Busy Season

Busy season has come to Kyle's work, which means long work days for him. To keep me and Jason from getting too bored or lonely, I try to keep us busy as well by working extra hard to plan out our days with playdates and neat activities. Sounds easy, but it is a lot of work to keep us scheduled all week long, week after week, especially during the winter and on a budget.

Last week we enjoyed a FREE day at the zoo. I was afraid the zoo would be a "zoo", but surprisingly it wasn't.


I've also discovered a neat, free children's museum in South Jordan that we go to once a week. Last week we took cousins Austin and Kayli with us.


So if you want to hang out, give us a call because we would love to do something!

Farewell

We said a sad "farewell" to my sister Brooke and her family. We will miss them a lot because they lived just 5 minutes away. Jason and I visited often in the afternoons when we were bored. Brooke and I used to swap babysitting in the mornings so we could exercise or run errands. But then they had to move clear across the country on us. Come back before too many years pass by!

I've really been missing them this week because Kyle's busy season has started. He gets home late now, so I have to find that much more to do to entertain Jason. I hope I can survive until April.

On a happier note, we are enjoying the many toys, including a beautiful wooden playhouse for the backyard, that we inherited from the Neuenschwanders, courtesy of not wanting to move them. We will try to take good care of the bookshelves and rocking chair so they will be functional when you want them back in a few years.

Left to right: Jason, Kate, Liam, Diane, Sadie

Christmas Day

We spent a lovely Christmas Day with the Robbins family. We're so lucky to have both families so close so we can spend parts of Christmas with both (not to mention having two fabulous dinners).

Jason enjoyed opening more presents.


This is Kyle's reaction when he saw what Blair got us for Christmas...


...University of Utah t-shirts. Now we'll fit in with more of our neighbors, but not all. Some bleed blue like we do.


We are super excited to have our own weed-whacker; we don't have to borrow anymore.


Linda knew I was getting a sewing machine for Christmas, so she thoughtfully bought me some quilting supplies to go with it. Hopefully I can put them to good use.


Jason spent the afternoon wishing he had received a remote-controlled helicopter like Uncle Blair's. He and Austin enjoyed watching it all day long.


There wasn't enough snow for us to go sledding, but we enjoyed playing ping-pong and other games instead.

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve celebrations started early in the day. We were planning on spending most of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at our parents' houses, so we decided to open our gifts to each other the morning of Christmas Eve so we wouldn't have to tote them everywhere on top of everything else.

All month long our Christmas tree stood with no presents underneath. The night of the 23rd Kyle and I laid out our presents. The morning of the 24th, Kyle showed the presents to Jason, but we left them alone and got busy with breakfast and getting ready. While Kyle and I were getting ready, Jason decided to sneak down the stairs to find out what the presents were all about. Kyle heard the sound of presents being unwrapped, so we crept over to see what was up. We found Jason digging into the presents, happily unwrapping dinosaurs. It was pretty cute. We got some good footage of him not knowing we were watching.


After lunch we cruised over to Grandma and Grandpa Hunsaker's house for Christmas Eve festivities. This year was particularly special because EVERYBODY was there, so we took a picture to document it. My mom used up her mom's old yarn by making hats for everyone. Jason wanted to keep his hat, but Kyle and I gave ours back so my mom could donate them to the humanitarian center.

Jason is quite into hats, but he doesn't keep this one on as long, I think because the yarn is itchy.

My parents always put a lot of thought and work into planning our family Christmas activities, complete with service projects, fun games involving candy and money (I got a one hundred dollar bill!), excellent food with beautiful place settings, Christmas pagents, and gifts. Thanks, mom and dad! It was a magical night. Jason did not participate in the nativity, but he did love the puzzles from Grandma. My mom gave sewing machines to all the girls, along with some lessons, which we will all need. I am very grateful for this useful gift, and hopefully I will put it to good use. We already have a mending pile wating for it.


My parents made fruit-loop necklaces for the little kids. Jason ate all his, and then proceeded to eat Brynn's since she wasn't eating them fast enough. Brynn was kind enough to oblige.

Bring on Nursery

Jason is 18 months old! I am excited to send him to nursery, and I think he will be excited too, especially since his friend Elena will be there. Jason does so many cute things, some of which I will try to share.

