Merry Christmas everyone! I sure hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. This year we decided to make the trek back to Utah to be with my family and had a wonderful time. But since Petey is getting bigger, we wanted to have 'Christmas morning' at our house before we left - we wanted to start some new family traditions and we also didn't want to haul all of Petey's gifts with us. You'll see why in a moment...
For a couple of months now Petey has been obsessed with Thomas the Train et al. I had no idea how far this obsession would go after innocently checking out a Thomas video from the library, but it has now blossomed into a full-on love affair. He loves the books, toys, movies - anything he can get his paws onto. Since he didn't have any actual trains, Trav and I thought of getting him a train set for Christmas but I began to have an anxiety attack after seeing how expensive the dang things are. Enter my beloved sister-in-law Michelle who told me at Thanksgiving that they had an extra train set a neighbor had given them that her kids no longer play with that she'd give to us (for FREE!). SCORE!! She gave us this huge set with 20 trains and a bucket full of tracks too. So for Christmas, we set up the tracks and when Petey came out he basically just stood there for a few minutes saying "choo-choo?" then sat down to play until we had to drag him away. He loves it - a couple of times he's even insisted on sleeping with his trains...
And this is only about half the track...
We also joined the ranks of parents who spend all night setting up their kids toys when we decided to get Petey a bike (or 'bykacycle' as he calls it). This he liked a lot (although notice the train in his hand still) - we just need to help him figure out how to peddle and steer at the same time now.
Then we left for Utah and really enjoyed our time out there. As some of you know, every year growing up my dad set up traps for us to go through in order to get to the Christmas tree. Well, he's started doing them again for the grandkids and I think the kids really enjoyed it this year. Here's Petey and his cousin Brookie making their way through the balloon tunnel.
And since we are now desert dwellers, we figured Petey should get a chance to enjoy snow while we were still in Utah. I think he enjoyed playing outside but mostly he liked being drug along on the sled and eating snow. Silly kid (but still dang cute!).
I had no idea Trav was such an artist when he picked up the dry-erase pens from Petey's new art easel.
Can you believe it's been two years since we brought this little turkey home?
Only having gone bowling a couple of times, Petey caught on pretty quick. After watching everyone either cheer or be sad after their turn, he started jumping around going 'yay!!' or saying 'oh no' after each turn.
The kids who came: Darren, Lauren, Alaina, Milloy, & Peter
We've been spending a lot of time with Lauren and her mom lately and now Petey will wake up in the morning and say "Lauren?"
For his birthday, we got Petey an art easel since he loves his cousin Carter's so much. For some reason it reminds me of this picture.
At his two year checkup, he weighed 24 lbs 14 oz and was 33 inches tall. Still hanging onto the bottom side of the weight percentile, but he's pretty good. Since we've moved, this is the first time he's seen this new pediatrician and as we were getting ready to go she said: "wow, he sure is busy, isn't he?" Yup.
For MLK day, we went with a few of Trav's co-workers on an offroading trip to see Schmidt's Tunnel. Basically it's a mine shaft some guy dug in which he never actually got anything out of. Unless you count a couple of tons of rock. But now it's a great tourist attraction because the tunnel runs right through a mountain and you walk it from end to end. Very cool. Here's us at the mouth - notice how low the entry is, it's like that most of the way.
Us on the other side of the tunnel. Very cold, very windy, very rainy.
I'm sad because I didn't get any pictures inside these tunnels, but these are some really cool talc mines. You know, like talcum powder? Basically they were these giant holes that would go down about 50-100 feet that had this fine white powder everywhere. Very cool. Also very muddy during a rainstorm.
Last night we picked up our newest additions to the Millet family. That's right, Trav has finally gotten his wish and we now are the proud parents of 11 week-old chicks. Petey also picked up a sword. He swings it a lot. And oftens ends up hitting me. I think it might disappear during naptime tomorrow. So in honor of Petey's new-found gladiator skills, we've christened our chicks thus (click on the image to enlarge):
Name - Breed
Yep. My silly hubby has turned our shower into a dry erase board where he'll write a new quote each week. He says it's because it's a shame to waste all that time you spend in the shower every day. I say I'm just glad the house is a rental. And yes, on the opposite wall is the Morse Code alphabet. I know, I know. How on earth did I end up with this crazy man?!?
A chicken coop. An urban chicken coop ::sigh:: I knew I married a country boy and as of yet we don't have any chickens in residence but they should be coming any day now. Until then, Petey thinks Daddy has simply built him a new playhouse.
And this is only about half the track...
We also joined the ranks of parents who spend all night setting up their kids toys when we decided to get Petey a bike (or 'bykacycle' as he calls it). This he liked a lot (although notice the train in his hand still) - we just need to help him figure out how to peddle and steer at the same time now.
And since we are now desert dwellers, we figured Petey should get a chance to enjoy snow while we were still in Utah. I think he enjoyed playing outside but mostly he liked being drug along on the sled and eating snow. Silly kid (but still dang cute!).
