Christmas Card

 

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  We love you!

Merry Madagascar

Sitting on Santa's lap at our ward Christmas party:

Christmas jammies:

Mimi and Papa came up last weekend and we went to the Gaylord Texan to see the lights and 2 million pounds of Merry Madagascar Ice!  

You know you're jealous of the sweet Ice! jackets:

Papa was a good sport for holding Colton.  The little guy exploded just as we went in and I couldn't do anything about it.  And, no, 11 degree weather didn't freeze the stink.  Between the cold and the smell we lasted for 15-20 minutes in there.  It was really cool though.  Pun intended:

The ice slide:

The hotel also had indoor snow tubing.  Autrey, Dylan, and I did that while Mimi and Papa stayed with the sleeping Santa:

You know you're a Texan when all the best winter activities are done indoors.

3 year old and 6 month updates

Guess who's eating veggies?  These pictures were from the 1st 2 times trying peas.  You'd think I was feeding him acid with these awful faces, but he ate everything I gave him:

 2 short videos of Colton's reactions to the peas:

 

Alice Kellar, my best friend at church, and her family moved to Arkansas this week.  We didn't cry too much when we said good-bye after our last play date, but the next time Dylan asks to go play with Maiya, Derek, and Sylvie I might lose it.  We will miss them so much:

Over to play and have dinner:

Dylan 3 year old update:

*Height: 40 1/2 in, 97%
  Weight: 38 lb, 97%
  Blood pressure: 100/66 (just a bit higher than mine)

*He is wearing size 3 and 4 clothes (because of length) and size 10 shoes.

*He knows his name, our 'real' names, age, birthday, address, and hair color.  I haven't taught him his eye color because they aren't really a true blue anymore.  Kind of bluish, grayish, hazel and I'm not sure which to go with.

*He went #2 facing the right way at G-ma's house today.  Hope we can keep it up.

*Dylan picked up some lint off the floor and said, "It's from daddy's belly button."  It wasn't...this time.

*Me: "Are you Captain Hook?"
  D: "No. Cap'n Dylan."
  Me: "Oh, right."
  D: "But G-pa said Marshall Dylan."

*Aut: "Are you a democrat?"
  D: "No.  I'm a big boy."

*"I'm going to Kristen's house.  She has 2 babies in her belly.  They're going to play with me."

*While getting dressed he'll say, "Let's see if the clothes fit" or "These clothes are too small.  They go to Jackson."

*"I want to go to Mimi's house."  We are lucky enough to see Mimi and Papa often, but we haven't been to Houston in so long I think he's referring to one of the rentals we've stayed at recently.

* Dylan: "I made Maggie and Sylvie sad."
   Autrey: "What?  Maggie's not here."
   Dylan: "She needs to come find me."

*"I want some more reindeer food please, mom." Carrots are really cool this time of year.

*Dylan got a reindeer Pez dispenser.  He named it Pez.

*Me: "Colton, we don't bite mama!"
  Dylan: "He's just learning to bite you.  It's ok mama."
  Dylan to Colton: "We don't bite mama or I will spank your bottom." Hmmmmm...

*After a long time in the tub: "Wash my hands.  Get the wrinkles off.  I look like Nana."  (Don't worry.  Nana has a great sense of humor.)  After a few hours he looked down and said, "They're back to normal!"

*Dylan went to the park with Autrey.  Dylan tried to jump over Autrey's head and his foot caught on Autrey's shoulder.  Dylan face planted on the wood chips.  I asked what happened to his face and he simply said, "I didn't make it."

*He loves to eat truck-shaped turkey and cheese sandwiches.  I love my cookie cutters.  He also likes 'ants on a log' as a snack.

*He has a good grasp of his colors.  The only ones he occasionally slips up on are gray, yellow (he will say orange or y-y-blue), and pink ("shiny." It's my fault because I will say "I love your shiny shirt, Maggie" or "Look at Sylvie's shiny shoes.")

*He should have been a parrot for Halloween.  He repeats everyone and sometimes it sounds like he is making fun of strangers.  I told him not to repeat what everyone's saying.  After our talk I repeated a question he asked me to make sure I knew what he wanted, to which he told me, "Don't say that.  That's not very nice."  Touche'.

*When he sings along with new songs he mumbles then yells the last word of a phrase.

*We don't get any channels on our tv so he doesn't understand commercials.  When he has been at vacation rental houses, as soon as one comes on he asks to watch his show again as if we turned it off.

*"Egg Milk" = Eggnog.  He is his father's son and loves it.

*He will lay on top of Colton on the floor to give him a hug and when I tell him to be soft he will say, "I just want to love on him."

Colton 6 month update:

* Head: 16.9 in, 25% (Dylan was 44 cm, 50%)
   Height: 26 1/4in, 50% (Dylan was 26.5, 50%)
   Weight: 14lb 13oz, 10% (Dylan was 15 lb 3 oz, 10-25%)

*He just moved up to 6 month clothes and is about ready for size 2 shoes.

*Colton rolls both ways.

*He grabs his toes.

*A few times he transferred an object to his other hand.

*He tripod sits and is getting more stable.  He sits in his Bumbo a lot, but has wiggled his way out of it once.

*He is handsy and grabs everything, including hair and jewelry.

*He loves oatmeal and rice cereal.  He has also eaten veggies - peas, carrots, squash, green beans, sweet potatoes.

*Not only is he jabbering, but also squealing and growling.

*He is ticklish and laughs a lot.  Dylan and Colton crack each other up.

*Colton will go to family or strangers, but he gets fussy sometimes when I put him on the floor and briefly walk out of sight (ie throwing something away out in the garage or putting clothes away in the closet).

