christmas

Top: David, Kim, Halle, Ben, Mom, Zach

Bottom: Brandon, Greg, Chelle, Dad, Trisha

This was supposed to be our "good" picture. Greg's doing his best sweetheart pose while Brandon flashes hippy signs. I guess that's the best we can do.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love my family. I love my sweet, little immediate family. I love my sisters, my brother, their spouses, my parents, my nieces, nephews. I loved adding Brandon's family into the mix. The more family, the better.

That's probably one of the reasons I love Christmas so much. I love being smushed into one house. I love eating my mom's food. I love talking late into the night with my sisters. I love playing games. I love totally being myself, no restrictions. I love waking up, knowing there will always someone to talk to. I love watching the family interact with my kids.

Some of my favorite memories from Christmas this year:

• Watching Halle and Zach love Prissy (Kim's dog) to death and Prissy ignoring them whenever she had the chance.


• Uncle Greg leaving the Adult Table to give the nieces and nephews rounds of M&Ms during Christmas dinner.
• Halle being surrounded with tons of toys Christmas morning, but only being interested in her candy rocks and the boxes (she'd open her presents, exclaim, "BOX!", and then toss it aside before ever looking in them).

• Three prayers at Christmas dinner - one on the adult table and two more at the child table.


• Ben happily snuggling with Minnie, Pooh, and Halle.


• Mom laughing so hard about her "home run" joke and the rest of us joining in because she thought it was so funny.


• Greg wrapping up Zach as a burrito and then watching the burrito with legs walk around. I love this picture because it shows my mom just enjoying the moment.

• Playing laser tag during Family Fun Time and rolling on the ground while shooting. Then going home to find Halle in complete bliss with Grandma (and learning that Halle had to be contained in the kitchen so she wouldn't get in everything).


• Knowing that if you couldn't find Brandon, Ben, or Greg, they were playing a game.


• Zach playing Guess Who nonstop and always convincing Chelle to be his playing partner. She was always ready and willing.
• Cousins (and pudding)!!!


• Watching Dad try to hit a ball with a hanging bowling ball pin while playing Minute to Win It.


• Kim exemplifying the saying, "People are more important than things" by letting Zach play pool with us on her new pool table. I winced and gasped everytime he took a swing, but to her credit, she never said a word.


• Seeing the special moments that could only be caught with a camera...


• Zach's face when he saw his jeep. It was priceless. He wants to ride it everyday - even with the snow and cold. I've realized I'm at the low end of the totem pole because his jeep gets the coveted garage spot while my car is out in the cold.

8

It's been 8 years... it's been a good 8 years.

I'm not one for public displays of affection, but I do love this guy.

When Brandon and I were dating, my roommate sent my mom an email that said this:

Dear Trisha's Mom,

Brandon is a good catch - he does dishes.

Trisha's favorite roommate, Marie

Boy, was Marie right... and he still does the dishes.

tumbling

Zach's been in a boys tumbling class for the last couple months. He has loved it. I'm not sure exactly what he's learned, but he certainly has a great time.

I think he got his skills from me.... haha... not really. But I do have proof that I was a gymnast (or at least that I could hang on a bar). Gotta love those perms!!!

Here is a video of Zach at tumbling. You may have to mute it as Halle wasn't too happy that she couldn't go play too.

Christmas fun

I can't believe that Christmas is coming... and SOON. It has been really fun this year. Zach understands the concept of Santa. Last year, we must not have talked about Santa much because Zach called the jolly guy in the red suit "Albertsons" - I'm not sure where the confusion came in. However, this year Zach understands Santa and Zach asks a lot of questions about him: "How will Santa get in our house?", "How will Santa be able to see if there are no lights on? We'd better get him a flashlight.", and "How will Santa know we're going to be Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas? I'll leave my closet open so he'll know."

Zach wrote Santa a letter early in the month:

but has lately added a treadmill (as Uncle Greg has one) to his wish list. Not a bad idea for a kid with endless energy, but unfortunately, he's going to be disappointed on this one.

