In case you were wondering what the look of pure guilt looks like around my house, here you go:Here he is being caught in the act of climbing in the tub. It's not the safest fun and is certainly something he has been told not to do countless times. Zander is so cute and we love him so much, but he can be quite a naughty little thing. He is at that age where he can't always communicate what he wants so he gets frustrated. He has unfortunately learned a few good ways to throw fits from Brinton, so it feels like this is happening too early. Luckily, he is still nice to Conley. However, he has deliberately hit me before when he's mad (not that it hurts), so I tell him no. (Quite sternly, might I add.) He will seriously just laugh at me with such a genuine laugh and it ends up being funny to me so I have to hurry and turn away so I can laugh without him noticing. I suppose my brother, Scott, has been teaching him lessons about making things funny to avoid punishment. Don't be fooled, we give him a lot of attention, so I don't think this is his cry for help. He just thinks that naughtiness is happiness (and sometimes he's right). I must admit that I don't enjoy dealing with his tantrums, but after the fact, I can always laugh. (Oh and if he's being bad but Steve is in charge, it is always funny right then!) Zander is in to everything possible and he has some serious determination, that's for sure. He has had and probably always will have the bruises to prove that one since he wants to be as big as Brinton. There's also no changing his mind or helping him forget about something he wants. Zander can really hold his own in a fight and steals things from Brinton all the time (sad). We are hoping that the cuteness will stay and the naughtiness will go away quickly, ha ha. In the meantime, we will just love him because he really is quite the bundle of fun!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of Steve in these glasses. For Christmas, my parents gave us dinner, a movie and babysitting. It was really nice because we hadn't been on a date since before Conley was born. Before he came, we were going out every week. We saw the movie Avatar in RealD3D. The above picture is Steve wearing his 3D glasses. He thought they were cool and decided not to recycle them at the end of the show. Instead, he wore them for the drive home (even though it was getting dark). He makes me laugh, what a nerd. When we got to my parents' house to pick up the kids, Steve gave the glasses to Brinton who was immediately excited with them. They've been wandering around my house ever since. While we were gone, Conley had his first bottle. The report I received was that he drank it with ease but had a crusty on his face the whole time. Formula just isn't the same, and he knows it. Anyway, we had a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend that movie, it was great. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us go out on a date!

In case you were wondering; if you find yourself coloring online and see that the monkey in the picture has goggles on . . . you may soon learn that you have to go find your own goggles and finish the picture while wearing them. Jammies - optional.

I have never understood why men can fall and stay asleep so easily. I was going to take a couple pictures of Conley and I sat him up for about two seconds and he just fell asleep there. How he can stay there while sleeping is beyond me. There have been plenty of times Steve falls asleep while sitting. I just don't get how that works. I haven't been lucky enough to just fall asleep within seconds of going to bed, but I swear, all men do it with ease. It's frustrating when you want to be asleep, but can't! Anyway, I thought it was funny to have a sitting picture of Conley while he's sleeping. I think he gets that from his Dad. Conley is two months old and cute as can be. I don't have his doctor's appointment until next week, so I don't have his official stats yet. However, I think he weighs somewhere around eight pounds. He is so big to me even though he's probably about the average size of a newborn now. I think he's contemplating smiling at me and he's done it a few times. Hopefully, he'll be a little cheeser soon. I love when they are so smiley and I'm waiting for it. Conley coos a lot and I'm pretty sure he tries to fake cry on purpose, too. He's so much fun to have around and we love him so much!

We've had some fun in the snow this year. Brinton and mostly I made a snowman at my parents' house while Steve was working on a slide for sledding. My Dad was plowing the snow in their sunken patio toward a certain area so Steve could use the snow for the slide, but because there was so much snow, the plow wasn't heavy enough. I was laughing so hard when I looked out the window to see Steve riding with my Dad, trying to be heavy enough to push all that snow where they needed it. The hill he made is pretty impressive, with some detailed stairs up to the top. Both Brinton and Zander have really enjoyed sledding and they are so cute all bundled up. Not only did they enjoy going down the slide, but having me drag them up the hill was exciting.

This year we had a typical Christmas. We just do one or two presents from us because by the time Santa, grandparents and sometimes cousins give gifts, they have enough. We didn't even get Conley anything though. Is that bad? I know he didn't care and Brinton was too young to even notice, so I figure we should save our dollars when we can get away with it. I don't like Christmas to be all about presents anyway, so we don't really talk about them that much (since we can control that at this point). Brinton and Zander went through their Christmas stockings and found goodies while they waited for me to finish getting ready for the day. At that point, we all opened up our gifts. The boys had so much fun. Brinton of course had to help everyone else open their presents and Zander didn't mind sharing the fun with him so it worked out well. Steve got me a touch tablet that hooks up to the computer and I can draw on it. It's pretty cool and since I have started digital scrapbooking/cardmaking more, it will come to be quite useful!The best part of Christmas Day to me is visiting with family. My parents do a Christmas brunch every year and it is so yummy. We always have french toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, orange juice, chocolate milk, and aebleskivers (which are sort of like a pancake in a ball). Aebleskivers are a Danish food and since I have that in my heritage, it's fun to have them once a year! My Mom always cooks the aebleskivers and we all help with the rest. There are now 23 grandchildren in my family, with one more on the way. One of my brothers and his family weren't able to come (since they live in Cali), but it's still pretty busy without them. After the brunch, we opened gifts from my parents and played some games. I am fortunate to have four of my five brothers along with my parents all in Utah County. We get together a lot and I absolutely love it.After visiting with my family, we stopped by Steve's Dad's house. He has recently moved because he got married in October. We visited with Wade and his new wife, Pam, and some of her kids. I was happy to find that some of her daughters love Nancy Drew games on PC. I can totally connect on that one. Steve likes to make fun of my gaming because there have been a few late nights playing games, especially Nancy Drew. However, don't let him fool you. It's not like I stay up all the time playing games. Anyway, Brinton and Zander got a stick horse and stick bull from Grandpa Bodell. They didn't play with them much on Christmas, but after a few days, they figured out exactly how they work. Unfortunately they have morphed more into swords now, but I have hopes that they will use them correctly again :) Conley got a couple of stuffed animals and Brinton wanted to be sure that he played with them. He was so proud of his work that he needed to be in a picture with Conley and the toys, silly boy.

For Christmas Eve this year, we were lucky enough to spend the evening with some of our best friends. They have a tradition on Christmas Eve to have a Texas-style dinner. Which I found out basically means everything is fried. I am quite the fan of delicious, unhealthy food so it was great. Who would have thought you could fry a pickle and not want to barf when you eat it? We also brought our traditional Christmas Eve gifts (jammies) and opened them there. It worked out great because they do the same thing. We had a great evening visiting, reading a Christmas story, opening presents, and of course eating. Thanks, Jake and Marcie, for the fun!