The Lion King

Mike is the most wonderful husband ever. The Lion King came back to the Des Moines Civic Center for only 2 weeks (they had come a few years ago). I really really wanted to go! It was a last minute decision, and Mike didn't want to leave Aidan with a sitter for that long that late at night, so he said he would stay home with Beebs and I could go to the show!

It was AMAZING!!! The costumes and puppetry were absolutely stunning. This next picture shows two of my favorite costumes in the entire show. The giraffes are actually dancers on four stilts, and the leopard puppet had me mesmerized every single time it came on the stage.

All of the actors and costumes were just fabulous. These pictures are great, but they don't even do justice. Seeing how the characcters MOVED was what made them so incredible to me!

I was about 6 rows back on the edge, and as the ticket-taker said, "You're right in the safari zone! Make sure you keep your arms and legs in the jeep!" I didn't quite get what he said until about 5 minutes into the show. I was glued to the stage when I suddenly sensed something behind me. I turned around and nearly had a heart attack - three feet behind me was an elephant coming in from the side!

It was an absolutely phenomenal show. I highly recommend going if you ever have the chance!

Winter Beauty

Anyone who knows me knows that I despise winter. And yet, when I woke up yesterday to see every single tree covered in such perfect frost...

... even I had to admit that Heavenly Father is one amazing artist!

Miscellaneous... lots of pictures

If you aren't my friend on Facebook, you might not be aware that my computer died a few days before the New Year. (There, that gives me the perfect excuse for not posting in so long, right?!) We are currently in the process of trying to buy a new one. Luckily, my data wasn't lost. My motherboard was just fried. So, I am borrowing Mike's computer to post. This is just a bunch of random pictures and videos, mostly of my son because I'm a crazy proud mama. They've been waiting on my camera for me to share them, and I finally decided that today is the day!

Aidan is getting closer to crawling every single day.

I love his little winter snowsuit!

Pictures with Dad and Mom.... for those of you who don't just read my blog to see my son! :)

Aidan was playing with a boy in our ward who is almost exactly the same age. It was really funny to watch them both sitting there chewing on toys together!

This cracks me up - Aidan chews on my slipper as if he were a dog!

This is what Aidan does when he gets really tired. It's almost hard to put him to bed because he just seems so happy!

And there you have the catch up posts. Be sure to scroll down for a few more!

P.S. Comments are great! :)

More Cards

Yay, more! And you get to see them! :)

Not So "Lucky" Any More

After several posts about Lucky, our invincible fish, I am sad to share with you that he was, indeed, mortal. Over the last month or so, he deteriorated to the point where he couldn't even get up to the surface to eat; he just laid on the bottom of his bowl all day long, looking miserable. As I told Mike, "It looks like he should be in the animal version of Hospice." We debated about how best to put him out of his misery... suffice it to say, I left it up to Mike. Here's hoping that Lucky is now all healed and happy floating around in fish heaven! He was a good pet.

Christmas

We were very lucky to have my two of my sisters come visit over Christmas.

This is Heidi...

and Jennifer.

We had a lot of fun playing with them over their entire visit. Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas day... I'm only 3 weeks late! :)

The traditional nativity scene - complete with a little baby Jesus!

Jennifer and Aidan waiting at the top of the stairs to come down.

Lining up in age order to come in... that's the first time I was in front of the other two!

Here's baby seeing his gifts from Santa. (This video is longer than the other two.)

And this shows what he was REALLY interested in - the wrapping!

Again, this is what he REALLY liked.

These next shots show Aidan playing with one of Mike's gifts, a Man of Steel hat.

Jennifer and I got the exact same shirt for Christmas! (This was completely unplanned.)

Later during the day, Aidan enjoyed the fruits of his father's labor...er... stocking.

What a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the Savior's birth and the love of family!