Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

So last time I promised we'd do better about updating. Turns out we're doing worse. And we're already halfway through the first month of the new year. But since this is the first post of the year and I promised we'd do better last year, we'll start from here and hope it gets better. I'm going to be talking about Christmas and stuff, but before I forget, I have to tell a story from today. We have a split staircase in our house. You go up about 10 stairs, there's a little landing, and you have to turn to continue up about 8 more steps to the second floor. London was coming down the top part today and took a bit of a tumble down to the landing. I ran up to grab him and make sure he was all right. He was crying pretty hard, but he didn't seem too banged up. Usually when they get an ouchie, we'll ask where it hurts. Before I could even ask, London sobbed, "I hurt everywhere!" It was pretty sad but hilarious at the same time, especially since in a matter or minutes he was back to running around like crazy.

My work was very nice to us and I had a lot of time off this Christmas holiday. On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa Miller's house, where Uncle Dustin, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Beth, and cousins Kimberly and Jeremy were all staying. We had the kids dress up and did a little nativity. Asher (shepherd) wasn't too thrilled with his costume and London (Joseph) was too busy swinging his staff around like Donatello (the Ninja Turtle, not the painter) to get much out of it. But overall we had a great time.









Afterward we came home and had our own little Christmas Eve. We have a fireplace but we didn't have a place to hang our stockings. So after a trip to the hardware store, I was able to put together a little mantle. We hung our stockings, and as is custom in both our families, we all got to open a present on Christmas Eve. The boys got new pajamas and slippers, which they love. Kori read the boys The Night Before Christmas, and we put out some milk and cookies for Santa. The boys aren't quite old enough to know exactly what's going on, but London was pretty aware that he was getting presents the next day, so he was excited.






Christmas morning was super fun. The boys started out with their stockings, and honestly, they would have been perfectly happy if that's all they'd gotten. Each thing they pulled out was their new favorite toy to play with, and we had to keep telling them that there was more. The boys had gotten some money from Grandma and Grandpa Lowe before Christmas, so we had gone to the store and had them pick out presents they were going to buy for each other. It was a little confusing at the time, but it was awesome seeing them give each other the presents that morning. We all got some really fun gifts and it was so fun to watch how happy and excited the boys were.






Later that day, we went back to the Miller's house and opened some more presents with them. It rained all day Christmas day, so we really didn't do a whole lot other than hang out and play with our new toys.




Later that week, Grandma Haring came down to stay with us for a bit. She took the boys shopping and was very, very helpful with the chores around the house. The boys loved how much attention she gave them, and we really enjoyed having her here. One night we stayed up late and played with the glow sticks that Santa had brought the boys.







On New Year's Eve, Uncle Harold, Aunt Tamlynn, cousins Matthew and Ellie, Uncle Chris and Aunt Kristen all came over and we had our third and final present opening party. By this point the boys had too many new presents to know what to do with, and it was a perfect way to end the year. We celebrated that night by organizing the boys' clothes and watching lots of Cash Cab. Watch out - we're crazy like that. A few days later we all drove out to Torrance for Ellie's baptism. Grandpa Haring had flown down so we got to see him as well. Overall we had an incredible Christmas break, filled with lots of fun and family. We hope you all did as well.

playing catch-up

So, we've been pretty horrible about blogging lately. We missed our 6 year anniversary, Asher's 2nd birthday, Thanksgiving, and many other very blog-able days. So to get caught up, we're just going to throw a bunch of stuff on here.



Asher had two birthday cakes. One on the morning of his birthday, then another for his official party which we had closer to Thanksgiving, with my sister Tamlynn and her family. Kori made both cakes and did an awesome job, especially with the Thomas the Train one. When we sang to Asher for his first cake, London didn't take it too well. But he cheered up once he realized we were having cake for breakfast.




For the next cake, Kori and her friend Marci made the very cool Thomas cake that everyone thought was awesome. It was fun sharing the party with the boys' cousins, but apparently we didn't take any pictures of them all together.




