2:24 whoa! talk about neglect!

Since this is my first post in 2010, I have a lot to catch up on.

Lets start with Christmas:

We Stayed home in Alexandria, VA to have a nice quiet holiday as a family. the big items Christmas morning were: Bar stools, New Glasses, a few gift cards, and a riding fire truck! Of course we all got clothes and a few random necessities.

Crawling out to see the presents under the tree, the first one he went for was of course the Fire Truck

Testing the scootability,

Scooting it,
still scooting,

Oh and it's also fun to sit on!

After Christmas we had a pretty uneventful January, which is part of the reason for no posts. Some of the daily things include, but are not limited to:

Snuggling in bed with Mommy and Daddy until they get up,

Getting all his fruits and other nutritional foods,

Drinking from a new sippy-cup, (this one is equipped with a straw)

Just being cute and playful,

and of course helping with the Costco groceries!

During that time of blog neglect, Xan has acquired a a knack for cruising. He's getting close to walking, but MANY people have said not to teach them to walk too soon. As much as I believe that a walking baby is more trouble, I don't have the heart to push him on his tush every time he tries to take a few steps on his own.

... here's a 2 min video of him getting around.

Let's transition into February-

We Had a Photo shoot for Xan's one year old pictures, but I'm not going to show you those yet. This saturday the 13th is his first birthday. Although we do plan on inviting people over, we don't really have a big party planned. I imagine we'll have family on Skype to watch him eat his cake, probably in the morning (which is of course the best time to eat cake!).

We've gotten a few calls from people concerned about our weather situation. Well let me illuminate the situation:

Friday the 5th it started snowing and into the night about 11:30 a tree branch fell, breaking a power line and blowing up the transformer. The arching electricity could be seen 100 yards from our bedroom window (SO COOL TO WATCH!), but unfortunately that power line was what supplied us with electricity. The plus side is that it was out while we were sleeping and restored again before we awoke. The down side, before power was restored, the fire alarm went off. So we braved the giant snow flakes of doom and stood outside waiting to see if it was real or just a false alarm. we would have sat in the car, but I didn't want to dig it out of the now fresh foot of snow. Before anyone froze we decided the lack of glowing yellow light and accompanying smoke was sign enough it was safe to go back in and sleep in a still mildly warm apartment.

We were all happy and safe again until Sunday when the power went out again. This was possibly the worst thing that could have ever happened! I had to take action and fix the problem, so I called a friend and invited myself and my family over to watch the super-bowl at their house! Of course I was thinking of my family, don't assume otherwise.

Our car, now 2' taller than before. Lucky the waist high drift was in front of the car

It'll still be there in the spring, Chanté.

He really is standing up. He disappeared when I thew him in.

Come back and play again!

And we will finish off with a snow video!

2:23 SNOW!

So it snowed. And when it snows here on the East coast, a lot of people freak out. It just so happened that 10 hours before snow hit the ground, the entire state of Virginia was in a state of emergency. This storm did however break records here as the biggest storm in Dec, EVER! The last time they had a storm comparable to this was in Jan of '66. so when we had to dig our car out of it's parking spot this morning, it was a big deal. the official for our neighborhood is 18". But the snow drifts made it almost 3 feet deep. like right behind the car.

I brushed the snow half off to prove there was indeed a car under there. We could have literally slid from the top of the car, over the trunk and onto the street without feeling any bumps.

As you see in yesterdays post, Xan experienced it and loved it!

2:22 It IS the most wonderful time of the year!

Yeah!!! It's Christmas time and it's snowing! Last winter we got hardly any snow (maybe 1 inch total) here in the greater D.C. area but today, it's only 10am and already we have 6 inches of snow. The forecasters say it won't let up till about 6am tomorrow morning. Here are a few pictures from Xan's first snow adventures this morning.

Also, my (Chanté) parent's came to visit for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun to have them here. Xan loved seeing his grandparents. There are a few pictures from that as well. Enjoy!

2:21 all Utah'd out.

So we've just had a blast being in Utah about every 2 weeks over the last two months. We've had good times and bad times... Who am I kidding? they we're all good times!! the only downer was sitting on a plane for 6 hours each time.

So some of you know why we were there, other's might have thought we were homesick... both be true, but we wanted to share a few pics from our excitement.

One of our first trips was for Charlene and Aaron's Temple Sealing. I'm so glad we were able to make it to this wonderful event. The Spirit was indeed strong during the ceremony and they were both beaming afterwords! and thats after 5 years of marriage already! congrats you two!

Next there was Bryant's wedding to Elisha. It too was a wonderful occasion! Even his little brother, Andrew's, best man speech was great! And I heard they had a Wicked honeymoon. I'm glad we have another sister on this side of the family! ;)

And of course the last time we journeyed to the land of temples was for the wedding of Chanté's sister: Kristy to Brett. We're so happy to have been there for their wedding.

The better side of the family!*

Stealth picture taking mode. Didn't see it coming 'till it was too late.

A whole bunch of misfits*, and a really cute red-head.

And now XANDER!!!

Attack mode. He's started Crawling and cruising, and would you believe he sprouted two more teeth?! The two front ones... before Christmas. Now we can't sing the song.

Mashed Sweet potatoes don't make good finger food.

At the Aquarium in Sandy, He was so excited that he is blurry in ALL the pictures.

Since Xan has been crawling he's quickly lost a roll or two in his thighs. He might just have his daddy's metabolism... or just that of an average baby who moves around all the time.

Yay!

*highly opinionated, but not dismissible as fact.

2:20 Random Pics

We haven't had a chance to blog recently so here's a few pictures from the last month or two to quench your Xan craving.

2:19 Strange on-goings on.

So The Strangest thing happened today. I woke up with a twitch in my left eye that feels like only half of the muscle is trying to blink, but it doesn't. So I asked a local Mom what she thought, and she gave me one of her remedies. The twitch gradually went away. I went home and ended up taking a long nap in the closet (it was just too bright everywhere else). about 9:00 this evening I woke up totally refreshed, so I got ready to go take a bike ride and walked by the mirror that hasn't been hung yet, And noticed I totally need a tan.

I'm just glad Chanté flies home at night. This global warming is making the sun brighter, and everything glares more. ick.

2:18 What I do when the wife is out of town.

So Chanté took a vacation with Xander and went to Utah to see the family and all. I got bored without her or Xan around so I did what I'm good at and caused some trouble.
The ugly chandelier that hung in the living room, now in my hand, felt ill and took a turn for the worst. Fortunately I'm a member of the local Freecycle group and someone offered a ceiling fan. So the chandelier got a funeral, and the fan was sustained (yes it's sunday, notice the white collard shirt) as the living room light source.

Two more things:

1) I meant to ask the apartment office if this was okay. But I forgot.

2) Chanté doesn't know either and I'm not telling her until she reads this blog or comes home.