22 months...

I was looking back at posts from last January and I can't believe how much my little boy has grown! He loves to watch this video of himself playing hockey from when he was 22 months old. I seriously died thinking that he is 34 months already! Wow... the past year has flown by...

My little hockey man!

THE TORCH

On Wednesday, the Olympic Torch made it's way through our little town. I figured that we might as well go because you never know if you will get to see it again. I remember in 2002, my parents FORCED us (ok, probably just stubborn 17-year-old me who complained about being cold and tired) to go and watch as the torch made it's way down 13th East on the way to Salt Lake City. I figured I should do a re-do for my memory of the whole thing and make it a good experience. Deakon and I went down a little early to pick up a few things at Canadian Tire and then I loaded him up to find a good place to watch. A few minutes later Bret came down to watch with us. There were several volunteers handing out Canadian and Olympic flags and other noise makers.

The route through Cochrane went right in front of Kyle's work. That morning I asked if he would be able to watch and he didn't think he would so we parked at the beginning of the route. After about 20 minutes of waiting, Kyle called and said that his work had shut down to watch and that we should walk down. We quickly started walking and I was sure we would miss it, but we made it with time to spare. (why do they tell you things start 1/2 an hour before they really do?!) The walk down was actually really good for Deakon because he was getting restless and we got to see lots of kids on our way down. Quite a few school buses showed up with kids who had made torches and signs.

The torch finally came and we were lucky enough to be right in front of an exchange so it was a bit more dramatic.

Yay, go Canada!

Skating...

Last winter, Bret bought Deakon some little training skates. We didn't go last year (I honestly thought he was just too little...) and he has been DYING to go this year. Every time he would see snow in the morning, he would ask if today was the day that he could go skating. We had to wait for a few weeks of really cold weather in December to freeze the outdoor rink, but then it was so close to our trip that we didn't take him before Christmas.

2 weeks ago, we finally gave the kid a break and took him. He was so excited all day (we- Bret and I- were actually going to go in the morning, but Kyle decided that he wanted to come) and he had so much fun! He did really well too. He feel down a bunch, but was so excited to get up and try again. Half the ice was dedicated to a hockey game, but nobody was there so he was really excited to go and get in the net and pretend to be goalie. He has had a thing lately for goalies- I am thinking it is probably the big face mask. These pictures aren't the best, but we had to document the fun. Too bad we have had such nice weather since and the ice is all melty. We will have to wait to go again when it freezes up again.

All bundled up and marshmellowy with his snow pants:

Kyle, Deak, and Bret:

Christmas DAY 2009... and meeting Molly!

*Warning... this post is PICTURE HAPPY!!!*

Merry Christmas!!!

Deakon was the first one up Christmas morning and it was a fight to make everybody else wake up. Geez... people. We met in the front room as per tradition, had family prayers, and then lined up in order ready to make a run for the family room. I love that we took this picture and nobody made sure Deakon was even in it. Hahaha.

John, Christian, Debbie, Kyle, Me, Sarah, Becca, and Stake:

(yes... those are snuggies my sister's are wearing. apparently my sisters would always make fun of them and so their roommates thought it would be a perfect gift for them for Christmas)

There's Deakon!
We made a run for the tree... well, Deakon ran about 3 steps and didn't understand what was going on so he turned around and waited for us to show him the way.

Christmas morning family pic. Yes, Kyle is wearing a Shrek helmet:

Checking out his stocking. It is so funny that he was so shocked that this M&M toy was in there because he picked it out for himself the day before at Smiths. By the way... has anyone seen that? We must have left it at Grandmas:

Deakon's favorite toy of the day. A nail gun. He keeps asking for more and more tools- good thing his birthday is coming up in March:

I guess I really liked this picture so enjoy it again:

Baby Nixon cleaned up too. He got lots of new clothes:

We had a great Christmas! Kyle got me a new purse, wallet, watch, and belt. He got a new watch, some bb stuff, a few shirts, and a new PS3 game. We got fun new clothes and some moolah from the parentals. After cleaning up and have Jeannie and Brent's family come over for breakfast and some Hulk action. Oh wait... I didn't tell that story. Luke got a Jeep powerwheels from Santa and Santa very kindly left the big box at Grandma's house for some little boys to find. Noah and Deakon were having a blast popping out of the box, but after awhile things started getting a little rowdy between them. Kyle, after kindly (so he says...) asking them to settle down a few times. Strolled over and literally RIPPED the box in half! We were left speechless in the kitchen (ok, most of us left the room to laugh our guts out) while Noah and Deakon burst into tears. Ha ha ha. It was so funny.

