Xander.....Nutella......uh oh.....

Xander got into the nutella today. He's pretty happy about it.Too bad he's allergic to milk. We have some fun days and diaper changes up ahead.....

Free Willy!!

Tonight Nathan gave Xander a bath and when the bath was done, Nathan wrapped Xander up in a towel and laid him onto our bed. I was reading a book on the bed and I looked up and saw that Xander was trying to get his hands out of the towel. Finally he got one hand out, and soon after the other hand started coming out. Because his hand was almost free, I said, "freedom!" Because Nathan was being silly, he yelled out, "Free Willy!" (I know, random!). But the funny thing was that Xander had taken a whale bath toy out of the bath with him, and that's what he was holding in his hand. As soon as Nathan yelled Free Willy, Xander chucked the whale across the room. We all busted up laughing. What a coincedence that Xander just happened to have a whale in his hands as Nathan yelled Free Willy, and decided to throw it! That was easily the best part of our day!

January 2011

Is it just me, or did January fly by! I can't believe that we're already half way through February. Unbelievable!
Michael is so funny!! He can NOT wait for his BIRTHDAY!!!! He asks me a few times each day how much longer he has until he can be 5. He's so jealous of his friend Kyler, who turned 5 in October. It's so funny when I tell him he still has 2 1/2 weeks. His response is ALWAYS either "that's too long" or "you said that yesterday". Oh to be young and have turning 5 be your biggest concern!!
Here's our month of January in pictures. There's not much rhyme or reason to them. Michael has become more interested in taking pictures than actually being in the picture, so there's not a lot of him. Xander on the other hand still has no say on the matter, so he's pictured quite often.
There's not much to update you all. I talk about Nathan's new business in the post just under this one. I've just about doubled my work hours so I'm staying busy with that. Nathan also freelances for a news paper in Idaho Falls and Pocatello, which is pretty cool and fun. Michael is going to Pre-K and will start school in September which he pretty dang excited for! He's learning so much, and is always spouting some random nonsense out. It always rhymes, but rarely makes sense. He also LOVES telling knock jokes that also don't make much sense, but just telling them makes him pretty happy. I need to get those on video!
Anyway, there's a quick update on us. Enjoy the pictures!
Xander all bundled up and ready to go out into the snow.

He's happy in the picture, but didn't last long in the white stuff. We'll try again next year. My prediction: He wont be able to get enough of it!

I realized as I was uploading pictures for the December post that I have a lot of happy pictures of Xander, and he is usually happy. But to get a good representation of the kid, you need to see him mad.

Here's he's just telling you he's not happy,

but now he's just plain ticked and so incredibly hurt that we would deny him what he wants! Heaven forbid!

But the anger certainly doesn't last long.

He discovered that he can see us through his legs!! How exciting!
You can even see the wall!

He was actually trying to look at me, but he didn't quite get how to turn his body so he could actually see me through his legs.

In the months of December and January we realized that Xander has a milk allergy. It suddenly appeared a few weeks after his birthday. It's so sad, because he loves milk products. But, he LOVES fruit, especially bananas!

And when he gets a banana, he inhales it. He can eat a full banana in about 2 minutes.

It takes a few minutes for him to actually chew the thing, but it's all in there!

Just chill-axin' in Dad's lap. If you notice in the picture he has a cup and spoon in his hand. This is another thing he loves doing! He gets a spoon and a cup and "stirs", "sips", and "dumps". He can do it for about 10-15 minutes at a time. Love it!

One night I read him this book before bed and he refused to put it away when we were done. He was clutching it so tightly that I could NOT get it out of his hands. So I decided to put him to bed with it. About 30-45 minutes later when Nathan put Michael to bed, he was still reading it!! He was laying in bed holding it and looking at the pictures.

(I'm holding the book up in the picture because he wasn't interested in holding it once the camera was out, of course.)

Bath Time Fun!
Xander is a huge fan of the bath. He gets so jealous if Michael is getting a bath and he isn't. He really gets mad.

He sits in that tub and splashes the whole time. And, if Michael is in the bath and Xander isn't, Xander will make his way to the tub, stand up, and reach into the tub just so he can splash.

My favorite picture! I love his eyes, the pure joy in his face, the shower curtain barely in the picture, the little water particles you can see on him! Everything! I love it.

Michael's thing right now is to chew on the ducks head---don't ask why, I have NO idea! He's crazy!

December 2010

December was a very, very tough month! There was a lot of stress and not a lot of time together, just because of the way that my schedule and Nathan's schedule worked out. We were constantly trading spaces in the house. He'd go to work, come home, and then I'd leave for work. It was tough, but we got through it!

