Family Pictures

We've been trying for a while to get a good family picture, but with kids, it's always a challenge. Here are some of our latest attempts:


Before Bribery


After Bribery


Here are a couple good pics of the kids:

Zade's 1st Christmas

Christmas

GRANDPA'S BIRTHDAY
We got together with Tara's family to celebrate her dad's 67th birthday. We had a great meal at Chin-Wah (I love saying the name of that restaurant) and then had cake and ice cream afterwards.


SNOW SHOEING
Tara and I went shoe showing with her siblings while her parents watched the kids. It was a beautifully foggy day.



CHRISTMAS EVE
As was tradition, we re-enacted the Christmas story, with Tara's family and her aunt Marjorie's family.



CHRISTMAS MORNING
We all gathered at Tara's parents' house with all her siblings.


Aria was excited to receive Barbies, a Dora doll, and most especially, little Tinkerbell fairies. She also was really into the outfits she received, and tried on multiple ones before the morning was over.




As expected, Zade was most excited about the wrapping paper.



This was my favorite present that Zade received from my folks. :) Go Beavs!


GINGERBREAD HOUSES
Aria had fun decorating a gingerbread house with her Aunt Shara.

Swinging and laughing

This is reminiscent of how Aria responded to Tara yelling "boo". (see blog post "Grownling Mommy" on 10/10/2008)

Holiday fun in the desert

We went to see the Christmas lights at Winterhaven again this year.


Zade is wearing the same outfit Aria did last year to this event. He's growing like a weed:


Aria was in love with this display of Disney princesses.


When we tried taking her picture in front of that display, she freaked out for some reason and this is the pic we got:


RANDOM MOMENTS

Funny faces when eating:




Kids being kids:

Zade Live

Here are a few fun video clips we took of Zade recently.

This one in the tub reminds us of little Aria. (See Aria at similar age in blog post "Splish Splash" on 11/23/2008)

Here's a clip after the ward Christmas party. Zade had suckered us into sharing our hot cocoa with him, which made him pretty zippy.

Mineral Oil

About a month ago we purchased something second hand, which apparently came with the free bonus of bed bugs. Yeah :( After dealing with the situation, we put little bowls of mineral oil underneath all our beds to ensure that any bed bugs that we missed would die if they attempted to come upon us in the night. Interestingly, even though mineral oil is lethal to bed bugs, our cat Mira thought it was delicious. We kept catching her licking the stuff up. Little did she know that mineral oil serves as a laxative. :) When cats have discomfort, they often lick themselves profusely, which soon commenced. Apparently Mira was hooked, because even the adverse affects didn't stop her from consuming her drug of choice, so we eventually had to stage an intervention and removed the temptation from each room. :) Her fur is now starting look normal again.


BABY PICTURES
We also took Zade in to have some baby pictures taken, but as luck would have it, he decided to be cranky for once in his life, and refused to smile. Considering how freely he gives out smiles all the time, it's ironic. We may have to settle for taking pictures of him at home, like this one.


And here's a nice pic we got of Aria:

Say What?

Aria had some funny things to say this week:

PLAY TIME
Aria: Daddy, can you bring me a toy?
Dane: Sure, here you go. It's a magic ring.
You can use it to turn people into things.
Aria: Thanks. Zap! Daddy, I turned you into a kangaroo!
Hey Mommy, Zap! I turned you into a piece of poo!
Dane: What? What did you turn mommy into?
Aria: A piece of poo!
(Interestingly enough, she picked up those choice words from mommy) :)

TEMPLE TRIP
Later, when we were driving to go to the temple, Aria began singing the song "Follow the Prophet." Her version went like this: "Follow the Prophet, follow the prophet, he's my favorite!" (over and over again) :)

BED TIME
Not too long ago, when we'd put Aria to bed she'd beg us to cuddle with her or sit outside the door until she fell asleep. However, recently she's begun asking us to leave as soon as we put her down. Why the sudden change? Well, as soon as we leave she hops out out of bed and and begins putting on all her favorite outfits from when she was a baby. The "top" she's wearing in this picture is a dress she used to wear when she was 12 months old.


BATH TIME
Aria and Zade are now in that perfect (short) window of life where they can take baths together.





And here's a little video of Zade for good measure:


Lastly, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Phil Lamoreaux's family this year, but foolishly left our camera at home, so we have no pics to share. It was a lot of fun.

Eatin Fiend

Zade loves to pack it in. You should see him lunge forward like a voracious fish when we hold food in front of his face. :) But as you can see, he prefers to be the one running the show.



Here are a few more good pictures that Tara's parents took during their visit:


If you weren't sure before, this picture of Aria in her oversized sleeping beauty outfit ought to make it clear that she's a princess junkie. Thanks a lot Disney. :)


And for the finale:

More fun with Grandma & Grandpa

Tara parents came and visited this week, which worked out great since I flew to Utah to attend the BYU Accounting symposium.


They had fun with the grandkids doing things like going to the outdoor pool in November (this is Arizona, you know):


Going to Tohono Chul Park:


Grandma even curled Aria's hair:

Halloween part 3

When Sunday came, we celebrated Halloween as a family by hanging out in front of the house in our camping chairs and let Aria pass out all our candy to trick or treaters. She had a great time doing it, and only refused to do it when people in really scary costumes strolled up. :)



Zade kept himself busy by grabbing each piece of wrapped candy, stuffing it in his mouth. I'm sure the trick-or-treaters loved getting slimy sweets. :)


In addition, we had a great meal in a pumpkin. Having learned from prior years' mistakes, this year Rice-a-Roni was included, which sure helped add flavor.