HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY HYRUM!!!!

I never thought Hyrum would ever be old enough to have a birthday but January 26th did roll around again. We celebrated Saturday with some presents and cake. We had finally found him a harmonica after much searching and were excited to give that as a present and see that he still remembered how to play it. He got some fun toys from family that he has had a blast with.
As you can see from the pictures, he quite enjoyed his cake. He liked the frosting the best and had a good time smearing it all in his hair. He was very slow and deliberate but soon enough the cake was in crumbs. The bathtub had a huge chocolate ring around it that took a couple of scrubbings to get off! But it was definitely worth the clean up.
We have had a good month. Jeremy seems to be a bit busier than he was last semester and it looks like they may work them hard the whole time, but he continues to do great! It has gotten quite a bit colder around here but we haven't seen anything below zero yet for which I am grateful. We went to a local ice sculptor show which was lots of fun. And Jeremy and I have started swapping babysitting with another first year dental student (in another ward) and his family. They have a son exactly one month older than Hyrum. So we had fun on a date and look forward to more!

Something Hyrum is enjoying these days that keeps us entertained-he loves to balance his sippy cup on his head and as soon as he does he gets really excited and starts laughing. (Maybe this is because Jeremy is always putting things on his head!) But if it falls off he sometimes gets upset. In conjunction with this, he is loving throwing his arms up in the air and thinks it's the coolest thing when you'll do it back.

Hyrum loves books!

I was getting worried because the more active Hyrum has become, he likes to sit in my lap less and less. He wouldn't sit still long enough to ever read any books, and that was something that we used to do every day. But, the other afternoon he wouldn't take his second nap and I had to make a cake, so I dumped a bunch of his books in the dining room and he spent like 20-30 minutes looking at his books by himself. He usually looks at them upside down, but he loves turning the pages and pointing at the pictures!

Scrunchy Eyes

Hyrum has started posing for pictures by scrunching up his eyes. He has scrunched his eyes for awhile now, but he will automatically do it when we pull out the camera-it's getting hard to get a picture of him without the scrunchy eyes! But it's so darn cute, here are some of our favorites.

Jeremy and I had a fun New Years Eve. We played almost all the boardgames we have, including a new one I got Jeremy for Christmas-it's the Napoleon Dynamite game =]. We also bought a couple of different flavors of Sparkling Cider to drink and made yummy seven layer burrito dip to munch on. We were in bed asleep by about 11:30 so we almost made it to midnight. We made some personal and family goals for Family Home Evening on New Years Day and are excited to try and reach them this year.
I'm including a couple of pictures of us at the Natural History Museum on University of Michigan's campus. They have a great dinosaur exhibit! We didn't make it up to the 4th floor but they have a planetarium up there that should be fun. We think Hyrum will like it a lot in another few months. And it's free!

Merry Christmas!!!

We had a marvelous time over Christmas break. But first, Jeremy finished the semester up with over a week worth of finals landing A's in all of his classes. What a super semester!
We had about five days with just the 3 of us here before we headed off to Washington. It was nice to relax and take it easy together. We took Hyrum to see Santa Claus at the mall but Hyrum was NOT excited to see him so maybe we'll try next year to get a picture.
We were able to stay in Washington for about 8 days (thanks to my parents who flew us home.) Luckily Hyrum stayed healthy the whole time and did great on the plane ride. He had sooooo much fun with my Dad (Pa) and Mom (Darlin'). I think Hyrum forgot Jeremy and I existed because he would always reach out for Pa or Darlin' to hold him. They did a lot of playing and teasing together and there was a lot of laughing and smiling. My Dad would always get up with Hyrum in the morning to play while Jeremy and I slept in a little longer! How nice =]
We went to a caroling party, saw my Mom perform with her singing group, went to a Christmas party, we took Hyrum to a hands on museum for kids, went out to dinner, had good food at home, played games, watched movies, talked a lot, went "Elfing", Jeremy and my Dad went to see Eragon in the theater, and Jeremy and I went on a date! We were able to spend time with my brother Brigg and his fiance Havalah. Oh, for all of you who know Brigg or know of him and don't already know this Yes he is engaged!!! Very exciting news. They are getting married in the Salt Lake City temple on May 4th 2007. Can't wait. My older brothers wife, Joy, and their two kids flew in the day after Christmas. It was so good to see them and spend some time together. All the grandkids were together for one day before we had to fly back to Michigan. I was able to spend some time with two of my best friends (Libby and Liz) from back home. I hadn't seen either of them for over two years and it was nice to catch up. I have a picture of us with Liz and her family that I'll post.
Hyrum learned how to play the harmonica over the break and he also learned how to climb stairs pretty well. He is doing great at mimicking our facial expressions these days and he has decided since we've been feeding him crackers for so long, that he would start feeding Jeremy and I crackers. I hope this means sharing will come naturally to him! Also, another of his favorite things to do now is to crawl under small spaces and to play under his high chair.
It was hard to leave and come back to Michigan-I love being here in Michigan but it was just so nice to be with family.
It was fun to get Christmas cards from many of you and to hear of how you and your families are. We hope you all enjoyed this special time of year!