Oh Snap

I don't know what we did for entertainment before Baylor was born... he has me laughing ALL the time. Thank goodness for the little things in life.

Here are a few things that made me smile this week...

His tower at Red Lobster. He was SO proud of himself :)

He has a lobster and crab in one of his books. He loves to mimic their snaps with his fingers and say "snap, snap, snap." Since I ordered crab, we decided to let him try out the real thing. He thought is was pretty funny.

And then there's his slippers. He rocks these whenever his jammies aren't footies. They are almost as WiLd as he is.

And his latest...

He wants his animals in "seat belts"

YES, they have to be buckled up before he is ready to go. He definitely knows what he wants and he will tell you about it until it gets done.

"Seat belts, seat belts, watch the mouse, watch the mouse"

It progressively gets louder as he makes us aware of his desires :)

He is "watching the mouse" in this picture- hence the mesmerized, out in space look.

HE'S OBSESSED. A Mickey Mouse junkie. We're all about the mouse at the Olsen house.

These are the moments I live for.

Oh Christmas Tree...

We have had so much fun decorating for Christmas this year! Baylor is my official sidekick and we've had some good times already this holiday season. He was absolutely terrified of this Winnie the Pooh and Tigger sleigh last year. It sings Jingle Bells and they dance around which he was not a fan of last year. This year it plays quite continuously and he dances along... until he is distracted by something else :)

He is so intrigued by all of the ornaments. Of course, he loved the little red balls that go on his tree. It's a BALL, of course he's going to love it.

We have a Winnie the Pooh tree that I had growing up, our family tree which I have yet to take a picture of, and B's little tree. It already has too many ornaments so I couldn't put them all on. My Grandma spoils us with Hallmark ornaments. Next year, we need to get him a bigger tree!

He dug into this year's bag to find out what Great Grandma Zoma sent him :)

This is his little Jazz ornament from last year. He desperately wants to be able to put the ball through the basket... I'm surprised it's not broken yet.

But that must have inspired this because he took all the little red balls OFF his tree and they became basketballs :)

Luckily I snuck them back on his tree the next day and he has left them alone

And SANTA, we haven't made it to the mall yet, but if you are reading our blog you can see that Baylor has mastered the hoop he got last year. We're looking for more of a challenge. Slam dunking at waist high just isn't going to do it anymore. Sincerely, B and his mom

What a FUN time of year!!!

Another one bites the dust

... but in a good way of course :)

One of my besties got married!!! My good friend Shannon tied the knot a few weeks ago. Beforehand we had our traditional "roomy" sleepover up in Park City. We always go eat at Baja Cantina and then have a sleepover. We stay up ridiculously late and laugh till we cry. Sadly, Mekensy couldn't come because she was at home with her adorable little Stella but we plan to "reenact" it when she doesn't have a newborn at home :)

If you have never eaten here- you NEED to! It is De-LISH.

Soon after, the big day arrived and we all watched Shannon become Mrs. Ormond. Her hubby is Baylor's pediatrician and we think he's fabulous. I waited to switch over to him until they were engaged :) I wanted to make sure it was official before I started taking B to him.

I LOVE these girls!!!

And of course, I LOVE this guy.

YAY for Shanscape getting hitched!

39 hours

Here is what I covered in 39 hours...

ThAnKsGiViNg!

This year was our year with my family and we went down to Nephi for the festivities with my Dad's family. He is one of TEN children so you can imagine the group we get together with! Because of size, we have dinner at the church. Not quite the "homey" feeling I like, but it's about the only option. It's fun to see the Painter cousins because I don't see them that often.

Baylor knows exactly who to go for when he wants a treat...

my Dad! He has him wrapped around his little finger :)

B was a big fan of the pie!

He got to play and be wild.

My sisters Leanne and Michelle, my aunt Marjorie, and of course me

After the food and fun we headed up to Salt Lake to begin the best part of Thanksgiving.

