Our Christmas Card

Santa picture

First we practiced at home with Pooter and Christoper wearing the Santa hat. It went well.

Then we went to the mall the next day and Christopher worked on his funny smile for his picture with Santa, but it was still good. And then he got to ride one of the reindeer that are visiting the carousel. Quite exciting.

The birthday boy!

Hi everyone! Our little boy is now three years old! It's hard for us to believe. Here are just a couple of pictures from his birthday at home. We had a family birthday party at Matt's parents' house earlier, but we didn't have our own camera there.

Not quite sure what he's doing with his hand on this one, but he was pretty excited about the "TV game" (his name for video games) for the Wii that his daddy got for him (you decide for yourself which "him" the game was really for). :)

This one is fuzzy - don't know why. Three candles on a brownie. And he blew them all out himself while wearing Daddy's baseball hat.

Halloween pictures

Christopher was much more interested in Halloween this year than he was last year. He enjoyed trick or treating more, but he got tired of it pretty quickly and just wanted to go back to the house and help Daddy to pass out candy. No pictures of that part, it was too dark.

Last week he and his friends from Joy School had a little Halloween party where they did a parade for the moms and then sang some songs they'd been learning.

He really, really enjoyed helping Daddy gut the pumpkin!

One of our neighbors had a skeleton costume from a few years ago that she let me borrow after she saw Christopher's costume at the Trunk or Treat at church on Saturday. So we both got to dress up as skeletons last night. We went to a neighborhood party by Grandma's house before coming back to our house, and that is where we got our faces painted. Christopher was not wanting to pose for pictures at this point. He wanted to head out for the candy!

Daddy got him to give us a good smile after we got home and before he headed to the bathtub. He had a really good time being "scary."

It's been a long time but...

We have actually been doing things. I just haven't posted them on the blog lately. But even when I do, who's really looking at them? Sigh. Send us some comments, people!!

Christopher found some heart stickers and proceeded to experiment with body art.

In Flagstaff last month Christopher helped me get every bit of frosting off the candles from my birthday cake.

This one absolutely had to be posted. "Christopher lets Uncle Arch hold him." It was a "read" letter day. Get it? ;) This is serious progress in Christopher and Arch's relationship.

Back at home on my actual birthday, Christopher helped Matt put the candles in the cake and then he sang "Happy Birthday" very sweetly and helped me blow out the candles. Matt wore his SPAM shirt for the special day.

Then Christopher helped us eat the cake. And here began the great debate: use a fork or use his hands? It was a tough choice, but the hands won out. And then the bathtub removed all evidence of the crime committed against the poor piece of cake.

I want to be a cowboy...baby!

Christopher got to go horseback riding in Flagstaff this past weekend. The horse was named Ahab, and the guide put his own hat on Christopher for the ride. Christopher had a really good time!

Happy Birthday to Matt

Matt's 34th birthday was July 9th. We got together with his parents and his sister's family to celebrate the day. Christopher helped his cousin Angie put the candles on Daddy's birthday cake.

Then he helped him blow the candles out.

And since he is getting on in years, Matt also needed help unwrapping his presents. Christopher was so excited that kept singing Happy Birthday to Matt and also telling everyone that it was his birthday too. Matt got a super soaker water gun from the nephews for use in the pool. It's getting well-used!

Finally

Christopher is starting to be more interested in trying to dress himself - part of the 2 1/2 year old "I can do it myself" phase, which is loads of fun (sometimes). He actually did get that shoe on completely by himself. And he was very proud.


We are finally getting some rain. This was the first we had received in months. Christopher and I got out our umbrella, shook the dust off, and walked to the mailbox. The picture is kind of dark, but he had taken over possession of the umbrella (once again, "I can do it myself!") and so I was sheltering on the porch.

June - part 3

Yep, you should scroll down to part 1 if you're just starting. I didn't turn my brain back on before posting these pictures and I should have done it backwards!
Post trek:

Hanging out with Hannah in the new backyard grass:


Trying on "big boy" underwear for the first time:


Although he looks like he's posing, he was actually telling me to cut the tag out of the back. Underwear models are so sensitive...