Jason is our little parrot. He repeats a lot of words we say. Kyle got him to repeat the alphabet after him, one letter at a time. When Kyle tried to get him to say "W" for the first time, he just giggled. What a funny letter to say. It took him a few times before he attempted saying "W", but now he'll repeat it pretty well. Kyle and Jason have added nursery rhymes to the activity, with Jason repeating the nursery rhyme one word at a time.

He became obsessed with Shrek when we saw a Shrek balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We've also introduced him to Toy Story. Now every day he asks to watch "Shrek," "Yoy-yoy" (Woody), and "Buzz." No matter which DVD we put in first, he'll watch it for three minutes, and then ask for the other DVD. The two are very connected in his mind and he wants to see both right away. It makes me miss the VHS days when you didn't have to start over every time you put the tape in.

Jason's two lovies are his pacifier ("paci") and green bear. Whenever he has one, he also wants the other. Although he mostly calls his bear "bear," sometimes he calls it "Buzz." Can you see the likeness?



Jason loves the outdoors and is becoming more and more social. We have to get out of the house at least twice a day, which can be hard during these winter days, but it is harder to stay cooped up inside.

Although he got new toys for Christmas, his favorite toys remain regular household items. One of his favorites is the toilet plunger. He loves to walk around with it, using it like a walking stick. Jason's four-year-old cousin Sadie saw him doing this one day and said, "Oh no! He has the toilet plugger!"

Bubbles, bubbles, and more bubbles are also a favorite distraction. Bath time is a favorite occasion because of all the bubbles he gets to play with. One time Kyle was doing the dishes and a tiny bubble floated up towards the ceiling. Jason noticed the bubble as it neared the ceiling fan, and he watched it until it disappeared. Now he studies our ceiling fans to try and find more bubbles lurking about. A couple times when Jason woke up crying in the middle of the night from a fever, he asked us for bubbles when we checked on him.

Jason is becoming more and more picky about eating. He has developed quite the sweet tooth. He has learned the words "treats" and "snacks"; now he asks for treats and snacks when he wakes up in the morning and afternoon. When we were eating at Jason's Deli the other night, Jason became hard to contain after finishing his dinner. He wanted to walk around the restaurant instead of waiting for mom and dad to eat. Kyle mentioned to me that maybe it was time to give him the free ice cream, and at the mention of ice cream, Jason snapped to attention and became the best behaved boy, especially because we really did give him ice cream.


Our favorite time together as a family is getting Jason ready for bed. Kyle and I do it together, one person entertaining Jason with stories while the other puts on the PJs. We all have fun listening to the stories and watching Jason's face as he concentrates on the stories. After stories we cuddle as we sing a song. He is becoming good at cuddling again.

We love you Jason!

Ho Ho Holidays

Jason and I went to Gardner Village to see the cute elf displays.



We took Jason to his first BYU basketball game. It was an afternoon game at the Energy Solutions Arena, so we decided to give it a try. Jason was very entertained by it all for most of the game. He loved the lights, the clapping, and the cheering. He cheered and clapped better than most of us (as you can see by the picture). We all had fun getting involved in the crowd cheers of "B-Y-U- Cougars!" Lucky for us, two chairs next to us were empty, so Jason could have his own seat and some roaming room.


After the game we saw the tree at Gateway, then enjoyed some Costa Vida and cookies.


And last but not least, Jason had his first introduction to Santa at our ward Christmas party. Believe it or not, Santa has Jason on the "nice" list this year.

Noing

It's been "noing" a lot around here, as Jason says it. One of the down-sides to home ownership we've discovered: shoveling your own snow. We were pampered the first three years of marriage by not having to shovel our walks. We're quickly making up for it now, especially since we're not in Provo anymore, which doesn't get much snow comparatively.

I love this picture of Jason in his snow suit. This typifies what Jason often looks like when we get set to go, especially with the bear and pacifier, his two favorite objects. He thinks they need to come along everywhere. We usually let him bring the pacifier, but we try to leave the bear at home since we don't have a spare. Jason is a good sport about getting everything on because he knows it means he's going outside. And he loves tromping around in his boots.


Jason also loves to wear Kyle's hat. I bought the hat in Bolivia to give to Kyle.