AJ's prayer

We say prayers every night with AJ, I have often asked him if he wants to say it and he says no. He will sometimes repeat what we say but he hasn't wanted to say it himself. Yesterday when I asked him he said he wanted to say it himself. It was one of those treasured mommy moments! I especially loved it when he said thank you for his Christmas Lights.

Pictures with Santa

Our first pictures this year were taken up at WSU's bookstore. Santa was dressed up in a hip Santa suit. The next pictures were taken at my preschool. AJ was SOOOOOOOO excited Santa was at HIS house! Griffin was just trying to figure out what was going on!

20 Years Ago Today

Twenty years ago today Chris and I went into the MTC to go on our missions! I asked Chris and his family and Mom and Dad to come over for dinner. I had fun setting the table and trying to make it kinda special. It is also Cooper's birthday today the big 6! And it was 5 years ago today that I first heard of a guy named Kurt. It was at Cooper's 1st birthday party that Joyce told me she gave my number to someone at work. I guess Dec. 12th holds a lot of special memories for me!

Family PIctures

Kurt's friend from work Roy likes to take pictures and so Kurt asked him to take our pictures for our Christmas Card. Here is the winner!

We went to the ward Christmas Party and as part of the activity each table was assigned part of the twelve days of Christmas, the only ones sitting at our table were us, we were assigned 10 Lords a leaping. So when it came to our part I threw Griffin up and caught him and Kurt threw AJ up and caught him. We had several comments that ours was the best... I think the kids smiles and giggles won everyone's hearts!

Thanksgiving in Seattle

Our niece Erika was married the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Portland followed by a reception in Seattle that same day so we decided to go on a ROAD TRIP! We loaded up the car and the small trailer and hit the road, only to be stopped just out side of Burley Idaho with TERRIBLE road conditions. We decided to stay the night to be safe. The next day we were stopped on the freeway for over an hour because of weather related crashes. We stopped in LaGrande Oregon to change windshield wipers and were told to wait until morning to go over the Blue Mts. so we stayed in the Super 8 in LaGrande.

We arrived in Seattle about 5:00 Wednesday evening. A big thanks to Zech's family for setting us up in some GREAT rooms while we were up there for the wedding.

We first went to Astrid's. AJ walked in the house and said, "Hello doggie, hello lion." I did a double take and noticed the second dog was quite fluffy, in AJ's mind he looked like a lion. AJ continued to refer to the dog as a lion the whole trip.

Thursday morning was spent at Astrid's and then over to a church to have the big ol' feast with Bianca and family. It was a wonderful meal! Just what Thanksgiving should be! Thanks to them for doing all of the cooking!

Friday morning we went to the Seattle temple for Erika to take her endowments out. It was nice to be in the temple with family. We then drove down to Portland and stayed the night so we were ready for the morning wedding. Erika looked beautiful and both she and Zech looked happy! AJ had a great time playing with his Lightning McQueen car he had found in the luggage that morning. After the wedding we waited a while out in the cold for them to come out for pictures, by the time we got pictures taken, the boys were ready to go get warm. We then drove back to Seattle. That night we were able to visit with Astrid's children and the reception.

On the way home we stayed in LaGrande again, but this time with Doug and Patty. It was fun to see the addition they had done on their house, it was gorgeous!

All in all it was a great trip!

AJ in October and November

The other day AJ hit his head as he was laying down to get his diaper changed. I consoled him and told him to lay down so we could get his diaper done. He looked at me and said, "Mom, I crying first!" I waited a minute and asked if he was ready and he smiled and said, "YEP!"

We went out to eat with Grandma and Grandpa Hislop, to entertain AJ we pulled out a few toys out of the diaper bag. He was playing with Scooby Doo and to be honest we weren't paying much attention until we heard, "Here's Scooby Doo's penis." He just matter of factly turned over Scooby Doo and was pointing to where his penis should be. We all busted up!

We have a clock that chimes and AJ loves to hear it. He thinks it is talking to him. When he wakes up in the morning he says, "Good Morning Clock" When it chimes 8 O'clock he knows it is time for bed. He often says, "No, no clock me don't want it! Me don't want to go to bed!"

We had to fill out a favorite things list for Nursery, this is what he came up with...

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Food: Yogurt

Favorite Animal: Cow

Favorite TV Show: Handy Manny

Thing he is the best at... throwing, hitting, kicking and shooting balls!

Favorite thing to wear: Shirts with cars and trucks on them and his Lightening McQueen PJ's

Favorite Song: Jesus wants me for a sunbeam

Favorite thing about nursery: Playing with the truck

Our Boys

Griffin is getting old enough that he and AJ will play together a little bit. I once remember my sister-in-law Teresa saying one of her favorite sounds was that of her children laughing. I SO AGREE! Both Kurt and I LOVE to hear them laugh. I thought having little babies was fun, but I am so enjoying as they are getting older and can interact more! Although I admit I walked through the baby department today and a tear came to my eye thinking my children are almost out of this stage. Griffin is already wearing 12 month size clothes! We sure love our boys!