Cantwell Family - Erik, Melissa, Zach, Luke & Carter

Here are the boys on Christmas Eve in their new Christmas pajamas. The boys were really excited to wear them and it was so nice to get them to bed because Santa doesn't come if little kids aren't asleep.
The boys in their new jeep that Grandma and Grandpa Cantwell gave them for Christmas. It has been a true hit. The boys love going outside and riding it and letting their friends share in the fun too. It is hilarious to watch Luke because he pretty much gives himself whiplash every time he tries to drive it.
Zach found this Buster the Bronco at the Walgreen's once and wanted it so bad. That is all he kept talking about and so Erik went and bought it for Christmas. Luke loves Brutus the Buckeye and so we purchased that off of Ebay so that they both can have their mascots to play with.
Here is Luke's loot. I don't think my kids realize how blessed they are. They both have grandparents who support them and are very generous with them. That is something that I didn't really have growing up and so I want to teach my kids that they are fortunate to have all of these wonderful people who love them and spoil them. As you can tell, Luke loves Cars and anything that goes.
Here is Zach's loot. He was so excited when he opened his new Fisher Price digital camera that Grandma and Grandpa Clark gave him for Christmas. I have had to break up some fights between Luke and Zach because Luke loves it too but we are getting them to the point where they are sharing pretty well. We were so very blessed this Christmas and are so thankful for all of our family and friends who we love so much. It was so nice being in our first home for Christmas and sharing in the joy of that. I will tell you though that I think I got the best surprise of all for Christmas (Just look below.)
Yep, this is my dream Christmas present and Erik pulled the biggest surprise of my life this year. I had no clue that I was getting this for Christmas and I am so grateful for it. I have wanted a piano for years and I just love to sit down and play. It is a very relaxing thing for me. My friend was in on the surprise because she took me Christmas Eve morning to go do some last minute shopping. I was all done but said that I would love to go. Erik had to work and so her husband watched my kids as well and we headed to a couple of stores. Her and Erik were communicating the whole time because he wanted to make sure that the piano had been delivered and that he was home before I got there. When we got home I walked in and there sitting was this gorgeous piano with a big red bow. I started jumping up and down, jumped into Erik's arms, gave him the biggest kiss of his life and then of course started to cry. I couldn't believe that Erik had done this for me. It seriously makes me want to look and make sure that I am super sweet to him because I owe him for a long since. Especially since he got the total shaft from me -nothing (because that is supposedly what he wants, nothing because he doesn't want to spend money.) I am so grateful for Erik because he truly does look out for me at all times. I feel like I am the luckiest woman in the world. Merry Christmas to me!!!!!

Erik's younger brother, Jake, got married a couple of weekends ago. It was so nice to attend the wedding and be reminded about the wonderful things that marriage brings. The boys love their Uncle Jake and looked so handsome in their new suits. Above is the groom with Erik and Luke.
The two boys in their new suits. They loved getting dressed up for the occasion but they hate that I make them wear them to Church every Sunday now.
The groom, Erik, Luke and Zach in a photo opportunity. Jake married Jodi and we are so excited to have her in our family. She is wonderful and even does hair which has been a very big bonus for me.

So I hate that these pictures are vertical and so that you can't look at them very well but I just wanted to show some things that we have been up to. Above, the boys at the Steelheads Hockey game. We had tickets on the first row and so the hockey players were always smashing into the side. It scared the boys at first but then they started loving it. I have decided though that hockey games aren't too family oriented because people love the fighting of the players and chanting sayings that I really don't want my kids saying.
The kids with Santa Clause. Our neighborhood had a Christmas party and Santa made an appearance. The boys were willing to sit on his lap but not really expound on what they wanted.
The Botanical Gardens have a light show every year (kind of like the Zoo in Ohio and Temple Square in Utah). We went with our friends, the Toros, and had a fun night walking through the lights, eating cookies and sipping on hot cocoa.