We had Thanksgiving at our place this year, with a bunch of Kori's family and my sister's family. We had 19 people total, and it was pretty crazy but a lot of fun. A couple days later we went to Kori's grandparents' house, had her Grandma's famous taquitos, and hung out with a bunch more of Kori's family. The boys loved playing with the kids their age/size. London bonded with his cousin Olivia over her Nintendo DS, and Asher just kicked it with Uncle Gerry, very politely ignoring the fact that he's an Oakland A's fan.






In addition to going on walks and taking the boys to the park every day, Kori's been really good about coming up with a lot of fun projects for the boys, including playing with shaving cream and helping me install a wipeboard that they can draw on whenever they want.






The problem with the wipeboard is that a few times Asher has woken up early and gone to town on his hands and face with the markers, which he happily proclaims is his 'painting'.




We've been able to hang out with my sister and her family quite a bit in the last little while, which has been great. Our boys are starting to get to a more capable age for their older cousins to play with, and they end up having a lot of fun together. We also recently put up our Christmas tree in our new house for the first time, which we were really proud of.




And here are a bunch more pictures for the grandparents of their adorable grandkids. For those who read this far, thanks for reading. We'll be better in the future.

Temporary Halloween post

the happiest place on earth

It's been a pretty busy month, so we haven't posted much. Dan has been on overtime, Kori has been doing transcriptions for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, London started preschool, and Asher...I guess has had it pretty easy. As a reward for us all, we took the day off last Friday and went to the one and only Disneyland. We went with Uncle Ryan, Aunt Beth, cousins Kimberly and Jeremy, and Grandma and Grandpa Miller, and it was a lot of fun.



The first thing the boys noticed when we got there was the big red steam engine. They love Thomas the Train right now, and trains in general. So we knew we'd have to ride the train that day. First we just wanted to explore a bit. We went for a little ride on the top of a double-decker bus to one of the big plaza areas. When we got down, Goofy (in his skeleton Halloween outfit) was right there. London didn't care too much for him though, and Asher grabbed me as tight as he could, and started saying "No. No." So Goofy wisely backed away and all was good. The first ride we went on was the big carousel. The boys loved being cowboys and saying "ye-haw."



Next, we went on the Casey Junior train, which the boys thought was the greatest thing ever. Kori and Asher then went on Dumbo, but London didn't want to, so he and I just watched.



We thought that they might enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean, since they like pirates too. It was not a good time. For one thing, London has this strange aversion to water right now. So that was against us from the start. Add in lots of darkness, spooky sounds, and kind of creepy animatronic characters, and it all adds up to what London would call, and he did, 'Scary! Scary!' The ride couldn't end fast enough, though all the grown ups enjoyed it. Asher didn't get too spooked though.



By then it was lunch time, so we ate and tried to make the kids take naps. They weren't having it though, so after a little while we were back in the park. We saw Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. (Also known as 'Halloween Halloween' to the boys.) After a little while, of course both boys fell asleep in the stroller.



It was nice just to rest a little bit though. After awhile, it was time for the big parade down Main Street. The boys were pretty groggy, but they seemed to enjoy it. We were due at Grandma and Grandpa Lowe's house for dinner, so we decided to take the steam engine train all the way around the park, in case we didn't make it back. We were able to sit up front towards the engine, and the boys absolutely loved it. They kept saying 'choo-choo!' and 'all aboard!'





After dinner it was getting late, but the boys weren't tired at all and really wanted to go back to the park. So we went back in and were just in time for the fireworks show. We were going to try to catch a few more rides, but the boys were straining from their seats to see the fireworks, so we ended up just stopping to watch.



