Who Let Zach Run Around With the Camera?

Bed-head bald spot


a little looney...


Your guess is as good as mine...

A little too close...

Brooke is cute no matter what.

"We're All Together Again, We're Here, We're Here"

(Why do I like to Title my posts with a song title?)

The beauty of Christmas is when the whole family gets together. Yes, Mike's entire family came to visit. This is it. All 10 of us. All the cousins (none), aunts, uncles, and grandparents. And what we don't have in quantity, we make up for in quality!

Aren't You Proud of Me, Mom?

Bless my mother's heart, she tried for several years to teach me to sew when I was young, but after making a few pairs of shorts and a bad looking shirt, I was done. But for some strange reason, 6 years ago I decided to make the boys their Christmas stockings. So now that this is Brooke's 3rd Christmas, I think it's time to make hers (and now David's) too. LaRene (my older sister) gave me her sewing machine a couple years ago (since she got a fancy new one!) and I decided to gather my nerve and figure it out. And wouldn't you know it! It all came back to me and I'm pretty proud of the finished product!

Maybe next year (or the year after) I'll actually decorate them.

Mike Turns 38!

(That's a "3" and eight candles on his cake.) It's actually mint ice ceam pie with hot fudge topping in it and whip cream and oreo crumbs on top... yummm...
To my wonderful husband of nearly 12 years: you are a fantastic husband and father. No wonder our kids adore you! I know everyone else probably doesn't want to hear my gush about you so I'll just say Happy Birthday and I love you!

Are We Sick of Snow Pictures Yet?

These pictures are for those of you who wish you were snowed in:
Our poor tree in our front yard cracked in half because it couldn't take the weight of the snow:

I don't think any trains will be coming down these tracks:

Icicles hanging off our house:

"Oh What Do You Do In The Winter Time?"

Well, now that we have a layer of freezing rain on top of the snow, it's sure fun to crunch around in it! (Nicholas is holding up a chunck of ice.)

Making some ginger bread houses out of graham crackers and candy.

Notice the guns and the spies on the roofs?

A whole week of school canceled and Church is canceled.

Mike holding up a layer of ice he peeled off the car. I'm SO glad we are not traveling anywhere this Christmas!

Taking naps.

What a cutie!

And playing dress up. Brooke says, "I'm a Prince!" She insists she is NOT a princess.

"Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow"

So what do you do when Church gets shortened to an hour and you have all this fresh snow lying around?


Mike with his game face on...

Nicholas throwing a snowball

Zach getting ready to launch one

Good thing Mike decided to do this a couple weeks ago!

And one more picture of the rest of us.

Why wouldn't he want curtains for Christmas?

A recent conversation between Mike and me:
Me: So I know what I want for Christmas, a food dehydrator and curtains for the family room.
Mike: So what am I, made of money? (common response)
Me: So which do you want for Christmas? A food dehydrator or curtains?

He probably wouldn't want the curtains because I got him that a couple years ago...
Is there a doghouse for a wife or is that just a guy thing?
Click this:
http://bewareofthedoghouse.com/videoPage.aspx

Thanksgiving in Nampa

We started our Thanksgiving trip on Tuesday and stayed the night in a hotel in Pendleton, which, fortunately, had a pool that the kiddos enjoyed. It made it nice to break up the trip that way.
We stayed at my sister's (thanks, LaRene!) house in Nampa so we got to see them and my brother (Rusty) along with their kids. Here are cousins Rachel, Megan, and Naomi with Brooke:

We (some of us) played football, frisbee golf, shopped on Black Friday, ate lots of good food, played ping pong, and the boys favorite - the Wii. (No, they won't be getting one for Christmas. They got an X-box last Christmas and that will have to do for a few years.)

Here's Brooke with cousins Ashlyn and Naomi eating ice cream:

Brooke on the swings:

Zach on the swings:

And I have a picture of all my kids (I think) in this fleece outfit and in this stroller so here's David (by the way he weighed 19 pounds at his 4 month check up last week):

"And We Are A Happy Family!"

So we went for a walk on the Banks/Vernonia trail and I thought, "Gee, this would be a great time to get a family picture for a Christmas card! How fun!" But this was as good a shot as I got, and after I got home, I realized we weren't even wearing decent clothes... Sigh...
Maybe a shot like this would be better...

Midnight "Twilight"

Ha! So I'm not as old as you thought! I went to the midnight showing of Twilight and didn't sleep through it! It probably helped that I got a 2 1/2 hour nap before it.

I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone who is planning on seeing it, but I will say I was trying to not get my hopes up too high for it, but maybe I did anyway. Edward (unfortunately) was my least favorite vampire. It was cool to have a quick shot of Stephenie Meyer in the diner. Now I think I'll go listen to the soundtrack!

Here's a picture of 6 of the 8 ladies from our ward who went. Thanks, Robyn, for waiting for HOURS out in the line to get us good seats!

Charlyn, Kate, Mindy, Robyn, Rockelle, and Julie

More About Zach

What is up with this kid? Is he deprived or what?
Zach being one of the brothers delivering food to David (and Goliath story) during FHE with his Papa narrating:

Spiritually pumped up?

So excited about mopping the floor?

Taking a picture of himself:

Getting Rid of a Few Annoying Inches

BEFORE...
(Rene, do you like the witch in the background?)













AFTER!

We should have named him Calvin

As in Calvin and Hobbes. I'm just trying...

to get a picture...

of the 3 missing teeth on his bottom row of teeth!

But this kid goes hyper-crazy when there's a camera around! (And when the hometeachers are around, or when he just gets home from school, or when it's time to do homework, or time to sit still for any reason, etc. etc.) Should I be nervous about him sitting on the stand for the Primary Program this next Sunday?

So this is as good as it gets:

And get this! He swallowed the tooth. Two of his bottom 3 he has now swallowed. We just love Zach. What would we do without him?

Which is Which?

So which one weighs 25 pounds and which weighs 20 pounds? Brooke still loves to hold David on her lap. Good thing he's heavy enough now that she can't just shove him off when she's done!

This little guy loves his left pointer finger! And yes, he's only 20 pounds.