Merry Christmas!

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Here's a big Christmas hug from Cooper on his first Christmas!

Nativity

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Elisa's sister Emily has been working on a Nativity set for us for a
year now and it came tonight! It has 25 pieces to be opened a day at
a time from our cool log cabin shown behind them. Aren't they
amazing?! The little drummer boy is Elisa's favorite (mainly for the
Biblical accuracy).

Bek and Boys

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Cooper is enjoying some time with Becky and her unborn boy, his future
playmate.

The Tree

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Kiefer really loves the Christmas tree and just can't get enough
looking and touching of the ornaments. It's funny to see him run down
first thing in the morning to turn on the lights, I think he is really
going to love Christmas this year.

Snowboarding

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There's snow at Snowbowl so Rich and I made an impromptu run to the
slopes this afternoon for a little boarding. We're on the lift and
have been down a few times, so far no one hurt.

More pics from the day:



The peaks from the lift, the one on the left is the back of Humphreys which you can see from our house



Rich showing his mad skills:



then waiting for the slow Todd...



So we accidentally rode one lift all the way to the top and then found out there were only black diamonds from there, so we spent about 15 minutes enjoying the view and deliberating on whether we ride the lift down :)

Ellie

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The Ferreiras are here visiting from Hume and Ellie is getting so big,
aren't these two toe-heads cute together.

My Rankles

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Kiefer loves to be held upside down by his ankles but when he asks he
says "my rankles" which really cracks me up.

First Snow

We had our first "real" snow since being here in Flagstaff, and by real I mean it actually piled up a little bit and didn't just blow around. Here is a video of some sledding we did on our street with Scott, Lew and Sheena.

The video and picture below are from Saturday morning but it snowed pretty much the whole weekend so we ended up with quite a bit.

Champions

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Troy's high school team, Estrella Foothills, beat Thunderbird in the
championship 79-55. Troy's team is ranked number 1 in the state in 3A
with 3 starting sophomores and were pretty fun to watch dominate the
tournament.

Basketball

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My cousin Troy is here from Goodyear playing basketball in a
tournament. Lew, Scott, and Sheena are staying with us and we are
having a good time watching the game.

Morning Movie

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Kiefer and Cooper enjoyed a morning viewing of Frosty the Snowman and
Cooper just drank it in!

No Toys

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So we had one of those fun parental experiences today when we stopped by the local Target, Kiefer began throwing a tantrum when he was told we were leaving the toy section and he started crying and screaming "I WANT A TOY!" at the top of his lungs. He was immediately escorted out of the Target by his loving/fuming father, screaming the whole way to the van (Elisa said she could hear him across the store as we were leaving). When we got to the van we had a nice little talk about gratitude/behavior where he was told that if he cannot behave he will have NO toys. So, when we got home his room was emptied of all toys and now my office has a large collection of toddler toys for me to play with (I can't wait to make those dinosaurs fight!)

First Bottle

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Cooper took his first bottle tonight and gulped it down in no time
like he knew what he is doing. He sure is getting big!

Decorating

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We are getting ready for Christmas and Kiefer is enjoying helping with
all the decorations. Gotta love the crazy hair after just waking up
from a nap.

Lep Kuchen Day

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The day is here and we are already done making cookies, mainly because
Damon helped roll out the dough and he was really fast. We ended up
with 166 cookies but I think it's because they ended up a little
bigger and thicker, which really makes for a better cookie.

Surprise!

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The Davies surprised Elisa by showing up at our house this morning
after driving all night from Hume (I knew they were coming). They
have been with us the last few years for Lep Kuchen day so it will be
fun to have them with us tomorrow.

Showitcon

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This week I'm in Santa Barbara with Aaron Griffy, our newest developer that is starting this week. Nate Sees our designer and TJ Hill who wrote all our music are also here. DJ and Brett (working on Showit Sites) met us for Sushi last night for some great Santa Barbara cuisine. We ended up staying at the Double Tree instead of DJ's house because he thought we would be more comfortable instead of sleeping on the floor. So we got two ocean view rooms that are pretty awesome and here is the view of Aaron and Nate walking by from our patio.

