three weeks of christmas.

well, it's over already. last i posted, we were just so excited for christmas to be coming, and now, it's not coming again for another year. boo. we took down all our decorations and our house looks so barren now. more organized, but barren. 

when levi finally finished finals, he spent the next few days studying for his national board exams and then we were free to enjoy our three weeks of freedom! to start, we went with some friends down to san carlos to see candy cane lane. some of the money people invest in their christmas lights is incredible. 

these are some of zaky's girl friends. he's quite the ladies man in our mother's club. 

of course, this was zak's favorite part. the train lights. 

zak and penelope. "his favorite" according to him. 

zak got the sweetest deal and had two christmases this year because we didn't want to haul all his presents up north. 

we spent the wednesday before christmas eating a delicious breakfast, drinking hot chocolate and opening presents. zak got a bagillion trains. and a train table from his grandparents. his parents got him a cash register and food, which we thought was cool, but let's be honest how can that compete with trains? 

greysen got clothes because his parents don't think he needs any more toys. and he really didn't care. 

zak also enjoyed opening greysen's presents, like this giant train from his aunt and uncle. unfortunately, he thinks any train related presents are his. 

we spent our christmas in the canadian arctic and had a great time. zak has been stoked for weeks to go to canada and go on the airplane. 

don't judge his pink suitcase. his parents need to buy him another one. but alas, we're too cheap. plus, his favorite color is pink anyways. 

this was the first time zak has seen snow and remembers it, so that was an adventure. he loved it for about 10 minutes, being that the temperature never got above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and again, his parents are too cheap to buy him real snow boots for the one time every other year he's in the snow so he was using his cousins rain boots with 10 pairs of socks, i imagine his feet got a wee bit chilly. 

we got to do a temple session with levi's parents and siblings, so that was kinda fun. plus, it started snowing while we were in there, and i was loving it. it was fabulous, i forgot how much i love the snow and my scarves/boots etc. 

we got family pictures done while we were up there, with all the boys, it was an adventure. but they're so cute so i hope they turn out somewhat decent. 

our matching pj's. and the boys robes. so so cute. 

christmas eve we did fondue and it was delish. 

 we started greysen on solids while we were up there via baby led weaning and he has been loving it. he's eaten/gnawed cucumbers, squash, broccoli, oatmeal, bananas, apple, rice cakes, taco soup, sweet potatoes and much more. he's been loving it so much and is obsessed with being able to eat by himself. 

zak did not care for the fondue at all. he was rather obsessed with playing with his cousins, and not worried at all about eating. 

christmas morning came and of course, someone got some more trains. lucky dog. santa didn't know that he was going to get so many trains, otherwise he wouldn't have brought him so many. 

christmas day, we spent outside for a bit, because it was beautiful. look at that freshly fallen snow. 

it's boggling my mind that the next time we will be in canada, we will be moving there. cu-razy. we are officially 1/2 done dental school. i can't believe it's gone so fast! 

sickies.

today we stayed home from church because the men/boys all got sick. it was quite unfortunate, but somehow they all were well enough for some of this goodness: 

except for zak would not touch my masterpiece, he had to have a different pancake. i say that proves how awesome we are. ;) 

we then continued the day with this:

 costco sells pre-built gingerbread houses. best. invention. ever. because who really wants to put the house together? all that matters is the candy that goes on it. 

he was quite proud of his accomplishment. i'm pretty sure he's been counting down until we could do the gingerbread house every day this week. 

then we watched zak's newest favorite movie: the polar express. to say he was excited was an understatement. conka {our elf. don't ask where he got his name from. zak just whipped it out} brought zak a polar express train and candy canes from the north pole to help him watch the movie. 

 greysen also thoroughly enjoyed the movie. it brought back memories of me playing the soundtrack in the philharmonic in high school. ohhh the good ol' days. 

later, we went through the toys r' us magazine to pick out what he wanted to ask santa for. just guess what was at the top of the list? 

 trains. duh. 