Erik putting up the Christmas lights on our house. He let Zach sit on the roof with him but he could only sit in that one spot. No where else. Below is the finished product. I think Erik did a fabulous job. I just love driving up to our house and seeing Christmas lights.
So apparently Boise doesn't get much snow because the boys were so excited when there was this much and they had to go out and play in it. Pretty funny. However, this morning we just woke up and there is some more snow, but just a skimish. Nothing like Utah or Ohio.
The boys in front of the Bronco at BSU. We have season tickets to the basketball games and so the boys love to go and watch. Luke calls it "Hoops" and it is so fun to watch him cheer and yell defense.
Our ward did an awesome thing this year. The Young Women and Young Men sponsored a night where you could drop off your kids at the church for a couple of hours to get any Christmas preparations done that you needed to. The boys had a blast and they made this gingerbread house while they were there.

The above picture is Luke and Zach with the train set that we and Grandma and Grandpa Cantwell gave Luke for his birthday. He has loved it and can play for hours with it.
Here is the birthday cake that I made for Luke. He is loving trains and cars right now and so I put together this train cake. I didn't have a pan big enough to fit four cars and so I had to put one of the cars on the side.
Luke opening his present from Great Grandma and Grandpa Christensen.
My parents were visiting a few days before Luke's birthday and so we opened presents with them and had a cake then too. Here is my dad, brother Brad and sister Camille with Luke.
Here is Luke with Great Grandma and Grandpa Christensen. Since Luke really doesn't have friends, we celebrated his real birthday with them. It is so nice having them live close to us and be able to share special occasions with some family.
Luke blowing out the candles on his birthday cake. I will tell you though that Luke has hit the terrible twos. He is wanting to be Mr. Independent and will hardly let anyone do anything for him. If you try he gets really mad and starts screaming. Hmmmm..............I wonder who he got that from??????

Now that every occasion has past without the pictures to go with them, you all are going to hate seeing old pictures, but since I didn't get to post them before, I am going to post them now. We will start with Halloween since I think that is where we left off. Here are the boys with the hay on our front porch.
The boys and I the night of Halloween. Just getting ready to trick-or-treat.
Here is Erik getting involved with the pumpkin carving. Look at his hands. He put latex gloves on because he didn't like the slimy feeling of the guts. Below is a picture of the boys with their friends Bryton & Zegen. We were able to trick-or-treat with them.
Luke was originally supposed to be a giraffe (one of Zach's old costumes). However, as you can tell it was too small for him, so fortunately our neighbors let us borrow the monkey costume.
The two smaller pumpkins were too small to carve so we let the boys paint them. Of course they had to have a sports theme.
We had a fun Halloween. It was nice to be able to finally have a neighborhood to trick-or-treat in.

Well, we returned home from a successful Thanksgiving weekend in Utah. It is so much fun to go to Utah but also a little hectic in trying to make sure that you are pleasing both families. Fortunately everyone was pretty well behaved and I don't think we offended anyone, but you never know.

My mother-in-law, my sister and I headed to South Towne Mall at 12:00 midnight to start our Black Friday shopping. We decided to pull the all nighter but actually was home by 6:00 a.m. so I did get a couple of hours of sleep. I managed to get the boys a few things, but still am not even close to being done with the shopping. I swear that buying for parents is the hardest thing in the world. I wish that people would just speak up and tell you what they want.

Erik was lucky enough to go to the BYU game on Saturday. We are so glad that the Cougars won. Zach was watching it at grandma and grandpa's house and was cheering so loud. He was so excited........but not nearly as excited as when LSU lost. We are hoping for the big Oklahoma Sooners to beat Missouri on Saturday so that the Buckeye's can end up in the National Championship Game!!!!

I know that it would be so much more fun to see pictures so I will venture out tomorrow to buy a new cable so that I can hook my camera to the computer!! Hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for reading.

