Alex turns 7

Happy birthday to our budding scientist! We celebrated a few days early with the rest of the Haslams. We took everyone to see Sox. All the cousins got a quick ride, and they discovered the rope swing.

Alex wanted a volcano cake again (same as last year). We looked at different cakes and when I asked him what he wanted he said, "I think I'll change it up and go for the volcano cake again." Kind of the opposite of "changing it up" but oh well.
Here's last year's. I think the lava turned out a little better last time.

And this is for anyone who has never experienced a Haslam rendition of "Happy Birthday." It's much worse live (or better, depending on how you look at it).

Bathtime fun with Charlie

That's Benjamin giggling in the background.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

Thank you for being a good example of how listening to NPR and having conservative beliefs don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Happy Birthday Josh

Yes, I stole these off of facebook. Happy birthday. May general authorities always remember your name and hometown.

cake wrecks

Alex's birthday is coming up so I've been looking at cake ideas. This inevitably led me to cake wrecks. Sam (my brother in law) introduced me to this site a few weeks ago and since then I've come across links to it in several places. There is a lot there to see but here are a couple that made me laugh:

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/08/in-honor-of-2008-olympic-games.html

and the curious george cake on this one:

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/09/cupcake-cakes-always-wrecktastic-always.html

only 3 weeks late

This was the first year we let everyone stay up til midnight on New Year's Eve. I was surprised that they all stayed awake. Since we've been married I'd say about half the time Ryan and I don't even stay up to celebrate. We're just a bunch of party poopers. A couple of times we've gone to someone's house or something, but other years we just haven't felt the need to make a big deal of it. I think the boys were a little underwhelmed by the ball dropping. But they did like the cream cheese/marshmallow creme fruit dip I made.

"that's too many, you better just take two"

I guess my frugality is rubbing off on Alex. Yesterday we were talking about a birthday party he's been invited to. The birthday girl is a friend from school and I was asking Alex to tell me things she likes so we could get some ideas for a gift. He mentioned a few things, then he said, "We can get anything as long as it's under $10."

tess of the d'urbervilles

Did anyone else watch this on Masterpiece? I've never read anything by Thomas Hardy, but are all his books this depressing?

Here is some excitement from Christmas morning. After all their presents were opened, the boys wasted no time hurrying downstairs to assemble their new multi-trick Hot Wheels track.

And here is Alex sledding into a pole.

Our Christmas Vacation

We visited: and:
We watched:

and some Jeopardy, of course: We played (indoors):

We played (outdoors):

(before Benjamin's faceplant):

(after Benjamin's faceplant): We met up with Amy (Ryan's sister) and her girls for some sledding:
Can you see Charlie hidden in that picture above? Here's a close up:
I got to wear my dad's awesome snowmobile suit:Mom and Dad even came to watch:

Pocatello has an outdoor ice rink during the winter. It started to melt one of the last days we were there so we hurried to get some time on the ice.
We ate: (that is a turkey roll my sister-in-law made. It was a LOT of work and was very delicious, even if Ryan said it looked like some kind of giant larva. Don't worry Natalie, I think that only added to his enjoyment of it.)

We got to hang out with my parents and all five of my siblings . . .

The Baer Family portrait:

(Sorry siblings if these aren't the most flattering pictures. I was trying to find some individual shots.)

. . . as well as some other aunts, uncles, and cousins:

Benjamin and Erin enjoyed telling each other stories:

We also succeeded in sharing our germs and giving a few people colds. Sorry Josh and Mom.
Since we've been home we have been taking down Christmas decorations, vacuuming pine needles, sorting toys and organizing closets, vacuuming more pine needles, and having a lot less fun than we had the previous two weeks.