Comb Over

As Landon's hair has gotten longer and thicker, it has started to lay flat instead of his usually wild "do." I attempted to comb the boys hair and loved the outcome! What handsome boys.


Someone is obsessed! Elliot must use x-ray vision to find the bunny or the bear lying around the house. He always has one in his mouth or he carries it around with him as he crawls.

The E-Walk

E with Walker from Shelci Crandell on Vimeo.

A few days ago Elliot figured out how to walk a few steps with this walker, and just a couple of days later he is all over the place.


e with walker 3 from Shelci Crandell on Vimeo.


E Crawling on Toes from Shelci Crandell on Vimeo.

Elliot has big red marks on his knees from all the crawling he has been doing. He tries crawling on his feet sometimes to give his knees a break.

Big Helpers

Landon & Elliot recently discovered the dishwasher and they come straight for it as soon as they hear me open it. Here they are after helping me get all the dishes unloaded. What would I do without their help?

They found some fun new toys while helping me with the dishes.

Schweitzer

Last weekend Brooks went up to Schweitzer with his friend, Charlie and Charlie's wife, Liz, to go snowboarding. The sun was actually out this day and he was glad he brought the camera. The mountain looks over the lake in Sandpoint, ID. To have this kind of view while snowboarding is amazing! I want to ride the lifts just to see the amazing view. The mountains all got pounded with snow while we were gone and now all the resorts are open. He said this mountain had a few too many black diamond runs. I guess he prefers the blues when boarding.

Brooks was boarding in the clouds for part of the day.

Boarding from Shelci Crandell on Vimeo.

Ski Report

Since I have never lived in a place where it snows before, there are a few things about the snow that I wasn't expecting. One is the ski report I heard on the radio a few days ago.

Ski report? Like weather report? Really?

The report gave me all the latest info about the 5 or so closest ski resorts. I now know base depth, most recent snowfall amounts, how many lifts are open, what the snow is like on each mountain (powder, icy, packed powder), and other random items about each mountain.

I definitely wasn't expecting that. Now I can tell Brooks which ski resort is the best to go to.

Zags Game

Brooks and I went to the Gonzaga basketball game last weekend. Ever since we moved to Spokane, we had wanted to go to a game and Brooks surprised me with tickets to a game for Christmas. Gonzaga basketball is huge in Spokane and the stadium is a pretty energetic place. What a treat to spend an evening together at the game. Samantha and Jeremiah watched the boys for us and we can't thank them enough!






Our seats were on the fourth row behind this basket. The student section was just to our right. Due to the holidays, the student section was smaller than normal, but still pretty crazy! Brooks can get free student tickets for himself, but he has to wait in line for them. I am sure he will try to get to a game in the student section soon.



Go Zags from Shelci Crandell on Vimeo.

8 Months

Landon and Elliot are now 8 months old. They are growing and changing everyday and are at a great stage right now. They are starting to play with each other more and entertain each other at times. I am loving being able to get a few things done while they cheerfully play. We went to the doctor in Arizona for a well visit. They were about 7 months old at the time. Here are their 7 month stats.

Landon

Weight: 17 lb 2 oz (25%)

Height: 27 in (50%)

Head: 44.6 cm (50%)

Elliot

Weight: 16 lb 8 oz (25%)

Height: 26.5 in (25%)

Head: 44.3 cm (50%)

Now that both boys are crawling, I have my hands full. Somehow they find every item I don't want them to play with: the plug for the lamp, wires for the tv, little pieces of food on the floor, boxes in the pantry, the broom tucked away by the side of the fridge, important pieces of paper, and the latest was the package of gum in my purse. I am behind on the baby proofing for sure. Both boys discovered the stairs shortly after arriving home, which gives me one more thing to restrict them from. They have been eating baby food for a couple months now and just recently started on a few finger foods. Elliot actually swallows the finger food when he is done mushing it up, but most of Landon's ends up back on his bib. He is a messy eater!

Landon has been crawling since mid November and loves this new freedom. He chases moving toys, people, the dog, and Elliot. Around mid December, he started pulling himself to a standing position. He has become quite an expert at that and is just recently starting to cruise around various pieces of furniture. Most times when I go to get him out of bed he is standing up holding on to the edge of the crib. Landon now refuses to take a bottle. I am not happy about that, but it is not worth the fight. He is going to have to figure out a sippy cup eventually. He can't nurse forever. Landon is a very animated kid. When he gets excited about something he often tightens his arms and grunts. It's like he doesn't know how to contain the emotion. He is still full of smiles and laughter. Now that his hair is getting longer, it is starting to lay down a bit. The problem is that only half of it lays flat and the other half still sticks straight up. Landon has had his bottom two teeth for a couple of months and the top two broke through a couple of weeks ago. He drools all the time.