For Christmas this year we went up to Canada to be with Nathan's family and it was a very much needed break!! Then the day after Christmas we came home and the next day picked up my family from the airport. It was also a very nice break to have them here and to show them the fun that Rexburg can be (that's a bit of sarcasm, btw.)

So because of the busy-ness, there's not a lot of pictures, but I hope you enjoy the ones we do have!

Getting Ready For Christmas

So, I don't have very many pictures at all of our house decorated for Christmas, or any pictures of Christmas at all! I'll have to try harder next year.

Michael and Xander admiring a snow globe

Michael decorating the tree. He was so into it this year, and did a fairly good job.

The finished product. We rearranged some balls after Michael went to bed. Xander did really well with the tree. He was a bit interested in the ornaments, but didn't really touch them at all. We were pleasantly surprised.

Xander
Oh, Xander, Xander, Xander! His personality really started to come out during December, and I'm absolutely loving it!!! He's such a fun little guy!

One day I put him to bed, and when I came back to check on him, I couldn't see him. My heart skipped a beat until I realized that he was just under his blanket!

I pulled the blanket back and there he was, sleeping like a rock! Since this picture, I find him like this at least once a week!

Where's Xander?? There he is!
Figuring out the dishwasher!
The dishwasher is one of his favorite places! I really have to plan when I do the dishes because I have to do them while he's sleeping or if he's eating in his high chair. Otherwise it's a constant battle between keeping him off the dang thing, keeping the dishes inside the washer, or keeping the racks in the position I want them in.



Xander constantly keeps us laughing!! He has such a funny personality. One night I made bread bowls and soup. As we were eating, Michael busts up laughing and points to Xander. I look over and I see this:

Xander had taken his little piece of bread and placed it right on top of his head!!! Seriously, who does that!?! A 13 month old is who!!! So funny!!!!

I love this picture! He looks so grown up in it!!!! He's really starting to become a little boy and not a baby! It makes me sad, but also so excited for what's to come.Nate and Tony at the Movies

In December Nathan quit at the Standard Journal (Can I get a HaLLELujAH!) so he could focus on his business,Nate and Tony at the Movies. We're very excited about it, but he's a movie critic with a good friend Tony Potter. They worked together at the Standard Journal for a few years and their business has slowly evolved into a pretty full time thing. Here's Michael displaying one of their shirts. It's pretty fun. They have an awesome illustrator who designs Nate and Tony as the main characters in the big movies and they put the designs on shirts and coupon fliers. I'll have to see if I can get some of the designs to post. Hollie Hibbert is seriously so awesome! You've gotta check out her website. She's seriously awesome, I'm not just saying it. My Parents Came To Town

My parents finally came up to visit between Christmas and New Years. It was really fun to have them down. It was the first time Dad has been up here in the middle of Rexburg, and he fully enjoyed the weather. He's always obsessed about the weather (yes, dad, you're obsessed) but being here at the beginning of winter took it to a new level! He was constantly stepping out when the temperature would drop to see what it felt like. I think the coldest it got was -1? He'd be able to tell ya if I'm right or not.
One of the days they were here we all went out and played in it. We played more than we took pictures, so I only have a few pictures. We had a snow ball fight and built snowmen. It was really fun.

New Years

New years this year was really nice and relaxing. It was just the four of us for the first time in a few weeks, and it was nice to be a calm family again. Nathan and Michael played the new WII star wars game he got for Christmas a bit that night, Xander hung out playing with toys and just roaming around. I spent some time in the kitchen making a few little appetizers that we ate that night. Then we put the boys to bed at about 9:00 and Nathan and I watched some movies we got through Netflix. It was a really nice evening.

Xander's Birthday Cake

Finally!!!!! I figured that if I put it on youtube, then I can embed it into the blog. It's not ideal, but at least you can all see our videos.....

Xander's 1st Birthday

Michael was so excited for Xander's birthday! This year he has grasped the full joy of birthdays. His favorite thing is presents!! It was pure torture for him to not be able to see what was in Xander's presents that Grandma Stoa sent up a few days before the big event. On Wednesday morning he ran into our room yelling that it was Xander's birthday! When we came down stairs, this was how one of Xander's presents looked. It originally had ribbon on it and was taped down. Michael did just as much as he could before actually opening the thing.

The cakes I made for Xander. I got the idea from Our Best Bites...back in May! It was really fun to make. I made a little one for Xander.

