Skiing with Will

Will has been talking about skiing for months. He watched ski videos with Taylor all the time, anything that sort of resembled the skis were skis, and we talked about going to the snow for Christmas pretty much everyday. He was so excited.

We spent the days surrounding Christmas at a cabin in Brian Head. It was right across from Giant Steps so we had a great view of the mountain and skiers (until Christmas when it was a complete white out blizzard). We got there on the 23rd and stayed until the 27th. From the cabin, Will and I watched the skiers and tried to spot Daddy on the mountain. On Wednesday we planned to introduce Will to skiing. We had borrowed/bought/been given a colorful assortment of ski clothes, got Will all bundled up, and went to Navajo Lodge to rent skis. I stayed at the car with Emma, Grandma, Jack, and Evan while Taylor took Will to get boots and skis. I knew Will was excited but a little part of me (the part that knows my little boy) thought that he was either going to absolutely love skiing or... absolutely hate it.

It turned out to be a little of both.

Taylor came back to the beginners ski area where we had parked, pulling Will along on his new little skis. So far so good. But then Taylor went to get his skis from the truck and I went down to start taking a million pictures. By the time I got down there Will was crying and it quickly escalated to sobs of "I wanna go home! I wanna go home!" After all the excitement and after all the effort to get him bundled up and get skis for him... he was already done. And like any good mom, I took pictures anyways...

We tried to console him, convince him, and trick him but it wasn't working. So finally Taylor asked if his feet hurt so he loosened his boots and when that didn't work he ask Will if he just wanted to watch Daddy ski. He tearfully said yes so we took off his skis and Taylor went to the top of a little hill. Will watched him do it twice and decided he wanted to do it too. Finally.

Turns out that he loved it. And he was pretty good at it! He figured out how to stand up and ride the belt to take him to the top of the kiddie hill and as long as the hill wasn't too steep and he kept his skis straight he kept his balance impressively well. Once he started getting the hang of it we went home for lunch to take a break. After lunch Taylor took him for some daddy-son skiing and bought him a wedge to help keep his skis together. We also remembered to put on Will's sunglasses so he didn't have to squint the whole time. Will had a great time and took a solid, deep nap afterwards. 

So proud of my skiers.

Pirate face

These are from December 18th after Emma's morning nap. I just love her crazy (but adorable) hair.

I asked Will to make a funny face and he said, "I'm like a pirate!" Then he made this face every time I took a picture that day.

10 Things: Christmas edition

We spent a lot of December talking about Christmas. (Okay... so we put up the tree before we left for Thanksgiving... I was just really excited for it this year!) Will loved everything to do with Christmas, and Emma loved to put everything that had to do with Christmas in her mouth, so I thought I'd do a 10 Things post based entirely on Christmas-related things. (I will do a separate post about Christmas itself.)

1. Will knew exactly where all the lights plugged in and turned them on first thing every morning. (We even had one set of lights on our book case that you had to plug in by taking out one of the baskets on the bottom shelf first--he knew how to turn that one on, too.)

2. Will helped me put all the ornaments on the tree and even sang as he did it. It wasn't a Christmas song ("Ho Yo! Ho Yo! A pirate's life a me!") but he was a happy boy. 

Then for the rest of the month he was the ornament police and got very upset with Emma when she tried to take them off the tree (which she did pretty frequently until finally I let her play with/suck on one and she lost interest after that). It was a big difference from last year when I had to put all the ornaments on the top half of the tree where Will couldn't reach. 

3. We had a couple nativity scenes on our book case, including one that Will made in joy school, and he loved pointing them out to me. We talked about the "Stay-bowl" and the animals almost every day. 

4. He also liked to list the animals that were in the stable when Jesus was born. I heard everything from cows and sheep to chickens, zebras, and giraffes.

5. When I first explained to Will that Christmas is when we celebrate Jesus's birthday, he looked at me and said very matter-of-factly, "My birthday's in Janawary!" (I still don't know where he learned that because I didn't teach it to him!)

6. Will would say "Meh-weeeeeee Christmaaas everybodeeee!" at random times during the day. 

Still does. In fact, today he said it while he was "going potty training" (as he calls it) on the toilet...

7. In Will's joy school they made star headbands the same day they made nativities and Will basically wore it the whole day. He even napped in it. I think Emma was jealous because she kept trying to grab it.

8. Emma was very interested in the Christmas gifts. Eventually I put them all in a big basket to deter her from tearing off the paper or putting the corners in her mouth.

9. One day Taylor was wrapping a Christmas present. Will came into the room, looked and him, and said, clearly exasperated, "What da heck? You open da Christmas present?? Stop opening da Christmas present! You supposed to open on Christmas!"

10. Neither of them liked Santa Claus. He came to our ward Christmas party. We put Emma on his lap first and this happened...

Then we asked Will if he wanted to sit on his lap. He looked at Santa, made a 180 degree turn and walked shyly away. He didn't mind getting candy from Santa's helper though.

I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the kids with the Christmas tree. There's just something so adorable and heartwarming about little kids playing with Christmas ornaments by the tree.

I love these kiddos so much. They just bring so much more joy to every Christmas tradition! I thought a lot about the previous Christmas. Emma was just a month old, I was so so tired, Will was obsessed with his new baby sister (not much changed there), and we spent our first Christmas with just our little family. I love being able to spend time with Taylor and with my kids creating traditions, sharing gifts, and most importantly talking about the Savior. Even if it's sometimes in the silly, innocent way Will talks about the animals and birthdays, we really try to teach our children about Jesus Christ. I hope they grow up knowing how much they are loved not only by us but by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I hope they will know that they have a Savior who was born humbly and suffered and died willingly so that we may return to live with God again. We are so blessed to be able to celebrate this at Christmas and hope that you felt this joy at some point during the season!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Taylor dad's house in Las Vegas. We drove up early Thanksgiving morning and it was nice to miss all the traffic! By the time we got there Taylor's stepmom was busy with a million dishes and the kitchen already smelled delicious. She pretty much made anything and everything that 10 people requested in full 9x13 casserole dishes. It was a LOT of yummy food. While we were waiting for the last few dishes and the turkey to cook Will went outside with Taylor and Uncle Evan. I grabbed my camera to kill time since Emma was napping.

Soon enough Will found some squirt guns in the backyard and started to battle with Uncle Evan. 

It started without water, 

then Evan helped Will fill up his gun with the pool water, 

then Will tried to fill it up himself and got soaking wet, 

and finally Will picked up his mostly full water gun and said, laughing, "I going to get you, Evan!"

Eventually we convinced him to shoot the rubber duck in the pool instead of any of us.

Afterwards we changed Will's dripping wet clothes and got ready to eat.

The turkey wasn't quite ready but we were really hungry...

...so we ate everything else instead. (Then we dug into the turkey later.)

My request: sweet potato casserole (YUM.)

We even managed to lure out the teenage boys who had been holed up in their rooms all day playing video games. They ate, had seconds, then returned back to their rooms.

Later, Hailey came with the twins and the four grandkids had lots of fun playing together and leaving toys everywhere while the rest of us lounged on the couch and let our food digest.

There was a beautiful sunset.

And just in case we hadn't eaten enough already, we finished the day off with pies and pumpkin rolls.