So, the camera is still an issue so no pictures and I have been taking them so it is more disappointing to me than probably to anyone else. Well, I have the best husband this week. He has started getting me and the rest of the fam into the Christmas spirit. He was willing to go and buy Christmas lights to put on the outside of our house and he started the project Saturday and finished yesterday. They look absolutely fabulous. I love pulling up to my house and seeing the Christmas lights. He also got us motivated to put up our Christmas decorations today. We are headed to Utah tomorrow for Thanksgiving and so decided to have it up so that we could enjoy it when we return. Our little apartment tree looks small in the house but I am hoping to maybe find a good tree after Christmas when they are put on clearance.

Luke had a little accident last week. Our neighbors were watching he and Zach so that we could have a little date night. The boys were chasing each other and Luke ran smack dab right into the corner of the wall. His head split open. Since it was late at night the only place I could take him was the emergency room. He was a really good sport and was fortunate enough not to have stitches. They used this thing called Dermabond (superglue for skin, at least that's what the nurse told me). He still has quite a mark, but we were glad that stitches didn't have to be involved.

I am getting pumped for Black Friday. I think it is one of the most fun events of the year!!! Hope others will be enjoying the same madness as me.

Okay. So I have been planning on uploading my pictures to the computer and sat down at the computer tonight to do it and I can't find my USB cable anywhere to hook it to the computer. I am really getting angry because I have no clue where it could be. I have pictures from Halloween festivities and Luke's birthday that I wanted to share with everyone and now they will have to wait. We had a great Halloween and really enjoyed Luke's birthday. We were able to share Luke's birthday with the great grandparents who live in Boise. We also had a little party a few days early when my parents, brother and sister were in town. Luke loves it when we sing Happy Birthday to him. I have continued to sing it to him today and he just smiles and laughs and sings along. I am so grateful for Luke. He usually has such a happy demeanor and has the cutest smile. He loves to sing the Rah, Rah, Rah, Go Cougars and does the actions with it. He follows Zach everywhere and Zach is great at playing with him. They really do treat each other well. He gives the best hugs and kisses and always tells me that he loves me when I put him to bed. He is very active but I love that about him. I love you Luke!!!

Here are the boys at Lagoon. You can tell that Luke wasn't so thrilled on this ride. He eventually warmed up to it all. Below, Zach was so excited because he was actually tall enough to go on a "big kid" ride.

The bumper cars ended up being Luke's favorite ride. I wish that I could have gotten a better picture because at one point he was laughing so hard. He loved bumping into people.
So, these next few pictures are the boys and me at Island Park and Yellowstone with my family. Erik had just started his job so didn't feel like he could already ask for time off. It was so nice just to be in the outdoors with no television or phone. I think that is the best part. Just having to talk to the people that are with you. The boys loved playing with their uncles and aunt and we are so glad that they let us tag along. The above picture is at Bear World. It is right before you enter Rexburg on the way to Island Park.
Zach helping Uncle Josh set up the tent.
Zach and Luke just hanging out. How cheesy that they were wearing the same outfit. What was I thinking?
I love the hugs from my kids.
My mom and dad and siblings in West Yellowstone.

It is Saturday night and Erik is still on his fishing trip and so I thought that I would be productive. After I put the kids to bed I sat down and watched 48 Hours Mystery. I love those types of shows. And now I just downloaded the pictures from the pumpkin patch and so I thought that I would post some pictures. Zach's preschool took a field trip there and Luke and I got to go with. Zach is such a great big brother to Luke. He always makes sure that he is right by him. He wanted to make sure that Luke could go into the pumpkin patch and get his own pumpkin too. Also, as I was downloading the pictures, I came across pictures from this summer and we did a few fun things and it jogged my memory and so I will try and post our summer memories tomorrow.