Both Halle and Zach LOVE to dance to Christmas music. It is something that is done every night. The favorite song to dance to: Wizards in Winter by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Zach enjoys listening to it at an earsplitting volume. Halle prefers Mr. Potato Head to be her dance partner.

Our new family tradition has been Fisbee, our Elf on a Shelf, who hides different places every morning. Fisbee is Santa's helper and watches the kids to see if they are being Naughty or Nice. Both Halle and Zach enjoy looking for him and giggle at the places he ends up. Fnding Fisbee is a Must Do every morning.

On Tuesday, we went to Temple Square to see the lights. Zach remembers this from last year and so it was fun to do again. We rode the Trax train from Daddy's work (maybe 3 blocks) and Zach was in heaven. Trains are definitely still his thing.

And then there's Halle's new smile. She tries to smile so big that she closes her eyes and makes a grimace with her face. I cannot tell you how many pictures I have with her making this face. What a priceless memory!

Zach's Spelling

Zach's spelling just cracks me up. For instance, S-N-O-D spells 'snowed' and L-I-T spells 'light'. But this one is my favorite:

Can you guess what he's trying to spell? (Don't forget the G hidden in the spiral binding).

It's been an eventful couple of weeks, but not necessarily eventful enough to blog about. So here's a post with some of our comings and goings.

• Halloween. Zach loved Halloween. He picked out his own costume this year - Iron Man. Halle had no choice so she was a lady bug. Both loved collecting candy. Zach would have kept collecting candy from the neighbors, but his old mom got cold.

Zach and Halle lining up their Halloween loot. This activity composed most of the morning following Halloween.

• Both cars are in the garage - quite a feat with all the "stuff" we have. We have boxes labeled "Trisha's Dolls" and "Brandon's Keepsakes", as well as "Ostriches" and "Purple Plasic Dishes" . You never know when you're going to need your purple plastic dishes from college.
  
• We've had a lot of this:

Zach is way into playing Brandon's instruments. We've got a whole bandload hidden in the basement. (I'm beginning to think we might be pack rats). Zach's favorite thing is to play and he's quite good. Not good at sounding good, but good at making lots of loud noise that sounds a lot like an angry elephant. This activity is strickly a basement activity and is strictly one that Dad supervises. I stay upstairs with my bottle of Excedrin.

• We've also had a lot of this: Halle is our little diva. She loves looking pretty. Halle loves sunglasses, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, shoes, having her hair done, makeup, rings, etc. Halle is a friendly gal and will visit any lady who has pretty accessories. She walks up them to them and says pretty, while reaching for their jewelry. Halle always ends up with it on. She's got it down to quite a science.
  
• I joined a gym. This is momentous news because I am cheap. I have always done my exercising outside, so a gym is a new experience. I get bored running on a treadmill and I don't like being sweaty in such close proximity to other people, but I think I could become a gym rat.


• Halle continues to add to her vocabulary. One of my favorite things she says is, "Hi, Moose". It cracks me up because she says moose with a little of a lisp.
  

We're happy. We're good. Who could ask for more!?!

surfing

About a week ago, I woke up with a sore neck. I couldn't check my blind spot when driving (though, for safety reasons, I tried) and looking up was near impossible. At first I was confused at what had caused my hurt neck. Not my pillow, for sure. It's old and smushed, but it's been my sleeping companion for years. Then I remembered the night before.

We went surfing indoors with friends and as talented as I was(n't), the board kept finding a way to displace itself from under my feet. When this would happen, I would get whip lash as I fell into the water. I did it over and over again. I have never laughed so hard in my life. Watching other people was the best. I had a certain friend who was the queen of huge falls and quite entertaining to watch.

Here's a quick video of Brandon surfing. Toward the end, we got much better and stayed on for maybe... 8 seconds at a time.


It was SO MUCH FUN! I plan on this being a great activity for when my family visits in December.

The night ended with a voicemail from our babysitter: "Uh... do you think you could come home early? Zach threw up." Uggghhh...