The week before Christmas, we had a blast with friends playing in snow. We went sledding with the Tompkins. Here are 4 happy boys heading down the hill. Levi, like Wally at that age (and still), just wanted more and had the biggest smile!
Playing in the snow isn't complete without a snow angel.
Later in the week we had Wally's friend Joel over. We mad snowmen in the loop.
Throwing snow at Mommy while she is taking a picture is sure funny!
We stayed home for Christmas for the first time ever (in
Bozeman, we were always at Jason and Katie's house). It was nice to start our own family traditions (which mostly entailed a very relaxed, and laid-back week!). Grandma Mary and Papa Randy made it here hours before the big snow hit. While we waited for the big snow, Wally and Papa played with the artificial snow that
Gramma Kathy gave Wally. I'm not sure who thought the stuff was neater, probably Papa.
Right before we headed to church on Christmas Eve, Wally had to put on his cowboy clothes. Papa Steve's leather jacket is just a touch too big right now, but Wally will certainly grow into it. Wally worked very hard to cut strips of paper and tape them together to make a lasso. Wally then proceeded to wear his cowboy gear to church. Needless to say, he got a lot of comments and smiles out of people!
Moose and Daisy got all dressed up in their Christmas
bandannas (which is what might have triggered Wally's need of his cowboy clothes). Moose had to wear his for several days because it made him feel like a pretty princess. We took Daisy's off her quite often so she wouldn't eat it.
For Christmas Eve dinner, we had corn soup. It was good, but not like
Gramma Kathy's.
We did get to eat it out of snowman bowls though. Wally thought eating "snowman brains" for dinner was pretty good!
Once dinner was done, we announced to Wally that we could open presents. We first had to
let the pets open theirs. There were some tense moments while Wally (and Moose and Daisy) helped Scout open her present of kitty treats.
I made Joel and Wally matching Cubs scarves. Their smiles sure make me feel good.
My cute boys!
Then it was my turn to open my present from Joel and Wally. I had been asking Wally for a week to tell me what he had gotten me, but he was very good and kept telling me that I needed to wait until Christmas. Well, the boys had wrapped my new tea kettle in a box with an old blanket and a maraca to try to throw me off.
Wally's major present from us was a digital camera of his own (kinda a present to ourselves to make our camera last longer!). He was pretty excited. I will try to get a blog up soon of his photography.
Wally gave Papa a Bobcat. Papa liked it, but I'm not sure about
Gramma because it makes a lot of loud "realistic" noises!
Wally also got trucks (even a garbage truck!) from
Gramma and Papa. We were all getting tired at this point in the evening.
But I made them all smile again if they wanted to play trucks for a little while before bed.
Of course, we had to leave a note and cookies for Santa. I expected Wally to write, "For Santa From Wally." That would be too normal for Wally. He instead asked me how to "draw" "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit." I figured that would take too long, so we finally got it down to "1 little bit." As in, you must try one little bit of everything (that is a Team
Graff rule). So, Wally's not said, "1 little bit. (heart) Wally." The rest of the scribbles were "decorations."
On Christmas morning, Wally came into our room too early, so I let him crawl in bed hoping that he would fall asleep (not like that had ever worked in the past) as we hadn't mentioned Christmas. Well, it didn't work again, and before too long he said, "Let's go see what Santa brought me!" Wally got a book from school called, "Aliens Love
Panta Claus." In the book, aliens help Santa deliver presents and the aliens give all the kids
underwear and decorate the houses with
underwear. Wally loves the book, so Wally's stocking was replaced with
underwear and there was
underwear on the tree. That definitely got some giggles!
A happy boy on Christmas morning. Though we don't have a picture as it was too dark, when Wally found his ladybug
Pillowpet under the tree, he exclaimed, "Exactly what I wanted!" The kid loves stuffed animals!
We've been trying to get Wally to color pictures without just scribbling all over, as we know he can do it.
Gramma Janet and Papa Rob gave Wally some giant Handy Manny coloring sheets and a huge box of crayons. He has been working so hard and does a great job coloring in the lines! Thanks!
Wally and Grandma Mary had a great time playing trucks and blocks. Wally sure loves his garbage truck and dump truck! Thanks!
Isn't Papa cute?!?!?!!
We had our Christmas meal in the evening since I knew Wally would need a nap and then we didn't have to feel rushed cooking. That night as we sat around our Advent candles, we discussed what we were thankful for and what our favorite thing was that we did that day. Being Christmas, I figured Wally would say his favorite thing was presents from Santa or playing with his new toys, but in true Wally fashion, he said, "Taking a really long nap." What???
Me and my boy.
My Grandma Helen
Daughenbaugh's sister used to make these snowball candles, so my Dad's cousin Rust made some a few years back. I was saving it for a special occasion, so I figured Christmas at our house with my parents counted.
Wally kept saying things like, "Hey Momma, you know what would be more fun than a party inside? A snow party!" So, we had a couple snow parties outside. Wally is fascinated by time and clocks right now, so he makes up times for when things happen. Here, he decided we were going to have a snow party at 3:30.
Wally kept getting face fulls of snow. Not sure how that would happen!
We also had a lively game of tag with Grandma and Papa in the loop. We were all exhausted, except for maybe Wally!
Tackling Grandma was fun. She didn't know what was coming!
We should have just gone to a sledding hill as pulling Wally through the 7 inches of snow was hard work.
Sant brought Wally some Triops that were supposed to hatch and grow to be 2 inches long. The package said, "So easy, you can't fail!" Well, so easy if you have the exact right water and can keep it between 73 and 85 degrees and they get 16 hours of bright natural and artificial light... They hatched, they died. A lesson in life.
We had a great Christmas that was topped off celebrating my mom's birthday at a mexican restaruant. We brought our own party hats (as per Wally's request). I of course forgot my camera...
Mmmm...pie!
Wally can take close-ups of himself.
He liked taking pictures of the tree, but most pictures had lights blurring across the screen (he isn't very good at holding still while taking pictures).
He's also not very good at keeping the camera upright. But, knowing Wally, he probably knows exactly what he is doing, he's just being silly!
He loves his dogs.
And his garbage truck. He has a rapid fire finger, so when you click through the pictures, it looks like you are watching a movie. I think there were about 20 almost exactly like this one.
Maybe Dad got a hold of the camera and starting taking pictures of the dogs.
Pie!
This is the Alien book that resulted in underwear all over our house Christmas morning.
A new idea...close-up up-side-down self-portrait.
Scouty Babe wasn't left out of the picture taking fun.
And neither was Daisy's nose.
The camera does much better with a lot of light, so outside is best.
I think I actually took these because I wanted to see how it does.
I guess it is pretty obvious that he didn't take this one!
He's ready for the snow party!
And so is he!
Wally got creative and took pictures through one of his blocks with a hole.
The camera also has a zoom feature...zoom out...
Zoom in!
Hmm...this camera makes it look like Wally always has a dirty face just like our camera does!?!??
We took the camera to Joel's lab and Wally needed to "find someone to take a picture of all of us!"
We of course had to get a picture of the construction site outside of Joel's lab.
The camera is even a video camera and actually takes fairly good videos. I helped Wally a little with this one.