While Deakon was asleep, some of us watched Star Trek and then we finally got ready for the day

Family Christmas pic... for those of you that know Kyle and his picture ability, I think you will agree that this is a pretty darn good one. Please ignore the moustache that he decided to grow out for the holidays:

I like this picture because it shows off Deakon's mohawk that I decided I could stand no more and had Eva cut off this week:

Christmas night we patiently waited for Meri and Shane to fly in so we could do a family dinner and gift exchange. These pictures are kind of random and out of order.

Becky, Judd, and Danny getting Judd ready for bed:

Deakon falling down the potty:

I think this is Becky opening a gift from my mom? They weren't with us Christmas morning so they got to open gifts after dinner:

We decided to do the gifts this year as couples and I think it worked out pretty well. Stake had us and he got Kyle a shirt and me a gift certificate to the best place ever... Noodles and Company. Thanks Stake!

John (Sarah's bf), Sarah, Danny, and Becky:

John and Sarah... get married already...

Meri and Shane FINALLY came and we got to meet little Molly in person! I was so excited. It is fun to have another niece to mix in with all of these boys!!!

Papa and Molly:

We pretty much bombarded them at the door:

Yay for Molly!

Becky, Jeannie, Lily, Debbie, Molly, Me, and Meri

We ended the fun night playing games... ps, why do we always do boys against girls? I just don't get it...

Christmas Eve 2009

I know... I am a month behind! I just got some pics from my mom so I am starting from the beginning. We left on the 23rd as soon as Kyle could get off. Unfortunately, that wasn't until after 3. We made a bad decision of driving through Calgary instead of going all of the way around and were stuck in traffic for like an hour. It was not such a great start. Once we were out of the city things went pretty smooth. We didn't have any problems at the border (nicest guy ever... actually) and ended up staying in Great Falls for the night. Besides Deakon being too big for the playpen, one end is kind of bent so we were a bit worried about how he would do in a bed. I tried laying down with him and he thought it was the funnest game ever. I finally got mad and went over to the other bed with Kyle and we ignored him and in less than 10 minutes he was out. I went back over and slept with him because I was worried he would roll right off. We got up bright and early at 6:30 to pack up the car (we had to take a bunch of stuff into the hotel because it was like -2 F and we wanted to have edible snacks for the day) We stopped off at Smith's to grab chap stick and a few treats for our stockings. We were off and made it to Idaho Falls around 1. I was so excited to be almost done. We stopped and ate at Wendy's and then headed to Salt Lake. We borrow Ron and Doreen's portable DVD player and it was SO smart of us. Deakon was content to eat snacks and watch movies until after lunch. He fell asleep and when he woke up an hour later the sun was in his eyes which started a HUGE tantrum of "the sun is bugging me" "i need a hug" "i want you mommy" blah blah... cry cry... Now, maybe you think that I am a mean mom for not stopping the car to give my son a hug, but we were in OGDEN people... forty five minutes away... and I was tired and so we let him cry for quite awhile. Sorry buddy. We finally pulled into my parent's driveway at 4:30 and we couldn't have been happier! I was starving and immediately served so many GF baked goods I made myself sick. It was fantastic! We had a nice dinner, played some games, and had a little Christmas FHE. The kids opened their new jamies and we sent them off to bed so we could do big kid stuff.

Sarah, Danny, Debbie, Me, and Becca EATING... (sorry Becca, not the best pic)

Kyle, Deakon, and Ethan... more EATING!
New pajamas:

Trying to get a good pic of the kiddos:

Luke, Lily, Deakon, Noah, Ethan

Belly Shot! Almost 27 weeks.

Kid's Christmas Party, THEE Palliser, and Nick's

I am so behind on blogging! I got so wrapped up in getting ready for Utah and doing fun Christmas party stuff that I am just getting a chance to document everything now. Here are some pics from our festivities the week before Christmas. (Friday the 18th) Kyle's work has a party every year for all of the employee's kids. Deakon was so excited to go that he hardly took a nap (should have known not to tell him...) We got down there and Santa came in and Deakon's face lit up so much that I laughed out loud. He was called first and ran up like a champ. (he was first last year too... weird) Anyway, he was so excited to open his 2 gifts from Santa. They also gave them a candy cane and a gift certificate to McDonald's for a Happy Meal. Deak let us know right away that he wanted that for dinner- "the one with a toy!" (thanks a lot Jenn... jk) He also had a blast, as usual, testing out the cars in the showroom. Thanks Cochrane Dodge and Santa!

