THE STAPLETON FAMILY: 2009

Bowling

In what may be a new family tradition, we went bowling with Grandpa and Macha Stapleton and all the cousins the day after Christmas.

Seth wanted to do everything himself, including carrying over his six pound ball.

Of all the grandkids, Seth was likely the most excited about bowling.

Ellie, Maya, Brad, Seth, Sophie, Aaron, Timmy

Christmas

The boys loved Christmas this year as is evidenced by Seth's big smile.

This was the best present we gave this year- an autographed picture of Dan when he is 50 years old and a soap star. Do you see the resemblance? Katie did and sent us an email picture a few months back.

Seth was really excited about getting new clothes, especially since they had Lightning McQueen- Brad was much too occupied with his car.

All the grandkids got dogs this year. When the family goes hiking my niece Maya leads the way as the "lead" dog and we're all assigned different dog personas. Brad and Seth are dalmations. Seth is giving his a big squeeze.

Notice how in almost every picture Brad is working on this car? It was by far his favorite gift. Santa brought them a work bench with this car that can have the engine and wheels screwed on and off. I was impressed he could do it.

Macha made them pajamas with their favorite: trucks. This is Brad checking them out.

The other favorite gift was from Grandma and Grandpa Ogilvie who gave a tunnel, I attempted to upload video but will have to try again later.

Christmas Eve

This was the inaugural year of Christmas Eve being hosted at our house. It was a lot of work, but we actually had fun doing it. Secretly Dan likes to plan parties. :)

We played the traditional BINGO and my niece Maya was the first winner; she was stoked.

Jonathan was the first adult to win which is worth taking a picture because in the history of Stapleton BINGO he has the worst winning record.

Seth and Uncle Jim concentrating on the calls.

We had a dual family party- here are the Ogilvies

Stapleton Clan

The moment before we dug into our prime rib. We had 15 adults and 5 kids. Needless to say, it was a huge piece of meat. To our vegan Allie- sorry that you had to sit by the platter of meat. :)

The boys tried really hard to help me in the kitchen. I did get one successfully stuffed mushroom from them, though.

The boys went out to help Dan shovel snow and asked for their "shovels".

Aunt Robby made the boys a Christmas Advent. We haven't been going in order, but the boys have loved it.

We made Christmas bracelets which Seth is modeling here.

November

If his shirt or sweatshirt has a hood, Seth insists on wearing it all day.

A few weeks ago Dan drove to Preston, Idaho to visit his brother Brad's grave- it's who our Brad is named after. Preston is just over the Utah border and is where Dan plans to bury us when we die.

This is how we found the boys the other morning- too cute.

The boys are really into building firetruck houses. I'm getting them more legos for Christmas because their creations are getting more involved.

Notice our "firemen" on top.

Halloween Revisited

Happenings

We went on a hike up Bell's Canyon and the boys loved throwing sand and rocks into the water and telling the ducks to "go in the water"

I wish I had better camera skills, but this is Dan teaching Seth how to use his golf club. The hat made him look like he was at a country club.

This is Seth's melt down the other morning "Put it back together!!!!!!!" Repeated over and over because his pop tart had broken in two pieces. He also has a melt down in nursery if his teacher gives him broken pretzels.

Halloween

More pictures are yet to come.

Halloween with Great Grandma Brown

The boys got to have a trial run with trick or treating at Grandma Brown's assisted living party.

They got to have snacks, hear a Halloween story and trick or treat around the room

Sophie, Seth, Ellie, Machka, G-ma Brown, Brad, Maya

Fun With My Boys

This is a quintessential picture, because it is really hard to get them to both pose and look at the camera at the same time. But, hooray for Brad.

This picture is funny when you look at the one below of Brad standing next to the scary Halloween tree with a creepy face. Seth didn't want to be left out so he asked me to take his picture in front of this tree.