Merry Christmas!!

Today, I experienced one of those moments as a parent when torn between laughing out loud or maturely offering parental advisement. Today, Xander was playing a new Playstation game and apparently losing. In frustration, he yells throughout our otherwise peaceful house, "Damn It!".

For the record, I opted for the mature route (though cracking-up on the inside).

Christmas has been wonderful thus far. Christmas Eve we got to spend some time with Jen (Jared's sister) and her family as well as time with Carey and the Baileys. The boys were pretty excited to see their newest cousin. Maxwell responds to the question, "Where did Baby Brig used to be?" with giggles and, "Aunt Carey's belly." I also asked him, "Where is Baby Brig now?" and received a response of, "Aunt Carey's house!" It is great fun to have family and friends to spend some of Christmas with. Jared got to give little magic lessons to his nephews and chess lessons to Jacob. We all got to hold the precious baby and give him loves. Maxwell loves holding the baby but with his three-year-old attention span he tends to walk off mid-hold. I got to finally try Carey's delicious coconut cream pie which I have witnessed her making on several occasions but never had the opportunity to taste until yesterday. Xander's family prayer last night included phrases such as: Please bless us to have a very merry Christmas. and This is going to be my bestest Christmas ever! I would have to say that it definitely has been our bestest Christmas ever. On the way home from Aunt Carey's, Elijah was talking non-stop about Santa Claus. He said, "Maybe we will hear Santa's bells and wake up. It will be fantastic! It could only be one thing: Santa Claus!" Xander received a telescope and a set of two-way radios. Elijah received a Smart Globe by Oregon. Maxwell got a kid tough camera (really works with a view screen and everything) which he walked around the house taking close-up pix of everything. We hope this will provide protection for my camera. Jared got a flying lesson which I just found out today he gets to take a friend along for. Yay! We will get to fly over Phoenix checking out the view from above. My parents are trying to figure out a way to spend some time here in January which would be wonderful and Jean (Jared's mom) should be here tomorrow night. We are so blessed with such a loving family. We love you all. I will share more soon.

Last night Xander kept saying, "I rememberized it." when referring to his Safari Rush Hour game. And FYI Jared enjoyed playing Safari Rush Hour as well. The pix of Baby Bailey are in the process of moving to the end of the photos. They will probably be on one of the four last pages.
Maxwell completed his first 24 piece puzzle today all by himself. Xander is working on completing his first lego build set for the second time by himself. For Xander's birthday he received the game "Don't Break the Ice." I have now played it a billion times with each of the children. On Sunday the three boys were playing what they called "Don't Break the Door Tag" with their tent and tunnel. The object was to play regular tag running through the tent without breaking open the velcroed tent door.

Before Xander's birthday party, he was telling me how excited he was to have a party and to get lots of presents. I told him that birthday parties were not just about presents. He quickly responded, "I know, it's about Jesus." I think he's got his fatherly, holiday lectures mixed up.

Last night, I was helping Xander play a game he got from Wendy, Sara's mom. It is a thinking game called Safari Rush Hour or something like that. He was struggling with one of the puzzles and threw his head on his hand and said, "I am thinking hardly."

BTW, after the kids went to bed, Sara tiptoed in and then out of their room with this game in hand and ready to play.

We successfully held Xander's birthday party on Saturday! The guests were Sam, Daniel, Seth, Jennie, Alexis, Ryan, Braiden, and Caleb. Mostly the time was spent free play but we also built ice cream sundaes with cookies, played at the playground, and played pin the Spiderman on the tallest tower. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. One of my friends brought their baby. I was holding her and Maxwell was chasing me down the hall yelling, "Mom, I want to hold that! I want to hold him." She is a girl. The boys opened their goody bags after their friends left and really enjoyed playing with the little toys in there.

Portugal Porto Mission
Enters the MTC on April 18, 2007
Includes some islands.
Will speak Portugese.

My newest nephew-favoritest newborn in the whole universe born today:

Brigham Newell Bailey- goes by Brig
8 lbs 5 oz
21 1/4 inches
lots of blonde hair
has my mouth apparently
Newell is Todd's great-grandfather's middle name
born at 2:30 PM on 12-13-2006

Yesterday was Xander's birthday! I can't believe how old he is getting. In the morning Xander told Jared he had been laying in his bed thinking of how fun his birthday was going to be. We had to run some errands yesterday and so we started out the morning at Wal-Mart. Xander said it was supposed to be his fun day and he was not having fun. We went to pick out his cake and ice cream and birthday dinner and all of the sudden he was having a great time. He told me he wanted an orange cake again which is what we had last year. (It was disgusting.) I would have made him a Better than Cake but he declined and kept insisting upon an orange cake because that is his favorite flavor.

I have added a lot of photos and will be adding many more over the next few weeks. Be sure to look!

Over Thanksgiving break, Elijah was a very good host for his aunt Stephanie. For lunch, he made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for everybody. Each time he would start a new sandwich, just like Sara, he would yell across the house to ask everybody's preference.

Although the answer never changed regardless of whom he asked, every time he began a new sandwich, he would yell, "Do you want peanut butter, jelly, or both?"