Nathan and Andy's Joint Birthday Party

So Nathan and Andy are school friends and have the same Birthday. So ever since the beginning of the school year they have been plotting a joint birthday and every few weeks Nathan would come to me and tell me of their ever increasing plans which started out as a simple party and eventually escalated to the Grand Canyon and Disneyland! So we decided to take control of things and have a simple party and Andy's home.

 I oversaw a Lego game.

Universal Studios

For Charlotte's Brother David's Birthday he invited us to Universal Studios for a very enjoyable time. They even bought the boys these character mugs/

Zack's Baptism

 

The week after Christmas we drove to Utah for New Years and Ben and Nathan's cousin's Baptism. Nathan celebrated his Birthday in a Hotel room and on the road. Ben gave him two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures.

 Aunt Ann had a cake fore the boys and we got Nathan a Ninja Turtles Lego set.

 

Zack's Baptism was a nice event.

Arkham Asylum and the Tower of Orthanc

Ben and Nathan spent nearly a year saving their money and finally I was able to take them to the Lego Store so they could buy the huge sets they had been saving for. Ben was saving for The Tower of Orthanc from The Lord of the Rings and Nathan saved for Arkham Asylum from Batman.

This is Nathan building with his Christmas robe which he always wears around the house and a batman mask. I help him by lining up the parts in the order that you build them in rows.

Ben won't let me help him anymore.

Arkham Asylum came with Batman, Robin, Joker, Harley Quinn, Posien Ivy, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, The Penguin and a Policeman along with a gate and a Police truck. Both boys got a police vehicle set for free as a promotional giveaway. The jail has four cels and a number of other rooms.

Ben's

 came with a big Ent (not sure if its Treebeard or not), Wormtougue, Saruman (both with legs and robe piece) Gandolf and Eagle and two Orcs (one with a grappling hook to pull down the Ent.

As you see here its almost half as tall as Ben and has about 6 or so floors, plus the top where Gandolf was captured until the eagle saved him.

When we bought this the store clerk asked Ben how long he thought it would take him to build this and he told him about an hour. The clerk smiled and told him that when he got it it toke him about six hours to build it. It toke Ben about that broken up into two days.

 

 

Ward Family FHE at the Temple

Our ward had a Family Home Evening at the LA Temple Visitors Center the Monday before church, Charlotte was asked to sing while playing piano and then do a storytime like the one she did at the ward party. There were other great performances also. We got there early and walked around the Temple to look at the lights and decorations.

Christmas Eve

We opened pajamas and the boys opened a present each.

 I read Twas the Night Before Christmas like always.

Christmas 2013

We baricaded the top of the stairs and told the boys they couldn't go down until 7am on Christmas morning, they were really excited. 

 They started on stockings with Disney Infinity Figures and candy.

 For some reason Ben was a little excited for his first Santa present

 A Nintendo Wii U! Oh and a little note about the Tiger Nathan said that he wanted Santa to bring him a stuffed dog with big eyes that he saw in a store in the Mall last time we visited Grandma Sally in the Spokane Valley Mall. Well its been about a year and a half since all of us had visited Spokane so you can kind of see how impossible it would be, G-MA looked for it without success. Well we saw this tiger with others in a store in our mall and so I talked him into asking Santa for one of those.

 Disney Infintity

 Skylanders Swapforce

 Another story Nathan kept bugging me to let him buy this Transformer, but I wouldn't let him since he was saving for a huge Lego set (which he's just now finally saved enough and is enjoying the set) so Charlotte convinced him to ask Santa for it. the next few weeks he bugged me incessantly to still get it himself, finally though Santa brought it to him and you see how happy he is.

 Wii U Lego Marvel Superheroes

 I got Charlotte and Kitchenaid

 Dave and Tina always get us thoughtful gifts, this one was Monopoly Empire. I remember the super long Monopoly games that my brothers would play when younger.