Simple Joys

This little man gets so happy about finding himself in a well-lit hallway with a book in hand. Cue the happy baby dance!

Dinner Sans Daddy

When Rich is gone on a work trip I don't usually make dinner because I don't want to do the dishes by myself. In the end we usually have "brinner" (breakfast for dinner). Which includes a lot of Devin drinking/licking the syrup. And Landon trying desperately to reach the food I am not giving him in a timely manner since I am busy refilling Devin's syrup container.

Ward Dessert Party

Saturday night was the ward dessert party. Eric got Devin a whole plate of treats, which Devin enjoyed just looking at. Seriously. He was so excited about all of the goodies, but the only thing that was touched was the cupcake he let me share and the M&Ms on the cookie that he licked. The rest he just kept looking and talking about.

This is right before Sue tried to take Devin's picture for an activity in Primary the next day. She probably took 15 pictures and even then the one that was used prompted the Primary kids to say, "Devin looks mad." So we're glad he's smiling in these!

I was supposed to read a story at the party, but I forgot the books. Rich is the sweetest and went back home to get them for me. In the end it wasn't that big of a deal, but it was fun to share some Christmas stories. Probably the best part of this picture is Ally re-reading the snowman book all by herself. Devin is not pictured because when I told him Santa was coming after I finished the book he took off like a flash and told Daddy he wanted to snuggle.

Then it was Santa's turn in the chair. Prior to this evening Devin informed us that he would not be sitting on Santa's lap, rather he would "just sit on the floor in front of him and tell him I would like toys and goodies." But he came around--mostly due to the promise of a candy cane--and ended up sitting on Santa's lap to deliver the news about his desired presents. No crying involved.

I wasn't even going to try Landon on Santa's lap considering this was the second late-night in a row and Landon is a Mama's boy, but I decided we had to at least try. A lot because I ensured Landon was eating a cracker when the hand-off occurred, and a lot because he never turned around to see who was holding him, Landon did great on Santa's lap.

Santa success!

Light Parade 2012

The Kelseyville light parade was really good this year. We love this tradition to help us kick off the holiday season. This year, Devin was super excited and danced around the living room all day singing "We're going to a light parade!" We bundled up the kids and met up with the Watsons and the Redfords. 

 

Landon didn't really change expression until the truck blowing it's horn came by, then he started screaming. He was happy once he was in my arms.

Santa Letter

For family home evening this week Devin wrote his letter to Santa. It's really hard to write with a crayon while holding Devin's hand in mine. He assured us that he was definitely not naughty and that Santa was going to leave him lots of candy.

 I really love that he never asks for anything specific, just "toys and goodies and candy." He consulted with Daddy about what he thought Santa might like us to leave him. Chocolate milk was the eventual winner, but only because Devin wants to have some on Christmas morning.

Every day is one more day closer to Christmas!

A Little Bit of Movement

Landon's not-quite crawling yet, but just because he's not crawling doesn't mean he's not mobile. He does a sort of frog hop/belly flop movement. And though he's slow, he's deliberate.

And he's really happy when he reaches whatever it is we're trying to entice him with.

This video is unexciting, but I'm adding it for Wendi, to whom I was trying to describe Landon's movement.

Holiday Crafting

Instead of just pinning thousands of activities and never doing any of them, I decided to actually do something. This wasn't actually something I saw on Pinterest, but I figured this would be easy for Devin to accomplish and at least I was doing something. 

He did take an interest when I told him there were marshmallows involved, and immediately stuffed almost 2 cups worth into his mouth, but after gluing about 10 marshmallows onto the paper he was less than enthusiastic until I brought out the pretzels. Then he ate a million of those. 

Afterward I asked if he had fun; he told me, "No. But I liked eating the marshmallows and pretzels." So I'm blogging because we may never do anything crafty again, instead I'll just give him the handful of marshmallows.

