Andres is 1!!

I truly cannot believe how fast this year has gone. Yet, here it is. Andres is 1. Crazy.
Anyway, here's the stats from his appointment yesterday:

Height 31 inches 85th percentile

Weight 24 pounds 75th percentile

Head 19 1/8 inches 90th percentile

He's been growing the same since he was born and even though his head is still big, at least it's in proportion with his height. He is crawling ALL over the place and is cruising around the furniture. He also will walk a few steps between me and Jason or even Addie and will let go of furniture and stand by himself for a bit. He's getting close. Watch out.
He's getting very vocal and can be very loud. Mostly just babbles, but some things make sense. The cutest is when he pretends to tickle one of us (mostly feet) and he makes this sound that I realized sounds a lot like when I say 'tickle, tickle, tickle'. He's a funny guy and likes to play and laugh with his sister. He's doing very well with sleeping now too. He actually hadn't been doing that great and we were worried because he just didn't seem to get it, no matter what we did. He and Addie have been in the same room since he was about 2 months old, but he would go to sleep first and then when we were sure he was asleep, we take Addie in and put her to bed. But a few weeks ago, Addie was struggling in her routine as well and we weren't done with bedtime until almost 9 every night. So I decided since it wasn't working anyway, we'd change the routine and put them both to bed at the same time. So, we brush our teeth and get cleaned up then go in their room to read scriptures and say family prayer. Then Jason reads a book or two and then I sing to them and then they go to bed. We were very nervous. The first night we put them down and stood outside thier door just waiting. But after Andres let out a small cry in protest, there was nothing. We were shocked. We were amazed. And it's been the same since. I like it.
So here are the pictures from Andres' celebration. Cupcakes, presents, you know the deal.

And here's my brilliant kids. Andres was SO excited to be sitting up to the table with Addie.

Once There Was A Snowman . . .

Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr Day and Jason had the day off from school. He was supposed to be studying, but was lacking motivation. I was really glad. That one day was more of a vacation than the entire 2 weeks he had off for Christmas. It was wonderful. It snowed that day and it was finally snowman worthy! So while Andres napped, Jason and Addie went out with our neighbors and built one fantastic snowman.

I don't know what the posing that Addie is doing is all about, but her hands had to be like this in every picture. And, they had to give the snowman a hug as well.

Addie and our neighbor are really good friends and we're so glad we have them so close. It's fun to be able to call them and say "The snow is the good kind, want to come and play with us?". Here's Addie pulling Hyrum on the sled.

Fastidious

When I was on a mission for my church I was told by someone we were teaching that I was fastidious. She said it in this sort of context, "I couldn't see you having a lot of kids, Sister Dexter, because you're so . . . fastidious." To be honest, I had to go home and look up what it meant. Here is the definition:

a : high and often capricious standards : difficult to please fastidious that they can talk only to a small circle of initiates — Granville Hicks>
b : showing or demanding excessive delicacy or care
c : reflecting a meticulous, sensitive, or demanding attitude

I was a little bit offended by this and thought that it was not true. But, it was.
I had a realization today as I was coloring with my two year old. Now, I know what you're thinking, but no I was not demanding any sort of meticulous perfection from Addie in her princess coloring book. She actually has recently started noticing that there are lines and will color an entire object in one color, and then move on to the next. And although, she doesn't by any means stay in the lines, she's doing great and I tell her so. But, coloring with her brought back another random memory from really long ago. I was in first grade and the little boy next door was still in kindergarten and he didn't stay in the lines and so I would not let him color on my page in the coloring book, he had to stay on his own page. Why do I even remember this? I'm not sure. It could be because when I came back from going to the bathroom, he had colored on my page and thought I wouldn't notice. DUH! He didn't stay in the lines, so of course I noticed so I took my coloring book and went home.
The years in between this experience and now have, of course given me lots of experience and better dealing with people so I have learned not to be quite like that. But, when this memory surfaced this morning, the memory from my mission followed right along. I now admit that I as a person am fastidious in my very nature (please don't harshly judge the young me) but I have learned to let some of it go, and am still working on a lot of it. For several months now I have wished that I could have a big sign in my house that said

IS IT REALLY IMPORTANT?

to help remind me in those moments where things just aren't going how I want them to that it's ok. Life will go on even if Addie refuses to wear any pants or Andres won't take a nap at any sort of scheduled time.

Holiday Festivities

December 30, 2010 - Our Christmas Eve and the day Dad took his Boards. We waited for Dad by getting ready for our fun. Addie and I made some really yummy and beautiful Christmas cookies. This is what Addie looked like after making the cookies (more of the icing went in Addie than on the cookies).
When Dad got home, we went to dinner to celebrate that Dad was done with everything. What a stressful semester it has been and even though the school year is not over, we're glad we're halfway there. We then came home and opened our traditional Christmas Eve presents. This year, they all had a theme:

Here's the whole family decked out in their Hawkeye pajamas in front of our very skinny and crooked Christmas tree.

Sadly, we didn't take very many pictures on Christmas morning (lame, I know) but we did get most of it on video. I know that doesn't help you at all, but we're okay with it. But here they are playing with their gift from Santa, a wagon. And yes, that's the tree box in the background - we took down everything that afternoon because it just wasn't worth keeping up any longer the way Andres was constantly trying to kill the tree and himself in the process.

And here are some pictures of our New Year Celebration (we celebrated on January 1 at about 7:15 and then the kids went to bed). Welcome 2011!