely girls that were brave enough to marry into the Johnson family!

On Friday we all went to Monticello, all of the adults were able to attend a temple session together. It was a very special and unforgettable experience to be in the temple with everyone.

Brothers.

While we were in the temple all of the cousins got to play at the church.

Saturday we got to spend a day with Jay and Lucy and their boys. Ethan had the time of his life playing with his cousins and getting into mischief (sorry again about the toothpaste).

All in all it was a fabulous trip, so great to have the whole family together!

6 Months Old

Cute little teeth!

Caden's 6 Month Stats:

Weight: 20.3 lbs. (90%)

Height: 28 inches (89%)

Head: (97%)

Healthy, Happy Boy!

Today he tried rice cereal for the first time. I'm pretty sure he didn't swallow any of it, but he loved chewing on the spoon.

Go Cougars!

If you are ever looking for us, try looking at on I-80 between Omaha and Des Moines...we've done that drive A LOT lately! Last night we made the drive so we could watch BYU basketball play Creighton. We had tickets with the Hamilton family.

It was worth the drive since BYU won! It was a lot of fun going to a game, we haven't been to one in a while. Ethan loved yelling, "BYU, BYU, BYU!" He also loved repeating everything Clark shouted, "Defense, shot, etc." Luckily Clark didn't use any expletives. We felt a little bit bad for the man who's ear was right by Ethan's mouth.

Our seats were really high up in the upper balcony, but the 2 sections next to us were filled with BYU fans...so that was a lot of fun!

After the game all of the BYU fans gathered behind the BYU bench and the coaches and team captains said a few things, signed autographs, etc. One of the Creighton fans saw all of us gathering after the game and was shocked that so many of us would travel all the way from Utah...BYU is lucky because no matter where they travel they will find a big group of Cougars ready to support the team. I really wanted a picture with Jimmer holding Caden, but we weren't willing to fight the crowd.

Here's just some of the BYU fans after the game, pretty good for an away game that is 1,000 miles from the school.

I think the victory helped heal Clark's tender heart after the big football loss to Utah last Saturday. Go Cougars!