Legoland...

my mom was going to come out and visit us during her spring break from seminary.. and then decided it would be more fun to fly daniel and i out to vegas to see all the family... and then it turned out chris had a week long training in bethesda, md so we extended our stay another week leaving chris for almost 3 weeks!! crazy! we had a great day of flying!! daniel fell asleep the second the first plane took off and slept the whole flight. once we landed in atlanta and quickly changed planes we were off to vegas! he played for a while on this flight, mostly with the window (up down up down) and then i finally stood in the back hostess area and rocked him to sleep. he then slept for the rest of the flight! yay!

once we landed and found grandma we headed home.  it was nice to be in my old home.  i love that place. I got my hair cut friday by my favorite hairdresser jessica... she's the best! that night we had a fun visit from my brother sam and his wife meesha and of course gigi! who daniel loves!   Laura and her mom also came to town... it was so fun seeing little william again!   saturday was an awesome day! my niece amanda was sealed to her parents emily and greg in the las vegas temple for time and eternity! it was such a neat experience.  my mom made her the cutest little white dress which she will also wear for her baptism in may.  ed smith was the sealer... which was so perfect... he is my grandpa vern's business partner and friend and he was close friends with my grandpa virgil who passed away a couple months ago... ed started by saying how special it was for him to be there for his two closest friends performing such a special ceremony for our family... and he was glad he could be there to do it for virgil as he would have done it were he still alive... i was bawling at this point and made the mistake of looking at grandpa vern (who is the biggest bawl baby) and totally lost it... cried through the whole thing after that.  when it was all over ed smith looked at amanda and said "wasn't that neat?" and she just shrugged her shoulders and threw up her hands like... i dont know... perfect amanda answer, shy not really wanting the attention on her self like that.  after we headed to my moms for a big bbq and party.  lots of food and friends.  

on a side note... right before i came out to vegas i had to have my front tooth pulled (external resorption... basically tooth eating itself to death)  so i'm not getting an implant but we had to do some bone grafts first... for the time being i'm toothless... and wearing a flipper with a tooth glued into it to fill the space... actually my original crown that was drilled and filled and super glued in...

amanda had also lost that tooth the same week so we took a picture together...

she then pulled out the other front tooth on the car ride home. no more twinners....

sunday we went to church and daniel had fun sitting next to papa at church... handsome boys

monday we hopped in the car and headed to carlsbad,ca to go to LEGOLAND!!!!  that first night in the hotel was hilarious.  gigi and daniel had so much fun chasing each other between the two joined rooms... it was a serious party.

although he did face plant and get a pretty nice fat lip...

the park was so fun! filled with awesome things all over built out of legos! chris was so jealous he couldn't come as legos are his favorite!  we first stopped in the little duplo village where gigi and daniel rode a little train with grandma, and then daniel crawled all over the place climbing on everything.  it was the perfect place for him to play... otherwise he spent the whole day in the stroller.  

we took a little break to watch a silly fire truck show... with a song they kept singing over and over about water on fire something... we couldn't get it out of our heads and now ive blocked it forever...

there were a few rides gigi got to go on. but daniel was too little for most so we walked around a lot and watched people go by... and ate food :)  my favorite part by far was mini land... replicas of famous cities all out of legos.  vegas, dc, san francisco, new orleans, etc... and they just added star wars... very cool!! 

i just loved seeing all the different creations... like the mariachi band that moved and played music... the line of famous heads including lincoln, marilyn monroe, elvis, etc... the old man sitting on the bench was hilarious because i sat to take a pic and hit my elbow on his knee... legos are sharp and hard! ouch!!  i also loved the shark head which daniel is in and the pirate... daniel and i also took a pic with him but i forgot i had taken out my tooth to eat so... its a scary picture! haha

that night we had dinner and headed back to the hotel.  daniel had so  much fun playing airplane with grandma...

the next morning we did it all again... rode a few different rides including our favorite storybrook lane or something like that... it had the 3 little pigs, a genie, hanzel and grettle, and sleeping beauty... all out of legos. super cute... we actually rode it twice in a row.

the kids (and mom and sam) had great fun playing in the creation area.  just a bunch of duplo blocks all over to play with.  daniel kept playing with this one on an earthquake simulator... pushing the button over and over knocking down all the legos on it. and playing in the crane with gigi.... another place he could crawl all over...

after we had some apple fries (they were only ok)  we decided to leave and head home... the car ride we rough as daniel woke from a nap and was acting all funny and sure enough right as we were getting off the freeway he barfed... what? my kid?? car sick??? weird. he had never done that before in his life so weird. lucky for me my mom was sitting in the back seat with him and yelled out right as it happened so i threw her his big bib which is a hand towel so she was able to clean him more easily... we stopped at in-n-out... i couldn't eat so i hung out with daniel and aired out the stinky van.  we did make it home with no more incidents.... and still had a really great time and glad sam and meesha invited us on their trip and glad meesha's brother could get us discount tickets through his work!! 

 

12 months... equals a year!!

thats right!! little man had his first birthday!!! here are his stats from the doctors:

height: 31 inches (92%)

weight: 21.4 pounds (26%)

and his head was like 18 inches or something (68%)

so he is still very tall and skinny!  but everything else looked good!