June - part 2

Christopher also went to the lake and dug under rocks with a stick...


and looked for ladybugs in the grass with Grandma. He had a great time while we were trekking.


So did we for the most part - except for when Emily's foot very nearly got run over by a handcart wheel. Luckily the wheel didn't roll all the way over or we're pretty sure something would have broken. As it was, it merely got really squished. Could have been worse!

June

A little over a month ago, Matt & Emily went on a pioneer trek with youth from church. You can't see us, but here are some of the kdis from our group pulling the handcart. This was an easy stretch of the trek, flat with no rocks. It wasn't all like that. We'll have more pictures of that later!


While we were gone Christopher went up to Flagstaff with Grandma & Grandpa Truitt and experienced the joy of being the center of the universe when Dara and the cousins arrived. He got to: Watch movies with Aaron...


...see deer and goats and peacocks at the deer farm...


...go horseback riding for the first time...Grandma says he was a natural...


...and go bowling for the first time...I think a contraption like that would help my score significantly...

Progress of a Yard

Yard prepped: raked, rolled, ready for curbing.

Curbing.

Sod laid. Still looking a little bit like patchwork.

3 weeks later. The lawn's first haircut.

A little bit of perspective on the layout of the yard now. And Matt jumped right into the pool after mowing the lawn. It's pretty hot here now. I think our temps for the week will average 111. Because of that, it looks like we'll be waiting until October to put in the plants and rock around the outside.

Driving the fire engine. He was very interested in the firefighters who were standing off to the side.


When the clown asked him what balloon shape he wanted, Christopher immediately said he wanted an elephant. Then she asked the color and without hesitation he said "Blue!" And there's Grandma Nell. :)


Waiting in line with Grandpa to get on the train. He was being tickled, but still was maintaining the "you can't make me smile" line of thinking.


Ah ha! Grandpa won the prize! Maybe Christopher just didn't want to smile at the camera, but Grandpa still managed to get him to laugh for the profile shot on Grandma's lap.


We are working on the "waif" look. How do you think it's coming along?

Trip to Thomas

Last weekend we went to Flagstaff with Grandma & Grandpa Truitt & Grandma Nell to see Thomas the Tank Engine. Here is a slight glimpse of Thomas. Christopher did enjoy seeing that. We couldn't really get much closer since people were waiting to board the train.

Christopher was slightly overwhelmed. We couldn't get a single smiling picture, but he wasn't crying! Here is the hay maze.


He got a temporary "tattoo" of Thomas on his hand, which Grandpa helped him display for the camera. Still no smile.

There was an ambulance that he got to climb around in. You must look stoic when on an ambulance.

He also liked climbing up onto the fire engine. Really. He did.

Don't these two good-looking guys look cool? Christopher was helping Daddy back his truck out on his way to work and just had to have sunglasses on too.


Christopher is getting pretty good at the act of sharing. These are toy Easter eggs. The cat wanted them on his back and Christopher obliged. Then Christopher actually asked me to take a picture of it. He was so proud of himself. The cat is currently working on his application for sainthood.

Just some cute stuff

Christopher got a "fire engine hat" a couple of weeks ago. He was trying to convince me that it looked so cute on him that he should get to wear it to bed.

Even a 2-year old has got to earn his keep somehow! Actually, he seriously wanted to vacuum. I had pulled it out and he managed to turn it on and start working. Good kid.

This was simply a cute smile. He was showing his Big Bird and Cookie Monster dolls to the cat (the tip of whose tail is visible right at the bottom center of the picture - it's grey, hard to see).

At the Renaissance Festival with our little friend Hannah. As we walked in we passed a chocolate shop offering free popsicle sticks dipped in melted chocolate.....

Christopher just had to stop and visit "Mother Goose" at the festival. He walked right up to the bench, sat down and let the goose sit on his lap. He was giving it hugs and the whole scene was so cute that people behind us were taking pictures of him.