 i don't know how to make this not side-ways, but it basically says he wants trains. 

and of course, you can't write letters to santa without some hot cocoa with marshmallows and whip cream. 

in zak's prayers tonight, he said "please bless the polar express" like six times. and "i'm thankful for the polar express and trains" like 4. so basically, it was the best. day. ever. 

i'm so glad my grinch of a child has become more excited for christmas, i've been putting in a lot of effort to make him want to do something! 

holiday cheer.

so. i finally added our child to the blog. some people, who shall remain nameless, kept mentioning how i needed to update our pictures/name to include greysen so after much arguing with my computer and blogger {ummm, has anyone else had to pay google to post stuff on their blog now because they suddenly have too many pictures? super lame.} i have finally given it a new look. i know, you love it, don't lie. 

speaking of which, i'm a little bit obsessed with our family pictures. they're so cute eh? i know, i'm biased. but considering levi's shirt was an extra small instead of a large, it was pouring rain, and zak got motion sick and barfed all over in the car on the way there {apparently reading train magazines is too much of a distraction for him}, they turned out pretty good. if you live here and want some great family pics, this fabulous woman took ours, and is very reasonably priced. 

anyways, i meant to post about our christmas decorating quite some time ago but alas, i did not. i love christmas. if it wasn't for my husband refusing to decorate and/or help with anything, we would have stuff up before thanksgiving. {good thing in canada thanksgiving is in october eh? mwhahaha}

this was the first year we actually have room to put a christmas tree some place. usually, we end up cramming it in between couches, or right in the middle of the room, but besides the fact that i can't see what zak is doing behind the tree, when sitting on the couch, it worked out great here. i love our house.  

i have no idea why zak is shirtless. he's actually probably totally naked but i can't remember. but yes, we take self timer family pictures quite well.

i googled how to take pictures of christmas trees. this was the best i could do. it's kinda cool, but i don't know how you would get anyone's faces in it because it's so dark. oh well.

i don't really decorate for any other holiday, so christmas is my ultimate favorite. plus, my grandma hooked me up with several new home decor pieces such as the tree below, so i had an even better time finding some place to stick them 

i'm a little bit obsessed with my sequin tree skirt. anything sparkly that i can put in my house is an instant win. plus, my wrapping paper is totally cute.

every day, zak wakes up from his nap and we drink hot chocolate with tons of marshmallows and watch a christmas movie. so far, it's been the grinch everyday for the last week, but who doesn't love the grinch?

i also have plans for us to make clay ornaments because pinterest rules, as well as try our hand at making delicious sugar cookies to give to friends. 

it is also my goal to watch every single abc family original christmas movie made within the last several years. older than that, and they just get plain ridiculous. so far, netflix has helped me out quite nicely {side note: i do watch these when i'm on the treadmill, so you don't think i sit at home and watch tv all day, i swear we do stuff}. i highly recommend desperately seeking santa aka sexy santa as my friend delainey and i call it. its been voted the best out of the several christmas movies we've watched {i will not tell you how many we've really watched, it's a little embarrassing}. besides, when it's nicknamed sexy santa, you know you really want to watch it. do it. right now. 

hurrah for christmas! 9 days until levi's done with finals, and 13 days until he's done with his boards so that he can finally enjoy what we do all day! ;) 

thanksgiving.

i cannot believe thanksgiving has come and gone already! blowing my mind. how can it possibly be christmas so soon?! three weeks until levi's done school. not that i'm counting down or anything. ;) 

this year we went up to the beach house because we didn't want to drive a long time with levi only getting done on wednesday. {byu was awesome and let us off on tuesday. i miss that} we had a great time, the weather was uh-mazing, like it always is, and the company was pretty good too! 

we love coming here. it's so gorgeous.  everytime we leave we realize we need to do it more often. plus, free babysitting when we come with family. cha ching! 

