More Christmas...

Man, I have got to get a bigger memory card for our camera! Right now I can only take 13 pictures at a time and then I have to download them. So, Christmas pictures are still trickling in from everyone else.

Here's a shot of the brothers all relaxing after Christmas dinner.

This was Rhonda and Bob's upstairs tree.

This was Rhonda and Bob's downstairs tree.

We always have Sunday dinner at Grandma Nina's house, and since she likes to spend time with Will we try and come over early. Tonight she was showing him how the piano works.

I think that he's getting it. :-)

First Christmas

Well, I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. Ours was great, but very snowy. When we got up on Christmas morning this was the view out Rhonda and Bob's garage. Dad took a picture of me standing in front of this drift for perspective, but we didn't have time to download it. It came up to my waist!

It took Dad and I 20 minutes of digging to get out to and clear off my car so that I could go to the store for something that I had forgotten. The weather reports today said that our area got around 18 inches in the storm that came through yesterday... and we're due for more.
I would say that skiers and snow borders should start heading this way, but I don't think that you can fly or drive in (or out) of our area!


Even though we were snowed in Will had a great first Christmas. He got a lot of good toys and had a lot of fun opening packages with Grandma Rhonda. Here are some of the highlights.

Will in his Christmas PJ's.

Grandma helping Will open gifts.

Will's first cell phone.

Aunt Erin gave Will a Boston Red Socks outfit. He should be big enough for it around time for the next season.

Lots, and lots, and lots of toys...

Will also got his first set of wheels from Grandma and Grandpa, which he loved, as you can see.

Being that he's a boy, and Paul can hardly stand waiting until he's big enough for a real car, he also got a set from daddy.

Of course, the best toy wasn't the presents... it was the box that they came in!

Babysitting

We went to my office's Holiday party a couple of weeks ago and left Will over at Grandma Nina's house. Unfortunately Nina had a choir practice that she had to attend so Dave volunteered to watch Will for a bit while she was gone. When Paul and I returned from the party at 9 pm we found this scene.

Will had been fussy because of his teeth so Dave had snuggled him. He fell right asleep and was still out cold when we got back.

I think that these uncles really like having a little guy around to play with. If Will is this good for his uncle I'm going to have him do a LOT more babysitting from now on! :-)

Winter Wonderland

Well, we got the snow that the weatherman was forecasting for yesterday. Parts of the valley got anywhere from 4-6 inches, and the mountains got over a foot in some places. If you know any skiers or snowboarders I think all of the resorts are finally open.
Here is what our house looked like this afternoon. As you can see the skies are still overcast, and they say that we might get some more snow before tomorrow.

I also got a photo of our first Christmas Tree. (Yes, Paul and I are Scrooges for not doing one until now.) We've even got a present under it already. Guess who that's for...
I think that I did a pretty good job decorating it. Course, Grandpa Bob came over and helped for a bit.

I think that cats are having a hard time working out why there is a tree in our front room. I keep catching them trying to play with the ornaments. Here's Pippen trying to look all innocent.

Bath Time

Will is getting so big. In fact, he's gotten too big to use his little bath tub, and he rolls off of the sponge-thing that we got to lay in the big tub. So, we went out a bought one of those little bath seats that he can sit up in (since he hasn't quite figured out how to sit up without falling over yet). We gave him his first bath with it the other night, and he was so excited that I had to take some pictures.

If you look closely in the first one you can see his two bottom teeth. He's not bee a happy camper lately because he's been getting some on the top now.

I think that these will be good to keep for when he's all grown up and brings home a girl friend!

Festival of Trees

Tonight we went to the Festival of Trees. Some of the trees were really great.
Will seemed to have a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa.

Here are some of the trees that we liked best.

This one was made out of golf clubs.

This one was covered with Tonka trucks and tools.

This one had frogs. (Okay, you know I had to...)

This one was a life size Grinch carrying toys and a tree in a sack on his back.

This was the best one at the show. It was made entirely of glass with lights behind it. There was a huge wait just to get close enough to see it.

This one was Bob's favorite. He likes the big ornaments and shiny colors.

"Baby, it's cold outside!"

This morning it was really cold so we put Will's heavy coat on. He looked so cute that I had to take a picture. Every time he wears this coat I think of the kid from "A Christmas Story"!

The polar bear hat came from Grandma Rhonda.

(Man, I really need to change the calendar over to the correct month. I didn't realize that it was still on September!)

Thanksgiving's over...here comes Christmas

Okay, I give up! Thanksgiving is finally over so everyone can feel free to play Christmas music and put up decorations near me now.

I can't stand the fact that we have almost completely lost the entire month of November to Pre-Christmas crap! It used to be bad enough that Thanksgiving was made out to be just the precursor to the larger holiday, now they have completely crushed it into submission and we are starting to lose Halloween. I can't believe that the minute ghosts and jack-o-lanterns come down they immediately put up lights and trees! What happened to fall leaves, pilgrims, and cornucopias?

So, I usually tell anyone within fifty feet of me that if I hear or see anything Christmas like before Thanksgiving is over I will hurt someone.

Of course, now that we are past that deadline feel free to do whatever you want. I'm not Scrooge...

Anyway...I have some new pictures for everyone. :-)

First off, Paul thought that we should document the change in the flooring, so he took a picture after they pulled up all of the old stuff.