Elliot decided it was time to crawl and he figured it out on the last day of 2008. He is excited to be able to join in on all the fun with Landon now. They follow each other around everywhere and get into trouble together. He is just figuring out pulling himself up to a standing position and is getting better and better. Elliot goes straight for the stairs when we are in the basement. He crawled up 7 stairs on his own. (Of course I was there to supervise.) Elliot recently learned how to throw things out of his crib. This creates a problem because he throws out his pacifier and his bunny which are the two things he sleeps with. I think it is his way of rejecting nap time. Elliot still has just one little tooth and has the cutest little one-tooth grin. His second tooth is just coming in.

Back to Spokane

On Wednesday, Jan 7, we headed back to Spokane after 3 weeks in Arizona. The boys were pretty good on the plane considering missing naps and being in a confined area. We tried buckling the boys up together in the middle seat, but that didn't last long. We will miss all our family in Arizona, but it was nice to get home to our own beds (and cribs) and get back on a more regular schedule for the boys.

Elliot checking out the view from the window.

This is what we missed while we were gone....lots of snow! I took this picture from Krista's blog. I hope she doesn't mind. It snowed about 5 feet in Spokane while we were soaking up the sun in Arizona. Spokane's snowfall made national news and broke a bunch of records. I wasn't too disappointed we missed all the craziness.

When we got back the snow had stopped and this was the aftermath...dirty snow piled on the sides of the road.

Thanks to Jeremiah for shoveling our driveway and bringing our car to come pick us up. Brooks' back was especially grateful.

Our street is only one-lane until all the snow melts.

Cole doesn't seem to mind the snow at all. He runs around in it and sinks in all the soft areas.

Lion King

The night before we left to go back to Spokane, I was able to go see The Lion King at Gammage. The costumes were amazing! It was fun to get out with the Crandell girls for dinner and the musical.

Day at the Park

On our last day in Arizona, we went to the park with Dallin, Steven, Heidi and Nana. We went to Chipotle for lunch and then headed to the park. It was beautiful outside and we were trying to soak up the sun before heading back to Spokane.

Dallin requested a park with swings and Elliot was very happy with that request. He loved the swings!

Landon really did not like the swings! As soon as the swing would start to move, he would start shaking and hold his breath. As soon as I stopped the swing (which was very quickly when I noticed he hated it) he finally exhaled and whined. He didn't mind sitting in the swing if it was still, but he did not like it moving. I have learned that it takes Landon a little while to adjust to new things. I guess he wasn't quite ready for the swings.


It happened to be Dallin's birthday and he had a great day at the park.

Going down the slide with Mommy was a better experience than the swings for Landon

I love Landon's profile!

Cousin pic at the park

More Arizona Adventures

On Sunday, January 4 we did a Peterson family picture while we were all together. We also had breakfast for dinner in honor of Dallin's 3rd birthday on the 6th. He wanted pancakes and he got pancakes.

Landon learned to pull himself up onto various items towards the middle of December and he perfected this skill while in Arizona. He is always on the move.

On Monday, January 5, we attempted to hike in the Superstition mountains with Doug, David, Becca, Janette, my parents and Michael, but we didn't get very far. Landon was not happy to be hiking that particular day. We ended up turning around pretty soon after we started. It just wasn't worth it with a ticked off baby. Landon was much happier was he was out of the backpack carrier. Too bad Brooks couldn't have carried him like this the whole hike.

Elliot was once again squealing and having the time of his life. I wish a little of his positive hiking energy would have rubbed off on Landon.





There was a lot of fog up at the mountain this day. As we were leaving, the top of the mountain was peaking through the clouds. It looked amazing!

After the attempted hike, we headed over to the Crandell's to hang out for a bit. Here is Aunt Tanny with the boys.

What a good kisser! I love Elliot's kisses!

Brooks' cousin, Candace, and her little girl Jaycee came over to say hi and see us while we were in town.

Landon and Elliot were both quite interested in Daddy's snowboard. They wanted to help him switch the bindings. What big helpers!