Christmas

We had so much fun over the Christmas holiday this year. We had two parties on Christmas eve. One with Stephen's family and one with some of my extended family. Then the day after Christmas we got even more of my extended family together. It is great to see all the family we don't get to see that often.
We had a wonderful Christmas with our family. It was nice just to spend the day at home.
When Joseph woke up that morning he did not want to come upstairs to our room. Instead he sat at the gate to the downstairs waiting to go see what had happened there on Christmas eve. We didn't get up until 8am. Stephen and I joked it will probably the latest we will get up on Christmas morning until we have all teenagers.
Stephen's family have a tradition of taking pictures on the stairs on Christmas morning. So here is the best shot of the boys.
Both boys were spoiled. Aaron got another bouncer toy (I didn't want to take the exersauser up and down stairs so we got one for the office because he spends a lot of time with us up there), a brown bear rug, lots of puffs, baby food and a couple of little toys. Joseph got a lot. He is at that age where we can go through any store and find lots of little inexpensive toys that he would love. So we got a lot of those toys for him. He got a tool kit, soccer ball, a camera, a train, a little gituar and lots of stuff to color and draw with. Stephen really wanted to get Joseph a stick horse. Because he would use his pillow as a horse. But we could not find stick horses anywhere. So Stephen made a stick horse for Joseph. It is absolutely beautiful and Joseph loves it.
In my family we always take a picture will all your "loot". So there is a picture of the boys with most of what they got for Christmas. We also got the boys matching coats and Mickey sweaters. And every year we get a teddy bear for Christmas. We also get a family game every year. This year we got a table top air hockey game. Joseph and Stephen have a lot of fun playing with that one.
For the rest of the day we just played with the new toys and ate popcorn all day. We also watched the Muppet Christmas Carol. Joseph had so much fun that he crashed in the middle of eating popcorn.
This was the first year where Joseph really got what was going on. We talked a little about Santa but not much because I don't want that to be the center of our Christmas celebrations. We talked a lot about our Savior and the reason we celebrate his birth. My Mother-in-law got nativity advent calendars for all her kids about 6 or 7 years ago. This was the first year we really used ours. It was a great way to help teach Joseph about the birth of Jesus Christ. I am truly grateful for this season. For all the time we get to spend with our families. And for the chance we get to really focus on the Savior's birth. We truly hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas. And a Happy New Year!

A quite couple of weeks

Its been pretty quite here the last couple of weeks so we haven't really posted. We have just been busy setting up Christmas, buying and wrapping the presents and just having some family time. The picture here is from Saturday when we got snow again. The minute that Joseph saw it was snowing he wanted to go build a snowman. The snow was so powdery that Stephen had to sprinkle water on it to get it to stick. But they still had fun putting the snowman together. Also if everything goes to plan we will close on our old house before the end of the year. They are trying really hard to close before Christmas, but the deadline for closing is the 29th. We will let you know when it closes. It will be very nice not to own two townhomes any more.

Chatter-Box Aaron

Aaron has been making "Blah, blah, blah" and "Goo-goo" sounds for a while now, but it has just been the last day or so that he has really started to jabber. Here is a video of one of his latest conversations.

Family Pictures

I am so lucky to have a wonderful husband who happens to be a pretty good photographer too! This past week with Thanksgiving we got to host my side of the family. While we had all four grandkids together we decided to get some pictures. So here is a very small sampling from that shoot. We did try to get all four together but they did not cooperate for that shot. It was a tough shoot with four boys as kids usually are. But I think we got some good shots. Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving Andrew!

We recently found out that my younger brother on his mission can view our blogs on his p days. So this post is for him.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ANDREW!!!!! We hope you are doing well and working hard. We love and miss you.

Aaron's Drs appointment

We had to delay Aaron's doctors appointment for a week so we finally went today. He is healthy and well. He is exactly or a little ahead of where he should be for his age.

