In honor of the Holiday Season

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1114279969

and cause its just too funny to only do once... and cause Jason thinks its dumb.... heh heh heh...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1114110602

Praise the Lord

Evan was playing in the playroom yesterday, singing to himself. He found me in my bedroom and told me, "I'm singing for Jesus. It makes him happy."

Cuz

Brendan's new favorite word. He never misses... Anytime someone says "Why?" even if it wasn't actually to him, he answers as you will see in the video below.

11th Hour Repentance

From the back of the car:

Dani: Mom! Will Santa put me on his good list?
Me: Why wouldn't you be on the good list?
Dani: Cause I'm BAD!!!!
Me: (laughing) Well... sometimes you're good. Maybe you should try to be extra good from now until Christmas.
Dani: Yeah -- cause I want presents!

The Dynamic Duo

To the Rescue!

We have the coolest cousin EVER!

Oh... guess this title has been sitting up here for a few days without any more explaination. Well, Evan was very impressed by Eamon -- he followed that boy around constantly while they were together. And when we got home, what was it that left the biggest impression on Evan?
Eamon can burp his ABCs. Wow.

Heart Attack at 4 a.m.

We are on vacation this week. We are at Grandma and Knapp's house in Connecticut, but we came here the long route, by way of Baltimore to see Uncle Ryan and Aunt Adrienne and baby Cael. We had a swell time with them -- Dani was inconsolable when we left, even though the next stop was Grandma's and Grandpa's AND even though we are going to spend 10 whole days in Hawaii with Ryan and Adrienne in just a few weeks. The girl really hates goodbyes!

We got in the car for the 4 or 5 hour drive to Connecticut, Brendan fell fast asleep and didn't move for the entire trip. Once we got here and pulled him out of his car seat, he was still completely zonked, so I just put him in a bed -- coat, clothes and all. We all went to bed -- Jason and I just down the hall from Bren. We left the light on so he could find us if he woke up in the night. About 4 a.m. I heard a door rattling. I figured it must be Brendan trying to get to us, so I got up to help him. But he wasn't at our door. Nor in his bed! Or anywhere else that I could see in the half-dark without any contacts in. I came back to our room and asked Jason if he had Brendan, "I have someone here, " he replied, only to discover it was Evan, not Brendan. So then we were both up, getting a little frantic, trying to find all the places a little two year old boy and curl up and sleep in. After a panicked 10 minutes or so, Grandpa poked his head out the door and informed us that Brendan was with them.... fast asleep in their bed. PHEW!

It seems Brendan had woken up and wandered in to their bedroom. Grandmda, thinking it was Evan told him, "They're in the other room." Brendan, though, coudln't open the door --thus the rattling I heard that woke me up. Next thing Grandma knew, there was someone standing next to her bed, just breathing. She figured out it was Bren, scooped him up into bed with her and he went right to sleep!

Just what I need in this family. A sleepwalker!

Popular

You know you're a cool dad when the neighborhood kids come to the door and ask "Can Jason come out and play baseball with us?"

Beautiful

Emily's best friend, Kate, is moving this week. Our families moved to Chicago the very same week in August 2003 and the girls have been the best of buddies ever since the first moment they met. They are fond of telling us that they've never even had a fight. The girls are so sad to be separated, so Kate's mom and I let the girls have their pictures taken together by one of our friends who is a photographer. She did a fantastic job! I have so many favorites... here are a few.

I especially love these ones of Emily

Fancy Pants

I bought this suit for Brendan when I was in Utah last weekend. I saw it and I just had to -- I mean BRENDAN just had to have it! So many people at church commented on how cute he was today. The pants didn't look as big in real life as they do in the picture. I think I'll have to re-hem them before he wears them again. Even with the baggy pants though -- has there ever been a more handsome 2-year old than mine?

Post-Halloween Sales

Halloween costumes are an investment for our family. My kids love dress ups -- but not the traditional frilly, girls dress ups. We're into superhero dress ups around here and I love that Target discounts all their costumes 50%-70% off after Halloween. This year, I decided to stock up a bit becuase they old costumes are getting pretty ratty. I ended up getting several, but Evan's favorite is definitely Flash. I can't get him to take the darn thing off!

BOO!

Well, it was a completely busy and crazy Halloween, but in the end, the kids got lots of candy and they had fun, so I guess it was all good. I was gone the 2 weekends prior to Halloween and with our life's normal chaotic pace, we completely forgot to carve our pumpkins, and I almost couldn't find Brendan's costume when the big evening came. We were lucky I remembered to get candy to hand out to the neighborhood kids!

We had the pleasure of sharing Halloween with one of my oldest friends, Katie Koski-I-mean-Stewart. We were locker partners many moons ago in 7th grade, then I moved away, and 5 years later, we were roommates at BYU. Anyway, the Stewart clan was moving from Iowa to Wisconsin and stopped on their way through and spent the night and trick-or-treated (or sugar-treated, as Evan calls it) with us. Our kids just LOVE each other, especially Evan and Katie's oldest, Andrew. I think I saw Evan 3 times during the two days they were here.

We also lucked out and got to spend an hour with Uncle Chris as he and his girlfriend Lauree and her siblings, Mike, Chris and Jaimie drove through on their way from Ohio to Utah. They had a little dinner with us and the kids got to see Uncle Chris for the first time since he got home from his mission. Sadly he didn't have time to trick-or-treat, but he did try to teach Dani to play "Abide with Me" on the piano and she is now convinced that she is an EXCELLENT pianist.

Trick or treating actually lasted a good 45 minutes this year -- a record I think! It was definitely helped by better weather than we've had in the last few years. The kids could actually get away without wearing coats if they really wanted to. Brendan was especially thrilled with the Halloween festivities. He just could not believe what a great deal this was -- just walk up to a house, mumble some syllables, hold out your bag -- AND THESE CRAZY PEOPLE JUST GIVE YOU CANDY! After every house, he came running back to me, pointed to his bag and shouting, "Treat! Treat!" He walked into one or two people's houses, but he eventually figured out that we weren't looking for playdates, just candy. Dani surprised me with her bravery this year. There were 3 or 4 scary houses on our route this year, which Evan and Brendan opted out of, but Dani, our big scardy cat went up to all of them!

This last picture is a little blurry, but it just depicts the chaos that emassed our house, post-trick-or-treating. The kids all dumped their candy on the floor and dug in. For the past 3 days, every time I look at Brendan, he's got a piece of candy in his mouth. I think its about time to throw what's left in the garbage or Brendan won't have any teeth left for NEXT Halloween!