A LITTLE VACATION!

Thanks to the city of Denver, Noah ended up having a 5 day weekend. Grams had the same days off. So we decided for a few of those days we would take a little overnight vacation to Glenwood Springs. It is a little city up in the mountains where there are hot springs where you can swim. It was nice to get away and a lot of fun to be together.

We also took a gondola up to the top of the mountain where there are activities and a cave that you can tour. Levi was a little intimidated by the cave. By the end he was doing all right, but would not tell you it was his favorite part of the vacation. Isaac liked walking through the tunnels. When you get through one of the caves, you come out to a fantastic view of Glenwood Springs and No Name. Yes, the city's real name is no name.

Poor Levi.

Before the hike into the cave. Grams made me promise her that there would be no crawling on he hands and knees.

Me and my baby!

Daddy and his princess. Levi rode with Grams and Yampa in the one ahead of us

Happy Birthday Levi!!

I cannot believe that Levi is 5. I know everyone says that....but when I say it I absolutely mean it! I have a 5 year old and he is so adorable.

He has actually been talking for months about his "Mario Bowling Birthday." We ended up giving him almost exactly what he wanted. We ended up with a Luigi Bowling Party. I procrastinated too long, and could not get a Mario figure for the top of his cake. Finally after many phone calls I thought that I had found one. Noah's parents were by the particular Toys 'r Us, so they stopped to pick it up for me. However, the only thing that they had was Luigi. When I told Levi he said "Grams is the Hero of the Day!" SO Luigi it was.

We woke up and opened presents before Noah went to work. Ate McDonald's for lunch and headed to Mr. Biggs for pizza and bowling with some of his friends. The kids had a blast. We were a little worried because Levi is a bowling pro on the wii, and even with bumpers we knew he would not live up to his wii bowling scores. He ended up bowling 3 or 4 spares and finished with the highest score and was very happy. We had a wonderful time.

Best Friends!

Levi and Ruby can be so cute together. It makes me so happy to be their mom when they have moments like these.

There was one Sunday where I left to go visiting teaching and came home to find this.

Ruby fell asleep hiding in her closet. So Levi got her blanket and covered her up. As if that wasn't cute enough, he got his blanket and "went to sleep" next to her. Of course after I got my camera and came back I discovered that he really wasn't asleep. He was just taking good care of his little sis.

Anniversary #6

This year Noah and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. A lot has changed for us in the past 6 years. A lot is still the same also. I am so happy to be married to my best friend.

Sadly, the pictures of us without the little ones did not turn out, so here is one of us on our anniversary with our little princess of Rubia.

Leviisms and Rubyism

I am interrupting the catching up of our posts to bring you the funnies of our children.

Yesterday Levi was in rare form. Here is a warning that the rest of this paragraph is a little graphic. We were having a nice dinner yesterday. Towards the end of dinner Levi decided to stuff all the rest of his mashed potatoes in his mouth at the same time. This resulted in gagging which resulted in throw up all over his plate. Noah (the best husband ever) went to get his plate and take it to the sink. When Noah took his plate Levi said, "WAIT! IT LOOKS LIKE PACMAN!"

Then later last night Grams and I took Levi and Ruby to see a play at one of the local high schools, that our friend directs. The play was Hello Dolly! For those of you who aren't familiar with the play, one of the lead characters is named Dolly Levi. Upon hearing her name in the play Levi was quite upset, and had the funniest face and folded his arms and pouted. How dare someone use his name without asking!

Ruby and Levi both love the son "I'll be there" by the Jackson 5. It is on a certain commercial on TV, which is where they learned it. May May downloaded it to her ipod, so the kids now listen to it more ofter. Today, I ran in a store and left Ruby in the car with Meghan. Ruby started asking for a song, and she finally figured out it was "I'll be there." What was Ruby saying? "I'll be Dave!" So the song now goes, "Just call my name, and I'll be Dave!"

Hope we made you laugh.

Happy New Year!

We are excited to have a great year ahead of us. Our blog has suffered because of our business and craziness.

Noah is still in school. He should finish his graduate degree in December and then plans on doing a post-graduate degree that will take him another year. He is still working for the City of Denver as a neighborhood inspector.

Levi is enjoying preschool. He learns so fast and is so excited to be in school. He loves practicing writing letters and painting. His favorite thing to do is play in the gym at school. We can't believe that he will start kindergarten in the fall. He is learning the 4th article of faith right now.

Ruby is a little princess. She is very intelligent. She learns things when we teach them to Levi just by observing. She is also a comedian and is always making me laugh. She loves Disney princesses and Hello Kitty. She is also a little artist and likes to draw. She carries around a horse purse with a pen and paper in it, so she is always prepared if mom is making her do something boring.

Isaac is 9 months old. He is small for his age, which I don't mind at all. He has changed so much in the last 3 weeks. He is crawling on his hands and knees, waving, clapping, and pulling himself up onto furniture. He has his 4 front teeth and is finally sleeping through the night.

I am enjoying our little family. Noah and I set some goals for our family this year, that keep us busy. I am going to finish my last 17 credits of college and finally earn my degree. Noah and I are going to run a 10K race (6.2 miles) in May. After not wondering how we were going to find time to exercise, it has become an integrated part of our days.

So if our blog is sporadic and I post Christmas pictures at the end of February again next year, you will know why!

Happy Christmas!!!

Christmas was great for us. It is fun to be around family and to be able to see the kids so happy.

We spent a lot of time baking for the holidays. We made cookies

And gingerbread houses!

On Christmas Eve, family came over and we had the usual Beals festivities. Part of the festivities include acting out a nativity. This is a picture of Ruby as Mary. Levi was Joseph and they were supposed to carry Ruby's baby around and ask everyone if there was room in their inn. They first went to Uncle Josh. Levi asked if there was room in the inn, and he said Noah. Ruby started crying, she was so sad. It was so cute, and of course Uncle Josh changed his mind and said that she could stay there.

Josh and Debby's little girl is 3 months in this picture, Isaac is 7 months. This is what you get when you have a 100 percentile baby next to a 3rd percentile baby! They will be such good friend when they get older.

We had a great Christmas day. On Christmas Morning we woke the kids up to open presents before Grams had to go to work (she is a nurse). Ruby woke up quickly, sat up, and started to cry because she didn't see her kitchen in her room. She just didn't understand that the present were downstairs. It was pretty cute.

O Christmas Tree!

I love the smell of a fresh cut Christmas tree. I could skip the whole picking out the tree thing, since I am not a big fan of the cold....or keeping my baby warm from the cold. This year we did our tree in 2 parts. We went and got our tree on a Friday night and then had to wait to decorate it until the morning.

Levi was so strong holding up the tree! Isaac fell in love with the tree right away! He was actually really good about just looking. He did like pulling the ornaments that he could reach, but never opened any presents.After the tree was in the house we hung around just smelling the tree and being together as a family. It was good fun.

Then for some reason we started showing the kids how to go crossed eyes (look at your nose). Levi was pretty good at it.Ruby was hilarious. I laughed so hard I was crying and asked her to show me a lot for the next few days. This is what happens when you say, "Ruby, look at your nose."