Christmas recap

Well the girls have left and it will take some adjusting for the boys as they love their "tee tees." I thought I would wrap up the holiday with a little recap. Christmas Eve went by very fast. We had a nice dinner and then got ready for church.

We went to a Christmas Carol service so there was a lot of singing. After about 4 songs, the pastor said we could all sit down. William was excited and yelled, "yay!." Everyone in the congregation started laughing including the pastor. Then the little boys in front of him encouraged him to continue so after every song he found it necessary to yell yay. He did get in the spirit by yelling amen twice :) He also yelled poop once though too. After church we headed home for our little traditional night. We opened one present and then read "How The Grinch Stole Christmas!"
The boys went to sleep afterwards. The girls and I decorated some cookies for Santa. Then the big morning came. Santa delivered the big Radio Flyer Wagon for William and Harrison and it was a big hit. But William also liked mommy's new coat.

Even Miss Belle enjoyed the day. We had a large lunch and then the girls had to go back home. It was such a nice day and we really enjoyed having the girls out. We hope everyone else had a great day!

Happy Holidays

For those of you that did not receive our holiday letter, I thought I would post it for you. Sorry if you didn't get one as I probably didn't have your address. Please send me your address and you will be sure to be on next years list.

Dear Friends and Family,

Didn't I just write one of these? I can't believe another year has passed by. Eventful doesn't even begin to describe the year that we have had. To start off, William celebrated his first birthday in January. He is growing so fast. Ten days later, our second son was born. Harrison Prescott Archer was born at 11:54am on January 27th weighing in at 7lbs 6 oz and 19 inches long. Life with two young babies is always busy but very rewarding.

In March, I was laid off by Indymac. It was a blessing in disguise because we wanted me to stay home with the kids. In April, Scott was promoted to the University of Farmers. He had to move out to Southern California right away. The kids and I stayed behind in Utah until we could close on our new house. Two months of living apart was probably one of the hardest things we had to experience. All I know is that if we move again, we will not try that again. We became a family living together again in July. Good-bye mountains of Utah, Welcome Sunny California. Since we have been here, we have enjoyed the nice weather by visiting the beaches, piers, zoos, etc. The weather is absolutely beautiful and it is funny to not have to wear a sweater in the month of December (we have since I wrote this). We experienced our first California earthquake the first month we lived here. We also were evacuated from our house during the Sesnon wildfire. Our house was fine but the air quality was miserable. We haven't run into any rattlesnakes yet but we have seen our fair share of reptiles and black widows.

In August, Scott and I were able to take a vacation to Mexico without the boys. It was a nice getaway and the boys enjoyed spending time with the grandparents. In September, we experienced the hardest thing we have ever had to go through. William spilled a cup of hot coffee on him and suffered second and third degree burns on his face, neck and chest. There were a few weeks of visits in and out of the Grossman Burn Center (#1 burn center in the country) but he is recovering just fine.

Harrison is quite the energetic little boy. He never sleeps and he drinks very little. It is probably one of two reasons. He has to keep up with big brother Will and he has constant ear infections. Harrison is quite determined to do whatever his brother is doing hence why he started walking at 10 months. William is the dare devil of the house. He has already gotten his first set of stitches and I just know a broken bone will come soon from all of the jumping. The hospital seriously knows him by name. I have had health problems this year but am doing well now. I am your typical stay at home mom and I love it. Scott is doing well too. He is working hard as always. We wish you and your families a wonderful holiday season and a great 2009.

Love,

The Archers

Scott, Jymme-Lyn, William, Harrison and Miss Belle

Science Center

Today we went to the Los Angeles Science Center. It was really fun and a good learning experience. They had a lot of exhibits. My favorite was the earthquake simulator. The boys had fun in the discovery zones. They were learning shapes. As you can tell, William's favorite was the triangle. Harrison's was the circle. :) They make me laugh all of the time with the stuff they come up with.

 

It's Snowing!

Last night we went to the mall to see the snow fall. Ok, so it's not really snowing here in California BUT the mall has a snow fall every evening. The boys really enjoyed seeing the snow and it is fun to pretend. Afterwards we drove around to see the lights. Scott's sisters are in town. It is really nice to have family around during the holidays and the boys enjoy playing with their aunties.

Boys who play in Mommy's bathroom

This is what you get when little boys play in the bathroom. William had no idea what a headband was but he knew it would be fun to play with. He wore it like they were sunglasses. He would have to look up to be able to see. He seriously wore it all day long and kept making sure "bubby" had his on too. I did make him leave it at home when we went to the gym today. But he put it on as soon as we got home. Scott was a little thrown off when he came home and his son wore a headband all throughout dinner.