He is 26 1/2 inches tall (50%)
19 pounds 4 ounces (80%)
Head circumference is 46 centimeters (80%)

In other words he is chubby with a big head.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Josephism 10-31

My friend posts Bradisms on her blog. Just little funny thing her son does or says. I have loved those posts so I am going to do Josephisms.

This one happened back on Halloween. When we got back from Trick-or-treating Joseph was really excited to eat his candy. He had gotten quite a bit. So I gave him a few pieces and started going through the rest. He would come back every few minutes or so to get some more. Once I had gone through it all I hid the candy because he had already had quite a few pieces.

He went up to see his dad and when he came back downstairs and spotted his pumpkin. Picked it up with a big smile on his face that quickly went away when he realized that it was empty. He put his face into the pumpkin and yelled "Candy, where did you go?" He was so sad that his candy was gone.

Just a minute or so later a group of Trick-or-treaters came to the door. Joseph quickly grabbed his pumpkin and came up to my side. He held out his pumpkin and said "Trick or Treat". It was so cute I just had to give him one more piece of candy. He has figured out Halloween. We went to Stephen's parents house a day or two later and Joseph had to take his pumpkin along with him he wanted to go Trick-or-Treating again.

Some Fun Videos

Here are a couple of videos I have made lately of the boys.

Asleep in the cart.

Joseph has now fallen asleep in the shopping cart a couple times now. He used to take an afternoon nap, but about 3 months ago he started to refuse to. Now about 2-3 times a week he takes a nap if he runs out of steam. On this particular day (Nov. 1st), he was with us at Costco and he just couldn't last any longer. All of our fellow shoppers thought it was the cutest thing.



Teething

We think Aaron is starting to teeth. He is generally irritable, his gums seem swollen, and he is much happier when we give him a teething remedy. This is his first encounter with a frozen teether. He seems to like it. I know not many other people will care, but the color came out yellow-orange, and it does bug me enough to comment about it a couple times during the video. Sorry about that.



Paper Monster

Like most kids who end up loving the wrapping paper over the gifts, Aaron is on his way to being a great Paper Monster. I was trying to work at my desk this morning and Mr. Irritable wanted to be held. He was trying to grab any paper he could reach off of my desk. I didn't want him ruining any important papers, so I started "feeding" him some of my note papers (like a sticky note, but without the "sticky"). Wow, "feeding" was right, in no time they were slobbery remnants of what they once were. Here is the evidence.

Aaron is 6 months old.

Where has the time gone. I probably missed a lot due to lack of sleep ;) It is hard for me to believe that my little guy, well he really is not that little anymore, is now 6 months old. He has a beautiful smile that lights up a room. He absolutely adores his big brother and loves to watch everything he does. I can tell that Aaron is going to be a daddy's boy just like his brother. He loves to watch and try to figure things out. He loves to put things in his mouth. He is starting to get some teeth trying to break through. He sits up really well when he wants to. And he is so close to rolling over that it will probably happen in the next week or two. He loves to eat and he has the size to prove it. I think his favorite is Oatmeal, but he likes his Rice, Green beans and Carrots too.
I feel so very blessed to have him and his brother in my life. I wouldn't want to imagine what my life would be like without them. Stephen and I are so lucky to have two absolutely wonderful boys.
I took a picture of Aaron last week and it reminded me of a picture that we have of Joseph. The first one is of Aaron is about a week before he turned 6 months and the second photo of Joseph is about a week after he turned 6 months. I just thought it would be fun to see what they both looked like at about the same age. There is quite a size difference! Aaron's 6 month checkup is on Monday. I will post his stats when I get back from the appointment.

Fun times at the ER!