- he is now drinking whole milk.. still working on weaning to the sippy cup instead of the bottle... but its taking time.  he really likes the bottle

- he is pretty much feeding himself... he doesn't like when i help him too much so i mostly feed him things he can pick up with his tiny fingers.

- he has also started using a fork.  i have to help him get the food on the fork but he puts it in his own mouth. its very cute and quite tricky

- his favorite food is bananas and bite size whole wheat pancakes.  he also loves chicken nuggets... 

this was his first birthday breakfast.. he loved this tiny pancakes

- he is super naughty and loves to randomly throw food off his high chair. haven't figured out how to squash that habit. 

- he is still a great sleeper.  he sleeps 12 solid hours a night and takes 2, 2 hour naps a day.  he is a little more tricky to get to fall asleep sometimes as he tries at least 3 times every time to stand up in his crib... usually he is either sitting or kneeling trying to get up... stinker. just lay there and go to sleep!!

- his favorite thing to do when trying to fall asleep is to kick his feet... hard either against the railings or against the wall.

- he is now crawling like a champ... 2 days after his birthday he finally figured out how to crawl... and he cruises all over now.  the house has become so much more interesting to explore.  and mama has to be so much more careful and keep an eye on him.  

- he still likes to also just sit and play with one toy here and there which is nice especially at church where he will just sit on the bench and play with books through most of sacrament meeting.

- he loves to play with balls and throw them all over the house.... including his ball pit. he loves to sit in it and throws balls all over the room.

- he is just barely figuring out how to stand at furniture and is super timid about trying it on his own... he doesn't like to do things unless he really knows how.  hes afraid of falling i guess.  and he's smart!

- since we have a storm door i often open the front door and let him play with it... opening and closing it and banging on the clear storm door.

i made these snazzy crib rail covers as he started chewing on the crib

we also had a little birthday party... just a little party with a few friends from chris' residency program and their wives who i'm good friends with and my friend kristen and her husband aaron who is also a navy dentist and is good friends with chris.  they just came over for cup cakes and ice cream.   

i made a little cake for him, we sang happy birthday and i blew out his candle and at first he was timid and just poking at the cake.. so i put his hand in it and he didn't like it all over his hand so i grabbed one of his little forks and handed it to him and then he went to town eating his cake. it was so cute! what one year old eats cake with a fork???

- after we all enjoyed come cupcakes and ice cream we opened a few presents.  chris and i just got him a few little books, a little alligator key board and a tiny basketball hoop which he loves!  we also got a few more little book... which we love he likes reading a lot, and we got a hilarious cat that he chases around (mechanical) and a little people airplane.  he actually enjoyed opening presents unlike christmas where he didn't care.

we sure love this little guy and how cute and fun he is.  what an awesome year!  excited for the future with this super sweet smart little man.  our bubba

he's just such a happy little man!!!

look how much he has grown!!!

11 months...

crazy right!!! 11 months!! he's almost a year!! he's also super cute and fun these days.

still the happiest baby ever and just content.  he's on a normal schedule... very predictable...  up at 8 am takes bottle, plays, after an hour has breakfast, plays, and a little after 10 wants to go to bed.  he naps for 2 hours wakes, has a bottle, plays, after an hour has lunch, plays and by 2:30 is ready for second nap... naps for 2 hours gets up, eats dinner plays till bath and bed time at 7:00... everyday.

- is still not crawling but army crawls all over and is getting faster and stronger everyday.

- loves to explore all around the room on his belly

chasing his friend blaze for  the hanger

- is having fun playing with all his new toys from christmas and his tastes have changed to more kid toys than baby baby toys... 

- is eating all sorts of foods on his own now and LOVES to feed himself... i like it too since it keeps him entertained so long on his own.

- loves to take baths and play for a while.. splashing and kicking his feet... and folding in half to drink the water with his mouth.

- lays in his bed forever when he wakes up... like sometimes 45 min... talking to himself, playing with pacifier,  playing with his cuddly buddy, kicking the bars of crib or wall it is next to... eventually he cries out for us to go get him.

- he loves to be in the car too... he is always content to sit in his car seat and look out the window.  

- loves to throw a ball and go chase it himself... on his belly of course.

- talks like crazy and has all sorts of hilarious facial expressions.

- is an amazing traveler on airplanes.

- smiles at everyone who smiles at him

- laughs all the time!!!! the most random things make him laugh

- he loves to just sit and play with one toy for a long time... the other day it was a book... he looked at it for 20 min.  pretty amazing with a kid that small.