*He makes the "b" and "g" sound and has made the "m" sound sound a few times.

If I had wun mealyun dollerz...

I love my in-laws.  So funny.  I could only love them more if this was real: 

Disneyland!

I...I mean Dylan...was so excited about going to Disneyland for my...uh-hem, his...1st time.  He kept talking about going to see Mater and McQueen and how he was going to "hug Minnie Mouse at her house."  We made a Disneyland Countdown chain with various activities to do (i.e. race like Lightning McQueen, bounce like Tigger, have Mickey shaped pancakes, watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, wear Disney pjs to bed, etc). 

"We're going to Dis-en-yland!  Yay!"

We got there on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  The Disneyland White House rental house we stayed at was perfect for the kids.  A pool, toys galore, and my favorite part was the 2 kid bedrooms.  The bedroom Dylan stayed in had a sweet pirate bed on one side (with a semi-creepy pirate statue):

 and a castle bunk bed on the other side.  He slept on both while we were there.  I was sad I didn't get to sleep in there, seriously:

I thought Tommy was going to be in the room with him, but Maggie didn't want to sleep in the princess room alone.  And as much as it kills Matt, Tommy loves pink and loved that room and all the princess stuff.  Probably more of a reflection of how much he loves Maggie than anything, but we still thought it was funny:

We went to Huntington Beach.  It was chilly and windy, but the kids had fun:

Both of my boys can say they were in the ocean before they were ever in a pool.  (Dylan's was at Coronado over Memorial Day weekend a few days after I finished teaching.  Colton was asleep when we went to the pool once or twice this summer.):

Racing the water:

Gorilla Joe, the most chill kid ever:

One way to ride the wave:

Colton and Papa:

Dylan digging wildly.  He still doesn't know how to do it without throwing the sand on everyone around him.  Sorry, everyone:



Mermaid Maggie:

This crazy guy actually got in and swam in the cold water:

Out for a stroll on the beach:

Wearing his cool shark tooth necklace from Mimi:

Autrey pulled Tommy and Dylan all the way back to the car:

California Adventure with Goofy.  I love how his Lightning hat makes it look like he's looking at me:

Signing the picture frame mat so I can frame a picture later surrounded by autographs:

Cars Land, my favorite area, with a 'Tractor Tipping Tractor':

"There's Lightning McQueen guys!"

Meeting Mater after lunch at Flo's V8 Cafe:

Hopper at Bug Land:

Flik:

We had Mickey ice cream all 3 days we were at the park.  It was even our Thanksgiving dessert:

Dylan loved it, but not as much as Tyler.  I wish I had a picture of his messy little face.  Nobody devours quite like him.

 Getting his hug from Minnie.  They shared quite a moment together:

Colton loved Dale's soft fuzzy hands:

Happiest Place on Earth?  You betcha!

The Tea Cups.  And, surprisingly, none of the motion sensitive adults got sick:

Nursing Colton on It's a Small World.  Nursing Side Note: We had quite the full days of fun on this trip.  I either nursed while the others rode rides, while I rode rides, nursed in line to the rides Colton could go on, nursed while walking to other parts of the park, or while we were eating.  Thank heavens for my hooter hider.  Either that or someone graciously gave him a bottle of formula while I was on a ride without him.  That feeding schedule, following the crazy last few weeks of stress and lack of sleep, did me in.  I went to the doctor today and had to get another round of meds for mastitis.  Worth it, but I need a nap soooo bad:

Tyler fell asleep sucking his thumb.  Jealous kids can go from 60 to 0 in 3.5 minutes, anywhere, anytime:

Playing at Goofy's house in Toontown:

No clue where he is, but still happy:

In Tarzan's Treehouse:

Maggie's Minnie ears:

Tigger:

Eeyore:

Pooh:

Ready for bed in his Mickey jammies, giving Donald a hug:

Loving on Mimi as she generously stayed behind so I didn't have to miss all the fun rides.  Papa was also a good sport to wait in line for all the Fast Passes we wanted.  They treated us to a great vacation as well as the kids!

Pluto:

Pinocchio:

Little Buzz Lightyear:

Dylan is totally my child.  He loved all the rides, roller coasters like Splash Mountain included.  He went on it 3 times.  The faces are priceless:

Here is the picture from Space Mountain.  It was the only ride he didn't ask to ride again immediately after.  He liked it though and was really brave, considering he was barely 40" with shoes on and turned 3 during this trip.  I love his face and Allyson's (aka my red sweater twin) taken in the pitch black dark going really fast:

 Tommy and Dylan would have played with this all day.  Who am I kidding?  That's no big deal.  Dylan was happy when we told him the mini Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the backyard of the rental house backyard was Disneyland:

Colton fell asleep nursing so he never actually saw the big mouse.  Mickey gave him a soft pat on the head though:

The last ride we went on the last night was the best one.  The Radiator Springs Racer in Cars Land was awesome.  Dylan went on it 4 times while we were there, because of the Kid Switch Passes.  They really made it look like Radiator Springs:

Mimi and Papa with their 2 Buzz Lightyears:

Duke family pictures by the Disneyland Christmas Tree:

The Grandkids:

Matt, Allyson, Tommy, Tyler:

Danny, Lori, Maggie, Joey:

If you don't know these people, you shouldn't be reading this:

Little Thanksgiving Turkey:



P.S.-Mitt Romney and his family were there when we were, but we never saw them.  After losing the election, I guess the Happiest Place on Earth sounded like a good idea.  Hope they had as much fun as we did! 
THANKS, MIMI AND PAPA!!