Afterward, a lot of the rides had closed down, but the Winnie the Pooh one was still running, so we went on that. Then we caught another train at the Haunted Mansion and rode it all the way back to the front so we could leave, since it was 11 o'clock and way past bedtime. London fell asleep on the train ride, but Asher was wide awake. We eventually crammed onto a tram and made it out. It was an exhausting day, and we probably won't be going back for quite a while. But we had a great time and it was so cool to see the boys really enjoying themselves.

nicktoons festival and stan lee

Tonight was the 5th annual Nicktoons Animation Festival program. I hadn't given much thought to it when I first heard about it, but then I found out the student film I had worked on at BYU won the Producer's Award. Nickelodeon invited our good friends Glenn and Ben, director and producer, respectively, to the event too. So London and Asher went down to Grandma and Grandpa Miller's house for the night and Kori met me at work. It was a really cool event, with live music and pretty swanky food and all. We both even tried some caviar for the first time. Everyone who had seen Pajama Gladiator, our film, really enjoyed it and a few people even said it should have won the grand prize. It was awesome to hang out with Ben and Glenn.

The other highlight was the special guest of the evening, the one and only Stan Lee. Now, I've got to preface this by saying that I'm a DC comics guy (Batman, Superman, etc.) more than a Marvel guy (Hulk, Spider-Man, etc). But Stan Lee is a legend, plain and simple, and I have a ton of respect for the man. He created and co-created over 200 comic book characters. Some of the most famous being Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, Daredevil, the X-Men, and many, many more. It was cool enough that we were going to be able to see him speak, and while he was on stage he was candid and funny and very entertaining.

Before things began though, Kori and I walked by the green room and saw Stan sitting there with some people. Kori encouraged me to go up and talk to him, even though I was a little apprehensive at first. I'm so glad she made me do it though. We walked up to him, and he stopped talking and looked at us. I asked if I could shake his hand, and he said 'Of course!' He stood up and shook both our hands. He's amazingly spry for being almost 86 years old. I told him how big of a fan I was, and that I'd worked on the latest Hulk film, which he seemed excited about. I asked whether his character in the film survived, (if you've seen it you'll know what I'm talking about.) and he said he sure hoped so, because he wanted to be in the next one too. I then asked if he would mind taking a picture with us, and he very kindly obliged. We each got to have our picture taken with him, and with Kori he said he couldn't shake her hand, he had to give her a squeeze. After the pictures he shook our hands again and we thanked him for his time. He is a true gentleman, and was incredibly nice to us. All in all it only lasted five minutes or so, and I'm sorry to go into such geeky detail, but it was an awesome experience.

EL-OH-EN-DEE-OH-EN

London is learning to write his name! This is what we worked on today.

First day of school, first day of school!

London fixing his shoes and ready for preschool!



London has been talking about going to school for quite some time now. We walked by an elementary school to get to a park by my parents house and every time we walked by he was fascinated by the playground he could see through the fence. I told him it was school and he had to be bigger before he could play there. This is one of the incentives we had for him to get potty trained, he had to go potty on the big boy potty before he could go to school, etc.

Well, with us finally being in a place we plan on being in long term I decided to look into preschools. We found a lady in the stake who does it out of her home and she's a certified teacher who's been doing it for years. Everyone speaks highly of her and the preschool.

We observed for an hour yesterday and all London wanted to do was play with the trains. When we went to circle time he was all over the place and kept saying he wanted to play with the trains. We talked later and he said he didn't want to learn, he just wanted to play with the trains. I was watching all these kids sit still and participate and wondered if he was ready, or if they were like that because they were in preschool. We decided to give it a try.

London being excited to see me when I came to pick him up.

London had a great first day. I was a bit worried because he is still learning to play with other kids and share and so forth, but the teacher said he did really well, especially for a first day. There was this boy yesterday who was nice to him, (lets just call him Sam) and so today I asked him if he liked Sam. He said, "Sam call me names. I want Sam to stop." I told him that was sad and that he should ask him to stop, but that he was probably just trying to be friends. Hopefully this doesn't become an issue. London is bigger than him anyways, so he could take him. (Grandparents, that was a joke.)

But we are excited and it allows some great Mommy-Asher time too!