McLean

This picture captures the essence of our Christmas Break pretty well

Much time was spent with this play doh

Breezy had a picture book about Elizabeth Cady Stanton that she was excited to read to Elliot. He is now fully up to speed on the women's suffrage movement. 

Annabelle with my Papa (my Mom's dad)

Four generations of ladies!

It snowed a thin layer one day. Elliot would have liked to stay out much longer than we did.

We got to see my old roommate Krusty! It is always good to catch up.

We spent our anniversary night playing laser tag at the good ol' Ultra Zone. Randomly, the Evans and Hekkings were there too! We had a blast storming bases and trying to decipher the scoring system.

We also took a sibling photo booth pic. 5 people really don't fit in those. 

 I love my family's New Years traditions. We do a movie marathon with Chinese food and pina coladas. We then switch to the countdown in Time's Square right before it happens, then let loose with party poppers. We talk about highlights of the previous year in between movies. It is nice having a movie major in the family to help us pick some obscure movies. My old friend Palmer and his boyfriend stopped by to say hi that night, which was nice of them.

We did a mini countdown with some of the poppers at Elliot's bedtime. For some reason, the camera focused on the midair streamer instead of the stationary people. 

The poppers were strangely terrifying this year. They seemed louder and more explosive than ever before. It added a pleasant layer of adrenaline to the evening. 

Welcome to 2018!

Elliot greatly enjoyed cleaning up the debris the next day

We made a trip to the Natural History Museum. The highlight for Elliot was probably lying in this termite tunnel. 

We got some awesome maroon sweatsuits from Grammie's house. Breezy and I wore them while doing an awesome 80's workout VHS.

Blake and Breezy are all about the photo shoots

Elliot bonding with his uncle Max over video games

Home again, home again (with a new orange backpack!)

Christmas at the Johnsons

We had some awesome flights this year. One was direct, and both were at completely normal times. Plus, our kids are at great ages to fly. Annabelle is young enough that she can fall asleep anywhere, and Elliot is old enough to be entertained for hours on a phone.

I love being at my parent's house for Christmas! I love the old familiar decorations and traditions. As the only grandchildren, Elliot and Annie got tons of attention. There is something heartwarming about watching your children being so loved by other people. It is fun having other people recognize how cool my little people are.

Making gingerbread houses with Mimi was a huge hit. Almost as exciting was sneaking little bites of it before Christmas.

Christmas Eve fondue- one of my favorite traditions, and one of Aaron's least favorite. 

We all got to sleep in on Christmas morning! Thanks, Elliot! We had a leisurely morning opening presents, then eating pull-aparts for breakfast. One funny moment was when Max opened a comic book style cook book. His diet in college consists primarily of chicken nuggets and taco bell, so mom is always trying to get him to cook more. He rolled his eyes and vowed to not change his chicken nugget ways no matter how much cooking support was provided to him. His next present was a big box. Mom made him guess what it was, and he guessed pots and pans. He opened it up and it was a Wii game console! The ol' Wii bait and switch. Classic.

Elliot had a blast. He appointed himself as gift distributor and enjoyed that almost as much as opening the presents. 

Elliot Turns 3!

The Buster Bubbs is now 3! His birthday was on the day before we flew out to Virginia for the holidays, and since our flight was out of Phoenix, we got to spend the evening with Mary. Elliot was thrilled about a "birthday party" with his cousins, and I was thrilled that all I had to do was bake some cupcakes. He loves playing with his cousins. We had to drag them down to sing, eat cupcakes, and open presents.

Here's a list of Elliot's favorite things to do:
-Fixing things with daddy. He will sprint to the garage to get some screwdrivers with very little prompting.
-Ninja moves on the couch
-Acknowledging the presence of his baby sister
-Drawing and coloring, though he seems to like telling me what to draw better than drawing himself
-Reading. He could spend hours having books read to him, and he sits and looks at books in his room during his "nap time"
-Friends, especially Wyatt and Carter
-Hanging out in the backyard playing with rocks. Or really doing anything outside.
-Watching "How It's Made" videos on YouTube. He gets one before bed/nap.
-"Super Why" and "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" are his favorite TV shows
-Helping me cook dinner, even though he usually refuses to eat it

Elliot is talking up a storm and loves learning new things. Whenever he sees me and Aaron hugging, he runs over and tackle hugs our legs. He is such a good big brother and loves teaching things to younger kids. He sure is a great little guy!

Wrapping Up 2017

Here's a smattering of blog-worthy memories from the end of 2017:

Elliot's first trip to the movie theater! We saw "The Star" with Wyatt. It was a hit.

Elliot shooting his eye lasers at Christmas decorations

May you always be this enthusiastic about cleaning the church

He told us we were bad guys and locked us in jail. Then he decided he was feeling left out, so he switched sides and locked himself in jail too. It was rather crowded. 

More armchair philosopher baby pics

There is a huge tree by city hall. Also a nice fountain I didn't know existed. It might have a few more rocks in it than it did before. 

Whacking the pinata at Wyatt's birthday party. All the 3 year olds had great reactions when they realized there was candy inside. 

HOLDING HANDS 😍😍😍

Elliot was the first kid to make it to Santa's lap at the ward Xmas party. He was so fast that I only got a picture of him running away afterwards. 

Elliot & Wyatt had a blast at a Christmas parade. They got to go see the lit up fire truck afterwards, and quickly developed a ritualistic game where they had to touch a specific bulb, sprint over to the tree, then repeat dozens of times. 

Johnny & Megan

Johnny & Megan's family was visiting Megan's parents in Oro Valley. We were able to have a few pleasant encounters before we flew to Virginia and they started their long drive back to Maryland.

Saturday was a whirlwind of activity. First stop: Pancake breakfast with Santa!

Santa was much better received than the Easter bunny. 

Next stop: Madera Canyon.

Some enthusiastic rock throwers

Also hole fillers

Aaron won Catherine's affection long agon

Now he has to work on earning the adoration of the next round of nieces

Elliot oh-so-slyly poking Aaron with a stick

Don't be fooled- this rock was really huge and you all should be impressed with our climbing skills. 

And then we capped the day off with a December swim in the heated pool. Well, Annie and I watched everyone else swim. The verdict was that it was not too cold! That's a pretty awesome perk to living in the desert- swimming pretty much year round!

A few days later, the kids and I met up with the whole Mikesell family (Megan's family) at the Zoo. Unfortunately, I was completely unable to get the double stroller into my truck. Apparently you have to turn the wheels a certain way to get the whole thing to click all the way folded. Anywho, Annie was the perfect sleeping baby at the Zoo while Elliot was his normal Zoo self. Meaning he mostly wanted to drop rocks between the bars of exhibits or sit on the sidewalk. Johnny and Megan took turns helping me push the stroller with Annie so that I could lug him around until he got too grumpy and we went home early.

A rare instance of actually looking at an animal

What he mostly does at the zoo

The exception is always the elephant displays

The Mikesells invited us to dinner followed by Winterhaven Lights a few days later. I failed to get any pictures with cousins in them, but rest assured that they were there. I liked getting to have some chats as we dragged our tired kids around. 

The snow machine was a hit

SO. MANY. LIGHTS.