::some christmas::

We had a great Christmas. It was very quiet--just the three of us--and very fun. We were more than spoiled by our families.
Here's Max on Christmas eve. He's wearing his new sock monkey PJs and putting out the santa cookies. We all got new PJs which is so fun. When my mom was in town she bought me some and wrapped them up. It was perfect.




I could hardly sleep all night. I had a cold and my nose was all stuffed so I could hardly breathe. I felt like a little kid though, waking up every half hour, looking at the clock and just wishing it was time to get up!
We told Max that he couldn't leave his room until 7AM. We gave him a little travel alarm clock so he'd know exactly what time it was. When I got up at 6:30 to shower (after lying in bed awake since at least 5:30) he was totally conked out in bed. As I was drying my hair at the stroke of 7 he popped into the bathroom "It's SEVEN!!" and proved it when I asked him to show me on his clock. It was pretty funny.

Santa brought something pretty cool. A Buzz Lightyear telescoping robot arm. At least it doesn't make noise.



He was really excited even though what he really wanted from santa was an EVE robot from the WallE movie. Unfortunately Santa couldn't find her anywhere. But come on, like a robot arm isn't cooler?

We had a great morning, taking a break from the gift giving fun for some german pancakes. Mmmmm.

This picture sure does make them look delectable. And they are, by the way.

Max helped Kris wrap the presents that were for me--and he labeled them all. They turned out very very cute, naturally, and he only ruined one shirt in the process (as a result of using a permanent marker). I had to take a picture of all of them of course. But I won't post them all here.

I think this held my favorite present from him.
Sock monkey slippers. I love them.

Cute AND warm. And so Max.


We got to have several video chats with both of our families which was definitely fun. It's hard to feel too far away when you can see everybody's faces and talk to them.
We also got to do a big computer conference call with Murphy on his mission in Argentina. That was really fun, and so amazing that it actually worked. It was really fun to hear his voice. He seems to be doing great and we're so proud of him.


I didn't get pictures of all the presents of course (I missed some of the more big exciting presents), and don't want to make a big list of all of them here, but just want to say thanks to our families for all the love. Here are a few additional fun pictures of the day.














And now we've put away all the christmas stuff for next year. And we look forward to it. Especially Max who's been trying hard to understand how long a year actually is. He was confused enough when he woke up on Dec 26th, came in and asked us permission to go into the living room and see what Santa had brought. Wishful thinking. It would be fun though.

::today::

This is the view from our house this morning. (and yes, that is a gas station--weird I know, but at least I can keep tabs on gas prices easier this way)
We're supposed to be getting four to eight inches today. That could be nice since ALL our crazy snow from before christmas melted in the rain and 60 degree weather we had last sunday.

I'm going to see if I can get a post up about christmas today. It's almost getting too late to do it, and of course there's so much to say. I'm about ready to do a bullet list like Megs, but I have some fun pictures that I feel a compulsion to share (as usual).

So we'll see how much I get done, and how much snow we get. Kris is in the operating room today working on some big cases.

(this is actually from last week, on christmas eve)
He has the day off tomorrow and then after this weekend we have to go back to real life. AHHH. Not sure I can do that. It sounds a little scary.

::tie::

Here's Max in the cool hip tie Aunt Kari gave him for christmas. He wore it to church today and looked great while singing his Away in a Manger. He did a great job on it. We're very proud. And I didn't even mess up the guitar stuff too bad.

I've been a bit too busy hanging out, cleaning up, resting and having fun to post in the last couple of days. But don't worry, there're plenty of posts on the way. Soon enough.
Good night!

::christmas eve::

I love christmas eve! I think in some ways it's more of a fun day than christmas is. It's magical and fun, and as an adult usually there isn't too much work to be done--at least hopefully there's not a lot of shopping or whatever left on christmas eve!
Today Max and I have been taking it easy. Kris had to work, which was unfortunate--and he had a very full day. But luckily he finally got done, and we were able to finish the day off right, with a dinner out and new pajamas.

Anyway, today Max and I enjoyed some seriously good smells. I love my christmas candles.

We made some last minute goodies.

Mmmm, these are so good. It's lucky they're only allowed around at christmas time!

We enjoyed the fruits of our cookie labors the other day. So yummy.

We love christmas cookies.


Max really enjoyed jumping on the big bubble wrap that came in the package Kari sent us. It's lucky we live on the first floor.

I have to admit I enjoyed jumping on it myself.

Max got to enjoy the last treat from the advents calendar his Grandma Kathy made for him. He's really enjoyed that calendar, and it's so cute.

I like for him to be able to keep track of the days, and the calendar really helps.

He's so cute.


Finally I want to leave you tonight with Max's song--Away in a Manger. He was supposed to sing it in sacrament meeting on sunday with me on the guitar, but we had a snow day. We're supposed to do it this coming sunday. We'll see. He refuses to do it for friends and family, but swears he'll be able to do it in sacrament meeting. We'll see I guess.
But this video is cute. Ignore my bad guitar though, it's very shaky!
And don't let all Max's spinning and constant motion make you seasick--OH, and ignore my bum which fills the whole screen at one point.


And merry christmas!

::even more snow::

On our snowday Kris Max and Sultan headed off to the dog park to expend some excess energy. I didn't go. It was much nicer for me that way.

But Kris came back with some awfully good photos on his phone.

The snow was really deep. I had a hard time walking in it, I can't imagine how tough it would be at Max's height.
Luckily Sultan's made for stuff like this.

He's in his element.

They made a ginormous snowman.

The kind of snowman you always dream of making as a kid.



And since they were at the dog park Max requested a special chain link picture. Evidently he liked the effect of the last one.

