Oh Christmas Tree

We set up our Christmas tree last week and we love having it up. It feels a bit more like Christmas and our house is decorated and we are getting presents ready! its funny though because Dallin LOVES the Christmas tree! I can stick him under it and he will play for 45 minutes with the tree and all his toys hung up on it! It is so very cute!



This is after I had gotten the lights up on the tree. Chris was busy and the lights is a one person job on such a tiny tree so I did it! I had walked away from the tree and Dallin and then when I came back he had shimmied over to the tree and looked like I had caught him playing with it!



There is a specific branch that hangs down a bit lower than the others and so when Dallin can wiggle over to it he will put it in his mouth. Chris doesn't like that because he is afraid Dallin will eat the little needle pieces but they are just tiny plastic. I am sure he would live. And it is so cute to watch him!



We hang up toys for him on the tree and he goes around and takes them all off of the tree. He has a lot of fun and by the time he is done our living room is a mess!



This is my stocking. Chris's Mom makes these for everyone in the family and we don't have Dallins yet but we will soon so I stuck him in mine because he fit so well and took a picture! I thought it was really cute! You see my foot in the picture because he kept rolling over so I couldn't get the "Merry Christmas" so I had to hold him in place!



Here we are cutting fabric for Christmas presents. Dallin was so tired and fussy and hungry so Chris got him a bottle that he could eat while we kept on working! I was impressed. He drank the whole thing and never dropped it!



We gave Dallin a bath in the kitchen sink one night. He is too big for his baby tub and I don't like sticking him in the big tub on his back because I don't like the water in his ears so we tried this one night to see how it worked. He didn't really enjoy it. I think he felt that it was just a bit too cramped.



And this is one of my favorite pictures of all time with Dallin. He got a yeast infection on his booty again and so we were keeping him out of diapers and in pants all day and this is one of his pant changes. I just love how he is looking over his shoulder at Chris while he takes the picture. My baby has got a cute bum!

Things are going really well for us. Chris is very very positive about his project, that he will finish this week, by Wednesday it is due so it had better be done by then! He made a lot of progress last week though so that is good. He says he is pretty much done! Dallin is continuing to be a happiness and a frustration. He has decided that he doesn't like to be left alone in a room when he is on the ground and so he cries if I leave the living room while he is playing. But he has also been very interactive! Probably because he cries if we aren't around. We love him so much and even though his bum hurts a lot of the time he is still so happy! We are just getting ready for Christmas and really looking forward to going to Maryland!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we went up to Alaska and it was wonderful! My entire family was there and it was the first time in forever that we have been all together at the same time. Unfortunately we forgot our video camera in Alaska and it has lots of pictures on it and so we really didn't have many pictures from our trip. So these are the pictures that I do have, in sequential order.



This is Chris and Dallin hanging out at the airport in Colorado Springs. Our friend dropped us off at the airport about two hours early so we just had to wander around and play with Dallin.



Dallin totally enjoyed being out and about. He is a people watcher and it was so cute to watch him stare at the people walking around. Unfortunately there wasn't enough traffic in the airport to interest him so he got fussy so Chris would walk him but before that Dallin was very happy to lay on the ground. It was in this airport that Dallin rolled over from his back to his tummy for the first time. As Chris likes to say, that is where I terrified him! He was rolling onto his side and he was so close to rolling onto his tummy that I got frustrated and gave him a pat on the booty from behind him so it startled him and he rolled onto his tummy and after that he learned that he could do it so he did it over and over again the rest of the day and now he wiggles all over the living room and rolls over. It is so cute. Sometimes he even tries to drink his bottle while on his tummy. It doesn't work so well unless it is full but he loves to do it!



After having a wonderful few days in Alaska one night at my parents house, right before bed, we were feeding Dallin and my mom said to put him in the little table chair that she has for the grand kids. I have one just like it rather than a high chair because it isn't a huge piece of furniture to crowd my kitchen with and he was so cute that we had to take some pictures of him!



He got so messy but he loved it. I wish I had a picture of it but right after his meal we gave him a bath in the kitchen sink and he really enjoyed that since my parents have a huge sink for him to play in!



This is Mousse and was once my cat but is devoted to my mom and dad now. Dallin loved playing with her. He would bat at her front paws and she would bat back and Dallin found it to be so hilarious that he would laugh and laugh at her. And Mousse was so good about letting him touch her.



This is my Grandpa. We stopped in Phoenix for a few hours on our way home and they got to meet Dallin. They came to the airport and we sat and talked for the whole time and Grandpa was really good playing Dallin. It was very cute.



This is a nice little family picture of us. We don't get them very often due to the fact that one of us is usually taking the picture.

Now, it was very nice to go home because we were able to be there for Jonathon when he came home from his mission and see his slide show of mission photos. It was a really neat experience and it made me somewhat jealous of him, going to another country and learning the language and learning to serve and love the people. I will admit though that there was something that was just as nice, if not better than Jonathon coming home. Chris, Dallin and I went to the temple and were sealed for all time and eternity as a family unit. It was such a wonderful experience and the peace of mind that comes from knowing that I have my husband and baby forever is so wonderful. I love to not have to worry that I might lose them forever. Its a scary thing, being alone. Chris and I were also about to go and do our own endowments and though I felt overwhelmed and didn't understand much, I knew it was a good thing. I even got to go to the temple with my friend Gaylene today and that was a wonderful experience. All in all, our trip was wonderful with lots of time with our wonderful family and such a happy event with Jonathon coming home and us going to the temple.