Starstruck

Henry has been obsessed with watching these videos on youtube done by "The Piano Guys" (Jon Schmidt & Steven Nelson). He loves to watch them over and over and over (you get the idea).

When he asks to watch the videos, he says things like, "Does this one have Jon & Steben (his pronunciation) in it?" or "Is this the one with two Stebens in it?"

Yesterday we went down to visit Zach at his new office and to see City Creek. It is amazing! For the opening they hired a bunch of musicians to play. We went specifically to hear my cousinAnna sing. When we walked outside, the first person we saw was Steve Nelson. It was so funny to watch Henry. He was starstruck. He got really shy. We sat and watched the whole set and had a blast.

Henry skis...well sort of

Zach took Henry skiing for the first time this week. While Henry had a lot of fun, Zach was a little tired lugging 35 lbs of dead weight down the hill. Maybe Henry will learn to be a little more independent next time?

hello again

Nice to see you again. I've been completely absent the past what...over a year? Well here's some cute pictures of the kids as a way to apologize

Merry Christmas!

We had a really great Christmas this year. We attempted to keep things simple, focusing on the many blessings we've received this past year. Alicia has vowed (once again) to work on Christmas summer of 2011. We'll shoot for a homemade Christmas next year, but "shop online" was our 2010 mantra. This was the first year that Henry actually understood presents, and on the 27th he woke up asking, "open presents mama?" We loved spending so much time with family and friends. Thanks to everyone that visited. Here are a few highlights from the season:

How could Henry be afraid of this guy? Even Alice looks a little creeped out.

At the ward Christmas party as soon as Santa arrived, all Henry said through his tears was, "Go home, Daddy, go home. Scared, Santa." Despite all our pleading for him to get his picture with the jolly guy, this was the closest he got. Ironically, when we got in the car he said "Santa Clause so fun!" He changed his tune when Santa brought a Thomas the Train set.


Maybe Zach should finally update his facebook profile. The current picture is last year's shot of the family in front of the tree. It was a year of all things Thomas, notice Henry's Christmas PJs.

This was the second attempt at this picture. The first one ended up with Henry letting Alice fall and bonk her head on the floor. Luckily she only fell about three inches. That'll teach her to steal all the attention!

Henry with his book from Oma, "Quick As A Cricket." We've since read it about 60 times and it may get temporarily "lost" like many other books that we've grown tired of reading.

Alice is just happy to be there, as always. You wouldn't know it from the picture, but she's all smiles.

There it is, the famous Thomas the Train set! Santa had a breakdown at 11:30 pm when it was realized that the Ikea track did not allow the Thomas trains to pass under the tunnels.

Cute as a button in her Christmas dress. About five minutes before she spit up all over it.

With Babja's quilt.

Henry with his Christmas cracker. He passed up the raw oysters and about everything else, but stuck around for the bouche de noel dessert.

Maybe next year Alicia can actually accomplish her goal of blogging more frequently...stay tuned.

Alice's Blessing

On Sunday we blessed Alice at home. It was such a beautiful day and we loved being surrounded by family and friends. Alice was an angel the entire evening. She honestly didn't cry once from 5 to 8:30. She just smiled at each of her cousins that fought over who got to hold her next. We were so glad Grandpa Evans could make it and that Grandma Kaelin made it there just in time. My sister took much better pictures than this with her camera, but until I get them from her these will have to do.

A few tips on how to be a great big brother

Whenever Alice is crying, Henry says, "Sweetie." I wish I could add inflection to the written word because it's really cute.

Henry loves to stick things into Alice's mouth. When she wouldn't take her binky one day he said, "Baby Alice not working." Today I caught him trying to brush her teeth.

And just a side note- Henry goes down into Zach's work space, gets the little paper holes from the hole puncher, eats them, and says "mmmm, delicious!"

Baby Alice

Alice Georgene Derr

7 lb 10 oz

19 inches