Small Changes

Anyone who knows us remotely well will know that Leon and I are not good with projects. Big ones tend to get put off and take a long time to finish. Even seemingly small ones take us time to get around to. So, when our kitchen faucet started leaking for the third time, Leon wasn't willing to replace parts anymore and wanted a new one. We contacted my brother who works for Price Pfister and here's the "Before"......

...and the "After". We had no idea the new faucet was going to be so big. It definitely makes a statement and we love it. Once we made this upgrade, we decided to take on another small project in the kitchen.

Our door pulls have always bugged me. They are hard to clean and many of them were either broken or worn to the point that they were hard or impossible to clean. So, we bit the bullet and used some Christmas money to finally replace them. Here is the "Before".....

...and, here is the "After". Installing the door pulls meant I had to get up close and personal with each cabinet door and drawer. New knobs turned into oiling and cleaning all of the cabinets. They definitely needed doing and the result could not have been more satisfying. It's like we have new cabinets.

So, for people like us who have a hard time getting around to projects, these small ones are an accomplishment that I could not let go without noting. Now, on to the bathroom remodel project that is currently half done. Don't hold your breath for a post on THAT any time soon. :)

Eddington Christmas Party #2 / New Year's Eve

Christmas is never officially over until all the presents are unwrapped. This Eddington party was the last of it. The kids got spoiled, as usual.

As gifts were being passed out, Landon saw everyone else getting something, but his lap was still empty. He was good-natured about it and joked about his HUGE pile of presents (he's probably learning sarcasm from his father). But, it wasn't long before his lap really did have a HUGE pile of presents. He had a grin - ear to ear.

After our final Christmas celebration, we rang in the New Year with old fashioned noise makers - pots and pans. We weren't the only ones in the neighborhood making noise - more pot bangers and some fireworks. The kids always have fun making as much noise as they can, for a change. (See video below.)

New Year's Day was spent just hanging out as a family - my favorite part of the holidays. Uncle Jeff got roped in to reading a BIG Richard Scary book - serves him right. What a great uncle.

Video of the New Year's Eve noise making.

Eddington Christmas Party

Traditionally, we celebrate Christmas with the extended Eddington family the Saturday after Christmas. As a kid, I knew Christmas wasn't over until then.

Great-Grandma Eddington always had a rousing game of Bingo ready with a lot of prizes for everyone to win.

My Grandma Eddington and my cousin Gayle looked so cute together, that I had to take their picture..

Natural History Museum

While staying at Grandma and Grandpa's, Grandpa wanted to get the kids out of the house for a while so we loaded up the troops and hit the Natural History Museum at the University of Utah. It is a BIG museum with just about everything you can think of including dinosaurs (which I did NOT get any pictures of - really?), The boys had a great time with their cousins.

There were a lot of "hands-on" exhibits which stressed me out just a little bit, being a germ-a-phobe and all. But, we all survived.

This dirt/rock area was fun for the kids to "explore". I think I spent a solid half hour in there with my nephew, Ryan.

Ryan was my little buddy. I think I miss having a little one and seeing them experience new things. He had the hardest time being convinced that it was okay to walk on the glass floor. The video at the end of the post is just too funny.

Of course, the water and sand table was a bit hit. If it hadn't been closing time, the kids might have stayed there for hours.

Thanks, Grandpa, for the fun outing!

Christmas Day 2011

We had a great Christmas! The boys are still at ages where they get too excited to sleep. They went to bed early, but were up super late laughing and talking. We thought Santa would never be able to get here.

Dallin is a little too old for Santa, so we had to fill in for the "Big Guy" this year. Dallin has been needing a new saxophone and his music teacher came upon a really good deal on a nice one. We bought it back in October and told Dallin that he was "borrowing" it from his teacher. Dallin kept commenting on how nice the saxophone was and how he wished he could get a new one of his own. It was SO hard to keep this secret from him, but it was worth it Christmas morning when he learned that this saxophone was now officially his.

Jayden has become quite the Denver Broncos fan and got a lot of Broncos stuff. He is at that difficult age where he's too old for toys but not quite old enough for the big stuff. This was just perfect. He loved every single thing he got just because it had the Broncos' logo on it. We could have wrapped up a Bronco's toothbrush and he would have loved it.

Cameron has been a great big brother to Landon and has kept the magic of Christmas alive for him. Cameron still enjoys toys, so Santa hooked him up with a BIG Nerf gun (not pictured).

Landon has been on the verge of not believing in Santa, but I think we did all we could do to keep him a believer. He's the youngest so it's only a matter of time before he stops believing. I think keeping Landon a believer was more for me than anything else. I don't want to have the boys grow up. Christmas just won't be the same. I was too caught up in watching the boys open presents that I didn't get very many pictures. Santa brought Landon a BIG Hot Wheels track, which has entertained all the brothers. Who says they're too old for toys?

Nu Skin was generous, as usual, with their Christmas gifts. This year ONE of their gifts was a Kindle Fire. The boys were quite stoked about it, not to mention Leon.

Merry Christmas, everyone!