Wahoo!!!

Erica was able to pull herself up into her chair at the table yesterday. This was a skill she mastered earlier this year, but she has been unable to do it since all of her surgeries this summer. Hooray for progress!

'Tis the season for birthday cakes!

For birthday cakes?

Well, I suppose that's what you get for having a Christmas baby, eh? Our little baby is one and not so little now. He walks and gets into everything his grubby little hands can reach. True -- I just got him out of splashing in the toilet. He can open the doors about half the time. He's everywhere at once and is fun to watch. Zachary has the cutest dimples in the world and is cheerful and happy.

Here's the video of him digging into his birthday cake. (For those who get this by email, you'll have to go to my blog for the video to work.) His cake was a bugger to make -- I made an apple cake, which is very bumpy and difficult to make look nice. So I didn't try real hard. After all, he's 1, right?

Christmas was fun around the house. I first heard stirrings at 4:39am(ish), but Eldon said he was up at 3:27am. The kids went to bed really well, but about 9:30pm, as we were getting things ready, Jessica woke up and came out. I think she was a little too disoriented to figure everything out, but luckily we were quick on the draw and shuffled her back to her room. Eldon came out later to use the bathroom, but James stood guard and wouldn't let him peek. The kids loved what Santa brought them. And they were very excited about the Wii that we finally bought.

Zachary's favorite present was the apple in his stocking. He walked around all day with it, nibbling on it until it was almost gone. Any time he got fussy, we gave him the apple and he was content. It really kept him out of a lot of trouble!

These are a few of my favorite things....

The kids had half days this week, so on Wednesday, to beat the boredom, I decided to get a head start on the Christmas cookies by making a different kind of cookie every day. So we made:

• Cookie dough truffle balls
• Peanut butter cookies, which we haven't had in FOREVER because of Jessie's peanut allergy
• Sugar cookies (although I'm thinking the kids might have gotten more icing on them)
• Magic cookie bars (ok, I don't like them, but James LOVES them)
• Homemade Oreo cookies

Notice the cool tins I got from JoAnn's for 60% off! These containers are FULL of cookies and treats!

And I bought these stackable cooling racks. So very cool. James even thought they were cool.

Snow day!

Jess and Erica built a little snowman they named Zachary Ned Frosty. I think the sticks we found for his arms were awesome.

To be a superhero

Step 1: Find really shiny material on clearance right before Halloween.

Step 2: Find good superhero images online.

Step 3: Buy a cool new sewing machine.

Step 4: Follow these instructions.

Step 5: Become the coolest mom and aunt on the planet!

And we're off....

Videos

I have some videos that I've been meaning to post. If you get the blog via email, you probably have to go to the blog to view them. It may take a while to load, too.

This one is Erica singing "How Firm A Foundation". The primary kids learned it for the primary program, and Mom wanted a video of it. When it was sung during General Conference, I grabbed the camera.

Erica loves trying to get Zach to dance. Here's a video of the kids dancing.

This is Jessica's 4th birthday.

Jess loves to read books. James always said he wondered how well she could read if she read a book she'd never seen before. Well, here it is. She was reading Bedtime for Frances. I started actually listening to her and realized she wasn't making up words, she was actually reading it.

Washington D.C.

We went to my sister's house near Washington D.C. for Thanksgiving this year. We left on Monday and hit D.C. about 5:00. Nope, not good timing, but luckily we were able to hit the HOV lane after a bit and get there faster. While there we went to the temple, which is beautiful. Karen and I went to Occoquan, which has a historic district with quaint little shops. We toured a model townhouse, only $850,000 to any interested.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with everything you could want, including 6 pies. Yum! Friday we went into D.C. Note: Don't go to the National Mall on a holiday weekend. Parking was near impossible. We limited our trip to the Smithsonian museums, but we drove by some sites and took pictures. It was raining when we passed by the Capitol Building, so it's a bit blurry through the window.