9 month babies.

 Zina 9mths - Rexburg Idaho

 Wilson 9mths, Raymond, AB Canada

Sam 9mths, Glendale Arizona

I should go to bed.  It's past midnight.  Mark is off with the scouts on their winter Iditarod camp and all my babies are asleep - in my bed.   Earlier this evening we had a party.  Their favorite dinner - macaroni and cheese (homemade, I refuse to buy it in a box.  Is that really food?), peas, and avocado, tomato salad.  Then we made papaya/mango milkshakes and spicy herbamare popcorn. (I added the herbamare - they didn't know and I didn't tell them:)  Then we snuggled and watched a movie.  Or they snuggled and I stuffed popcorn into Sam's mouth as fast as I could to fend of ear splitting screams.  I think I mentioned that Sam won't let me feed him - unless it's popcorn.

Then we all climbed into Mama's bed and tried to fall asleep while keeping all of our limbs to ourselves.  It was difficult.   But Wilson was asleep first, after announcing that he was squished. :)  

And now that I am thinking about Wilson, I am going to go sit him on the toilet and let him pee in his sleep.  Just because I really don't want to wake up in a warm puddle.

Sam - 9mths

So last week Sam turned 9mths old.  I took him into the Dr. for his check up and whadyaknow - he's as small as we thought he was - except for his head.
HC: 18.5
Inches: 28.25
Pounds: 16.8

He's in about the 3rd percentile for weight and the dr. wanted me to bring him back in in a month to check his stats again.  I've been feeding him like crazy. :)

Developmentally, of course, he's doing fabulous.  He has been pulling himself up to furniture and walking around it for a while now and sometimes he will even let go and stand by himself before plopping down onto his bum.  He has developed a very high, very loud scream when he is getting ignored or when he wants something.  Seriously, it's ear splitting.
He is working on his 8th tooth and has the toothiest grin ever.  I love it.  Something that both my boys had at an early age is a big toothy grin.  He still refuses to let me feed him (minus nursing of course which we both still love - even with all those teeth).  Anytime I try he just shakes his head and refuses to open his mouth.  He loves waffles and yogurt and avocados and pretty much anything that we are eating.  He loves to imitate what he hears, especially growling.  Which happens to be my favorite also. :)  He can say Mama, wave bye bye and loves to raise his hands over his head when we say, "How big is Sam today?  SO big!"  All of us have been having such a fun time watching this little boy grow up.  It was been especially rewarding to watch the other two love and help Sam along.  We sure love you Sam!

The first one.

This was a big deal.   Zina was so excited when her tooth started to get loose.  Ellie and Kate both had loose and falling out teeth and Zina was thrilled to have one too.  But she wasn't super thrilled at the thought of pulling it out.  Our first stop in Utah found us sitting downstairs at Grandma Judy's visiting with Uncle Travis.  Somehow between Travis, and Mark discussing teeth falling out, maturity and bravery(along with a healthy dose of verbal manipulation) Zina was convinced to tie a string to her tooth with the other end around a door knob and let Mark slam the door.  I think it was the numbing orajel that Mark said her would put on her gums that convinced her.  She probably didn't even need it though because as you can see in the first video her tooth is hanging on by a thread.  It was fun either way and boy did she feel pretty awesome for being brave enough to let her Papa do the door trick.  But that's Zina for you.  She's just pretty awesome in every single way.

And there she is her very first missing tooth just in time for Christmas!

Christmas 2010

A little Pre-Christmas. The kids and I riding the train at McCormick-Stillman Train Park. Best Christmas lights in town! (minus the temple... :))

Very very excited to welcome Mark home from his rotation in Tuscon.

We have our priorities straight.  The very first thing he did when he got home was ride bikes and read Harry Potter.  (which he seldom missed when he was gone thanks to skype)

Pre-school Christmas Party

Our favorite game. Don't Eat Santa.  The kids love this game.  So much in fact that we have made several different versions.  Don't eat the Apostle. Don't eat the turkey. Don't eat the Easter Bunny, etc. etc. etc. 

Tiff made some cute little Santa snacks or... Grinch snacks... :) You decide.

I missed the reindeer craft because I was visiting teaching for the first half but the kids loved hanging them on the tree when we got home.

