Jack Laughs!

An exciting first happened while we were in Arizona. Actually when we barely first arrived in Phoenix on Blake's birthday. Blake and Max had gone to get the bags while Jack and I went to the bathroom. All of the sudden, Jack started laughing. And he just kept laughing and laughing. I dug through my bag as quickly as I could to find the camera and I recorded the tail end of the laughing (the video only has a couple of "real" laughs and a lot of me making a funny noise trying to make him laugh). He giggles all the time now and it is music to my ears. So, this is Baby Jack's first laugh. And yes, it's in the bathroom stall at the Phoenix airport. I wonder what the people in the next stall were thinking...

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

I can't believe Christmas is over! Why does this time of year go so fast? And it doesn't help that we had so much fun in Arizona and were busy doing something the entire time. We started with a super yummy birthday dinner for Blake on Sunday night with the entire family there. We had ham, turkey, and all the fixings on the prettiest Christmas plates I'd ever seen. That plus carrot cake, 29 candles, and lots of candle-blowing helpers, made this one of Blake's best birthdays ever!On Christmas Eve the entire family came over to Nanny's again for Mi Amigo's and a night filled with Christmas traditions. First was the Nativity. After all the kids had their costumes on, and off, then on again (okay, mostly only MY kid) and the pictures were taken, we all sat and listened to Grandpa read the Nativity Story. Max was a shepherd and Baby Jack got to be Jesus since he was the only male child small enough to fit in the basket (Sorry Baby O). These kids are too cute!Afterwards, we drove around the neighborhood looking at the luminaries before everyone had to go home and get ready for Santa to come.Santa really went all out this year! Max was in Christmas heaven, first with his VIP breakfast Grandpa made for him while everyone was still getting up, then his stocking and all his presents! He especially loved Nanny's Christmas tree. All her hard work was definitely worth it to see Max run in, look the tree up and down, and say, "WOW!"

And this year Gage and Max were definitely the big winners. I think everyone had fun zooming around the kitchen on their new plasma cars. But a close second to the plasma cars was Jack's Jack in the Box. Max couldn't get enough of it.

We knew it was a successful Christmas when Grandpa and Jack were asleep BEFORE we were even done with presents!Other activities during our Christmas vacation included making gingerbread houses, playing ping pong, tennis, racquetball (if only there would have been some badminton, I think we would have covered ALL racquet sports), wiffle ball, perudo, Friends Scene It (my personal favorite) seeing National Treasure II, getting in the jacuzzi, riding the quads, going shooting, visiting friends and playing their Wii, getting Max's hair cut, eating, and taking LOTS of pictures. How in the world was I supposed to pick from all those pictures which ones I would put on my blog? I couldn't. So here they all are!

But the best part was definitely being with all the family. We love you all so much! And one last extra special thank you to Nanny and Grandpa for making this such a fun-filled, absolutely perfect Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!
Love,
Blake and Addi (isn't Blake so handsome in his Christmas outfit?)
Maxand Santa Jack

Happy Birthday Blake!

Today is Blake's Happy Birthday! Even though you would never know it since Max is walking around saying, "Happy Birthday to Max! Happy Birthday to Max!" We celebrated Blake's big day last night since that silly guy signed up to work on his birthday! After eating the yummy mandarin orange chicken dinner Max and I made, the party began. We had party hats, noise makers, and PRESENTS! Blake is the most difficult person to shop for since it is 100% guaranteed that if he doesn't think the gift is money-spending worthy, he'll return it. But I think this year we did pretty good with a new trash can and cleaning supplies. That lucky Blake! We're still waiting for him to come home from work and blow out his 29 candles. WOW! That's A LOT! We love you Blake!But as birthdays around Christmas usually go, Blake was soon passed aside and it was Christmastime. We thought we had already got our Christmas presents from our Utah family, but we were WRONG! Plus, Blake gave us a trip to meet Shamu. We can't wait. Max was an old pro opening the gifts and little Jack slept through the entire thing. And the big winner of the night was (drum roll) April's SPOONER! It's a skateboard/snowboard/surfboard simulator. Perfect for a California boy. We even spent some time watching the "how to" videos. So much fun!But the big winner for me was finally getting Jack's beautiful stocking. Can you believe that my Aunt Dawna MADE all of our stockings? I love it so much and can't even imagine how much time it took her to make it. Now my set of four is complete. Thank you so, so much! And if we can have this much fun before Christmas is even here--WOW! We're in for a treat! "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" (And one last HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Blake!)

