"Maybe Christmas is a little bit more" 2012

Here's all the merriment from the Astling household during the 2012 Christmas season.

Decorating the tree and people are great fun at our house.  All ornaments are divided into teams/armies and strategically placed for battle during the Christmas season.  All ornaments end up in a different place then where they started. This is the usual procedure, but was ensured by Roxy who liked to sleep under the tree and when she got up she would turn the tree 180 degrees or so.  So, whenever the boys would go battle with ornaments, their tactics required flexibility.

While it may not appear so, James really likes going to choir practice every week.  He was very serious about performing well in the Christmas concert. 

D.J. said to me one Sunday, "I want to make a quilt for Roxy." I helped him opt for a crazy quilt, since they are easier to put together.  He cut out all the squares, learned how to use the sewing machine and put it all together. What a kid!

Christmas P.J.'s from Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler! 

This was the gift that got the most laughs. Stephen and Jenny live in Boise. D.J. (the bandwagon fan) cheered for Boise the last two years. Stephen and Jenny got a Boise shirt for D.J. Boise State is not Mark's favorite. Can you tell? 

James was the toy maker in his class play this year and performed extremely well, remembered all of his parts.  He even subjected himself to wearing lip stick and saying hi to Santa!

Christmas morning!

 David and Lieve visited with us.  They took the boys skiing on Christmas Eve - for the whole day! A gift for all! Later David employed the moron test.

Gobble, Gobble, Wobble, Wobble

Ahhh, Thanksgiving!  The time to reflect on all we are grateful for: life, liberty, family, mustaches, food, pies, bikes, weather, power, balloons, cooking pits, trucks, Craig's List, Star Wars and laughter.

The actual dinner was at Ryan and Wendy's house because they have an awesome back porch and room for the cattle, uh children, to roam.

D.J. has always been such a good helper with the little kids.  He sometimes complains about being stuck with them, but he really gravitates to them every time. 

This is the only picture I got of James for a while that after noon.  He was too fast for me to get any others!

The turkey was cooked in a pit. Grandpa valiantly woke up in the wee hours of the morning to begin the cooking process. 

Mark is always the one who carves the pit turkey because he loves to see the meat fall of the bone. . . . . and right into his mouth!!

Chase and Chloe are two of the cutest gobblers! 

The famous, must-have, kid table. 

Do you see four pieces of pie there? Me too. Just checkin'. 

Uncle Jed put together a treasure hunt for the kids after dinner was over and the clues even rhymed! 

Grandma and Grandpa were the treasure keepers, which maybe wasn't a good idea for the maintenance of their health and well-being.  Among treasures were mustaches and an animal balloon kit, which provided great entertainment! 

 Mustachioed James

Mustachioed Jack 

Mustachioed Miles 

 Mustachioed Tessa?

 Group mustachio!

Mature beyond his years.

 Years beyond mature.

 Grandpa Wheeler.  On the porch. With the tyrptophan.

Mark's best memories: playing with the nieces and nephews. 

 We are thankful for Craig's list.  Ryan searched out a truck hood for this very redneck purpose.  He welded handles on and hooked it up to his truck so as to be the envy of all all-terain riders in the vicinity. There were no photographers harmed in the taking of this picture.

Grandpa Wheeler will soon be retiring from Nevada Power, so he took us on a tour of his 30+ year employment.  All of us had hard hats to begin with until Jed looked down a tower and let his fall off.  No Jeds were harmed in the process of this tour.

Two of the other cutes twins in the world! Miles and Wade turned 3 the weekend of Thanksgiving! They loved the balloon hats so much, there was a balloon wizard reprise. 

 Spencer, D.J. and James wrote a whole Star Wars script (don't worry George Lucas, there are no copyright infringements, they didn't even include "I've got a bad feeling about this").  Spencer wrote the script, D.J. wrote the humorous commercials and James was in charge of props and costumes.  For three hours we filmed in a vacant lot across the street from Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was a great success! Awards will come later.

 We went to church on Sunday before heading back to Utah.  On the way out of the house, mom and I discovered that we matched.  Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Not that I'm complaining!

Fall 2012 Piano Recitals

Music fills our house much of the time. Thankfully, we've moved on from Axel F, which I deem as un-music now and put in the "methods of torture" category.  Don't worry Uncle David, it will resurface by itself. It always does. So don't think of sending any links to new versions.

Music fills our house even more now because James started piano lessons this fall and is doing very well.  Here are a few pictures of his first recital with his teacher, Mrs. Moon in the back.  James was quite proud of himself because when another boy named James was recognized for composing his own piece, James Astling took the applause.  As he should, he was great!

I know what you are thinking: how can Star Wars permeate ALL facets of life. Ask John Williams.  Spencer and D.J. performed a Star Wars solo, even whipping out light sabers at the end of the piece.  They did a great job together but felt their teacher needed to be disposed of after the concert.

A Dam Vacation

We all needed it! WE NEEDED A VACATION! So we took a dam vacation!

To Hoover Dam that is.

Long, long, long, long, long ago, I went to Hoover Dam with my elementary school class. I haven't been back since.  Mark also remembers going there with his family just a little while ago. But he hasn't been back since.  So, we decided that our children needed to go to Hoover Dam so that when they are older they can tell their kids that long, long, long ago they visited the dam.  There was no short supply of jokes.  The kids, especially James, were all-too-happy to "fake swear."  We even made Granna laugh when she texted me and asked, "How is your vacation?" I texted back, "We are at Hoover Dam." She replied, "How exciting." I replied, "It's dam exciting!"  Which made her laugh for 3 1/2 minutes straight, give or take a few seconds.

Now for the dam pictures (as you can tell, I myself, jump at the chance to "fake swear").

 We are on top of Hoover Dam and in front of the new bridge that my brother Ryan helped engineer.

 In two states at one time: Arizona and Nevada 

On the dam tour we were taken into the one of the turbine rooms. It really is an amazing place!

The small museum shows how the dam was built, how power is made and distributed.

And now for the best part! ESCALATORS! Really long ones that just begged the boys to ride them up and down numerous times.

That same weekend we went to a bird show in Moapa Valley where we played bird games like, "help the birds survive and the environment too," or something like that.

When presented with a very large statue of a lizard, one must sit upon it, he had the most relaxing seat for the bird show!