Some good memories from Christmas:

• The whole family rolling on the ground laughing during a game.
• Zach getting a bike from Santa and exclaiming, "I love my new bike!" He is exponentially getting better and now cruises around the island in the kitchen at full speed. He wears a helmet for all those times he steers into the countertop.


• Running around the neighborhood collecting my Christmas Eve dinner that was cooking in my neighbors' ovens.


• Always having people around to play games with. The fun ones this time around: Time's Up, Carcassone, Small World, and Puerto Rico.


• Zach's cousin telling him not to be scared during a sleepover because "you have us".


• Bucket brigading the presents from upstairs to downstairs and hearing the grunting as people passed them down the stairs.


• Zach saying he wanted birthday cake for Christmas because it was Jesus' birthday.


• Halle having a chili potato for the first time and now refusing to drink formula. She is her father's daughter.


• Zach telling me that he wants to always wear his pajamas. We lived in them over the holiday and now Zach thinks that's the norm.


• Laughing with my SILs during Girl's Night and being grateful to have married into such a wonderful family.


• Zach rubbing my head and telling me I'm a good girl.

'tis the season

As Thanksgiving is a week past and it is December, I feel like I would be slow if I posted about the holiday now. Know that we had a wonderful time. If you're really that interested, check out my sister's blog to find out what we did. Just pay no attention to the section about BYU winning the football game - we are not affiliated with them. On a side note, the past couple months Zach has been randomly yelling, "Go BYU!" Brandon was disturbed because neither of us are BYU fans. We found out recently that his nursery leader taught it to him and he practices the chant every week - wonderful... We are currently working to unbrainwash him.

I love the Christmas season. The Christmas decorations are up (and keep getting put back up daily because of 3-year-old hands). We dance nightly to Christmas music and Zach and Halle both love it - Brandon also doesn't mind practicing his moves. Zach practices his dance moves outside by the road with only a shirt and underoos on and then sneaks back inside without my knowledge (my neighbor informed me of this). Halle eats our presents and I often find pieces of wrapping paper in her mouth. Packages arrive daily and Zach thinks every one is for him and that the picture of the FedEx truck on the box means there is a similar-looking toy truck instead (he's been a very disappointed boy lately). Ah... good times.

Here's some pictures from the last couple days:

Dancing with Daddy

Brandon and Zach getting ready to decorate. Zach was adamant that the Santa hats were worn.

Halle cleaning my floor. She eats everything within reach.

Zach playing in the leaves

happy feet

Below is a video of Halle "walking". She does more hopping and skipping than actual walking because she just can't control all that energy. I think she has "happy feet" while my mother likes to think of Halle's walking as ice skating moves (like she's slipping on the ice).

The context: Zach was running and jumping into a mound of pillows. Halle was getting mad at just watching so Brandon picked her up to have a try. She LOVED it, mainly because she loves doing anything and everything Zach does.

It's a quick little snippet, but I thought it was cute. My favorite part is when she looks up at Brandon like he's the best dad in the world (and she now says dada to prove it).

the word

Thanks to all those who took a stab at the word Zach was saying (see previous post). Unfortunately, no one correctly guessed the word. No prize for you.

I will, however, reveal the mystic word for your re-listening pleasure.

Here's a couple hints:

• It is four syllables.
• It is an adjective.
• Why Zach learned the word: The Father was jokingly called it by The Mother because he was throwing rubber balls at her while she was monologuing.
• It's synonyms: impolite, rude, impertinent, irreverent (thanks dictionary.com!)

The word:

disrespectful

It still cracks me up to hear Zach say it.

It's a contest!

The Contest: Guess the Word
The Prize: Cannot be disclosed, but it is AWESOME!
(For a winner not in the vicinity, the prize can and will be shipped).
The Rules: Watch the video clip and guess the word Zach is saying. It's that easy.

Good luck!

With one holiday passed and another still weeks away, it seems like not much is going on and, therefore, nothing to blog about. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there are some new happenings...

• Halle scoots. The first time I saw her do it was when she saw one of Zach's sippies. She knew it contained something tasty and pushed her way over to it. She is getting faster every day. Unfortunately, that means the ugly baby gate has to go up too.
• Our car was vandalized. I called Brandon one morning to talk business and just as I was going to hang up, he said, "Oh yeah... and the car got vandalized." Terrific. Over Halloween, someone keyed our car door and also wrote choice words in permanent marker (Brandon was annoyed that some were misspelled). He wouldn't even let me see the car it was so bad. After $1500 and a new door, it will be as good as new.
• We got a dog. Okay, not really. We are just dog-sitting a weimaraner puppy for a couple weeks named Ralphie (Zach calls him Gralphie). I feel like I have three kids. In the morning, they are all whining because they're hungry and want breakfast. Good thing Brandon goes to work early so I don't have four hungry mouths to feed. He is a good dog and I've realized, I {heart} walking dogs. Still, I don't plan on getting Zach and Halle their own puppy any time soon. We'll just visit the neighbor's dogs if needs be.

That's it. Thanksgiving better come soon so I can post something exciting... like eating yams.

halloween '09

Zach was a train engineer for Halloween this year, but many people thought he was a builder of some sort. Some guy asked Zach to finish his basement. Good thing Zach was more interested in avoiding everyone at the Trunk or Treat and paid the poor guessers no mind. He would only say "Trick or Treat" with his teeth clenched and only visited half of the car trunks before he decided he'd rather go see Daddy. We'll try again next year.


Halle's costume was the result of a frugal mother with a boy hand-me-down Elmo suit. People who didn't know us told us that our little guy was very cute. Either way, she looked adorable!

The Fam. I didn't dress up, but this really was disconcerting to Zach so Brandon told him I was dressed as a crazy woman. This appeased him.

BONUS: $1 to the person (who doesn't already know) who can guess what Brandon's costume is.

I attached the following pictures, not because of their photographic merit, but rather because the lady who took them had some issues and it cracked me up.

We also went to a Reptile Show our city put on. Zach touched a "corn snake" (as he described it) which was actually a huge albino python. We finished the night hiding in the basement because we ran out of candy and we didn't think canned goods would be a big hit.