The night of his birthday we had a few friends come over for cake and ice cream.

This is Jen with her daughter Ashlyn and son Kyler, Summer, and Shayna with Zoe.

Xander was very timid with his cake. At first he was just poking the icing and licking his finger. Then I showed him a bit of the cake and he figured it out. Before long he looked like this....

Summer put it well--the monkey reversed!

"Oh ya, this is good!"

Oh, he was so messy!! But he enjoyed it, and that's what mattered!

The final product when Xander was done with it. Not a lot was left

October 2010

****I wrote stuff for all these pictures, but when I went to save publish the post, I realized that my internet was down, and so it wouldn't publish. Because of that, I had lost everything I had done, so that's why the posts were really unorganized and not much was said about the pictures. I have now organized it and given information on the pictures. Enjoy!****

Michael discovered that he can barricade Xander from the living room. It was frustrating for Xander to not be able to get into the living room to play with all of Michael's toys, but Michael loved it.

This is how I found Michael hiding during a game of Hide and Seek.

Musical Michael

Michael got a sword thing from Grandma Stoa, and when it broke, Michael decided it would work well as a violin. I was pretty impressed with Michael, because before I could ask him what he was doing, he told me he was playing a violin. I didn't even realize he knew what a violin was!

Eye-less ElmoWe have no idea what happened to this Elmo!!! All we know is that Nathan put Elmo in Xander's crib one morning so we could get a bit more sleep, and when I walked back in the room, Elmo's eyes were on the floor and Elmo was laying face first in Xander's crib....Should I be concerned???

Xander takes a good 45 minutes to fall asleep when we lay him down for his naps. He's rarely upset. He just talks and plays in his crib. When he finally falls asleep, he ends up in all kind of wierd positions! I don't know how he can sleep like this!

I loved how Xander was striking a pose.

I had so many empty baby food jars laying around so a few friends and I got together and made these fun halloween decorations. We just modge podged some tissue paper on and then cut out shapes from construction paper and modge podged those on as well. They came out pretty cute. We may get together and make some snowmen or something.

On the 23rd I convinced Nathan to take us to a pumpkin patch in Idaho Falls. It was a small little thing, but it was fun. Michael wasn't interested in the pumpkins at all, but there was a hay maze that he had a lot of fun with.

The funny thing about Xander, is that he HATED the hay!!!! I mean, this is a kid who freaks out on grass! So he could hardly stand it! You can see his foot in this picture. He would not lay it down. By the end of taking these pictures he was bawling!!

We finally carved our pumpkins on Saturday, the 30th. I was taking a nap on the couch, and Michael decided he couldn't wait. So he took a butter knife and started on the pumpkins. He was so proud of himself, but I was not happy he had taken a knife to our pumpkins! But, he actually didn't do too bad of a job. I was able to work with the cuts, so it didn't look mutilated.

Halloween 2010 Michael was Frankenstein

and Xander was a mad scientist.

About 5 months ago, I took Xander out of the bathtub and noticed that he had so much hair that if it was spiked out in all directions, he would make a good scientist. I mentioned it to Nathan, and he suggested we do Michael as Frankenstein for Halloween. The costume was really easy. For Xander we got some of Michael's hair gel and spiked it all over, for the glasses we just got some face paint/crayons and drew them on, and then we got one of Michael's white church shirts and put it on Xander. He looked really cute.

For Michael, I went to DI and bought him the shirt and pants. The total cost was only about 4 dollars. For his head/hat I cut the bottom off a milk jug and painted it black and green. This part was a PAIN!!!!!! I got the idea from a magazine, and it suggested buying some primer for a base on the milk jug, otherwise the paint would chip. But when I priced primer, it was so expensive I just decided that the paint chipping shouldn't be a big deal and I would just reapply every time it chipped....I wish I had bought the primer!! The paint more peeled than it did chip...everytime the stupid hat was worn. It became such a pain!!

Xander was moving around too much when I was drawing on his glasses, so it doesn't look as nice as I'd hoped.

Look at that face!!!!! A sad, sad Xander!!! I think this was on Sunday, the 31st. He was just so sad!!!

Xander loving on some chocolate...I gave him the bar fully wrapped, and within 10 minutes he was able to get a corner of the paper off and enjoyed himself some chocolate!

And lastly, here's a video that you probably wont be able to see. It's Michael being Frankenstein and yelling "I'M ALIVE!" It's pretty cute, and I'm so mad at blogger for not allowing my videos to work. I can't figure it out, and it's getting to the point that I'm thinking about moving my blog to a different web host like word press or something.