Frosty the Snowman

I have been trying so hard to share my love of Christmas movies with Max this year. He is my only chance for having someone to watch Christmas movies with since Blake is basically a hum-bugger when it comes to Christmas movies. He doesn't like "It's a Wonderful Life" and thinks "Christmas Story" is a movie you can only watch once. Who did I marry? I was a little discouraged with my Max attempts before they even started. No matter what I try, the only movies Max watches are "Peter Pan," "Happy Feet," and "Little Einsteins." But my first try was a success. FOSTY DA DOMAN. I attribute this success to the FIVE snowman books we own, including one from Nanny that actually plays the Frosty song. We have watched it so much Max has started to sing the song and I can basically recite the entire movie. Max even chose to have Frosty painted on his face at the ward Christmas party. And I can't even begin to describe his excitement when I pulled out his Frosty shirt AND a matching one for Jack. Since Frosty, we've also added Oodolph to our movie repertoire. I now consider this a successful Christmas season.

TGIT--Christmas on Temple Hill

We've really been wanting to go see the Christmas lights at the temple, and we were running out of time to do it. Especially since Blake signed up to work on his usual Tuesday off. But he did come up with the perfect plan to make it possible. This morning, he rollerbladed, yes rollerbladed up and down the hills of San Francisco to the BART station, rode BART over to the East Bay, and then, rollerbladed the rest of the way to work. And if the hills weren't enough, it was raining cats and dogs, too. Thank you Blake for wanting to take us to the temple THAT badly and letting us have the car to make it possible. The plan was to pick Blake up at 5:30 and head to the temple lights. Well, after we'd been waiting in the parking lot for him until 6:20, I knew our plans were going to change a little. He had been double booked the entire day and didn't get done until a little after 7. WOW! We drove straight to the temple and had plenty of time to look around at the beautiful lights and nativity. We even listened to a youth choir perform in the stake center next door and looked around in the Visitor's Center. Max was surprisingly very well behaved during the performance. But during every dramatic pause in the songs and after every song was finished he'd yell, "Singing all done." We thought it was funny, but I don't know if the parents of the performers did. Max even made time to play in the water at the fountain. What's a trip to the temple without splashing around in the fountains? Afterward we went to dinner at Fenton's. We couldn't pass it up, even thought it was close to 9, well after Max's bed time. Besides the to-die-for caramel, the best part of our dinner was when Max tried to slip out through the bottom of his high chair and got stuck. His head was too big to keep going through, and he was twisted funny so we couldn't just pull him out. I had to hold the high chair tilted, while Blake twisted Max and pulled him out. I'm so sad we didn't get a picture. We had to give that guy plenty of ice cream to make up for his embarrassment.

MISSING

MISSING: One diamond ring presented to me by my husband to be, September 30, 2001, at the Chapel of Love, Las Vegas, NV.EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE DISAPPEARANCE: On Friday, Jack's head was looking a little dry. So, I got some lotion and brought it out by the couch to apply. I took off my ring so it wouldn't get lotion stuck in its crevices and between my finger. While I was rubbing in the lotion, Max came over and grabbed "Mommy's special ring." He likes to put it on and I thought I'd just get it back from him when I was done. Well, since I am completely batty, by the time I was done with the lotion, I forgot Max took it. It wasn't until an hour later that I remembered and asked him where it was. He told me it was on the table. It wasn't on the table. I frantically looked for the rest of the day and couldn't find the ring anywhere. Even after Blake came home, we spent the rest of the night looking for it. No where. We really did look everywhere. We took everything off the shelves and out of the drawers. We looked under (and in) the fridge, stove, and dishwatsher. At one point Max told me he put the ring in his mouth; so yes, we were even looking there. Max thought it was a fun game and tore the books off the shelf even after I had put them back. We basically came to terms with the fact that when we found it, it wouldn't be until we moved, if we found it at all. And Blake couldn't even be mad at me since he already lost his ring on our trip to Missouri. I had no one to blame but myself. FOUND: Today I went to get a specific blanket out of our blanket basket to curl up and read a book. When I pulled the blanket (about 2 down) off, I saw the most beautiful sparkle ever! My ring! I swear I even looked in the basket. I guess I just didn't go deep enough. I can now sleep tonight and will never again take my ring off to save it from a little lotion.

