The Month of December

Has it been a whole month? Nope, it's been more. I think my last post was the middle of November. I missed you too. I do apologize to my adoring readers who may have started to worry. Never fear. I am fine. For us December is one exciting month, with so many family activities there is nary a moment for blogging. So here is a recap of our December.

Trimming the tree. We were pleasantly surprised this year to find that all of our ornaments were made of plastic, which is quite convenient when you have a one year old who enjoys tearing the tree down. We were truly wise beyond our years with this serendipitous purchase.

(we do have other decorations too - felt I should point that out)

A convenient new fetish with hats, which made it easier when . . .

. . . she had to wear a lot of them to go outside, which made possible . . .

. . . a trip to Bethlehem . . .

(those are llamas in the middle)

. . . and lots of lights. The lights in Ogden are hundreds (okay not hundreds, but what is the next lowest numerical level, tens??) In Ogden there are tens of little houses each decorated and themed differently. This particular house depicted our nephew Christian as a Mexican guitar extraordinaire. He looks great with a mustache.

My parents spent the early part of December in Hawaii. This is my mom's "It's fun and relaxing" face on their para-gliding adventure.

A pizza and french fry vending machine. How did they know that Lance would be craving pizza and/or french fries while sitting in a hospital waiting room. Genius. Next time you're at the hospital check it out.

Heritage Park and Santa Claus complete with his real reindeer and sleigh. The beard was real too. I always check. And thankfully this year I was not mistaken by Santa to be a curious handicapped child. Although I did get a candy cane last year. Hmmm....

A unsuccessful attempt at sledding.

My dad getting into the spirit of things.

An attempt to salvage the sledding debacle, we ended the trip at the park. Lance situated Alex backwards in the swing so she was not facing the sun (safety first) leaving the lower support in the back which threatened to dump her on her head with each frontward swing. Not knowing the peril she was in, Alex enjoyed herself, and was apparently also very sleepy.

Lance's struggle and ultimate domination of the "Homestyle Kitchen", thereby fulfilling his fatherly duty of assembling all toys no matter how ridiculous for the happiness of his daughter.

Santa's arrival.

Another more successful attempt at sledding with cousin Emery.

And another trip to the park afterward.

Not pictured, but nonetheless noteworthy, was a High Flyin' Airplane Birthday party (Happy 3rd Christian - yea, you know, the Mexican guitar player), which restored my faith in airline food, and "The Harris's got Talent" family talent show (check your local listings). But the majority of time was spent in general family togetherness and killing lots and lots of bunnies.

This is another example of that childlike no reference of personal space. Emery was very sweetly trying to hug a non-cooperative Alex good night at a slightly in-opportune time. Ahhh, family togetherness. We sure love you Emery.

And I can't leave out Thanksgiving. The main event: the rolls, which I did not make this year giving everyone something to be thankful for. Delicious!

Happy New Year everyone.

For Emery

I know he loves to watch em. This one is kind of old but it gives me a chance to test out the superior video quality that youtube provides. C'mon google, you own both blogger and YouTube, what gives?

Halloween

From experience I know that praying for the mailman to come at 4:30 on October 31 and hoping that in his possession might be a Princess Leah costume is not much fun. Since procrastination was a factor last year, I acted early and secured Alex's costume weeks in advance. (thank you) I even had corresponding costumes for Lance and I. Alex was to be Dorothy, I was going to be the wicked (yea right) witch, and Lance was supposed to go as my winged monkey. Family fun. However, Lance, blinded by the awesome power of the iphone, decided that wearing butterfly wings, a vest and silly hat, with a feather boa for a tail was beneath him, and set out to create an abomination. You may well wonder how the iphone could possibly further infiltrate our lives, the answer is simple, include it as part of your Holiday celebrations as well. Introducing the 6'10" robot.

This living nightmare utilizes two iphones, a stereo, and spray paint. Lance did work very hard on this costume, receiving many cuts and scraps in the process, and to each he exclaimed "Worth It". Indeed, the end result was worth it and succeeded in terrifying the majority of our neighborhood. Okay, my idea was bested again, but it really was cool and Lance was so happy. To which I say "Worth It."