grandma bettye so graciously bought us chuggington and thomas trains to play with at the beach house {i think she did it so he would want to come back and make us come too. well, it worked because now he's even more obsessed}. so did he want to play outside? no. did he want to go to the beach? no. he just wanted to play with the ridiculously overpriced trains. {seriously though. hank and his coal car were $25 bucks! good thing he has nice grandmas who pay for business like that, because his parents most definitely will not.}

greysen also got a new exersaucer so that was pretty exciting for him. 

and for zak, who thought he was entitled to play with the toys as well. 

i just love these guys. they're so silly. and cute. 

now we know where the ridiculous face comes from. 

 our thanksgiving feast was excellent. greysen was asleep for most of it, so instead of taking pictures of the three of us that were awake, we took them individually so our child will not feel left out in 20 years from now when he looks at his mom's awesome blog and reads all the fun things they used to do. 

three generations of preciousness. and some awkward smiling. so great. 

zak and his "binoculators". sometimes the stuff he says is just so cute. 

 grandma kim and zaky. 

grandma bettye and grandma kim. 

the spouse and i spent thanksgiving evening child-less at the gilroy outlets, soaking up the freedom and shopping for christmas presents until we got too tired and more people started showing up. {did you know the outlets open at 9 on thanksgiving? freaking awesome. i'm pretty sure most people thought they did at midnight because there was no one there until then. it was great! and plus, we don't stay up super late to go shopping. we're parents. and poor.}

hurrah for the holidays! 

fat face.

this fat face {yes, he will be scarred for life because i called him that. i don't care} is four months now.  and i just love it. he's getting to the fun age, aka the "i still want to be somewhat cuddled and squished and kissed by mom because i don't know how to talk and i can't tell her i hate it, unlike my obnoxious/suddenly teenaged brother who hates everything mom and dad do to cuddle with him" age. 

but seriously. how could i not want to squish those cheeks all day when they look like that? 

and that belly to be honest. because i've waited four months for him to get fatter. 

plus, he's just so happy all the time. unless he didn't get a nap. and then he's a psycho. 

he is 15 1/2 lbs now and 26 inches long. both in the 70th percentile still. we've {and by we, i mean me} have been re-sleep training him, since he went through a growth spurt and continuous rolling over that ruined his sleeping skills for several weeks. but we are back on track now, with him sleeping from 8:00-6:30 without being fed or rolling over. hallelujah. 

he can roll over from his stomach to his back. and scream his head off in the middle of the night because he hates it. it's really fun to wake up to. thank goodness we're somewhat past that. 

he's pretty close to sitting by himself. 

he loves to stand on anything. 

we've finally gotten to him waking up happy most of the time and not crying. that's a big moment for us. because mom is in a much better mood when she's not woken up by screaming. 

he loves to grab toys now, which is exciting and helpful for entertaining while mom is making dinner. 

his brother frequently asks "mom, what does baby greysen have to say about that?" whenever he is making noise. and it's just so cute when he says it. and when he asks greysen what he's talking about. 

man, i just love that fat face. and his brother too. 

fog harbor.

two years ago this weekend, we drove to San Francisco from Utah for Levi's dental school interview. it was probably the worst vacay ever {ghetto hostel, teething, pouring rain, snow storm, just to name a few} but we like to commemorate it each year because it was the beginning of our "new life". in particular, we go to a restaurant on pier 39 called fog harbor {totes delish btw} every saturday before thanksgiving. keeping with tradition, it poured rain this year, just like the two previous ones, but it makes for good memories. =) 

unfortunately, because thanksgiving is a week earlier, this time they didn't have the tree lit up. super lame. but we still had a good time, ate and didn't get kicked out of the restaurant because of one wild child who tried to eat all the butter, who shall remain nameless. 

 

these are our previous years adventures. 

because this was one of our only adventures we go on, i made us take lots of pictures. but most people who i made do it, didn't get the stroller sooo we only have one child in all of the pics. no big deal. =) 

then when i decide we really should take pictures to make sure our second is documented as being here, he refuses to cooperate. boo. also, i may have dressed them so they all match. =)

 the end.