Anderson

Anderson will be 16 months on Wednesday. How did this happen? I feel like I should have a little baby still but instead I have this cute little boy who feeds himself, tries to put his boots on himself, throws away his own diapers, and runs around the house like he owns the place.

I gave him a haircut the other day and HAD to take some pictures of him. He was looking so big and so, so cute.

He is growing up way too fast, but he is still a little guy. He only weighs 20 lbs. 8 oz. which keeps him in his usual "less than 5th percentile". But I just can't believe that in two months he will be in nursery.

This is his classic "Don't look at me!" look. I love it.

Do you love those teeth?!?

He can only say a few words so far. Grandpa, Mama, Dada, Uh-oh, Baff (bath), hot, Jack (which kind of sounds like hot), and uh-uh (which he uses a lot while we are using process of elimination to find out what he wants). He still barks like a little dog whenever he see a dog, a truck, a bird, or whatever. My sister Angie always asks me when I am talking to her on the phone if we have a parrot in the house. Since the day he was born, he has always been a noisy kid, and he doesn't seem to note the fact that when we are in church, we need to be quiet. I wonder if he will ever grow out of it?

Botanical Gardens

Justin had MLK day off of school so we went to the inside exhibits at the Botanical Gardens. He wasn't able to go with us the first time we went so we thought it would be nice to get out of the cold and spend some time in the tropical butterfly room. It has been SO cold and snowy so the warm temperatures were extra inviting. Plus it was free on Martin Luther King Day, so that was an added bonus!

There were a ton of really pretty birds which I don't remember from the first time.

Our goal is to see and do some of the stuff we haven't done before we leave Cleveland, which will mean we better get busy...

The countdown has started and we only have 3 1/2 months left!!!

CRAZY!

The Heaton Clan + the Jensen's

Justin's cousin, Jonathan, his wife Daija and cutie pie little guy Bridger, came from Boston to see us for New Year's. They came the day after Christmas so we were lucky enough to spend the whole week with them! It was so nice to have some family around for the holidays. It was SO fun! We started out with Daija's birthday, complete with cake and ice cream. She turned 27.

We spent time at the Rain Forest checking out all the crazy animals.

(I know, Jack looks somewhat like an orphan with those sweat pants inside of his rain boots. What can I say? He put them on by himself!)

The weather warmed up just enough for us to spend some time at the park. It was slightly muddy though since the snow had been melting. Fun, but muddy.

Jack was loving throwing snow balls at Jonathan. He didn't have gloves on and his hands were bright red and hurting by the time we left.

Eating a snack and cruising around in the mud. I should have put his rain boots on him! We all had to throw our jeans in the wash when we got home.

We played lots of card games, watched lots of movies, got caught up after not seeing each other forever, talked about both of our futures after dental school (Jonathan is also graduating from D school this spring!), went to Kirtland, Jon and Justin fixed my closet, and of course... celebrated New Year's!!

Jack is all ready with his little bowl of confetti that he cut up. It's amazing how such a small bowl of confetti can make such a big mess.

(I love that chubby face!)

Scott and Denisse also made an appearance! They were on their way back from Denisse's sister's wedding in Utah and got in late New Year's Eve. We used to all live in the same apartment complex in Rexburg, ID when we were first married with no kids. Now there are five kiddos we have added to the mix! We had Anderson (1), Bridger (2), Jack (3), Braden (3, almost 4), and Brielle (4, almost 5). Five kids under the age of five makes for a lot of craziness and a lot of fun! We are so lucky to have such great friends who take the time and money to come and see us! Thank you for making our lonely little holidays not so lonely!!

Sledding!

We went sledding with Jonathan and Daija while they were here. There is a hill super close to our house so we bundled up and braved the freezing temperatures. Anderson was not loving it so much. Justin took him down the big hill once and that about did him in. He just wanted to snug the rest of the time.

Bridger and Jack were good sports. They liked watching us go down the big hill but preferred to stick to the little one.

Love the face!!!

Justin and Jonathan had a few races down the hill. Anderson would cry every time he would see either me or Justin go down it.

We stayed for about an hour and then the kiddos were all starting to be cold and miserable so we headed back to the house for some yummy hot chocolate.

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Sorry this video is small. I was too lazy to go back into onetruemedia so I just did it on blogger.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning started out slow as we waited for Jack to get up. We were at the Mecham's until midnight so he was slightly tired. We made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and once he woke up and we got the ball rolling, it was pure excitement! Jack and Anderson were so fun and loved getting their Santa gifts and then moving onto the presents. They were ridiculously spoiled and were loving every minute of it.