Saturday night we noticed that Joseph had started sounding like he was getting some congestion. At first we thought he might have swallowed some bath water, but he wouldn't cough it up. We gave him an expectorant to help, but he still wouldn't cough it up. So finally we call the Doctor's office. He told us that Joseph was probably getting a little cold. So we put him to bed thinking he had a cold. Well in the middle of the night he came into our bed and joined us. He loves to snuggle between Stephen and I. At about 4:30 Stephen woke me up. Joseph sounded awful. His congestion was really bad and he had a fever. So Stephen took him to the Emergency Room. They gave him breathing treatments (which he hated and screamed the entire time) and took a chest x-ray (which he also didn't like). For the x-ray they had to basically tie his hands behind his head and Stephen had to hold his legs down. He really didn't want to be there. The doctor told Stephen that Joseph had the Croup.

Before this happened I did not know what the Croup was. So I had to google it when Stephen called me and told me what Joseph had. Croup is a viral infection that causes swelling of the vocal cords. Which makes it sounds like congestion when it is not. They also get barking type cough.

Then they gave Joseph a breathing treatment with some medication in it. Then had to observe him for three hours. Aaron and I got to the hospital at about 8:45 or so. So we could switch places. Stephen took Aaron home, we didn't want him to be in the hospital long, and I stayed with Joseph. Joseph got all excited when he saw Stephen getting ready to leave, he really wanted to go. But he and I stayed. The Doctor cam and saw him when his 3 hours were up a little after 10. He had responded to the treatment really well. So we could go home. Joseph was so excited that he nearly ran out without me.

He is doing well. Just taking it easy and drinking a lot of juice. It will take a few days for him to get over the virus. It is just like a cold. You can't really take anything for it, just have to let it run it's course. We should be out of "quarantine" by the end of the week.

Here is a picture that Stephen emailed to me from the hospital. It is of Joseph getting ready for the chest x-ray.

Some things to check out

Here are a couple things I have found lately that I thought I would share.

My sis-in-law just started a blog to share recipes. It is fun to get new recipes from friends. Here is the link to that blog.

Also I was turned on to this blog by someone in our ward. It is really funny. I just thought I would share this link as well.

Enjoy!

Halloween a little late.

We are finally posting our Halloween photos! These shots are from our friends Halloween party. The first shot is of Pooh Bear (aka Aaron), a cow (aka Lucy) and Thing 2 (aka Wyatt).
The second shot is of Tigger (aka Joseph), a Fireman (aka Brad) and Thing 1 (aka Anela). We didn't get a picture of the boys together. We might have to fake a shot later.

We had a wonderful time for Halloween week. It started at the Baker's party. Then we had a neighborhood party and finally the day itself. Joseph went Trick or Treating for the first time and got a lot of candy. We are still eating it.

Joseph thought it was fun to dress up as Tigger. His costume had a voice box in one of the hands. But his costume got very hot so it usually didn't last long. He also liked that Aaron was Pooh Bear.

It's snowing!

We woke up this morning to snow. Well there wasn't much at first but by early afternoon there was enough to play in.

Joseph was so excited to go play in the snow. He and Stephen decided to build a Snowman. This was Joseph's first snowman. I don't think we made one last year.

Joseph didn't want to stop. We didn't have coal or buttons for the eyes and nose so we used the best alternative we could think of - suckers from Halloween! We used red tootsie pops for eyes and a blow pop for the nose.

It is fun to have snow on the ground again. I'm sure that Joseph will be asking to go play in it all the time.

Stephen Starts a Photoshop Blog

We'll I have been thinking about starting a blog on Photoshop for a long time. I tried to start one more than a year ago, but the interface wasn't as simple as this interface. After a couple months blogging on here about our family, I decided that this was easy enough and working well.

The interface wasn't the whole story, I was just busy. I figure I still am, somewhat, but I do have enough time now to try again.

Now, I am sure there are plenty of Photoshop sites out there. I've even used them myself. So I doubt I'll supplant any or become the most comprehensive, or more unique, or most of anything. I am sure that much of what I will discuss is a repeat of other's writings, etc. But I do know that I have some tricks that I have never see elsewhere, and I am willing (I think) to share them.

My first post isn't anything special. I figure I have to cover some basics first, and even then I am sure some of the basics will be news to someone. For example, I know for a fact that about 80% of the people I talk to don't know what the difference between PPI and DPI is, and I discuss that in the first tutorial post.

