Aria's new tricks

Aria's uncle Ryan taught her some new tricks:


She also surprised us all this week by counting to 10. Watching Sesame Street has apparently paid off. I would've never thought she'd be able to do that at only 20 months old. We'll get that on video soon enough.

Holiday Fun in Utah

We headed to Utah to visit Tara's family for the holidays. One of the 1st orders of business was to get rid of the little mullet Aria has been growing. Her Aunt Dani did a great job.

BEFORE

AFTER


We also went and visited Dane's grandmother (Oma).


Tara put together a pretty snazzy ginger-bread house.


On Christmas Eve we dressed up to re-enact the Christmas story.



Aria also had a lot of fun playing with her Aunts and Uncles. She sure loves all the attention being the 1st grand child. Here she is swirling in circles with Shannon:


Here Shara is playing telephone with her:


We also went and took Aria sledding for the 1st time. Unfortunately she fell out of the sled pretty early into our excursion and decided that sledding wasn't for her.





We also have to note the fun things Aria says. She seems to pick up on what we're saying, but repeats what we would say to her when something happens to her. Here are a couple examples:

1) When she wants to hand us something she says "thank you" as she stretches out her arm with the item (since we usually say thank you when she hands us something).
2) When she bumps her head she says "sorry" (since we usually say "I'm sorry whenever she bumps her head).
3) When we point to a picture of her and ask "who's that", she responds by saing "you!" (since if she doesn't respond, we say "it's you!").

Mesa Temple

Tara and the young women from church had quite a weekend. On Friday night they had a sleepover, on Saturday went up to the Mesa Temple, then saw "New Moon" in the theater, and finished it off with checking out the Christmas lights at the temple.

Winterhaven

We went over to the Winterhaven neighborhood with the Campbells and checked out the Christmas lights. I wasn't expecting to see the Bellagio from Vegas, but somebody had it basically set up in their yard, with lights and shooting water set to music. I've never seen such a festive neighborhood. Below are a few pics:

Santa

Santa had a booth set up at the mall, and Tara took Aria to see him. As you might expect, she was scared of him and cried miserably when she was put on his lap, (probably assuming his big tummy was the result of eating other small children, and she was next.) But then Santa gave her a gummy worm, and then she realized he wasn't all bad, but she still wanted to go. Later, she was given a 2nd gummy worm, and Tara was (barely) able to talk her into this photo.

However, since then, she's seen Santa in an Elmo video. In her world, Elmo is a rock star, and whatever he supports, must be good. So now whenever she sees anything to do with Santa, or Christmas, she gets all excited. It's amazing at the walls Elmo can break down. :) Elmo should be a missionary.

Brahnka

Dane's parents came to visit for Thanksgiving, and were given the title "Brahnka" by Aria, as grandpa & grandma is still a little too difficult for her to say. :)
During their trip, we went to Reid Park, and enjoyed feeding the ducks and seeing the rose garden.
















We also went to Old Tucson Studios, and watched the comedy shows, gun fights, and learned about the Westerns that were filmed there.
















We also checked out the valley by Gates Pass.














In addition to checking out the U of A, we also went to the Desert Museum, where my mom got to see the beautiful "Crimson Star" Adenium.














And of course, we had a fantastic Thanksgiving Meal!















And we watched the new Star Trek movie, which was pretty good. In summary, we had a really good time. Here are a couple more photos of "Brahnka" playing peek-a-boo with Aria.















Aria sporting some of "Brahnka's" Oregon State gear.














And Aria & "Brahnka" as they watch Wallace & Gromit.

Love that smile

This picture shows Aria wearing the new $5 sunglasses that Dane picked up at the mall. She wouldn't let him wear them, and insisted on sporting them all through the mall, and even outside in the dark. :)

Zerbets & Words

Aria was having fun with her mommy's pregnant tummy.

Finally, another man in the house :)

On Thursday we went to the hospital for Tara's regular checkup and found out via the ultrasound that baby #2 will be a BOY. We'd suspected a girl was on the way, so we were surprised by the news. We've had to stick the name "Nova" on the back burner for the next little girl, and are kicking around names such as "Zade", or "Forest". If only Tara would allow Dane's favorite name "Reuben." Alas.













Later that evening Dane came down with the flu (despite having a flu shot a month ago). It's been 4 days now and the flu just keeps changing symptoms, and doesn't seem to be letting up (although the symptoms are fairly moderate in intesity). We suspect it may be H1N1, so we're grateful that Tara and Aria got the vaccine for it a couple weeks ago. Poor little Aria doesn't understand why her dad can't play with her anymore. It's heart breaking to see her run up to Dane with her arms in the air, wanting to be picked up, and be denied. Hopefully this flu will pass soon.













On a happier note, parental Christmas money arrived (thank you!), and Tara immediately knew what to do. :) She'd long been wanting a bike seat to take Aria around on, so she picked one up, along with a bike to replace the one she's lending out to one of the girls in the youth group she's in charge of. Aria loves it.

Halloween 2009

For Halloween Tara and Aria dressed up as twin fairies, and I (Dane) decided to take the place of the baby in the family. We went to the church and Aria went Trunk or Treating. She even would mumble that little phrase, which sounded more like "Ta Tweet". She got a big smile on her face at each car when she was given a piece of candy. By the end, her little candy pail was so heavy, she could hardly haul it around with two hands, but she didn't let that stop her. :) When we got home we took her around our block, and let her build up her candy stockpile. She loved it. When she got home though, she was determined to consume the entire bounty in one sitting, so when we interfered with that, she put up quite a fuss and went to bed angry. The next day (today), we went on a family walk, and to our surprise, she started walking up to all the houses on the street. At first we thought she was just being a wandering child, but we quickly realized that she thought Halloween was still on. If only you could go up to peoples' houses everyday and they would give you candy. :) Here are some pics from the evening, including the jack-o-lantern Tara carved.