- claps his hands all the time now and they actually make the clapping sound... so cute

here are a few fun videos:

here he is laughing at me dropping a ball on the floor... sorry its shaky... i was dropping a ball :)

here he is clapping for the first time... 

he was so chatty this one morning eating his bananas.... so chatty.

he is just getting so big and fun... can't believe he started out so tiny and is now such a big boy!!

christmas comes but once a year...

for christmas we headed out to sunny las vegas to spend the holidays with my family.  the weekend before we left i sang in our ward's christmas devotional and the next morning woke up with laryngitis... i always lose my voice this time of year... usually closer to january, i was way bummed to have no voice and not be able to sing the whole christmas week!!  anyway,,, i didn't feel too sick at all, but eventually we all got really sick while in vegas.

the airplane trip there was perfect!  daniel slept for most of the flight and when he was awake he was happy and playing nicely.  when getting off the plane the guy sitting behind us said he was impressed with our little traveler.  especially since 4 rows behind us a little kid was screaming for half the flight.  we got to vegas thursday afternoon and our first stop was to in-n-out.  yum!!! you just miss it so much when its not in your town.  we spent the next couple days hanging with family and just having a good time.  grandma susan came down from reno on saturday and spent the weekend with us.

saturday night was my family's dinner and white elephant exchange.  dinner was soups and they were good, plus a plethora of goodies my sister had received from her students in the high school... she had quite the array of treats to share.  the gist exchange was fun as always... started off with sam opening a beautiful scarf and modeling it for us... i forgot to take pics the whole time but here are a few..

it was a really fun night with my whole family together.  sunday we went to church and then after spent the afternoon at my moms and eating dinner... by this time poor daniel was really sick and started to run a fever which then stayed off and on for the rest of the trip.  christmas eve was quite the day.  we started by opening a few gifts with grandma susan before she headed off to reno... she gave us a cute recorded book of goodnight moon and david gave daniel a super cute little people helicopter. 

his face doesnt' show it but he really does like them!  the rest of the day i worked with my mom organizing games for the christensen extravaganza minute to win it games.... so hilarious.  chris went with grandpa and jack to buy some toys... for the big boys cause grandpa was bored.  they bought remote control helicopters, mustangs, cars... etc.  grandpa kept getting mad at jack for putting the helicopter so close to his head.  will loved the mustang and had a lot of fun running and screaming from it... hahaha

christmas eve took place at aunt joans and we had uncle david's family, my moms family, and aunt joans... there were crazy kids everywhere!! ahhh!!  but it was really fun and the games were so silly. meesha the soccer player kicked everyones trash in walk to bethlehem.... by kicking her feet faster than anyone else.

sam kept emptying his kleenex box onto julias and she couldn't see her box at all.. haha

jingle butt was the favorite and kids wanted to have a try as well... i got all my bells out of the box first... i know how to shake it... haha!

so many cute kids at the party including my cousin katie's twins.... so pretty!!

the party ended with the traditional family march.... always a hoot.

i took these pics of daniel before heading off to bed in front of my moms tree... he's just so cute!

he's very excited for christmas!

that night we got ok sleep, but poor daniel was getting worse and worse.  christmas morning we were up bright and early... still being mostly on eastern time zone... and headed over to my moms.  i helped her make christmas crepes and eggs and whatever else for breakfast.  all my siblings came over and we ate breakfast and opened presents... the kids were funny.... daniel didn't feel good or have any interest in ripping paper... so gigi helped him... she LOVES opening presents... will opened one present and wanted to just play with it and was mad at his parents for opening more... amanda was just cute.  she's getting so big and smart.  daniel did enjoy playing his new drum.  emily enjoyed dressing up in amandas new dr. mcstuffins outfit... 

gigi was also very cute playing with her doctor stuff... she sat right down and started writing on her notepad

we then headed out to my dads to eat sandwiches and open a few present with him.. amanda had so much fun showing everyone her room in grandpa's apartment as she spends a lot of afternoons there since grandpa picks her up from school.  we had a good time just chatting and enjoying capriotis sandwiches.. including the bobby... my favorite.

we headed back to my moms and daniel was just burning up so we got him all undressed and he just laid on my chest and cuddled for a while.

the rest of the day we just hung out and had a good time.  i did manage to find one cvs open so we could get some dimatap for daniel who was so congested and runny nose he could hardly breathe.  we all slept better that night as chris and i took nyquil... never again! i was soooo groggy in the morning it took me forever to wake up.  during the week a few other fun things took place... daniel got a haircut from grandma.. much needed as his hair was in his eyes.

lots of fun bathtimes... with will having a good time and daniel ending up in tears... he's so sensitive... haha

we also had lots of opportunities for photo ops in my moms beautiful backyard and fun things to play on...

daniel also had a great time playing with papa... who loves this cute little guy.  it was so fun to hang out with my grandpa again. we miss living with him and seeing him all the time.

the trip ended thursday morning early... we headed off to the airport.  daniel fell asleep before the plane took off and slept for all but 30 min!!! of the long flight! and then did the same when we got on our second shorter flight... he even slept getting off the plane and waiting for our bags!  amazing! made for a truly easy travel day.

so glad we got to spend the holidays in vegas.  sad we couldn't stay longer but chris had to check in for work friday morning and then we were back on liberty the next day... 

new years eve we spent with our friends the hassels.  it was so fun! we had fondue and games and lots of talking and eating and laughing... daniel was awake for half of it... he had a hard time adjusting back to eastern time zone... the only disappointment was watching the new york ball drop... vegas fireworks are so much better!!! 

happy new year!  we had a great year and look forward to having another one this year!!