"Mo, pees."

Note: it wasn't even a poopy diaper, I guess his olfactory senses were sensitive that day...

gotta love the startled, "what?!"

"I love...

"...Mom." love, Jyson

Creative dudes: popcorn with melted rolos & chick-o stick things...I was not in charge of this creation

Big bro Jaydon helping Ari make pancakes 

Rhett, 7 Months

-Spends most of his time on the floor like this: rocking on all fours, traveling the room like crazy, but accidentally

-started him on solids (he's tried sweet potatoes, brown rice & peas), but he won't close his mouth, it just sits on his tongue & he drools it out...guess we'll just keep trying

-He's figuring out the nighttime thing--his day schedule has always been pretty good (eat, play, fall asleep on his own--at church he still falls asleep every week in his carseat thanks to the cover made by Alyse!), but now his night is at least lengthened to 12am-6am...yeah, we're working on it

-LOVES everyone in our family & kicks n' smiles like crazy when anyone approaches 

-canNOT hold still...bounce-a-maniac (unless he's tired then he starts staring & we then know he's tired!)

-his bottom 2 teeth nearly made their appearance...I even thought they had broken the surface, but nope, they retreated shortly thereafter

-he can play for quite awhile by himself (as long as Ari doesn't take all his toys away)-- 20-45 minutes!

I was so glad/touched...this was one of the first presents the boys opened--the 'sentimental' gift from us, which was a photo book for the last 2 years & they both spent time looking through the entire thing before moving on to the other presents.

My personal favorites: the photo books, & then the presents they made for each other Jyson to Jaydon: a super-size, sturdy bug net (thank you google) and Jaydon to Jyson: a clear animal container raised up, with magnets affixed to the animals so you move another magnet underneath & get the animals to move all around to different locations (thank you Family Fun!)

Our Christmas meal with them: sweet potato casserole, mashed taters/gravy, ham & gingerbread trifle (I froze some of the cake & it was still great!)

Ari loves when my students get stars for passing off a piece...she awards herself stickers as well

This is way cooler than paper, Mom

"Hi busser!!" (buster)

Whilst the boys were away, we did relax

 This is Ari's favorite man & favorite book--an African legend called "Anansi the Spider." It has so many bright colors, I guess that's the appeal.  There is no limit to how many times she wants this read, & it's pretty cute to see her follow me around without it saying "pider, pider!"

We were going a bit stir-crazy so we went on a walk since it was so sunny...only it was 30 degrees...good idea Mom...

It was strange/nice just to relax & not really do much over the break (that's Tony's idea of a REAL vacation). Tony & I watched a season of "Lark Rise to Candleford," one of the newer BBC shows on DVD during the break, so many of our evenings were spent just talking with each other/with the boys here & there, watching an episode or two, reading a book, doing a couple projects, chilling to the MAX since the two littles go to bed at 7 & neither can get out of bed to ask for anything... Tony commented, "it's almost like we're dating again" :) 

New Year's was much the same, we ordered a pizza (rare nowadays) from the joint down the street & if you can believe this, it was 'pulled pork with pickles, tomato & cheese.' It sounds disgusting, but was actually quite fabulous! Sometime after midnight when we were in bed I said, "oh, yeah, it's the new year!" Crazy to be so lazy, eh? We soaked it all up, but did miss sharing the lack of busyness with the boys.

Christmas Eve & Day

Christmas Eve Morn. We opted to open all the presents on Christmas Eve & we're glad we did...we were able to 'play' with all the goodies & then be able to focus on the real meaning on the day of.

 His first Christmas...yummy paper!

 Her first play-doh.

 Ari definitely enjoyed the 'ripping open' this time around & was a lot of fun. I'm glad cuz the boys weren't with us this year & we couldn't go home so it was pretty quiet, but it was nice.

This book is from our Grammie who just passed away...she already had everyone's presents (a month & a half before Christmas!!) so it was so special to open them.

 Funniest gift of the day by far--bro-in-law Andy gave Tony 20ish envelopes with $1 in all but one of them (it had $5 in it & was labeled "share with your bro-in-law fund) & they all had hilarious labels relating to Tony's likes. It's referring to our 'Dave Ramsey financial envelope system.' For example, "cheap dollar store microphone fund, swedish fish fund, iTunes fund, agave fund, a-new-envelope-for-Dave-Ramsey-envelope-fund" & so forth...the perfect, thoughtful, humorous gift!

 Christmas Eve breakfast. I call it "Chocolate Bananna Bread Oatmeal" inspired by CCK (in my 'Favorites' links to the side)

 Gingerbread Raspberry Trifle. Mmmmmm.

We invited a family & another guy from our ward & had a glorious little feast. 

Santa in our town

 Tony's work had the most awesome Santa lunch. We all got a hot lunch & each of the kiddos got to sit on Santa's lap (including Tony as you see...that was Santa's way of helping out those children who were afraid he would eat them up) & then they also got a little present! We were thrilled for Ari to get the "Snuggle Puppy" book--our favorite from library story time. So, we recorded the boys singing it & gave it out to the grandma's for Christmas. The only major bummer is that they have it during school & since the boys had just missed SO much from the funeral, they couldn't go :(

And, just for good measure...here's another awesome Santa picture (it's Tony's oldest brother & sister & I totally love her face!!)

Christmas preps

 O Christmas tree...Poor thing didn't stand a chance against the flying alligator

 Mini nativity Jaydon set up

 The boys love setting up our little Christmas village...this is an action shot of the boys acting out a little village life, you know, ceramic carolers jumping off buildings doing an army roll into the snow...that sort of Christmas cheeriness...

And tis the season for this guy to try out brown rice mush...he's 7 months after all. He had the BEST 'nasty!' faces...alas, I did not capture them on camera, but I did on video!

Jyson's form

The top contenders in the 4th grade showed off their stuff in an assembly...of which Jyson was one! And it was so cute to see Ari...she was screaming & fussy, but as soon as she was able to sit with Jyson, around all those other kids, she sat completely still!

Jaydon's teacher's seeing-eye dog that she brings to school several times a week