TJ Hill has done so much great music for me starting back at Hume with banquet videos and "We Like Sheep" and then eventually the music library in Showit Web. He drove up from San Diego so it was great to see him. Even though I would much rather have preferred Elisa in my room last night, TJ provided some good conversation as my roommate.

Batterday Saturday

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Today is a "traditional" day for our family as Elisa made the batter
that will sit for a week and then we will make German cookies next
Saturday on "Lep Kuchen Day". This has been a family tradition for
Elisa her whole life and for me since we met and we will be making two
batches which is about 200 cookies (Elisa's dad is making 4 batches).
Next Saturday is a fun event as we bake and glaze hundreds of
cookies. While we were at Hume we had lots of people stop by during
the day so it will be a little different this year. With that in
mind, we are offering an open invitation, if you are around next
Saturday stop by anytime and enjoy some Lep Kuchen with us!

Wall Stickers

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Kiefer got these cool dinosaur wall stickers today and now his room looks like one big dinosaur book. They are pretty cool and Kiefer loves running around and pointing out the names of the dinosaurs that he knows.

Story Time

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Kiefer is enjoying story time with Auntie Em.

Emily is Here!

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Elisa's sister Emily is here from Iowa for a few days and we are
excited for her first visit to our new home in Flagstaff.

Retreat

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I am on a men's retreat this weekend with my church and we started the
weekend off with a round of golf. The weather was perfect for golf in
Prescott and we had a great time. Pray for Elisa as she is alone with
the boys this weekend.

Dino & Lion

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Kiefer had a great time dressing up as a dinosaur and Cooper had no idea what was going on, but he did roar a few times. Elisa's awesome shirt is covered but it says "Little Miss Scary" and is a take off of the Mr. Happy and Little Miss Sunshine characters.

Facial Hair

I decided to do a little experiment to check and see if I have "grown up" yet by seeing if I could grow a beard. The last two weeks I didn't shave and let's just say I wasn't too successful. After the first week and a half, my face was looking really nasty. Even with lots of water and plenty of sunshine, I found out that I have a "No Grow Zone" that stays as smooth as Cooper's rear and makes the rare hairs around my jaw look way out of place. So I decided to back off and try for just the goatee which was sort of coming in under my chin. Let's just say that even after letting it grow, I just ended up with random length hairs that couldn't cover all the empty patches which my wife calls a "chin comb-over". So after much pleading from Elisa I got rid of it today, but I thought I should at least document my results so that maybe in ten years I can try again...

Overstimulation

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We put Cooper in an "exersaucer" at the Lundgren's house and he loved it so we decided to get one for him. The only one they had at China-Mart was this one with stuff all over it and you know how much I love stuff, but this still seems a little excessive. I think Cooper's eyes pretty much say what he's thinking.

Stickers

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Kiefer got some stickers that he decided to share with Cooper.

Smilin'

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It's pretty tough to do but I finally caught a good pic of this boy
giving a big smile, so cute.

Foam Contest

We got this crazy beaded foam stuff at the toy store that is like play dough but different and decided to have a sculpting contest. We ended up with three snakes in the competition, but I think that is because the orange snake was so cool that imitators followed. Anyway, we have a poll on the top right that you can vote on your favorite. Enjoy...

The competitors side by side

Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Nate Sees

Red Snake by Kiefer Watson

Duck by Elisa Watson

Blue Snake by Jefferson Sees

Snow Man by Erin Sees

Orange Rattle Snake with AWESOME FANGS and eyes that shoot LASERS by Todd Watson

Week of Sees

The Sees have been with us for a great week and here are a few of the pictures from our time together.

Story Time with Erin

Puzzle Time

Running through the Park Time

Movie Time

Fire Chief Time with Kiefer's new helmet from the Schulers