Fun in the Snow

We went sledding on the hill by CAL Ranch one afternoon in December. Bracken's good friend Jairus came too. They're such cute kiddos.Daddy and Bracken getting ready to go down fast!
I love these boys. Chandra stayed bundled up in my arms most of the time, but she even went sledding with Daddy. She never smiled, never cried, hardly made any expression at all. I think she'll have more fun with the snow next year.
Another day Bracken took his tools outside to play with his fallen over snowman. I asked him what he was doing as he chipped away at it, and he said, "I'm making an idol." Uh....what do I say to that? We'd learned about the Israelites making a golden idol in scripture study a few days before, and I think he just thought it was a statue of a cow. Later we had a little discussion on the difference between statues and idols, and how we don't make idols...I don't know if he cares or if he got it.
Bracken playing in the snow with Sarah. She got to come hang out with us for a couple of days.

Family Pictures 2011

Our good friend John Beenfield (Jaybird Photo) took our family pictures for us. We are so happy with them! Bracken was hyper and crazy through the entire picture taking process, but it was still fun. At the end of our photoshoot Brian took him on a carousel ride for a treat. I love how they turned out.








I even made Chandra's little outfit. I've had fun making a few clothes for my little gal!







I love both of our children's big, beautiful eyes!

Too much technology

I walked into my parents living room to see Bracken and my younger brother Tyson quietly sitting next to each other in a big armchair. They were each staring at a wooden block in their hands, flicking their fingers across the surface of the block.

"What are you doing?" I asked

They didn't even look up, just paused a moment and said, "We're playing angry birds."

They don't even need an ipod to play.

On the Move

Chandra pulled herself up on our ottoman today. She face planted a few seconds later, but pretty impressive for a 6 1/2 month old.

This little girl is always on the go. She crawls from room to room in search of a toy, Bracken or me. She crawls over anything in her path. She loves to play with her brother. He is so good with her, but gets annoyed when she keeps trying to crawl over him, play with (pull) his hair, or take his toys. She's become a pretty tough little girl, trying to hold her own next to Bracken. It's so much fun to watch her grow and go!

Baby Food

Technically, I think Chandra's first food was newspaper. Maybe a scratch piece of paper or the Friend magazine. When she sees paper she crawls to it as fast as she can and starts chewing on it. When I try reading a book to her she's only interested in eating it. But here are pictures of the first time she tried real food.

Bracken was so excited to feed her. He did a pretty good job too. He even showed her how to open her mouth and told her all about how good pears are. Chandra doesn't care too much about eating solids, but she likes having something to do while we eat our food. Most of the time she'd rather be crawling around. This little gal is always on the go!

Playing in the Leaves

The leaves provided almost endless entertainment throughout October.

As soon as Bracken woke up in the morning or after his naps he would often ask, "Can we go play in the leaves now?" I thought he'd have the most fun running or jumping in the piles of leaves, but he was usually all business-- using the broom, rake, snow shovel, or dustpans to fill the garbage can up. He'd get flustered at Chandra when she messed up his leaf piles, and thought it was hilarious when we'd find her eating the leaves ("Chandra, that's yucky! Leaves are not for eating, they're for playing with."). Then, once the garbage can was packed full, he'd dump it out and start all over again...see what I mean about endless entertainment?