Santa brought Jack his "BEEnoculurs" as he calls them. He has been asking for these for months and months!

Forget the Gerber snacks that came in Anderson's stocking. He moved right on to the goods in Jack's. He is so funny with treats and cookies and candy. He LOVES them! If he sees you with anything in those categories, he wants to be a part of it. His peanut allergy rules out a lot of that kind of stuff but I'm thinking in this situation, that's not a completely bad thing!

This little farm has a button you push that plays music and he pushed it over and over and over and would jump up and down and bounce every time it played.

It seemed like every toy the boys opened was the coolest thing ever. Jack especially was in love with EVERYTHING from new clothes, his tool set, movies, books, maps and everything that he opened. I loved watching the smiles on their faces and taking it all in. If only every day could be so exciting.

The damage.

And this picture is BEFORE we started filling the beanbags that Grandma Heaton made for the boys. The little styrofoam balls made a disaster! Luckily, Justin got a heavy duty shop vac that he was excited to put to use.

The bean bags were a hit. :)

We had a great Christmas. We were all spoiled by our families and we are so thankful to them and for all of their thoughtfulness. We were able to talk and skype with everyone, but it made us miss everyone that much more. This is our second Christmas that we have spent here in Cleveland with just us and it is so much easier (and cheaper!) than flying to see family, but we really did miss them.

It was a lazy day filled with movies and new toys. We just hung out in our pj's and ended the day with a drive to see Christmas lights. Both boys fell asleep on the way which sort of defeated the purpose but it was a nice drive anyways.

Even though the Christmas season has already come and gone, I really did try to ponder and reflect on our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is one of my goals to try and keep that going throughout the year. I want to try harder with my kids to teach them who He is and why we strive to keep our focus on Him.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at Pete and Brittany's house. The table was set all nice and cute with fancy paper plates and all. :) We had a delicious traditional turkey dinner complete with mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, and all the good stuff. It was so yummy.

Anderson enjoyed being a goof ball. Where does he get that big mouth from?? Certainly not from me. :)

We had Myrtle with us for the second year, and also Virginia. They had a lot of fun and were so excited about their new pajamas they got to open. They are the cutest and funniest old ladies. After Myrtle found out we were moving to Mississippi, she has invited us all over to her house tomorrow for some authentic Southern cooking. She grew up in the South, so it should be a treat. :)

Max figured he would just wear his new jammies on his head!

We even read and acted out the story of the nativity. The guys were not very fond of the idea but they stuck it out and put on the costumes. Jack and Jackson kept saying that they were a ninja angel and a ninja donkey because of the things around their heads. Not sure I remember the ninja part in the scriptures, but they looked cute and had fun anyways. Anderson refused to let me put anything on him so he just played in the background.

We decorated cookies for Santa. I think Jack used a whole bottle of sprinkles on his! You can hardly tell that there are cookies under all of those sprinkles. I think he heard that they are Santa's favorite.

And in the true Christmas spirit.... we also had a dance party. :)

Notice Jack grabs both the babies shirts and shakes them, at the end....nice Jack.

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Kris Kringle's Inventionasium

The day after Justin finished his boards exam, we went to Kris Kringle's Inventionasium. It was SO CUTE!! And of course, the kids loved it. We were greeted by Miss Raspberry Hiccup who told us what we would be doing on our tour and gave all of the kids little lab coats to wear.

First the kids wrote down all of their ideas on the idea wall with chalk. The elf with the purple hair was our tour guide.

Then they all got to make their own puppet. There was buckets of different arms, legs, eyes, etc.

Anderson kept swinging the bucket and would laugh when it would come back to him.

The next station they went to, they were inventing snow that doesn't melt.

Jack got to help pour in the powder. Then when the elf added water to it, it turned into a cold white fluffy stuff that looked just like snow. All of the kids, and the adults, thought it was super cool. He said that Los Angeles was going to love their new invention. :)

The weirdest part about it was that it was actually cold.

They made toys out of little lego things, and did so many cute things. I just couldn't get over how cute is was inside and how funny all of the "elves" were. Jack was in heaven.

Here we are waiting for our turn with Santa. They wouldn't let us take our own camera in with Santa, of course, so I had to take a picture of our picture they made us pay for. It was well worth it though. Jack was able to tell him that he wanted binoculars. Anderson was terrified and cried the whole time. It was classic. What is it with Santa and little kids??

He even had a real beard :)