My Worst Nightmare

This morning I woke up to my worst nightmare. (Okay, maybe not my WORST nightmare, but I wanted to make this sound dramatic.) Blake had left for work and I was lying peacefully in bed when all of the sudden I heard a little tap, tap, tap on my bedroom door. At first I thought I was hearing things. Then it came again. Tap, tap, tap. But this time it was followed by, "Mommy! Get up! Max come in!" Aaaaa! Max can now climb out of his bed. I put him back his bed and asked him to show me how he got out. This is what I saw-
I am a little surprised that it took him this long to figure out he could do that. Oh well, there goes my mornings sleeping in! However, Baby Jack has been the perfect angel, sleeping between 7-9 hours during the night for over a week now. We'll definitely keep him!

TGITh--The Doctor's Office

This week Blake switched things up on us. He had Thursday off instead of Tuesday. So this week we planned something REALLY fun--a trip to the doctor's office for Jack's 2 month and Max's 2 year appointments. I can't even imagine going to the doctor's office with two kids and no Blake. If he wouldn't have been there I'm pretty sure one of the boys would've, ironically, come home with a serious injury. Max had three shots and Jack had five. Max didn't cry at all, and Jack only cried for a minute, but by the time the doctor was putting on a bandaid he was fine. I am so lucky to have such healthy boys.

And the results are in--
Max: 30 pounds, 2 ounces (90%) and 36.5 inches (90%)

Jack: 13 pounds, 6 ounches (90%), and 24 inches (90%)

Max's Happy!

All day whenever we'd ask Max whose birthday it was, he'd say, "Max's Happy!" That's right Max, it's your HAPPY BIRTHDAY! It did take a few tries to realize it was actually HIS birthday instead of Nanny's, whose was a few days earlier. Blake, Jack, and I went in to get Max from his bed this morning, singing "Happy Birthday" but the only thing he could do was point at his door and yell "TWO!" After we got him out he ran over to the door and pointed to each two and said, "Two. Two. Two." Man, was I sure happy I decided to stay up late and cut out some twos! Then the real fun began. Candles! I can't even count how many times we lit the candle, sang, had Max blow, clapped, and started over again. I loved it. Max's blow was hilarious. The blows were more like spits and it took him a while to get the blow aimed just right.Then, for Max's birthday activity, we went to Yerba Buena Gardens to ride the carousel. We've been down to the Metreon so many times to go virutal bowling (sigh), but have never tried out the carousel. Max was so excited and couldn't wait to ride the horsey. But when we got there, it was a different story.He kept saying, "All done! All done!"...until we started going. Then he realized how much fun it was. We rode twice--the first time Max picked a horse to ride and the second, a camel. And if we would have rode three times, he would have picked a giraffe. This carousel was great!Even the birds came out for Max to chase for his birthday. This really is one of his favorite things to do and one of our favorite things to watch. "Fly away bird!"Later that night we met Blake down near his work for dinner at Tony Roma's. The waitors there were excellent and actually sang and lit the candle in his ice cream three times after Max's "AGAIN" requests.Then home for the best part of birthdays--presents! When we'd ask Max what you get on your birthday, he'd scream, "PRESENTS!" And the presents this year did not dissappoint. They were all so good, he didn't even have a favorite. He kept going from toy to toy to toy saying, "Now dis one!" I love how he's just throwing the clothes out of the way in the picture.

He even shared with Baby Jack. Yes, Jack was there with us today, too.

And to top off the evening, we sang, lit, blew, clapped, and repeated with his birthday cake. Thank you to everyone who called and sent presents! And Happy Birthday to my sweet little 2 year old!