Top Ten of Christmas 2010

 10.  Our "ninja-bread men" cookies turned out great! We got the cookie cutters as a white elephant gift from Nathan's work party. Ari insisted on a few pumpkin shaped cookies, too. 

See if you can identify Santa Ninja, Sad Rockstar Ninja (by Robbie), Colonel Santa, Headless Ninja, John Travolta Ninja Man, Green Scrubs Ninja.

 9. A huge snowfall a few days before Christmas--we had fun trekking down to the park for sledding.  Too bad it all melted before Christmas.
8. Nate's superman snuggie from his sister.

7. "Minute to Win It" games on Christmas Eve. Here's me trying to get a cookie down my face into my mouth.

6. The kids Christmas shopping with their own money at the dollar store. It was crazy and fun.
5. A divine Christmas morning brunch at the Capel house.  Kudos to the cook (my sister Havilah).
4. A very nice visit to temple square, with no major catastrophes. SOO much better than last year. Yea!!

3. Reactions on Christmas morning, especially amazement that Santa had actually eaten the cookies we left for him. He is real!!
2. Ari (as a wise man), Abby (Mary), Robbie (Joseph), and Ella (another wise man) were so sweet acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve.  Nathan made a great donkey, Grandpa Morrill was an angelic angel, and Aunt Andrea was an incredible camel.

1. Spending lots of time together as a little family (Nate had the whole week of Christmas off!) and with our extended family.  We love you all so much and enjoyed celebrating our Savior's birth with you.

Let it Snow!

Tuesday's big snow storm was perfect timing:--Nathan was off work and we had wanted to do something fun as a family anyway.  We discovered that the park down the street is excellent for sledding!  It seemed that the whole neighborhood was there, too.  Someone built a great igloo that Robbie and Ari had fun sitting in.

Turning Five

Our little man is now a big five-year-old!  We love you Robbie--you make life so fun and exciting for our family.  Happy Birthday! Here's Robbie this past week at the Tree House Museum in Ogden:

ROBBIE AT AGE FIVE:
Newly discovered talent: telling jokes (check out this fun video of Robbie telling his favorite joke: http://breadcrumbpath.blogspot.com/2010/12/shout-hurray.html)
Personality: super energetic and active, very friendly, never stops talking, imaginative and creative, smart, silly, affectionate
Favorite Food: anything that is not "dinner food", except he does like BBQ chicken
Favorite Pastimes: playing with his best friend Peter, computer games, imaginative play with friends or by himself, drawing/coloring/art, being read to, wrestling with Daddy in the "wrestling room" (our living room), going to preschool
------

For Robbie's birthday we had a very fun "Rescue Heroes" party.  Here's his fire truck birthday cake.

 Robbie and Ari with the cute snowman cake my sister made for him.

Oh Boy!

Looks like we're having another boy! He's due mid-April and appears to be perfectly healthy. We're all excited, especially Robbie to have a little brother.

Costumes and Other Fun Stuff

Halloween was a blast this year! We went to lots of parties, ate lots of sugar, and had fun dressing up.  Here's Nathan's great Magnum P.I. costume (don't worry, the scary mustache has been shaved off now).

 Robbie had fun as a fireman this year.

 Ari was a very adorable bunny rabbit.

 This is the only photo of my in my Cleopatra costume.  By Halloween night (well, Saturday the 30th) I was already sick of dressing up and just went as myself.  Maybe I'll be a better sport next year.

Robbie at the annual Morrill Family Pumpkin Carving Contest.

 Shopping for pumpkins at Engh Gardens in Sandy.

 Ari at the Barnyard Boo at Thanksgiving Point.

 With the cousins at Gardner Villiage.

The crazy Capel family Halloween bash.

Brother's Undies

After playing awfully quietly today in Robbie's room, Ari finally appeared.  She had decorated herself with Robbie's underwear and said "Its my birthday!"  I guess the pair on her head is a birthday hat.

Making the Bed

Robbie has been learning how to make his bed.  He likes to get creative with how he arranges his stuffed animals.  I thought it was cute how he had his bear reading a story to the other animals this morning.  Good job, Robbie! 

Trip to Oregon (Part 3--The Coast)

We had a great time at the Oregon Coast, even though it was nowhere near "warm".

Ari and I enjoying ice cream at the Tillamook cheese factory.

Nathan writing "Nathan Loves Bekah" in the sand. I love this sweet guy!

The Cape Mears light house, where Nathan and I got engaged!

The kids in the actual spot where Nathan proposed.

Ari loved getting buried in the sand.  Notice her bag-wrapped broken arm.

Even though it was literally ice cold, Robbie enjoyed the water.

This was definitely a memorable vacation--I hope we can go back someday soon!

Trip to Oregon (Part 2--Portland Area)

Portland is beautiful with so many fun places to visit.  Too bad Ari broke her arm on our very first stop, at Multnomah Falls.  She fell while swinging on a hand rail.  This picture was taken just a little while later on the upper bridge; Ari looks pretty sad, but we didn't realize yet that she had broken her arm.

Just before the accident:

Ari and I in the Rose Garden, in Washington Park in downtown Portland.  It smelled heavenly!

Robbie and the roses. I'm not sure what this pose is all about, but he's cute no matter what!

The kids on the balcony of the Pittock mansion, which sits on top of one of the tallest hills around Portland.

Nathan and Robbie checking out the view of the city from the grounds of the Pittock mansion.

Trip to Oregon (Part 1--The Wedding Reception)

This is my brother Aric and his new wife Sarah at their beautiful private wedding on the beach in Hawaii a few weeks ago.  We didn't join them in paradise, but we did get to take a road trip up to Oregon (Portland area) for a reception for the newlyweds.  The reception was, appropriately, a luau at Sarah's mom's house and was very nice. Here's the Capel clan in our lovely Hawaiian garb:

Three of the bride's cute nephews:

Brothers-in-law Nathan and Aric:

Parents of the groom:

Sarah, her aunt, and my mom:

The newlyweds, Aric and Sarah:

This amazing spread was all made from scratch by Sarah's step-dad and her family--DELICIOUS!

The beautiful wedding cake:

We are so glad we were able to be there for this special day! Welcome to the family, Sarah.  You are a wonderful person and have truly brought out the best in Aric. We love you both!

Book Club Friends

My book club!  Anyone who knows me well has heard me talk all about these wonderful ladies who I love dearly.  Our club had been going strong for at least the past three years or so and I'm sure we'll still be gathering at least once a month someday when we're wearing Depends and using walkers!  Here we are (minus Hillary and Ashlee) attending a certain movie, that shall remain nameless, a few weeks ago.  From left to right: Emily, Marci, Tiffany, Caroline, me, Katie, Heather, Anne, Lauren, and Karissa. (Thanks for letting me steal this photo, Marci!)

Cute New Portraits

Just want to show off these cute portraits my sister-in-law Renee took of the kids last week.

Sniffer

Our little Ari may look sweet and normal, but she has some strange habits. She loves to eat non-edible things (like rocks, dirt, chalk, wood, etc.) and she loves to sniff things up her nose.  Usually she just sniffs innocent things like carpet fiber and strings from her blanket, but today she decided to combine her two loves by chewing off little bits of her sandal and sticking them WAY up her nose.  It took us a while to figure out why she was sneezing so much and talking in a nasal-y voice, but eventually we realized what was going on and did some "surgery" with tweezers and a flashlight.  We pulled out about ten little chunks of sandal--hopefully we got them all!  I hope she learned her lesson, but I have a feeling this won't be the last time we fish strange things out of her nose.