Showing off his loot:

Checking out the storage in the back of the van:
Such a happy little boy... this day anyway:

Driving the truck:

Saturday the 19th, we got up bright and early to make like a million (ok... 4) packages of bacon to take up to the Ward Christmas party. This year they did a little brunch with kids activities and then a program at the end. Brunch was excellent because they had EVERYTHING you could think of to eat: pancakes, french toast, bacon, sausage, eggs, fruit, yogurt, etc. It was delicious. We took Deakon around to decorate a rice krispy tree, make a nativity set for FHE, and get a family picture taken with Santa (NO... I will not post this picture. Kyle's eyes were closed and my body is making an extremely awkward looking pose. Just look at the cute one above!) They also had some kid's movies playing, but after Deakon started running in front of the projector, we quickly left that room. They had a short program reading and acting out the Nativity scene. The primary had to sing the opening song and I am pretty sure that the only person anybody heard was me... SOLO time. They wouldn't even look at me... darn kids. Just kidding. A group of us in the old/new primary leadershipy positions (like that?) sang a song near the end that I thought went well. Deakon and Kyle didn't last for the program and so I told them how awesome I was when I got home. :) The afternoon consisted of getting ready for Primary the next day and getting ready for Kyle's adult Christmas party at The Palliser! I had been so excited for this since we found out. A chance to dress up, eat fancy food, and ditch our son for a night out- plus a free room at a gorgeous hotel... who wouldn't be excited. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a dress from Eva's sister who was pregnant at Bret and Eva's wedding so it was perfect! We got to The Palliser and quickly checked in and checked out the room before heading down for end of the cocktail hour... probably should have stayed in our room for a bit longer as we kind of stood getting asked what we were drinking... ok, not so much the pregnant chick, but you get the picture. They did the party with 2 other dealerships. All 3 dealerships have the same owners so there were a lot of people there. We found a few of the younger guys to sit with and settled down for an INCREDIBLE 4 hour meal. I had emailed the hotel earlier in the week to request a gluten free meal and they did not disappoint. They didn't have to change too many things, which is always nice, and I got one on one attention from a server all night. We had a delicious tomato soup (which some dumb girl kept insisting that is tasted like spaghetti sauce... some people's kids...) a beautiful salad- really, it was like art on a plate. I didn't want to mess it up. For the main course we had some super good cut of steak (can't remember which one...) and veggies. Everybody had this weirdo mushroom gravy (not really weird, just saying that because I hate mushrooms), but they just did more of like some natural juices for mine. IT WAS SOOOOOOO GOOD... and while I am pregnant, I can hardly eat meat most of the time. Kyle said mine was better. That made me happy. For dessert they had these dark chocolate tarts with fruit that looked so good, but they had their chef make me creme brulee with fresh berries that was absolutely to die for. Nobody at our table could eat like half of their tart because it was so rich and they were pretty jealous of me. He he. I kept reminding them that at the beginning when I was starving to death, they all ate fresh buns that smelled delicious! Ok, so I am sorry that I went on and on about food. I might just have to eat something now... Oh, before I forget. During dinner, they gave a few awards out for years of service, salesman of the year, etc. and they also made us play a version of Family Feud. The winner of the table got to take home the centerpiece. It was pretty fun hearing what people wrote down. We did a sheet together and Kyle totally rocked it. The funniest questions were "what are the first five things that guy's notice about girls?" and "what are the top five things that wives nag their husbands about?" and "what are the five things that people do at work that they should do at home" So... although we totally won, a guy at our table stole the centerpiece (we didn't really mind) because he wanted to put the ornaments on his tree. Now if that doesn't make you laugh... I don't know what will. They had a dance after dinner, but because it was nearly eleven we headed up to bed because we had to get up early to drive back for church and to rescue Grandma from Deakon. Our bed was so comfortable, but we got an awful sleep. Our window was right outside of the train tracks and Kyle insisted on sleeping with the window open because he was hot so we got to listen to trains all night. How romantic, right? Ha ha, ok here are some pics.

Ryan, who stole the centerpiece, in the elevator:

Checking into the room:

Cheesy room picture!

I wanted to take some pictures on the way to the hotel... not sure why, but this is what we came up with:

I told Kyle he could do whatever face he wanted... hoping for a smile. I am only slightly disappointed:

In the lobby at the hotel:

Marilyn and Kirsten flew in from Ontario on the 20th for a few weeks and so we planned a dinner in Calgary with everyone for the 21st. We ended up at Nick's and had a really fun time at dinner catching up with everyone. Deakon and Brodie were a bit crazy (ok... mostly just Deakon... let's be honest) so I let Deakon take some pictures while I was trying to finish eating. I am so excited that Erin is having a baby just days after us! They are having another girl so it will be fun to have kids the same age. We were really sad that we weren't able to see you guys more... we got back from Utah the night before they headed back to Ontario. Enjoy my artistic son's pictures:

Grandma and Erin:

Kylyn, Kirsten, Stacey, Stacey's boyfriends(don't hate me... I am bad at names):

Deakon was totally loving Brodie. Kyle needed some practice for baby number 2:

I thought I did so good taking this picture of everyone... AND MARILYN and Stacey's guy ARE LEANING BACK!!! I wish I would have taken more. :(

We had a great week before Christmas! Stay tuned for more!!!