So here is the link to it:

The Photoshop Guru

A Laundry basket makes a wonderful boat!

Last week Joseph decided that he wanted to make our laundry basket into a boat. Then he wanted Aaron to sail with him. He would sing Row, Row, Row, Row. I think he forgot there was more to the song. Then he would use his hand as a paddle and pretend to push himself along. So here are a couple of pictures and a video of them sailing in their boat.

Music Hour at the Bair's

Joseph is warming up more and more to songs, especially now that he is getting to know and remember them more and more. I sometimes walk by him watching a TV show that I didn't even know he had ever seen, and he knows half of the theme song.

He has been into music actually for a while, but more playing the drums. In these videos he shows just how much he loves to pretend to play instruments. He loves the drums most of all. You do catch a glimpse of him playing a fake guitar (pens are the props throughout, so he is strumming a pen while mommy does the drums). Not captured on camera is the occasional wind/ brass instrument. I don't know which it is, because he doesn't know the name of the instrument to tell me. But since a pen is used, it looks like a clarinet. (EDIT: you actually don't see him strumming the "guitar," but you see Jen, and she does it the way he does it).

And finally we got him to actually sing. He did great until I started to help him. I think being helped/ corrected makes him shy. The same shyness showed up on his birthday. It really isn't that he hates us singing, I think he doesn't like it when he feels left out because he doesn't know the words and it is new.

Have fun.

Chutes & Ladders

One of the games Joseph got was Chutes and Ladders. Here are some videos from the first board game he has ever played (and the fisrt time playing it) on Sept 28th.

Some Birthday Stuff

When there is more than one birthday in any given month for my family, we tend to have one birthday celebration for all the birthdays. In September we have Joseph, Jen, my sister-in-law Miriam, and Joseph's cousins Jacob & Desiree. Also in October is my sister Tamara, so we threw her into this party as well. It was on Sept 28th.

Here is Joseph getting his gifts parts 1 & 2 (the camera shut off during transfer, so we started it up again)

Playing Soccer

We've heard that some of you are not liking the fact that our move has kept us from blogging. I also understand that photos have been requested. I don't have many photos to share (funny, because I am a photographer) because the family candids are shot on a camera that I don't possess. I use our point and shoot camera, sure, but Jen knows where it is when we are at home, and she stores and catalogs the photos.

What I do have access to is my (poor quality) cell phone videos. They aren't anything to write home about, but they do the job.

This was at Sandra Buhler's blessing luncheon. Sandra is related to Joseph, because her mother is my 3rd cousin (Megan's maiden name is Bair), but (as many of you know) we know Megan really because she was Jen's room mate.

So there you go:

We are in the new place.

Well we are now in our new home. Still living between boxes. The move went smooth. We still have some stuff at the old place but we still own it so we can get it at any time. We will post more later but I need to go unpack some more boxes!

The Fair!

As promised (but a few days late [the move, showing the house, and weddings have kept us busy]) here are the fair videos. They are pretty self-explanatary. The Duck Pond (second-to-last video) is a bit long. The "operator" wasn't to quick on the draw.

Also I don't like how they changed the game. You used to pickup a duck and get your prizes based on the number on the bottom (a 1, 2, or 3 was on the bottom). The higher the number, the better the prizes and there was a "game" to it. Now, you pay the amount of money based on the size of prize you want, the kid picks up the prescribed number of ducks, puts them back and they get the prize. No surprise, no chance, no game.

Joseph Turns 3!!!

It is Joseph's Birthday, September 4th. We originally had planned to buy a house for Joseph on his birthday (we were going to the title company to sign for the new place this morning), but plans changed and we did that yesterday.

While Joseph will love his new house (we hope, at least we know he loves his closet), we have come up with a better plan -- one we know he will love today.

We are taking him to the fair to see the goats, pigs, sheep, cows, bunny rabbits, horses, etc!

