Merry Christmas

We hope you had as wonderful a Christmas as we did! We decided this year to have our very own little Christmas morning (which we'd never done before). Zachie was sick the whole week of Christmas, so the smiles weren't handed out as easily as usual, but he was still pretty excited. Of course he was very spoiled (thanks grandmas, grandpas, uncles, and aunts!).

Santa brought him these stacking/nesting blocks. I was sure he would push them right over, but he very carefully took off the top block, grinned, then placed it back on top before knocking it all down.

(by the way, we were NOT watching TV Christmas morning. We have music only channels and this one had Christmas music...)

His new rocking horse. He knew just what to do and loves it.

The stocking with Daddy.

Later that morning we headed over to my parents' house for another Christmas! We feel so lucky to get both. And we got to see Cal's family in Hawaii right after Christmas (more to come on this). Does it get any better?

Zach has apparently decided that crayons are REALLY yummy these days.

A little recital.
Story time with Grandma and some new books.

Chillin' in his cool new chair talking on his new toy cell phone (can you believe we didn't have one of these?). Of course. I think he feels so grown up in his chair. He plops down in it often with toys and just grins.

And, you know, one phone was just not enough. He put in some good time with my old toy phone from when I was little.

Meeting Santa

A couple weeks ago (I'm slow) I took Zach to Cal's work (the hospital) to meet Santa for the first time. There was a dance recital going on right next to Santa, so I'm pretty sure that Zach didn't ever realize what was going on. Since most pictures of kids this age with Santa involve crying, maybe that's a good thing!

I really gotta take this call

Where ya at?

Zach has been obsessed with the phone for some time now. OBSESSED. (thus one of his favorite words being "ha-woh", and now "hi"). I finally found my old cell phone and let him have it. I swear he can talk forever on it sometimes. You'd think he was a teenage girl. Then again, his daddy has been known to do his share of yapping (as he calls it). I love watching Zach have his own little conversations. What on earth is he saying?

You got to go outside?? My mom says it's too cold and snowy to go play.

Yeah, I can't wait for Hawaii!

Seriously, mom, a little privacy??Did you see the game last night? It was awesome. Go Nuggets!
Gotta run. Lunch time. Feeding frenzy.

FINITO!

I've mentioned before that I'm a "project person". Lately I've been a little obsessed with a couple of tedious, time consuming projects.

About a week ago I finished this one: a Christmas advent calendar. It really was a lot of fun.... besides my sewing machine eating it. Seriously! Finally at the very end I borrowed my mom's machine when mine wasn't sewing more than an inch or two at a time without MAJOR problems. I should've done that sooner! Anyway, it's not perfect by any means (so don't look too closely!), but I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Tim-ber!!!

This last weekend we went Christmas tree "chopping"/hunting with the Emily's parents. "Chopping" because we didn't actually chop the tree down much to my dislike. I even inherited an axe from Emily's Grandpa Roper (at my request) just for this sort of occascion. Anyway I did get to use my brand new bow saw I got from the Ropers for my birthday so I guess it wasn't all bad that we sawed the tree down. Although it just doesn't have the same impact as actually chopping down the tree and cleaning up the cut with the bow saw.

This was also Zach's first Christmas tree chopping excursion. Last year he was just to little to be out in that much snow, plus we are pretty sure no one would have survived the car ride. As you can see this year Zach was prepared for the snow in some new winter clothes. He hitched a ride with Em while we were hunting for a tree. The Ropers have been known to wander for hours looking for the perfect tree but in the last year or so I've been planting little bits of Smith practicality, like let's hike uphill so we can drag the tree downhill! Of course this year we ended up dragging the tree uphill to the car.

Zach was a little timid at first. But he got the idea after Ray did a few snow angles. He didn't mind being in the backpack while we tromped through the deep snow. Em, Barb and I all had snow shoes on, they weren't essential but if you've got 'em you might as well use them!

After we had bagged our tree we let Zach play in the snow on the road where walking is a bit easier. He loves to wander off on his own and explore new things.

Zach just being cute and Em always has the camera at the ready.

No trip is complete with out Zach up on my shoulders, at least until he gets a bit bigger.

Em had to carry Zach, not because I'm soft and out of shape but because I had to drag the tree out. Luckly trees in Colorado are tall and skinny and pentiful, so the forest service doesn't get too mad if you top the tree so long as you scatter the rest of the tree. Barb end up carring our tree out so I could help Ray drag out the Ropers' 18 footer! We carried more than we needed because we left the tape measurer back at the car. (rookie mistake)

Zach loved sliding down the snow burm on the side of the road. We will have to take him out sledding soon. (we also forgot the sled, another rookie mistake)

He still had fun until he didn't want to wear his mittens anymore.

We ended the day with a little High Five practice for a job well done.

Clean Boy

It's about time we updated, don't you think??

Touch Down Video

I've been slow to upload videos because I haven't wanted to take the time to convert them into small enough files to work on the blog. That said here is one of Zach cheering for a touch down. I don't teach Zach as many things as Emily, but I do think it is my job to coach him in some of the manly skills he must learn.