A voice speaking from the dust

Ky has decided in the last couple of weeks that he wants to start talking about everything. He points at things and talks all day long, and most of it is pretty unintelligible (though cute). But he actually knows a lot of words, as we realized when we made a list yesterday. These are all words we're sure about because he's said them repeatedly and in context. There are probably others we haven't deciphered yet. :)

• Cheese
• More (signed and spoken)
• Hat
• Hot
• Cold (signed)
• Socks
• Bread
• Eat (signed)
• Mama
• Da-da
• All gone (signed and spoken)
• Drink (signed)
• Cheerios
• That
• There
• Bye bye

He is a smart baby!

Snowy

(You can see the ruler--I think it was 24 inches--is sticking all the way into the snow here)

We had several big snowstorms last week, the biggest on Christmas Day. We heard that we got about 14 inches of snow in that one storm, and the wind was blowing a lot, so there were also huge drifts up to 2 or 3 feet high. There were piles of snow blown up against our garage and our fence that were taller than Sebby. We also got several inches the next couple days, and we still have huge mountains of snow lining all our roads and sidewalks. Our backyard is just a big mass of lumps and bumps and rounded hills and upended buns (that last phrase is from a poem, I think, but I'm not sure who to attribute it to).

We went out and played in the snow on Christmas, and all the boys loved it. Sebby couldn't even walk because the snow was so deep, so he just kept falling over, but he liked it anyway. It was fun to have a big storm for Christmas like that (I can't remember the last time we got _real_ snow for Christmas).

Grandkid Program

Here are a few pictures from our big family Christmas program last night: Abey and Sebby singing "It came upon a midnight clear" together, and Sebby, Sarah, and baby Joshua as Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus.

Malachi by the numbers

1 year as a live, independent person

1 spoken word ("cheese!")

1 step taken unassisted

2 fingers for sucking on

3 states of being (baby--->goblin--->gremlin)

4 signed words (more, all gone, eat, cold)

4 pressure points while crawling (hand, hand, foot, foot)

5 stuffed animals in crib (bird, tiger, panda, bear/dog [Sam says it's a dog but it's a bear], lion)

6 chompy teeth

8 stairs fallen down holding a maraca

1,000,000 times poking his finger into someone's mouth

Cake: the heartwrenching story of one piece's fate

Malachi wasn't feeling well for his birthday dinner last night. He cried nearly all the way through the meal, and would only eat a few bites of everything. (And it was all his favorite foods: 3-bean chili with cheese and cilantro, artichoke dip, and homemade bread.) It was very sad.

Luckily, he was able to eat the same meal again today for lunch, and this time he devoured it with great gusto. He also managed to down an entire piece of the birthday cake Grandma made him.

Santa Baby

It's that time of year again when Baby Santa appears.

[At a church activity last week, we were supposed to tell what our favorite Christmas Song was, and one lady said that her favorite (her favorite!!) was "Santa Baby." Out of all the Christmas songs in the world!! Santa Baby!! I couldn't believe it. But I suppose she must not be alone in her sentiments, since I hear it playing about 80% of the time on the "easy listening" music at the grocery store, etc.]

The only Santa Baby I like is this one:

(And this one.)
(And this one.)

Two wheels

Ky wants to try it too!

During our bike ride on Thanksgiving, one of Abe's training wheels fell off, so we took the other one off too. (It was high time he learned to ride without them.) He practiced riding around on two wheels for an hour or so that day, and got the hang of it really fast. And he really must have been ready to learn, because today (just his second time practicing) he looks like a pro---he can even turn, put on his brakes, and ride in circles. He is VERY proud of himself (and I'm proud of him too!).

Thanksgiving

What we did on Thanksgiving:

1. Went on a bike ride
2. Watched Ky try to catch a balloon
3. Dinner

Ears

WARNING: this post contains baby Bear ears

Rivalry Week

To whet your appetites for the football game this weekend, here is a great "insider" look at the BYU-Utah game of 2006, as described by John Beck himself. It almost made me cry. (The video clip does make me cry.)

Both are from Quinn Gooch's excellent blog (which I read daily and is my favorite source of BYU football commentary)

http://deepshadesofblue.com/john-becks-account-of-the-final-2006-drive/#comment-2842

More-ing

I thought I should show you how cute Malachi is when he's signing "more." (Sometimes he tries to do it while still sucking on his fingers, see above)

He seems very pleased with himself, especially when his "more-ing" gets results (another bite--yum!).

Our special Sebby

We all had a good time on our trip. But we all enjoyed ourselves in our own unique ways. In Sebby's case, it was in mostly the ways he always enjoys himself:

1. Finding sprinklers

2. Singing and stomping

3. Making windmills/washer-and-dryers/carwashes with his arms. "The arms are going soooo fast! Yike this! Wumpa-wumpa-wumpa-wumpa-wumpa!"

Beach

Saturday we went to the beach (and listened to the BYU game on the radio). It was unseasonably warm, even for California, so we actually played in the water without freezing to death. We had a great time there. Philip and Allison had borrowed some boogie boards, so we had fun on those (Abey dragged his around by its string and pretended it was the Pirate ride at Disneyland [which we had gone on 5 times the day before--it was our favorite]). We also had a very sandy picnic (how does one keep one's food from becoming covered with sand? We found it impossible---not that that stopped us from eating it).

If you would like to see Seb's sandy face, click to enlarge.

Here is Philip looking pleased with himself after saving Ky's life (Ky was starting to eat a sand-covered grape, and everyone else just stood around heartlessly and laughed at him. Luckily Philip leaped to his rescue.)

Ky was very interested in the sand. He learned not to eat it after a while. Sort of.

It was a long, perfect day. We loved it!!