Highlights from December...

Here is a sampling of some of the fun stuff we did this Christmas!



We made, shaped, cooked, and painted salt dough and then glued magnets on the back to give as Christmas presents. I'm not the craftiest mom on the block, so I was a little nervous, but they turned out great and we enjoyed it. (All the fun of sugar cookies without any of the sugar. Alright!)





We went to "Jolly Days" at the Children's Museum! This is Ethan baking some play food goodies. We got to see a puppet show, a play in a live theater, and Ethan even got to be in an organized snowball fight (using huge cottonballs and letting the kids go crazy throwing them at each other for 5 minutes. It was a riot! )



This is called the "Yule Slide." They convert the staircase, every year, into this slide. Man, are we going to miss this place when we move!





We counted down the days until Christmas...



And basked in the magic. Reading stories and singing songs by the light of the Christmas tree was one of my favorite parts of the season again this year.



Look at this big boy in a sweater vest! Hardly a baby anymore, huh?




The elves came to help me clean and fold laundry...

And one elf even helped Jake get ready for church! Ethan did this without even being asked, and Jake was so patient about the whole thing. (You can see from all the pictures it took a little while--those buttons are pretty small!)









The boys got to sit on Santa's lap at the ward Christmas party...





And of course Santa came to our house and left a few fun things for each of us! These blocks, though, were from Nana. Thanks! We love them!! We are putting them to good use already.








I'm sorry to say that it RAINED on Christmas Day. This Colorado girl was not amused. I think my order for a "White" Christmas got jumbled up and they thought I wanted a "Wet" Christmas. Next year maybe we can put the h and the i back in. But, the day after Christmas we did get a little bit of snow so we got out and enjoyed it!


Golly gee, I sure love those guys.




And, Kyle is enjoying his new ipod! Here he is playing a top gun video game on it. This picture gives the illusion of the boys snuggling up to Daddy, but really they just have to sit that close to be able to see. There is something about boys and video games, and it starts at an even younger age than I thought... they are riveted to the screen. :)



We missed getting to be with our extended families this year, but it was fun to be together with just the four of us. On Christmas night, I said the word "spiffy" about something Ethan showed me, and then crunched up my face and looked at Kyle and said, "spiffy? I haven't said that word in YEARS." Ethan, who never misses a chance to make someone laugh, jumped right on it and decided to just freeze in random poses and then say, "spiffy!" (and of course, after a whole day in out pajamas, not going anywhere, and not showering, we were kind of at the point of stir crazy slap happiness anyway...) That catapulted us into a good half hour of laughing so hard we were crying. Ethan, delighted that he was making us laugh, kept going and going, thinking up new poses and changing things up to keep us rolling. Just as we were trying to gain control so we could breathe, Jake came running into the kitchen, totally out of nowhere, tilted his head to one side, put his hands in the air, and said, "Spiddy!" and then laughed and ran out of the room. We about died. That is a memory I won't soon forget. It's fun that our kids are getting old enough where their personalities really come through and we can laugh together and be slap happy and silly. That was a fun cherry on top of a very Merry Christmas. :)

"Loo, Loo ,Loo, I'll take you dreaming..."

So, this is one of the cutest things going on in our family right now--Jake is starting to sing. He's so funny about it though, because he usually just says the last word of each phrase. I think it takes him so much effort to think about what the word will be and then anticipate shaping his mouth to say the word, that he only has time to get in one word per line. The other day in the car I heard:
The ants go marching one by one (and then Jake said, "wah! wah!")
The ants go marching one by one ("wah! wah!"
The ants go marching one by one the little one stops to suck his (dum!")
And they all go marching ("down!")
To the ground, to get ("out!")
Of the ("wane!")
Boom Boom ("Boom!")

I kept looking in the rearview mirror to watch him because it was so adorable to hear, that I wanted to see it. His rhythm was perfect. It was hilarious.

And, this is the best video we got of Jake doing his favorite lullaby, Loo, Loo, Loo. (It's the one from the movie, "The Court Jester," with Danny Kaye. Kyle and I watched this movie together when we were first married and promised that we would learn that lullaby and sing it to our kids. We had no idea what a hit it would be!)






Here's a fun video of Ethan, too. He loves to dress up in superhero costumes, and the other day, when he was Dash, he said he wanted a turn on the treadmill so he could run "so fast, like Dash."

Pretty fun.

Leaves in October...

This is a silly slide show I made for my brother on his birthday in October. I decided to post it here because these pictures are irresistible!





Hey, Uncle Zach!! Happy Birthday!

I got you a super cool leaf for you. See?




And I think it's time for your surprise...




Oh great. What is Ethan up to this time?!...



I will now lead us all in singing "Happy Birthday" to Uncle Zach.



Um, I don't think I wanna do this guys....



