First REAL Snow this year!!

Getting bundled like marshmallows!

Xander was pretty cold.
He had a hard time keeping his footing.

 

 

Pushing the carrots around!

Our attempt at a snowman... the snow was not packing snow!
So we started making it into a fort.... only the kids tired out way before I did.
I took them in, put on a movie, then went out again to play by myself  :)

 

 

Isabela's Carrot Castle

19 Nov 2012

Isabela:

This last week, I was eating a piece of cereal and told Isabela, “I love you.”  She got really stern and said, “Mom, you don’t talk with food in your mouth.”  Then later that night, I was eating a cracker or something small, and I just said “Hi” and she says, “Mom!  What did I tell you?  You don’t talk with food in your mouth!”

She also wears her swimming suit everyday.  Every once in awhile I will let her where it under he clothes when we go out, but it’s hard to go to the bathroom with it on, because we have to take off all of her clothes.  But every time we walk in the door or she wakes up in the morning, she strips off her clothes and on goes the swimming suit.  Typically, she comes out of her room, and says, “TA DA!  I can pretend to go swimming.”  And yesterday she said, “Look, I put it on all by myself.”  I thought, “You put in on yourself five times every day.”

Xander:

This week Xander has started saying more and more words.  He used to say Dog all the time, but quit after a couple of months.  But this week, he asked for yogurt from the fridge in the morning.  I gave him some.  He said, “Tchich oo.”  Then five minutes later he was done eating and gave me his bowl and spoon.  “Tchich oo” he said.  I figured it out… “Thank you.”  I said “You’re welcome.”  All day he kept saying it.  He also added PaaPa that day.  We called Brandon and left a voice message with Xander saying “Tchich oo PaaPa.”  Four days later he is still saying it.  He says “Abeya” for Isabela and “Papo” for Zapato.  It’s pretty darn cute.

I like to call Xander our Comic Relief.  It doesn't matter what is going on, how serious (or not) our conversations are, one look at the kid and we all bust a gut laughing.  He is hilarious.

Yesterday in Relief Society, I had to play the piano.  One of the sisters took Xander so I could actually play.  He ended up staying with them almost the entire meeting. (Of course, they had loads of snacks and toys for him.)  He had the three ladies on that row busting up laughing the whole time. I was sitting in front and couldn’t help but laughing either.  He made the silliest faces, kept growling at them, and then putting his hands up in the air, palms turned up, with the most bewildered face, implying, “What happened?  What’s going on?”  He usually does this when he is looking for something or playing hide-and-seek?  During the last song, I was playing, Xander let out this biggest fake laugh/growl you have heard in your life.  We all bust out laughing so hard, I lost my place in the music and had to start in two measures later.  So much for me playing better because they took him :D

July 2012

La doctora!  

Xander had to get some immunizations at this appointment, and Isabela still talks about how horrible it was.  He cried for maybe 2 seconds.

 Splash Park again! 

(with the football coaches' families) 

Some of these pics are a little far away, but they capture some of my favorite facial expressions Xander makes all the time.

 Daddy getting us ready for bike-riding lessons!

 Camping in Mantua, Utah with Grandpa & Grandma Hawkes

We had a lot of fun playing all day, but got a little rained out that night.

 Xander walking in the river.

 Isabela climbing the side of the mountain, after crossing the river to get there.

Hyrum Dam, Utah

Fishing with Great Grampa & Gramma Chantland

 Let me just say, "Perfect expression of joy describing this whole day!"

 Aunt Jenny helping Xander touch the fish.

 Xander, a dog's best friend.

 

The "expert" fisher-woman and her record-breaking fish!

The TRUE expert fisherman, and his best friend.
 

 A little kissy-kissy!

 My fish!  Thanks for helping me Grandma!

 "My fish was This Big!"

 "And mine was THIS BIG!!"

Kylie and Great-Grandpa Larry!

 Jenny & Kylie

 Tyson touching his fish!

 Mmmm... more kissy kissy!

 Daddy looking like a froggy in the water.

 Grandma helping Xander play by the shore.

 Pure joy!

24th of July celebration in Mantua!

 Isabela, Kylie, and Tyson!  sitting in huge tires at the park, eating their spoils from the parade!

 Xander's favorite place at the park, playing games.  Only, as usual, he plays by his own rules.  He sat in here for about half an hour while kids picked ducks out of the pond.

 Pregnant corn!

 Xander more interested in grabbing the camera than holding the corn.

Great-Grandma Hawkes' house!

 Grandpa pushed me all over the yard... I think he got a good work-out.

Back home in Silt, CO

 Daddy, the fireman!  He loved fighting wildfires the first couple summers we were married.

 Isabela put their two little lambs, hanging by their necks, on these chains of the RV outside our house.   She left them there for days and went and played with them a lot.

 Trying to get the kid to drink Pediasure to gain some weight.  Not that I was ever worried.  He was always really healthy, but he wasn't a big fan of milk, either.  It took a couple of weeks before he would even drink more than a sip of the sugar-loaded Pediasure.

So cute!  This is right outside our door in Silt.  From our window, we can see the train tracks, freeway, river, reservoire, and mountain.  Bell is describing everything to me in this picture.  I love that her plastic fireman's hat looks like a hard hat.