We have a tradition with my mom and her sisters to go shopping on Black Friday. Even when my Grandma Doris was really sick with cancer, she still went and we pushed her in a wheel chair! We are pretty hard core :) We met at my mom's house at 9:00 to look at ads and eat goodies. We used to do this and then sleep until about 4:00 am but now that stores are getting all crazy on us, we headed up to Toys R Us at 10:00 pm. NO SLEEPING.

To say it was freezing is an UNDERSTATEMENT.

We shopped for a solid 13 hours. WOW. Then we finished by eating at our usual spot, Chili's.

By this point it was safe to say that I was TIRED. However, I had a full day ahead of me. I had to run up to my mother-in-law's to get Baylor and head down to Nephi AGAIN for my Grandparent's 80th birthday open house. I had to stop in Orem and buy a Monster and sunflower seeds to help keep me awake. (Russ is MIA because he had to work)

Happy 80th Grandma Zoma and Grandpa Jim!

And for the icing on the cake, I got to see my friend Callie who lives in Maui!

We made plans months ago to go to the Jazz game before she had to go home. Her hubby Fernando had never been to an NBA game before, so it was fun to be there with them. Especially since they were playing the Lakers!

The game was SO AWESOME! I LOVE beating Kobe and crew.

B brought his usual "Go Jazz" spirit

And we had a flippin blast getting to catch up.

So in 39 hours, I covered quite a bit of ground. We walked in from the game and as soon as Baylor's jammies were on and he was in bed, I was in mine dreaming away. And I stayed there until 10:30 the next day :)

Sweeeeet

A few weeks ago Russ got a call from his Dad at about 4:00pm asking if we wanted tickets to that night's Jazz game. I was off-track and at my Mom's scrapbooking with her and my sister for what was supposed to be an all night "scrap fest." When Russ called to see if I wanted to go I almost said no because I felt bad bailing on something I put together. BUT they told me to go and that we could scrap another day so Baylor and I headed home to meet Russ and head to the game. We went to will call, got our tickets and got to eat dinner because they were VIP. After, we started towards our seats. We were a little early so of course in true woman fashion I headed to the bathroom and my boys went to the seats. I hurried out and glanced down to see where I was headed when I spotted the fact that we were sitting on the SECOND ROW. Holy dream come true, it was AWESOME!!! And to think, I almost stayed home.

B is in mid-dance in this photo...

The Jazz dancers were performing to Michael Jackson while we took this and the last thing he wanted to do was look the opposite way :)

Baylor picked up "Go Jazz" "Go D Will" and "Slam Dunk" among other basketball sayings this night. He was so mesmerized being that close that he literally watched the game for all 4 quarters. He woke up the next morning asking to go to the Jazz game. I hope he'll sit that good when we aren't that close!

The MAN, Mr. D Will himself

The seats came with snacks during half time too. Nothing like the royal treatment.

B was a BIG fan of the nachos, or at least the cheese. Double dipping at its finest.

We seriously had so much fun.

Too bad all my Jazz gear was Boozer the loser :(

For the sweetest game EVER, I didn't have any proper attire. Not that it put any sort of a damper on our night.

GO JAZZ!

The Zoo Crew

While I was off-track and we were enjoying the 70 degree weather, we headed to one of our favorite places... THE ZOO! Baylor was so excited because this trip some of his cousins got to come too. My sisters and I took the kids along with my Mom and Dad. I was so happy that my Dad could take a few hours off work to come with us.

We checked on Baby Zuri. Love her!

We rode the carousel.

I didn't realize it at the time, but we rode the tiger on B's first trip to the zoo as well. I need to compare the 2 pictures. It's crazy how much he has changed.

Papa Bill shared his ice cream.

I love his little tongue! If only the picture included his sound effects. You will have to use your imagination.

My GIRAFFES!

How cute are they?!

So many animals come out in the cooler weather. The gorilla just sat there and watched us. It's good we had a nice, big cement wall between us.

And then our own gorillas gave us a show. Baylor LOVES Cole. Of course he loves them all, but Cole is so good to play with him. He is such a good cousin!

He also loves to be silly :)

B also used his map skills to direct us around the zoo ;)

We had the best time!