Seth turned 2!

Seth had a birthday this week.  It's sad and happy for us that our sweet, beautiful boy isn't really a baby anymore.  (Although he actually lost that title a few months ago when Ruby was born.) He is such a fun boy.  He has his own personality and even though he's surrounded by three older siblings telling him what to do, Seth is his own boy. He only does things in his way and when he's ready.  He's quick to smile and he's so loving.  He has always loved books. He loves to find a book and "read" it to himself or bring it to us to read.  He loves fruit snacks and squeeze yogurts and could live on those if he had to.

This year Seth found a show on PBS called "Super Why".  That show started his obsession with letters.  He has learned the whole alphabet, his favorite toys are sets of foam letters and magnet letters on our fridge.  He loves the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". And he loves it when we sing the alphabet to him. Our favorite letter for him to say is W because he says is "bub-a-you" and Rachel always points out that she's the one who taught him that letter.

Seth has light blue eyes and long, dark lashes, and perfect eyebrows. We get comments on what a beautiful boy he is.  His curly hair has relaxed and now it's just a little wavy. And I love that he still has a slight dimple in is left cheek when he smiles.

He's a good big brother.  He's always concerned when Ruby cries and is the first to try to go get her. And then he pats her gently on the stomach and says, "niiiiice". Danny, Rachel and Aaron love to play with him too.  They all compete to see who can get the most hugs from him.

Freedom & Yuck

Some funny things said in our house this past week. Fortunately my memory worked well enough to remember to post them.

Yuck!

Jean took some of the kids out on a date to get them McDonald's Happy Meals. They're featuring Avatar toys currently. The kids got a little action figure of the character Jake Sully. It's the male version of this:

Seth was examining his new toy and ended up turning it around to see its backside.  He noticed the long protrusion (tail) and exclaimed the following:  "Awwwww, poop!  It's yuck!" 

We continue to work on Seth's anatomy lessons.  He's got a heavy load this semester (English 101, Civics, Anatomy, PE, etc), but he might pass if he studies a little harder. 

It's Freedom!

Aaron and Rachel were playing an afternoon game of baseball on the Wii.  It's kind of an accepted rule that you don't throw an 'AB pitch' (splitter) because they're too difficult/impossible to hit.  Rachel was the recipient of several splitters that were being thrown by Aaron before lodging a complaint:

Rachel:  Aaron, it's not fair.  You're not supposed to throw AB pitches!
Aaron:  It's freedom.  Rachel it's called freedom!

Awesome.  Aaron's equivalent of "it's a free country and I can do what I want."  It was hilarious.  He stated it as a matter of fact, as though everybody knew that his actions were justified by freedom. 

That's my excuse for why I haven't posted much on here the past couple of months.  It's called freedom!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. The two weeks were great with the kids home. We went to the park one day and to the library one day. It was rainy all week, so one day the kids played in the puddles in the backyard. I made two kinds of fudge to give away this year and we all delivered it one night; the kids had a lot of fun taking treats to their friends and teachers.

Grandma Zonda and Gpa Cliff and Kristal and Dustin got here on Christmas Eve. All but Kristal, Ruby, Seth and I went up to Mt. Charleston to go sledding. They had a great time. That night we acted out the nativity. Danny was our narrator with Grandpa's help. And Seth was a shepherd with a lightsaber. Then the kids opened the presents they got for each other.

Christmas morning we got up at 6:50 am. Rachel got her Nintendo DSI that she wanted and Aaron and Danny got an ATV powerwheels. Seth got a blow-up trampoline for in the house. And I got our family to be sickness-free for the whole week before Christmas, which I had really wanted! It was a really nice Christmas.
I asked each of the kids their favorite gift and tradition:
Danny: ATV and sleeping under the Christmas tree as a family
Rachel: Nintendo DSI and getting chocolates and seeing the lights at the Chocolate factory
Aaron: ATV and Driving through the Christmas lights display at the speedway
Seth: a bubble blower and letter magnets for the fridge. He really loved seeing the christmas lights at night when we drove anywhere.
Ruby: I think her favorite part of Christmas was sleeping on Grandma all day long.
We went to Ryan and Venessa's new house in California for New Year's. We had fun being with everyone. The boys went paintballing, we went to the park, the girls went shopping. We watched movies and football and just hung out at Ryan's new big house. We had a good time.