Why are some of my pics sideways?

1 cute messy Sam.  Still loves to feed himself and refuses to let me feed him. 

And then the real fun began.

Christmas Vacation 2010.

We started out on Dec 21st and made it all the way to Williams, AZ to enjoy the Polar Express. Fun, a bit over rated. Probably won't do it again.  We had Aunty Liz with us which helped relieve the entertainment committee (me) somewhat on our drive.  Thanks Liz! 

 We spent 2hrs sitting outside of Kingman AZ in the late hours of the night because of an accident and pulled into Payson at about 7am. We spent the next day recovering/making awesome snow forts/sleeping/playing and then left at 3am and drove all the way to Southern Alberta for Christmas. Yes, that's right. We drove from Glendale Arizona to Raymond Alberta Canada for Christmas. 

Was it worth it? 

Every single minute.

Some Christmas favorites from this year:

• re-inacting our childhood memories for this years Christmas movie. I had all the babies whimpering from my being-stuck-in-a-hole screeches.
• Todd ripping his shirt off to train his 3 ninjas so that they could defeat darth vader er, I mean darth mother or as Wilson says it, dark vader.
• Being in the Cardston temple with my family. It does not. get. better. The guys had been snowboarding all day and then went straight to the temple – Mark ended up with one black sock and one white sock and a whole lot of scruff...they still let him in. :)
• Kneeling across from Mark to seal together my ancestors and realizing (again) that this man across  from me has surpassed my expectations in every single way.
• Watching my parents fall asleep as they knelt across from each other and loving them for all their hard work, examples, and love.
• Taking Zina and Wilson, Mark, and Grandpa ice skating at the Raymind Ice Rink. I LOVE skating! Even when I am pretty much carrying two kids around in circles. :) Actually it was amazing to see how much they improved in just 1hr. And I LOVE that public skating is free. I've been in the city for to long. I was amazed and shocked that it was actually free.
• Playing games games and more games. A new favorite is Dixit. Going home to find it for our family.
• Getting to see Matt, Michelle, and the adorable Brigham.
• Late night talks with my sisters. I really want Zina to have a sister. Really really really bad.
• Driving for a total of 56.5 hours. Have I mentioned that I love road trips with my family. No really. I really really do. We will always be a road tripping family.
• That one late night talk with my hubby. :) He makes me smile.
• Retelling when I knew that Mark was who I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. Then Mark  retelling when he knew....um like last week. Right hon? :)
• Eating Judy's delicious Christmas bread.  Seriously. I will make that next year...or just go eat hers again.. :)
• Pulling Zina's tooth out. (story to come)
• Hearing the kids giggle and giggle and giggle on our long drive back to Utah because of Auntie Liz' awesome story telling skills.
• Playing games games and more games.

Wilson quotes:

Wilson: “Papa when can I get out of my seat?”

Mark : “Not for 2 or 3 more hours Wilson.”

Wilson cheerily responds, “Otay.” :)

After 18 hours of driving on roads that looked like luge tracks Mark sighed and said “This was the longest day trip I have ever been on.” Wilson happily piped up from the back seat, “Not for me!”

Zina quotes:

Zina was going through the alphabet pretzels on the last stretch – Payson to Glendale. For each letter she would come up with words. Some of them were fairly unique and kept us entertained for at least 3 hours.

L for Luke Chapter 1

R for Root Canal

F for Fail

O for Ollie (because someday she might name her baby that)

And the Pictures most of them are self explanatory and I wish I had taken a few more.  I think some of them must be on my mom's camera.  I'm missing ones of ice skating, the temple etc. :(  And some are sideways?  I know they weren't sideways when I uploaded them.  Anyways, they don't really seem to do my memories justice. oh well.

I opened up a bike helmet from Mark and the kids and then they gave me the camera and showed me this picture. :) So fun. Zina was beyond excited about it.  Now we can all go bike riding together.  

I am SO glad that we decided to venture out this Christmas. Someday (maybe) we will stay home for Christmas with our little family. But with Mark's two week break we just couldn't resist the urge to be with our family's. So many memories, so much fun. I am so grateful to my Savior Jesus Christ. For His birth and for His sacrifice that make it so that our family relationships can endure forever. What a wonderful time we had celebrating this Christmas season!