Saturday's in the fall usually consist of college football ALL DAY LONG. So, with Erik gone today I thought that maybe I would get a break. Don't get me wrong, I love college football too but when that is all that is in your home 24/7, you kind of get sick of it. Anyways, Zach is a spitting image of his father and asked to turn the TV on so that he could watch his games. He watched the entire Buckeye game, parts of the BYU game and parts of the Boise State game. I finally told him it was time for bedtime and so we had to turn the Boise State game off. He also likes to change his clothes depending on who's playing. He started with his BYU shirt on today but once the Buckeye game started, he changed into his jersey. Then back to the BYU shirt and ended with his Boise State shirt. I am actually amazed at how much he does know about football already. It is hilarious to listen to me describe the play that just happened. I love that boy!!!

I have attached a couple of pictures of Zach in his BYU shirt and hat. He has made it to two BYU games this year - one with Erik and Grandpa Cantwell and the other one with just Grandpa Cantwell (they were watching him for me since I went to MN for Time Out with my dad). He has also made it to a Boise State game. He loves his football.

Well, since everyone I know now has their own blog, I decided that I should really try this thing. I started this page well over a year ago, but haven't really done anything with it. Now that I am still away from family and friends in Utah and away from friends made in Ohio I guess this is a good way to let people still know what's going on. It is also a great way for me to make a record of the events of our lives since I am the world's worst journal writer.

Erik is on a fishing trip this weekend with the other dentists in the practice that he works for, so I am lonely on a Friday night. The kids are in bed and I am just browsing the internet. I already watched my shows that I taped from fabulous Thursday night TV. Our friends, the Toros had me and the boys over for dinner tonight. Sara is a gourmet chef and so I just thought we were having tacos. Something simple. However, did I become aware that I do not make great tacos. She had a whole spread - refried black beans, taco meat that is unlike any taco meat I've tasted before, avacados, cilantro, tomatoes, cheese, rice, etc. It was very delicious. They have two boys that are 5 and 3 so Zach and Luke have a great time playing with them.

Back to Erik's fishing trip - I am so excited to see how Erik really liked it. As all of you know, my husband does not prefer the outdoors so this was a real step out of his comfort zone. He was trying to be a good sport about it. I talked to him about 10:00 last night and they had just landed in Lewiston. They apparently took a little propeller plane and Erik said that he had to through up three times. Sounds like a great start to a hopefully enjoyable weekend.

Too much has happened in the past year to really be able to talk about it all but I will sum up the highlights below:

1. Erik graduating from Dental School at OSU. What a great accomplishment that was. We had spent those seven years of marriage in school and so it is nice to now be making money instead of borrowing it. The student loan payments are starting in a couple of months, so we will feel the hit of those then.














2. Cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. What a dream that was. We went with eight other couples from dental school. It was seriously so much fun. I can't wait to go on one again. My mom flew to Ohio to watch the boys for us and we headed to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to board the ship. We stopped in Puerto Rico (where Erik served his mission), St. Thomas, St. Maarten and the Bahamas. It was so nice to just be with Erik and to celebrate the accomplishment of the upcoming graduation.

3. Moving to Boise, Idaho. Erik has joined a dental practice in Meridian and we bought our first house. We love the neighborhood that we live in. We have a community pool which was used to the fullest this summer. The elementary school that Zach will go to is right next to our house. That was my favorite part about the house. I loved the location. When we moved in there were still a lot of houses for sale on our street but they are starting to fill up and we actually have four neighbors that are LDS, so that is very nice. Erik works for a great bunch of guys and they treat him and me very well. It looks like Boise will be our permanent home. I am getting more used to it, it just always takes some time. I do like being only 5 hours away from family. The boys are adjusting to the move. Zach has met a few boys that he likes and I was able to get him into a preschool that he loves.

The boys and I went to the pumpkin patch today on a fieldtrip with Zach's preschool but I haven't downloaded those pictures yet to my computer so I will post about that later. We left behind some great memories in Ohio and we loved our time there. We met many wonderful people who will always be a part of our lives. Now on to a new life, but I am so thankful for those memories and experiences. They have certainly changed and shaped my life.