Pictures with Santa

Like I said in the last post, we met up with Santa for some pictures today. Just like last year, William was not fond of the big guy. He didn't last very long on his lap. And I wish I could read Harrison's mind as he was sitting there, "who is this guy???" It was hard to get him to look at the camera because he kept staring at Santa.

What a fun day!

We had such a great day today. This morning Scott made a big breakfast for all of us. Soon after, we headed to Santa Barbara. We packed our lunches and had a quiet picnic at the Zoo. We took so many good pictures that there are too many to post. Harrison's favorite animal was the birds and William's were the ducks. We even rode the train and the boys got a kick out of that.

Here is the Amur Leopard. He is one of the animals we sponsored this year at the zoo. He is so gorgeous.

Here are the boys playing in the play land. There is this big hill that you can slide down. Will had a blast on it (I didn't slide down at all :) )

Oh and they also rode the carousel. After the zoo, we headed to the mall to get pictures with Santa. That will be another post. After the mall, we headed home. We drove next to the beach and watched the sunset over the ocean as we drove home. It was so nice. We stopped at the Olive Garden on the way home for a nice dinner. It was such a good day!

Pictures at the Park

I thought it would be fun to take pictures in the park this morning with the boys dressed up in their new sweaters. My window of opportunity was really small to try to get the perfect picture seeing it was 80 degrees and William just wanted to run around. Once he gets sweaty, his scares from his burn start to show. So I thought I would get a picture right away but one minute into sitting the boys and Belle down, Harrison threw up all over himself (he was eating the grass and leaves)!

This was probably my favorite picture of the morning.

We ended up playing instead and we were all ok with that.

Big Brother Little Brother

I thought the boys shirts were cute so I tried to take a picture of the two of them together wearing them. This is what I get.

It is impossible to get them both to sit still at the same time. Anyway, William's shirt says Big Brother and Harrison's shirt says Little Brother. They are so cute!

On another note, Harrison has yet another double ear infection. I feel so sorry for this little guy. He has only been off of antibiotics for three weeks since September!!!! He is constantly taking another round. His doctor was always putting off tubes since he was so little but she finally changed her mind. I am pretty sure this make his 14th ear infection! Yes 14! He doesn't know what it feels like to not feel pain. I am so excited for him to get tubes just so he can be happier. And maybe, just maybe I might get to sleep some more???? I am 29 years old and I think I have the darkest circles under my eyes. None of those eye creams help me and yet I think I have purchased every one of them in an attempt to make those circles go away. He has an appointment with an ENT next Thursday so lets hope we can get this surgery scheduled soon. They would like him to go two weeks without an infection but he hasn't done that in months so I don't know how they would handle the surgery. William also has an appointment with the same ENT because his pediatrician thinks one of his tubes may have fallen out. His right ear is so clogged with wax that she couldn't see anything. Poor guy.

On another note, William mimics everything I do and say. If I cough, he does. If I put my hand on my head so does he. Now I have to worry about everything I say. A few months ago, I was concerned with his speech development and now he can't stop talking. And now he disciplines Harrison. For example: There is one cabinet in our kitchen that doesn't have a safety latch on it. Tonight Harrison grab a pan out of there and started banging it on the floor. William came up to him, grab the pan and put it back into the cabinet. It didn't end there. Then he pulled Harrison away from the cabinet and pointed to it and said, "no baby no touch ."

Cowboy up!

William loves his cowboy hat and boots. He would wear them all day every day if you let him. There have been many times I check on him while he is sleeping and those little boots are on. Well tonight Scott thought it would be fun to pull out his cowboy hat that he never wears. Will thought it was great. He is daddy's right hand man and kept comparing their hats.

This past week was really busy. Nothing really big to post about just busy with appointments and the usual stuff. This weekend was nice. One of my college roommates and friend, Julie, came up and we spent Saturday together. It was nice to catch up. I loved having a girls day out and I know the boys enjoyed spending the entire day with Scott. Thanks Scott!

I didn't take many pictures this week but this one was great. William woke up from his nap. He was clean and there was nothing in his hair but this is what it was doing.

Lights

This post is just for you Brad! I know you miss looking out your window in Utah and seeing our house all lit up :)

Scott decorated the house last weekend. We have so many lights left over since this house is less than half the size of our old house that Scott decorated the whole back yard too :) And it is so weird that I took this picture in a t-shirt and shorts seeing that it is December and it has been hot outside. When does winter come? Every time I think it is starting to cool down, it gets hot again.