Here is the pumpkin I carved all by myself a half hour before the trick-or -treaters started showing up (so the procrastination still made a slight appearance - baby steps)



Here is the cutest Dorothy ever. She is Halloween's newest and I suppose biggest fan. She would have been happy just to help the kids at the door, and would often wait there with the door closed in anxious anticipation. The night got even better when we got to go out and when she realized that the people at the doors were giving her chocolate, she was nearly beside herself with delight. Completely fearless she tried to run up and touch every scary household decoration including her terrifying father and the flaming pumpkins down the street. She couldn't have been happier.

Alex and daddy/robot


Waiting for more kids


Still waiting for those kids


This is Alex after we got home. You will notice that she is fairly protective of her stash. You can never be too careful.

Then we played cards and watched "Clue" (which is about my limit when it comes to scary Halloween movies) with Corbin and his new girlfriend. Good times were had by all.

Happy Halloween.

Stuff I forgot

Here are some things which by themselves do not warrant a blog post, yet when they combine forces they become somewhat noteworthy. Enjoy some random moments, coupled with equally random thoughts, from our lives.



Dave and Becky's birthday. They're twins, and no they are not identical. Here's to good friends and horrible presents.



Dave's talent



Home Alone?! No, this is just Alex's version of peek-a-boo. A bit of a control freak, she doesn't actually like to cover her eyes in case something unexpected should happen.



Lance shamelessly impeding on Brian's head tickles.



Alex all pimped out



Alex all dressed up



A bit of de ja vu



Documentation that only in Utah can you save seats with diapers



Sixteen or seventeen trees multiplied by 3.2 billion leaves who have succumbed to gravity equals one big mess. Alex can't get enough. Lance cries when he looks outside.


Enough said.

My Spoon is too Big

Recently one of my favorite You Tube videos made a connection into my real life. Don't try to make much sense of the video. It is meant to be stupid. Just enjoy.

My spoon is too Big video

The Deed is Done

The iphone game is done so the hair came off. After over six months of construction, for both the hair and the game, Invisible Links was finally submitted to the App Store in hopes of becoming wildly successful and making us 18 million dollars and allowing Lance to retire.

In the mean time we settled for cutting his hair, which extensive growth served as motivation for the games completion. And thus marked the end of an era. And so with trepidation, I began the 45 minute long process of removing Lance's "Best Hair", because let's be honest he really does have the best hair.

Here are some beginning shots, which you may notice makes he and Alex look even more similar. And we did confirm that his hair was in fact long enough to fit into a pony tail. Extraordinary.

And of course we had to stop halfway through when Lance had a mullet for some mugshots. We plan on using this picture to teach Alex what the dangerous men we want her to stay away from look like. Terrifying.

The end result, Lance is ready to enter the army. While slightly traumatic, it did serve as a nice ending to our Invisible Links kick off party, although later this act caused me to be unfairly referred to as Delilah, the seductress who cut of Samson's hair. Ryan and I are no longer friends. Family dinners are now a bit awkward.

I think he looks great. Go buy Invisible Links.

Downs Walk

While unfortunately we missed the actual walking, we still made it in time to enjoy the wonderful lunch of unattended hot dogs left to bask in the sun, the complimentary chips, and all you could drink soda. To be fair, they couldn't be expected to serve lunch all day, so due to our tardiness I suppose we deserved to be left to our own devises.

There was a band to attract the attention of passers by, which ironically also served as somewhat of a distraction for those already participating, large blow up toys, games, and entertainment. What more could you ask for? Nothing.

The highlight of the day aside from the delightful smile of Jonah himself (see above) were the Downs Dancers. They literally stole the show with their sparkling red sequins. Fantastic.

The day's events also provided Alex with the opportunity to discover that Cheetos are delicious.

And facilitated the discovery of the Stake Center/House (see Lance's post below)

What a great day. Goooo Jonah's Brothers!!