BYU vs. San Jose

The weekend before Thanksgiving Rich and I were able to go to the BYU/San Jose game. 

The game was a disappointment, mostly due to the sad, sad performance of this dude. Sigh. 

 

It was still a fun night with friends, and we're happy the night even worked out since we almost weren't able to go.

We were supposed to spend the night with Tyler and Michelle, but on Friday Devin woke up with a cold. I didn't want to get Michelle's kids sick right before Thanksgiving. After telling the Savages the tickets were available and them finding someone to take one of the tickets, my Great Aunt Afton pulled through for us. I called to tell her we weren't going to be able to stop by for a visit, but then she offered to take the kids and let us stay at her house instead. The saddest part is that I didn't get a picture of Aunt Afton and Uncle Dale with the kids. Devin had the funnest time with them and kept calling Afton "Grandma" and Dale "Brother Aunt Afton."

Decking the Halls!

It's Christmastime! We Devin and I were so excited to put up the Christmas lights and decorate the house on Saturday. Devin was a great help to Daddy (who graciously put up Christmas lights instead of mowing the lawn) and loved being outside most of the day.

Landon had to hang out with me. He sucked on the floor.

Devin even got to finally play in some leaves--something we'd been waiting all fall to do!

After church on Sunday Devin could only manage to take a 30 minute nap because he was too excited to put up the Christmas tree. 

Rich indulged my need to put up the tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and allowed Devin to direct him where to place each ornament. 

Turns out putting up a tree with a toddler who desperately wants to help is a bit stressful, what with all the fragile ornaments from my childhood, but despite my constant worrying, the tree was decorated and declared "beautiful" by Devin. 

Landon mostly just cared about sucking on the plastic tube that the bead garland came in.

Devin tells us Merry Christmas every day and is so excited to start the countdown to Christmas using the advent calendar. I love having Devin be so excited and know that this is the start to many more magical Christmases to come.

 

8 Months

This darling young man is 8 months old! 

He continues to be a joy, and we all love him so much (even if one of us feels it necessary to occasionally head butt him).

I feel like Landon changed a lot this month and really grew up in his sweet personality and his mad skills. 

He likes to clap when we say "yay!" and will sometimes shake his head or bounce when we say "crazy, crazy." He gives high fives and the wettest, slobbery, raspberry kisses. 

 

 

He has one new tooth (3 on the bottom, now), and I'm pretty sure he's cutting all 4 top teeth.

He's a snuggler and prefers to cuddle after waking from a particularly short nap. 

 

He's not crawling, but rather rolls and frog hops where he wants to go, thus he has begun to thoroughly stress out his big brother, as he is now able to reach all those toys Devin previously kept taking away from him.

 

He's our happy little man, and we love every bit of him, even his little bum.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2012

We celebrated Thanksgiving at home this year and were blessed to have Grandma and Grandpa join us for the feast! We had a great visit with them and our turkey dinner turned out delicious, thanks to all involved! 

(This isn't actually our turkey from Thanksgiving day, this was my trial-run turkey I made two weeks prior for a ward dinner.)

Unfortunately, because I was running around doing last-minute meal prep, we didn't take a lot of pictures of the actual dinner and did not get a picture of us all at the table. We all just tucked in too heartily to stop for pictures! A big thanks to my mother in law for helping get everything ready!

I felt proud of myself for hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, and Rich and I both feel like official adults now. I mean, I cooked a turkey and Rich carved it; these things have to qualify us for the next level of adulthood, no? 

I even made my mom's rainbow, 12-layer Jell-o salad. This really is a labor of love, let me tell you. This is a crappy picture, and my rainbow isn't as perfect as my mom's would have been, but I was happy that this even turned out at all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The rest of the weekend was low-key, and we just hung around the house and visited with Grandma and Grandpa. Devin loved having them here, though he was showing off his new-found skills of extreme whining. Landon, of course was as sweet as ever, though he did display some of his "mama's boy" tendencies a few times.