We know he'll love it. He might not enjoy some of the things we have him try (he still has a healthy dose of fear, and the pony ride may or may not scare him to death).

So we'll probably post again tonight with photos and videos from that.

But for now, we leave you with his traditional (from Jen's family, and I seem to remember it happening once or twice at my home growing up as well) pancake in the shape of how old he is.

Moving Date

We've nailed down a moving date. It is the 11th (Thursday) at 5 p.m. here at our town house:

We're having asking both wards to help, but we're hoping some of you who have offered will come as well. That way (if we get enough hands), we can get it done that night (both load and unload).

So if you can't make it at 5 p.m., but are available later, please come anyway. We might be unloading at our new address by the time you show up (and there we might need more help anyway, our current ward should come out in force, who knows about the other ward). Our new address will be:

It points you to the entrance of the complex. We are in the opposite corner from the entrance, and the U-Haul (or equivalent) will give it away in any case.

We're planning on getting much of the small, fragile, and even boxed stuff (as much as possible) out of the way before the move. That way it should be mostly furniture. And we all know that moving 20 pieces of furniture beats 100+ boxes of equivalent volume - anyday.

Aaron's Blessing Outfit (finally)

Well, we finally took some photos of him in his blessing outfit. He's getting so huge we've been worried he wouldn't fit anymore. Anyway, share and enjoy. Also, if you didn't know, you can always click on the photos we post and a larger (sometimes full-size) version will load on your screen. That FYI is for any of you who want to print it, or need a new screen saver ;-). These are saved for a full-size 5x7" @ 300 ppi.

Anyone want to buy a Townhome?

If anyone knows of anyone looking for a cute little town home please give them this link http://www.utahrealestate.com/828640 . The ward is fantastic and the neighborhood is nice. The government is offering incentives to first time home buyers and this is a great first home. We have loved it.

It's Going on the Market

Well, we decided to just get our current townhome on the market. We had wanted to move out first and not be showing it while living here. (Keeping it spotless with two kids and two business in the house is tough).

But a shortsell in the complex might devalue our place once it closes (and we just noticed it at the end of last week). Plus some governement incentives end at the end of September. And we don't want it still trying to be sold come November/ December (I haven't gotten a professional opinon on it, but I don't think those holiday seasons are seller's markets).

So with all of those reasons, we figured we'd put it up and see what happens.

We'd also planned some upgrading on the kitchen floor and other improvements, but like I said, we figured why not see what happens. Maybe we can get it sold without the improvements.

Our great friend Rob came over right after a seminar and helped us get the paperwork filled out, but because he was running over after the meeting, he didn't have his photo gear. I didn't mind, I figured I could find a way to get some decent shots.

Are you kidding? I was thrilled to do it myself. As Jen put it to Rob, "No problem, in fact Stephen is a bad back-seat driver when it comes to photography, so it is probably better this way." Amen to that. Now Rob is no novice, either. He was once part of the Bair Photography "team" and he shot some weddings when I was already booked. Then he left it behind when he got into real estate. So I am sure he is capable, but it is something I was happy to do.

Plus, I got to use my 12-24 mm lens. I never have need to use this landscape/ architecture super-wide zoom. Probably because I am always too busy shooting people (I shoot people for a living, btw [I just like saying that {a lot}]).

Anyway, I couldn't get Rob out of the house soon enough. I was loosing my evening light for the front door shot! Here are the photos for your enjoyment.

Front door


Covered Parking and Storage Units


Living Room


Half Bath (1st Floor)


Kitchen


Dining Area (Laundry Closet on the Left)


2nd Bedroom


2nd Flr Bath (door removed, eh)


Another View of 2nd Bath


Master Bedroom

The master bedroom shot is the most disappointing to me. We didn't want to have to get the office stuff in there, so it looks smaller than it is. In fact with all the office stuff in there now -- the room in person also looks smaller than it is.

But oh well, it is going up tomorrow, and perhaps it will sell faster this way.