12/19/09

MERRY CHRISTMAS. This time of the year is the BEST!

Grandma Earl likes to ask the kids, "Who does Grandma love?" and wants them to say 'me' or their name. So she was asking Ella. "Ella, who does Grandma love?" Ella thought hard for a min and then looked at Grandma and said "Papa!" with a big smile.

Taylor and I gave blood today and I had the arm band on. Ella saw it and asked 'What's that?" I said it is a Band-aid. She studied my mouth and tried to say it. I said it again slower. She tried to say it again, but still didn't quite get it. I said it one more time. She thought for a min then said AN OWIE.

Gordon rode with Grandma and Grandpa Earl down to Arizona for Christmas. On one of the stop offs Gordon used the bathroom. He came back to the car and said "poo and pee it was awesome". Glad he is excited to use the toilet, but also glad it was family he was exclaiming that to :)

I was holding Eden when we were in Grandpa Earl's office. And Eden noticed herself in the mirror. It was adorable! She gives the best smiles. :)

We are starting a new family Christmas tradition we are doing the Twelve Days of Christmas Service. The other day Taylor and Gordon washed Uncle Dan's car as a surprise service. And tonight we put up lights on an elderly sisters home. It is the best to see how excited he gets to serve others. Hopefully this will be the beginning of many service experiences for him. I will keep you posted on the other Christmas service things we do.

We love you all so much!
Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season.

Calling Dad Taylor

You may have noted that at the bottom of the grandparents journal, Laura had written "calling Dad Taylor." That was shorthand for a story that Laura must have forgotten to include. Basically it's that during the holidays when everyone is calling me Taylor, Gordon starts to think that this entitles him to use my first name as well. So this morning, when I woke up and came upstairs, Gordon came running up to me yelling "Taylor!"

Just one addition to the story of Gordon and his awesome bodily functions. We had been driving for about 5 hours and were about 1 1/2 hours outside of Phoenix when Gordon announced to all of us in the car that he had to pee and poop. We were in the middle of nowhere and asked him if he could hold it until we reached civilization. He wasn't used to the notion of "holding" it, but he said he would try. We found a rest stop about 30 min later and the great news is that he held it until we could reach a toilet in the rest stop. Most impressive! Grandpa Earl