So, once we had the new stuff in I insisted that he pose for a picture. You can't see a ton of it because we had to put a rug down to keep from sliding back and forth all day.

This one is from the weekend before we had the floors done. Mom and dad had come over to help pack and Will was bouncing in his jumper. He had been in there a while and it was getting late. He actually rocked himself to sleep.

These ones are from some of his recent times in the high chair. He's learning to put things into his mouth. He really likes bananas.

This one is from Thanksgiving day. We spent it at Nina's house, but Mom and Dad came to join us. Will was dressing all stylish in his clothes from Grandpa Dale.

Once we were all stuffed we got Will into his PJ's and he played with everyone. Here he is hanging out with Uncle Ed.

Being sick sucks!

Sorry that I haven't posted anything new in a bit. I've been sick with a stupid virus. It started in my head and has migrated down into my lungs. I'm starting to think that if I keep coughing like this my head is going to explode...or at least my eyes are going to pop out. I may actually have to give in and go see a doctor so that they can give me some antibiotics or something. At this point a large hammer to bash over my head would be nice.

Luckily Paul and Will haven't gotten it yet. I think that Will inherited his dads immune system, which would be awesome. Paul hardly ever gets sick, and I seem to always be sick with something. Will has only had a minor head cold since he was born so it appears that he takes after Paul. Good, maybe then I will have two people to take care of me when I am ill.

We've still got a lot of stuff in boxes at home. We've managed to unpack the majority of the stuff that was in the garage, but there is still a lot of stuff in the store room under the house. Paul did make one good find yesterday...he found the box that we had stashed the remote control for the TV in! It felt like we were living in the stone age there for a while. :-)

And We're Back...

We're finally moved back into our house now that the new floors are in.
Man...they look nice compared to the old stuff!
Now we just have to cover up all of the crap that got exposed when they pulled up the old stuff. All along the stairs there are tiny nail holes, and big holes that go straight through the dry wall into the storage area under the house. It's kind of like living in a big piece of Swiss cheese!
I'll post some pics once I get a chance to find the camera. I know it's in a box somewhere...

Preparing For New Flooring

Okay, so it's finally time to have our new flooring put in. We spent the weekend getting everything moved out of the house so that the installers would have a clear path. It took about 10 hours to get everything moved, and that was with the help of 6 family members! We decided to rent one of those temporary storage units that they bring out to the house to store most of the stuff in, but we still managed to fill the garage, too.
Man, we have WAY too much crap!!!
Luckily we have loving parents who are allowing us to camp out at their house until the work is done. Grandma Rhonda graciously offered to let us crash in one of her spare rooms for a few days. (I'm sure that having access to the baby whenever she wants had nothing to do with it...)

SNOW!!!

Okay, we finally got some of the white stuff. In fact, we got some 3-8 inches of it in different parts of the valley, and up to 26 inches at the ski resorts. This storm has dumped so much on us that Snowbird has decided that they will be opening this weekend for skiing on most of their runs. So, spread the word to anyone who is a powder head.

I am so glad that we already had a winter coat for Will. We bought him a nice warm parka last month when we had a cold snap. I'll have to get a picture of him all dressed up so that you can see. He kind of looks like the little kid from 'A Christmas Story'. He can't move much so his arms stick straight out! It's hilarious!

Election Day and New Teeth

Well, it's finally here. After 2 years of having to listen to people promise how they will make this country better we're going to find out who will actually get the chance to try. I'm a firm believer in the saying "If you didn't vote then you have no room to complain about how things are being run." And, since I love to complain, I made sure that I voted this year. So, no matter how things turn out I now have the right to complain about them. :-)

The other fun news today is that Will officially has teeth. The babysitter said that yesterday he was making funny faces and moving his mouth in weird ways. So, she checked it out and his two bottom front teeth had poked through. It turns out that he was making all the faces because he could feel them and it was a new sensation for him. Of course, by the time that I came to take him home they had gone back down due to swelling. The good part is that we are past all of the pain of getting them in...course we still have a mouthful of others left. I was feeling around in there last night and I think that one of the top ones will be next. It feels like it is right below the surface.

I can't believe how lucky we have been to have such a good baby. Will is so mellow about everything that he rarely cries. Even during all of this teething he has only been cranky a few times. The only thing that has really thrown him off lately has been the time change. He is so used to eating and sleeping at certain times that we've had to do everything an hour earlier now. I'm hoping that we can slowly move things back the extra hour so that our schedule and his realign. He was used to getting up around 5:30 am to have his first bottle and get the day started, but with the time change he now wakes up when the clock says 4:30 am. At least he's content to go back to bed once he's been fed so that we can get a bit more sleep.

Halloween

Well, Will has had his first Halloween. We didn't go trick-or-treating because he's still too little to eat candy, and I don't really need to have all those sweets lying around. Paul brought Will to my office because he was part of our themed costumes this year.

Here are some of the pics.

Ashley, Will, Rhonda, and Pepper as Pumpkins at work

(See, even the dog can't get out of celebrating!)

Bob relives some of his glory days!

We had to have a close-up on that hair.

Once all of the treats were handed out we all settled into a sugar coma. I'm sure diabetes is in all of our futures after the last few days!

After all of the celebrating was done we brought Will over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. He got to show off his very first pair of super hero PJ's. Paul was so excited that he was finally big enough for Spider Man!