fun with scissors

maybe you can just see it? there is a chunk of nate's hair missing. right up there near the crown of his head. while we were in idaho falls, nate decided he need to experiment with scissors. first he was trying to cut the TP with the scissors instead of using the convenient perforations. then he decided to see what the scissors would do to his hair. FUN!

nate at LA Gym

nate LOVES LA Gymnastics!

we've been to several birthday parties at LA Gym. it is where he wants his birthday party this year--that's a possibility. i think he would love to start taking lessons there, but i just can't afford that and school, too. (not to mention the time investment.) so he'll have to be happy with parties.

fun in colfax!

willow playing peek-a-boo with Papa D

Papa D and nate playing in the snow.

there was much "playing in the snow" on our trip; it snowed more than 5 feet while we were there. we played with shovels repeatedly. personally, i'm all played out.

christmas 2008

gift #1

see that beautiful lady sitting there with those cute kids? that is my mom's mom. my grandmother. for christmas my dad and my uncle flew Mama Hall up to visit. she lives in florida, and she said several times during our visit that this was only the 2nd time in her 80-something years that she had ever been away from home for christmas.

she was supposed to be a surprise for me, as well, but my brother slipped and mentioned that he was going to pick her up at the airport and drive her to my parents' house. whoops! it was a nice surprise anyway.

christmas eve

for christmas every year, jeff's stepmom makes the grandkids pajamas. this year i asked her to make nate a robe instead. he loves it!

christmas morning

that's right, matching jammies! and this will probably happen again next year, too, so long as they are both willing and i can find matching christmas jammies for them.

christmas for willow

i think this was the only gift she actually opened.

she looks tired, right? shortly after this she fell asleep in my arms in the middle of all the christmas morning chaos. yes, tired.

christmas means . . . family.

willow and tiegan

tiegan moving in on nate's nerf!

the boy could barely crawl, and he already knew what was cool. nerf battles followed throughout the holiday. nerf is a great way of taking out our frustrations with each other on each other without lasting damage.

willow found a new friend in tiegan's older half-brother.

he was sure smitten with her, and he was so good with her, too.

(but then he's got a few younger siblings.)

santa

i always said that i would never make my children sit on santa's lap if they didn't want to. no pictures of my children sitting on his lap screaming, crying, or looking even slightly nervous. nate didn't want to. he was freaked out by the guys in red. so no santa pictures for him . . . until this year!

he said he wanted to see santa. there was a santa at the mall in albuquerque, but they wanted simply too much money for that one lap. so i convinced him to visit the stand-in santa in los alamos. 

here's my secret. the santa at CBFox is someone that nate knows, sort of. he is super nice and the whole set up is very laid back. dave puts on the santa suit a couple of saturdays in december and just hangs out in the store. no big throne. no big to-do. you take your own pictures. no charge.

so here is nate's (and willow's) very first visit with Santa.

he's telling santa that he wants a take along pit crew truck. 

(santa got him nerf guns instead. but santa maintains that the nerf was on his list, so it was fair game--and much less expensive.)

willow was less impressed, but not freaked out. she was mostly just looking at nate the whole time.

golden math: december 2008

+ 2 x 3 x 3 x 3200 = are we insane?

this year for christmas we decided to travel up north to see our families. since jeff's family and friends in idaho falls had not met willow yet and hadn't seen nate--or the rest of us--in about 3 years, we decided to DRIVE! yes, we are insane. 

nate's first christmas we drove up. he was about 4 mos old at the time. then the next year, we did it again. he was about 16 mos that time. after that, if we have gone up north, it has been by air. but flying precludes idaho falls. my parents have come down regularly to visit, but jeff's folks have not been able to do so.

we felt it a drive was needed this year. nate was old enough (entertained by dvd's, books, and toys) to tolerate the drive--mostly. willow was young enough (not mobile and wanting to go, go, go) to tolerate the drive--mostly. we were just dumb enough to do it. i was itching for a good road trip. and finally, it had been just long enough for us to forget how difficult, painful, torturous it is with children. it used to be fun! and to a point, it still is.

this is what it did the night before we left. 

oh, and it didn't stop. i think los alamos got about 20 inches or more of snow from that storm. the roads were snow packed and icy until we got to colorado.

pit stop to make some yellow snow by the side of the road.

suddenly he had to GO!

we stayed the first night in provo in a hotel with an indoor pool. i love the person who thought indoor pools were great for hotels. love them!

pit stop in layton to see some friends. thanks for the playtime jenn!

(i won't be posting the other pictures because jeff took them while sitting down. we'll just say they aren't flattering.) but nate did get to play with ryan's guitar! rock on ry-man!

idaho falls stay-over.

we got to stay with the Berggrens in their house that was not-quite complete the last time we saw it, and we had an absolute BLAST! (that color is in honor of their guest room.) nate got to stay in kole's room, so he had a bit of an extended sleep over. kathryn got to watch willow, which i understand thrilled her no end. jeff and i got to see our good friends and eat some good food and have some good fun. 

i have more pictures, but they are on a disposable camera that hasn't been developed yet. [mental note, must get pictures developed!]

jeff's folks.

seriously, why can't everyone look in the same direction at the same time?

we have a picture that is very similar with nate and ralph at his first christmas.

first food

this was her first taste of baby cereal. it is oatmeal with bananas and apples--not quite as stomach turning as plain old rice cereal. (seriously, have you ever smelled that stuff? i wouldn't eat it either!) she was a little over 6 months old.

unlike nate, willow was not all that hip on solid foods, and we were quite happy about it. so we let her lead and waited until she seemed interested.

7 months

willow's "7 months" was Christmas time. this was her with Mama D (my mom).

 

(this post is a little bit out of order, but such is life.)

ready? set? holy overload!

ok so here goes with the catching up. bear with me there will be quite a few posts. i could, i guess, combine them all, but that would just be unnecessarily confusing. so i'm going to do it as i go! 

happy reading!

feeling crafty and lonely

i've been feeling very crafty of late. so i have been teaching myself (with much help from books and the internet) how to knit. i have also been doing some major crochet. i have been planning quite a few sewing projects, as well. 

and i have been feeing very lonely of late. so i have been neglectful of my own blog. i am most often found on facebook or reading the blogs of my friends far and near. clearly i am attempting to find some measure of connection. if i cannot find it in town, i must needs find it elsewhere (aka, online). sorry for not being more present here. tomorrow when nate is in school and willow is napping, i have plans to get somewhat up-to-date on pictures of the kids and the happenings here. (assuming i don't get sucked into the vortex of facebook. but i'll make it a point to be here instead, catching up.)

until then . . .