Christmas Time

For Christmas we flew to Canada. The flights were okay. Alan was more hyper on the flight up so it was good that Reed and I flew together. It was kind of an early flight so people were trying to sleep...not Alan. He thought it was fun to slam the window cover up and down, bang the trays up and down and kick the seats as he wiggled from my lap to Reed's. We brought things for him to do so it wasn't that bad but we did get a few glares. Oh well. Then the airline lost one of our bags. Luckily we weren't alone...they lost half the luggage from our flight. An hour later they found it sitting out on the tarmac so it was a happy ending.







We had a wonderful time visiting my family and friends. Alan loved all the extra attention. He learned to say "Granma" a day before we left so that was nice. Alan made a new friend when he met Uncle Drew. He loved to play with "Dew" and when he couldn't see Drew he would always ask "Dew?"

It was nice to be there on Sunday because my Dad gave a talk and Drew was ordained to the Melckezedek priesthood. We also got to visit my Grandma in the hospital. Alan completely freaked out when he saw her though (she was on oxygen). Eventually he calmed down and by the time we left he gave her a hug.









Here are some pictures of Alan in his new Sunday outfit (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Bassett) We thought he looked very handsome. To bad my cousins triplet girls aren't in our home ward anymore...Alan could have shown off for them!

I don't think Alan really got excited about Christmas until Christmas morning and he saw all the presents. Before that we told him Santa was coming and he just gave us a blank look. We put cookies and milk out for Santa and Alan wanted to eat it right then and there!! Christmas morning we got up and had breakfast. Then we opened our stockings.














Alan loved his stocking. One of his favorite things was a little plastic cell phone. He made quite a few calls on that phone. Another favorite was the candy. He loves chocolate.















After the stocking we moved on to the presents. After Alan opened each present he wanted to open the box and play with it so it took us a while to open our presents.

Alan got a little tool set so he used the drill to open some of the other presents. Before that he kept asking for a knife because he has seen us open packing boxes with a knife. It was pretty funny to see him look at a wrapped present, then look at us and very seriously ask "knife"? We showed him that he could just tear the paper off but then he wanted a knife to get into the boxes!


I thought the picture of Reed, Drew and Alan playing with the race track was pretty cute. I don't know who liked the present the best: Reed, Drew or Alan. They all had fun racing each other, although Alan did seem to get a little nervous when both cars were on the track. He kept trying to take his off.












Other fun things about the trip: Reed and my dad took Alan tobogganing. Reed said he liked it but wasn't super excited. We also took him swimming which he LOVED. He was so daring...he climbed up the big slide and went down all by himself. He probably went down 10 times that day. We took him back the next day but he was much more cautious that time. He mostly just wanted to play in the kiddie pool with the plastic boats. We also went to the live Nativity while we were there. The stakes in the area put on a nativity with real people and animals, with music playing from the Tabernacle choir. Alan liked looking at the donkey. It only lasts about 10 minutes and luckily it wasn't too cold. We also took Alan to the triplet's birthday party (they turned two). I was surprised that he didn't want any cake. He found a little ride-on scooter and played happily until it was time to go.

The flight back wasn't too bad. Alan stayed awake for the first half hour and then he fell asleep. He slept the rest of the way and he even slept through the touch down (it was loud and bumpy). We were both glad to see Reed at the airport (Reed flew home a few days earlier for work). He has been a little bear today but hopefully we will get him back on schedule soon. We hope everyone had a good Christmas.

Out with the old, in with the new

Sunday night is turned pretty cold here. On Monday I tried to start the Corsica and it refused. We have been thinking that this would happen sometime. After all, we blew the head gasket last January and since then we have been thinking it was on its last leg. Its last leg lasted for a while. I was sad to see it go, it has been a wonderful car - hardly any repairs necessary and we put a lot of miles on it.
So we went car shopping and bought a Dodge Grand Caravan. Reed had been eyeing it for a while and the price had just gone down to $5000. It is a 2002 with 97 000 miles. It has a big dent in the bumper but it runs good (so far).

I wasn't excited about buying a van but I knew it would happen eventually. At least now we have a lot more storage room.

Pictures of our house

Here are the promised pictures.
Here is our little home. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It also has a fairly big, fenced backyard, which was a big selling point.
The inside is okay but it has a few problems.
One of my biggest pet peeves is all of the carpet. The entire house is carpeted, including the kitchen, dining room, bathrooms and entry ways. As you can see we put our area rug under our table to try to contain most of Alan's spills.
The kitchen is kind of small but we bought an island so we have more counter space and storage space. The next picture is of Alan's room.
The next picture is of the tiniest bathroom ever. I took the picture standing a couple of feet out of the door. In case you are wondering were the toilet is it is behind the door. It takes some maneuvering if all three of us want to be in the bathroom and we want to close the door.
The last picture is of our family room, downstairs.

We bought a futon to replace our couches...not as comfortable but better than camp chairs.

Visiting Santa

On Friday night we took Alan to the mall to visit Santa. One good thing about living in a small town is that the mall is hardly ever busy...there was no line to visit Santa. This was good because Alan needed some time to get used to the big guy. We stopped about 10 feet from Santa and Santa just started talking to Alan. Then he offered him a candy cane...Alan was tempted but still very cautious. He started to walk toward him and then he looked at us for permission. We told him to go get the candy so he walked up till he was about 3 feet from Santa. Then he planted his feet and leaned over to grab the candy, then he hurriedly retreated. Santa kept talking to him and then he offered another candy cane and this time Alan walked right up to him and took it. Then Santa asked if he wanted to sit on his knee so I helped him up and he sat there while Santa asked him questions
Santa: "What do you want for Christmas?"
Alan: Silence
Santa: "Do you like trucks and trains?"
Alan: "uh-huh"
Santa: "Have you been good this year?"
Alan: "uh-huh"

Then we tried to take a picture. We tried everything to make him smile but he just looked at us very solemnly so we had to settle for that. He was pleased when Santa gave him another candy cane as a reward for sitting on his lap though.

Decorating our Christmas tree

For family home evening we got all of our Christmas decorations out and decorated our Christmas tree. Alan loved putting the decorations on.
The tree is pretty small but that is okay, Alan could reach most of the tree. After we were done it looked pretty good. Alan loved it when we turned the lights on. In fact he wants them on all the time.
One funny thing that happened as we decorated: Alan found a Mrs. Claus and a Santa Claus decoration. He held Santa in one hand and Mrs. Claus in the other and then he made them kiss, complete with kissing noises. It was pretty cute.