Christmas 2007

We had such a great Christmas this year. It was pretty low key, we spent Christmas Eve at Marcus' parents house and Christmas day with my family. Arlington is finally beginning to understand the present thing, she still had a hard time unwrapping all of her gifts first THEN playing with them. She loved her play kitchen and hasn't stopped playing with it since! Arli received so many domestic gifts this year. Before we had Arlington I was going to make sure that I didn't buy too many "girly" toys for her. I wanted to make sure she still played with plenty of "boy" toys . I've realized that she likes some "boy" things but REALLY loves all things "girl". Oh well I tried, hopefully next year I can encourage her to play with trains, or trucks or guns( just kidding)!

Christmas Traditions

This is actually the first year we've made gingerbread houses, so it's not exactly a Christmas tradition yet. My sister in law came up with the idea, she thought we should try to make real gingerbread for our houses. It was surprisingly easy, somewhat time consuming but worth it in the end. We had so much fun decorating the houses, thanks to my sister in law for such a great idea!

Arli had a good time just sitting and watching ( well most of the time). Her cousin Ryleigh did a great job at taking care of her!

A visit with Santa

I was so sure that Arli was going to flip out when she met Santa Clause. But to my surprise she actually sat on his lap, she barely moved a muscle but she did sit on his lap! He was however, a very good Santa Clause, real beard and all. Santa probably asked her about 4 times if she wanted a baby doll for Christmas, but all Arli could do was stare at his beard. Finally after the 4th time of asking she quickly said "Yes" and lunged for me! I think she would have said yes to just about any toy at that point!

This is the only picture we could get without her staring at his beard. And isn't he a cute Santa!

A belated Halloween

#2 and #3 reason's I haven't updated my blog

#2. I'm obviously not much of a multi-tasker, Arli has been sick several times in the last couple months and I haven't managed to do much else other than take care of her. Sick kids are exhausting! I guess it really makes you appreciate the times when they are healthy! She is finally getting better and seems to almost be back to her normal happy self, so now I can maybe get a few things done, like updating my blog!



#3.
Marcus and I have spent the last several evenings watching television, I don't know exactly how many hours we have wasted sitting in front of the television! It's really pretty sickening!!! Marcus decided to rent the DVD's for Season 1 of the television show Lost, I really didn't want to get addicted to another series, we spent one too many hours watching the 24 DVD's! But it looks like we've done it again, I actually asked the clerk at Blockbuster when the 3rd season would be out on DVD, I'm pathetic!!! Fortunately and Unfortunately the 3rd season won't be available until the end of December, so it looks like I have few months to be productive with my life and keep my my blog updated!

A trip to the Zoo

For some reason I have been wanting to visit the Hogle Zoo for such a long time, I just love the Zoo! I was hoping that Arli would be old enough to really enjoy seeing all the animals, but she didn't seem too impressed. We quickly found out that she only loves monkeys when they are in a picture in a book or stuffed, staring back at her through a thin sheet of glass isn't her idea of a good time. She did love seeing the Rhinoceros and the Elephants, I guess large animals don't scare her, just the small furry ones! Her favorite thing at the zoo was a large granite ball that looked like it was suspended in water, you could push it and it would roll through the water, this was the highlight of the trip.



















Arli had to first check out the map to find the best route through the zoo.


















Her favorite thing, Arli could have spent the entire afternoon playing with the ball.


















Staying VERY close to Dad!


















Even though Arli was scared of the monkey's she did manage to give her best "Oooo Ahhh"(that's "Hi" in monkey)



*Our trip to the Zoo took place about a month before we got our new camera, so these pictures are taking from Marcus' phone.

The "Incident"

The #1 reason I haven't updated my blog

Lisa: "So when are you going to be home, normal time? Around 6 or 7?"
Marcus: "Oh no much sooner, we're almost at the top of the mountain"
Lisa: "Sure you are, no really when do you think you're going to be home"
Marcus: "Really, we're almost there and then it should only take a few hours to get back down"
Lisa: "So we will see you around 7...(chuckle, chuckle)"
Marcus: "We will definitely be home before 5.......there was a little accident......I....um.....
Lisa: "ACCIDENT, WHAT HAPPENED, ARE YOU HURT?!!!!!
Marcus: "Oh no, not that kind of accident, I'm fine....it's just that.......um...the camera....well it went for a little ride down the mountain...
Lisa: "WHAT, what do you mean ride, where is it?!!!!
Marcus: "Well, I had it attached to the front of my backpack and I was climbing up a rock...and it it sort of fell off......and rolled down the mountain..."
Lisa: "Well wasn't it in the case? Did you see where it dropped, you should be able to go back down the mountain and get it!"
Marcus: "It was in the case for the first few hundred feet... then it started spinning and flew out of the case... and then CRASH! Lots of little camera bits shot out everywhere and a little camera spirit with a harp in hand started floating up to the heavens."
Lisa: "Are you serious Marcus?! Why would you have the camera strapped on the front of your backpack and not INSIDE your backpack?!
Marcus: ".......Well if I strap it on the front of my backpack then I have easy access to it, otherwise I would have to stop to take my pack off so I could get the camera.....I've always strapped my camera on the front of my pack.... I didn't realize it would come off that easily..."
Lisa: "... ... ...well there goes my blogging, and a few months of Arli's childhood... ... "
Marcus: "Did you by chance do a recent save of the photos on the memory card?"
Lisa: "Of course I did! I'm always one step ahead."
Marcus: "Good... I won't try to climb back down to it then... Just kiss it good-bye... just kiss it good-bye"
This picture (courtesy of mountainalbum.com) is of the guys looking down on the falling camera:(

It took a couple of months before we finally got a new camera, after the accident Marcus did his typical in depth research to find the best camera within our price range; fasted and prayed for a week and FINALLY was able to decide which one we should purchase. Well, the camera came and we found that the memory card didn't work; ahhhhhh! So we sent back memory card, ordered new memory card, new memory card came, tried out camera again, realized we didn't like camera......so we sold camera on ebay and purchased new model of old camera! Why we didn't do this in the first place, I do not know! New camera is here!!!! And we are very happy to be able to take pictures on something other than Marcus' phone.

*More blogging to come, it's been awhile; I need to take this slow and easy:)