Ouch!

On Christmas Eve, all 5 of Jaron's brothers joined us at his parents' house. His sister went to her new in-law's for the holidays. While running around with Eli and his cute little cousin, Katelyn, who is 5 months younger than him, Alden ran smack into the corner of Grandma's organ. This was the result: Okay, these pictures are backwards and I can't seem to get them to inverse. This picture was taken today, about a week after the fact. The swelling from the ginomous bump on his head moved down into his face, leaving half his head green and finally pooling into black around his eye.
This picture was about 3 days after it happened. Notice the nice coloration on his forehead and around his eye already?

Right after the fall. OUCH!! It swelled up big as an egg and bled a good bit too. Of course, being a mom, I was quite anxious about the whole bit and hardly let him go after it happened. Jaron reassured me repeatedly that it didn't crack his skull and he couldn't have bleeding on the brain. Although he wouldn't let us put ice on it (I can't blame him, really), he was pretty tough about the whole thing!


And this is the only picture I got of Christmas. NONE on Christmas morning! I know....I become more unfit as a mother as this post goes on!!

Happy Birthday, Eli!!

On December 22nd, Eli turned 2! I can't believe how much he's grown up since we've been in Idaho. He's turned from toddler to little boy in so many ways. He's obsessed with choo-choo trains so I made him a little train cake for his birthday. He also got a wooden train and track from us. Grandma and Grandpa Brunson got him a little Fisher Price pull dog that Eli thought was hilarious when he pushed it along and it would bark. Grandma Allred sent Eli some birthday money which we're going to use to take Alden and Eli to Blast Off, an indoor playground with slides, climbing tubes, ball pits and fun little arcade games.

At age two Eli loves cars, trains, trucks, tractors and doggies. In the last few months he has become very interested in whatever Alden is playing with it and I have been reduced to the role of referee for much of my day. Eli has also started talking a lot in the months we've been in Idaho and his little voice is so sweet. He answers "yeah" to almost anything. He's picked up Alden's habit of asking "Whhhyyy??" in response to anything he's told to do. Eli loves bedtime stories, his green fuzzy blankie and his binky. When he's not fighting with Alden, he and his brother are best friends. Eli is very affectionate towards Gracen too - always greeting her with a sweet little drawn out "hhiii" and rubbing her hair with his hand. Burping Gracen is downright hilarious in Eli's eyes. Eli loves to run and be outside and loves to think he's the boss of Grandpa's dogs. ("No Bopper!") He repeats anything anyone says or does and is generally very good-tempered, unless he's tired. Eli is just the cutest little two year old boy of the moment, we sure love him!

Gracen's Blessing Day

We blessed Gracen on December 13th, when all of Jaron's brothers could help in the blessing. Jaron's dad and Grandpa Brunson and Jaron's cousin, Jaman, were also there to participate. After the blessing, Jaron sat back down and said to me, "That was weird." I asked him, "Weird, how?" "I only met the girl yesterday!" Jaron had just arrived from Saba the night before but, as you can see by the first picture, it didn't take long for him to get to know Gracen better.

Gracen's blessing dress was made by a great lady that we've gotten to know on Saba. She's the wife of one of Jaron's professors and sewed the dress during one of her semester breaks back in Canada (she's from Ontario). She made the dress out of silk duppioni (spelling?). It is a gorgeous dress, I am so grateful! Thank you, Sally!!! Unfortunately, I never realized how wrinkly the dress was from packing it back from Saba until I posted these pictures. Darn!

Okay, we're all looking in the right direction in this one but...who's pinching Alden?!?

Cutie-pants Gracen

I realized today that we leave to go back to Saba in only 4 days, so if I'm going to post pictures of our holiday adventures, I'd better do it now, before we go back to the land of super slow internet!!

I can NOT get a picture with all 3 kids looking decent. So...Gracen is MUCH cuter in real life!
I thought this was kind of sweet - it is Eli's hand reaching for Gracen's head. Eli likes to rub her head like it's Budda's belly - like it's good luck or something. Because of this, poor Gracen's soft little hair is always full of crumbs of one kind or another!

Gracen has turned into quite the smiley-pants. She loves to coo and smile at anyone who'll hold her. She is such a good tempered baby! (Except for that hour or so before settling down for bed at night!)