Hilarious.

Max and I made cookies yesterday, and we thought in honor of the giant man of snow left at the park, we'd make some special dog park snowmen.

Now that's appetizing, right?

::so much snow::

I think we ended up getting around 10 inches, probably more.

This photo was taken saturday morning--it snowed pretty much the rest of the day saturday, then most of sunday as well.
We had a church snowday on sunday. The streets around our building aren't great, so with all the snow the bishop decided to just cancel. The snow was so beautiful, especially since we didn't have to go anywhere in it unless we wanted to.

On saturday morning we went on a sledding outing with friends from Kris's work. It was so snowy, and it was FREEZING. One of the dentists had told the guys about a great hill, so we headed out that direction. Of course it was really hard to find. But we finally got there. The hill was huge, and super snowy. It was really tough to get up, and none of the little kids could really do it on their own, so we had to carry them. My feet started to freeze.

My friend Bonnie took a pretty funny video of Max and her son Vincent going down the hill together. Vincent I think is about a year and a half younger than Max, and this was most likely his first time sledding. He didn't like this trip much. Check it out. You can kind of see how huge the hill is on this video. And it's hilarious how the dads run (and sled) to the rescue as soon as the boys wipe out.

(Thanks Bonnie!)

I don't have any photos of the sledding because I didn't want to haul my big camera out on the hike up the hill. But I do have a few from when we got back to the car. Max only ended up going down the hill about four times. That was about as many times Kris could carry him back up the hill without getting a hernia or something.
The last time Max decided he wanted to go on his own--on his stomach no less. The snow was super powdery, and so as he went his sled kept kicking tons of snow right in his face. By the time he got to the bottom he was like a snowman, and he was NOT happy. That was the last run for us and we headed back to the car.
Where of course I had the camera and took some pictures.
The boys made some snow angels.




Max really didn't want me taking his picture. He said he had a "red face", which I think was in reference to his crying. Anyway, he was cool with throwing snowballs, but when I tried to take a picture of just him being cute he freaked out.



Making snowballs!



It was so powdery that it was tough to throw. And Max isn't that great of a thrower anyway.






And here's the freakout:

I mean, his face was definitely red. From the cold and the crying. But it was just hilarious how self conscious he was about it.
I had to sneak a photo of him in the car, I couldn't help it.

Sledding is fun, as long as my feet don't get too cold.

::so mysterious::

We keep getting packages. It's so much fun. Whether I've ordered the stuff in the boxes or not it doesn't matter. It's still fun and exciting for me to get them. And since I did almost all of my christmas shopping online we've been getting a lot.

This one is the most tantalizing though. Don't you think?


And here's a fun little shot of our tree. It's the best I've got so far.

I have to take a whole bunch of the ornaments off tomorrow and replace one of the light strands. It died just before we left on vacation and it's driving me crazy. I've got to fix it soon.

We're getting excited for Christmas!!

::sharks, mice and the future::

Disney World is just so fun.  Even if you're not a big time disney fan, there's so much to do, and everything is so thought out, to the last detail. They work so hard making the lines where people wait entertaining and fun. I just love getting there and looking around at everything.

One of my favorite places there (and at Disney Land) is Tomorrowland. It's just so fun and retro funky futuristic. I especially love the rocket ride. Well that's not technically true. I actually hate riding on it, it makes me totally sick, but I love looking at it.

Check it out. Isn't it beautiful?

I love how many colors there are, and also how many weird things are hanging or rotating or dangling from it. Fun stuff.

And here's Max's favorite ride (well, ONE of his favorites. He did have at least three.)

Recognize it?
Yep, space mountain. The same space mountain that I didn't ride on until I was like 14 because everybody told me it was way too scary.
I didn't really want him to go on it, but Kris got him all hyped up about it. He was so excited. So I said that at least Max needed to try riding Thunder Mountain first. That one is crazy, but at least it's outside in the light so you can see what's happening, rather than dark and super fast like Space Mountain.
Well, Max loved Thunder Mountain of course, and we had to do it twice. Then we moved on to Space Mountain. I was really nervous for him because the way it's set up only one person sits in each seat--like I mean there's no bench seats, just three people in a row behind each other.
But he loved it. He got off and said "That was AWESOME!!!" and we had to do it again. He's nuts.

We were on the dining plan for our trip, which means we paid for all our meals upfront, then got a sit down meal, and fast food meal and a snack every day. So Max got to eat all sorts of things that normally he wouldn't get to. Like ice cream and churros. I was always dying for churros at disneyland when I was little. He didn't like his much. Strange.
Anyway, he loved the mickey mouse ears ice cream bar.



Kris and I were thinking that the boy just has no idea how lucky he is! Didn't we all wish we were only children at one point, and got to eat and do whatever we wanted? Well, hopefully that won't be the case here for too long. He needs a bit of the hard knock life. Don't we all.


Max loves the Nemo ride at Epcot.

The outside is so fun looking. They have this fake beach sort of area with splashing surf that comes in.

The silly seagulls stand by the surf and say "MINE, MINE"

There are big models of the fish nearby too.

So cute.
We took a picture of Max by Nemo when we were there last fall. He's almost falling over, it's a crack up. See?

He looks older now. I guess that's what happens in a year.
Nemo used to be Max's very favorite movie. He's grown out of it a little, but he's still very fond of fishies.

After the Nemo ride you come out into a building with a lot of different fish in aquariums. There's a pretty scary shark there too.

Yikes!

Then Max dropped his gum out onto the floor, and Kris had to go around and pick it up. Gross!
Pretty fun...
I'm missing the nice light jacket weather now. It's freezing here. With all the snow, at least it looks christmassy, which is nice.