Mary's Wedding

Our friend, Mary F., got married to Josh G. on the morning of New Year's Eve in her brother's back yard. It was a simple and beautiful ceremony, and we are very happy for their families. (Mary lost her first husband tragically in a bicycle accident over 2 years ago, when their 3rd child was just a month old.) Unfortunately, we missed getting photos of the children--Mary has 2 daughters, 1 son, and Josh has 1 daughter.

The Happy Newlyweds

Cutting the Cake

Eating the Cake

Guests at the Wedding Luncheon

(No one ever goes hungry at a Jacobson family event...)

Nearly New Year's Hike

We decided to go explore No Name Wash, which is about a 40-minute drive from our home. Zach thought he needed to come too, so we loaded up children and a dog and ventured off for the evening.

This wash had a lot of little mini "slots" to explore. 

Dallin thinks he is too big for riding in his backpack (sad...) and now insists on hiking all by himself. He did a pretty good job navigating and climbing over rocks, but his mom had many adrenaline rushes each time he slipped.

"I made it!!!"

 Group photo taken by Dad of everyone else at the top of the "slot canyon."

Zach is displaying his true nature.

Dad caught a side-blotched lizard (yes--in December--we know it seems crazy) and Dallin did not want to let it go. He held onto it for a very long time before we could convince him that it would be happier if it could stay living on the rocks.

Yuki the Wonder Dog had a blast.

Canoeing the Colorado River

Kevin took Megan and Ian canoeing one evening around sunset. The canoe is on loan from our Scout Master. Megan took all the photographs. Enjoy this photo journey down the Colorado River.

Gotta love the beard!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Day

We decided to cook our big holiday dinner on Saturday so that we could enjoy a less hectic Christmas Day on Sunday. While the turkey was roasting in the oven, Dallin helped his mother make fudge--someone has to have the job of licking off the beaters.

Ian wanted to start a tradition of going swimming on Christmas.

Here he and Zach make the initial plunge into the pool, which was around 50 F.

[Sorry, but the video won't upload--we'll try to work on fixing the problem.]

They survived!

And needed to build a fire to warm up and roast marshmallows.

We were hoping Grandpa Tsukamoto might be able to come join us from California, but he was unable to do so. Here we are with our dinner: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, glazed carrots, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Dallin was not too excited about it, but the rest of us indulged in all the good food.

Not many places sell live Christmas trees in Yuma, and those that do charge a small fortune. Kevin had the idea to get a lemon tree as a family Christmas present and use it temporarily as a Christmas tree. The children weren't too pleased with the substitution, but at least we had something to decorate. 

Here are the presents at the base of the tree:

And here is a shot of the rest of the tree:

Christmas Day

 The children let us sleep in until around 7:00 a.m.

No one could wake up Dallin, however--he was out cold.

Erin had an owl-themed Christmas:

Grandparents gave her 2 stuffed animal owls.

Mom and Dad gave her an owl bag, animal puzzle with 

an owl picture on one side, 

owl crafts, and an owl notepad

 

Ian received a Rubik's ball puzzle from grandparents.

It took him a little while, but he was able to solve it, 

although not as quickly as he can solve a Rubik's cube.

 

Megan painted these amazing animal rocks for everyone:

Mom got the cheetah, Dad the fox, Ian the raccoon, Erin the owl, and Dallin the turtle.

 We finally dragged Dallin out of bed to get ready for Church.

We dressed him in his "new" suit (compliments of the Horrocks family

who's youngest son had grown out of it), and he looked so grown up.

Unfortunately, we could not coax a smile out of him.

Ian sang in the choir at Church and we enjoyed a nice Christmas program with music and narration.

Then we returned and ate leftovers and candy and Skyped cousins and played Scrabble and Dallin got sick from eating too much candy and threw up and then fell asleep.

We realized we should have taken more pictures.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Present Preview

I found this gift idea from this site and had so much fun making these puzzles for Dallin and Erin. We got a 1.5 inch board and cut it into squares using a friend's saw. The sides were slightly rounded which lended to some imperfections, but the overall finished product turned out great. We're excited to give these to the children on Christmas!

Dallin's Puzzle

I thought basic animal shapes would be easier for him to make, so I searched for silhouette animal shapes, sized them, printed them out, used chalk to trace them onto the black blocks, painted, and glazed.

Erin's Puzzle

I used small calendar and magazine pictures as suggested in the tutorial.