Jake--"We sing together play together, all happily." That's what the song says. So, it's time to sing together, and you need to be happy about it.




Alright, everyone! Rrrrround tones! Long vowels!! Here we go!




"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Uncle Zach... Happy Birthday to you!



Alright. I guess that wasn't so bad. It was actually kind of fun.






Okay Jake, I'm buying you some time... Hurry, eat your candy before mom knows... Are you done? Okay, look at mom and smile!



We love you Uncle Zach!!

Alright, later everyone. I gotta go visit some hobbits.

nana nana nananana.... BATMAN!!

I was really excited when Ethan decided he wanted to be Batman for Halloween, and requested that we find a Robin costume for Jake too. It took some searching, but it was worth it! (and at our house, dress ups get worn as often as regular clothes, so they're still getting good use...)



This is my favorite picture of my little superheroes. It looks like they could be on the top of a building, and batman's cape is blowing in the wind, and they are looking at the bright horizon, having just saved the world from complete destruction. And then, the credits...

And this one shows the full cuteness of the "R" on Jake's little chest. And it cracks me up that usually, when we tell Ethan to put his harm around Jake, he puts his hand around his neck and it looks a little like a strangle hold.

I feel so safe knowing these guys are warding off all the bad guys...

And, here's one of the unsifted pictures. You know, usually we just post the ones that turned out the very best. But there are so many moments in between the great shots. :)

My boys love suckers! (I think almost every picture I have of either of my boys trick or treating includes a sucker in their mouths)

Jake and his friend Max (notice the sucker)

Just to prove my point, here is Ethan a few years ago (with Max's older sister!) on Halloween. Notice the sucker. :)


And, here is Ethan the next year, as Tigger. And whaddya know, a sucker!



Happy Halloween!!!

And, he's off to save the world...

Jake's Birthday was a big hit! (literally)

Well, happy birthday little buddy!

I'm sorry to say that second children are deprived in the picture taking category. I took way more pictures of Ethan when he turned 2 than I did of Jake, but that's kind of the way it goes. Either way, we had fun and we're really glad Jake was born and that we get to have him in our family. :)

If you want to turn your head sideways you can see the decorations Ethan helped me put up during Jake's nap. (I need to remind myself, AGAIN, to not take videos vertically because they don't rotate. ha ha)





Jake loves food, music, and balls. We made sure his birthday celebration included all of those. (just as a side note, Ethan's special birthday dinner is always chicken nuggets with chocolate milk. Jake was giddy about his deluxe fruit platter. These two boys do NOT have the same food preferences. Ethan would eat cereal for every meal if he were allowed to. Jake gobbles up zucchini and beans and sort of picks at his biscuit. )


This ball toy has provided hours of entertainment--the thing in the middle spins around and it plays music and there are buttons and ramps and levers to make the balls do different things. The annoyingness of the music has been worth the entertainment value. :)


My sister Allison gave Jake a great collection of kid songs that has been a huge hit. This is the boys dancing to one of the songs a few days after Jake's birthday...











And, speaking of big hits....

Amidst the birthday treats (cookies and ice cream, because Jake doesn't really like cake--can you believe it?) , our neighbor knocked on our door and asked us if we knew about this:


Um, no. We didn't.

We did find a rock in the back, so our best guess is random vandalism, but we'll never know exactly what happened.

And of course it started to rain, so we had to bring the car seats inside, covered with shattered glass, and remove the covers and clean up the glass and vacuum them up, and put a tarp on the car, and file a police report, and call our insurance... Too much fun.

It was weird to be angry at a nameless person, and I found myself wanting to just find whoever it was (my guess was a clueless teenager) and just sit them down and let them know how much time, effort, energy, and money the whole thing was going to cost us and invite them to think about that kind of thing before you just go throwing rocks or acting on whatever other impulses you may happen to have. I'm such a mom. :) But then I got sad that maybe whoever did it doesn't have a mom who HAS taught them that kind of stuff and I got to wondering why they were wandering around at night anyway and ultimately ended up feeling sort of sad for the potentially bleak future of this unnamed vandal. Lots of assumptions and unanswered questions...

Anyway, $250 deductible later we got a new windshield and moved on with your life, so what else can you do, right?


But most importantly, we love you Jake!! Happy Birthday!



And, here are some fun pictures from our last trip to Waterman's Pumpkin patch. We have gone there every year since we moved here and realized that next October we will be living somewhere else...

Growing Growing, all the time...

It's in his genes...

This is the pumpkin eating dinosaur they have every year. Gotta love it.

I love what you do for me, Toyota!!
(Does anyone else remember those commercials? Funny that we have 2 Toyotas)

This is a calf nursery painted like a pumpkin. And a cute little "pumpkin" inside!

Happy Fall!