Walking in a Winter Wonderland

It has snowed the last two Saturdays in a row! And not just a little dusting, but all day kind of snow. It makes things feel so Christmasey. On Sunday we rushed home from church, changed clothes, and went to try to get a Christmas card picture. We had the camera on a tripod and were doing the "press the timer button and run to get in the picture game." We had to hurry because Bryce had to be at a Home Teaching (church) appointment at 4:30 and we didn't get home from church and dressed until close to 4. I won't put the best picture on here (wouldn't want to ruin it for our Christmas cards)...but they are all pretty much the same. We couldn't get Sawyer to look at the camera because Will was making so much noise and Sawyer was much more interested in him than the camera. Will really wanted to play in the snow, but he wasn't dressed for it and we were in a hurry. Nevertheless when we tried to get him in the car he took off running and ended up face-planting into the snow. He didn't care for about 20 seconds and then he looked at his hands covered in snow and started screaming. I guess he discovered that really cold hands hurt! We cleaned him off and put him in the car, but he cried all the way home until I took him out of the car and then he looked at his hands and said "My hands are all better!"

I went to check on Will the other night and found him sound asleep with his nativity stable and one of the wise men laying right on his face. He must have really been out because he didn't even wake up when I took 5 pictures with the flash going off in his face each time. Will has taken a special liking to the wise men. He has to have them in bed with him each night - he says "Where are my kings?" He doesn't like Mary or Joseph, however. My mom bought the set for him and let him open it before she left at the end of November. Will looked at the pieces and said "This is baby Jesus taking a bath" (he was in a manger) and "This is Santa Claus" (one of the wise men has a beard and red robe) and "This is the donkey from Shrek." So I think he pretty much has the real meaning of Christmas down. Lol.
Bryce sanded our office on Saturday to get it ready for paint. He came out looking like this:
"In life, I was your partner, Jacob Marley." [The shirt is from our family reunion this summer...Bryce doesn't generally wear shirts with his name on the front.]

We tried to instill some of the spirit of giving in Will tonight by taking him to Wal-Mart to pick out gifts for a 2 year-old boy whose card we chose off of an Angel Tree. We thought we had prepped him for the event by spending the last 2 days explaining that he got to be a special Christmas helper and go to the store and buy some toys for a little boy just like him. I don't think he quite caught on though. He was all too happy to help choose some toys...and then went hysterical and was sobbing "NO, we are NOT giving these to little Justin" over and over again all through Wal-Mart. Ah the joys of Christmas!

The last few days Will has become very specific in what he wants me NOT to do. He wanted me to play with him yesterday, but I was trying to clean up the house at least a little bit and Will was following me around saying things like, "No! Mom, you are NOT putting laundry in the washing machine!" or "No! Mom, you are NOT putting lights for Christmas on top of the cabinets."

Will thinks "too many" is a definable quantity. Whenever he wants something the conversation goes like this: "Mom, I need some (fruit snacks/crackers/books/etc)." So I give him one of whatever it is. "Mom, I need three!" So I give him three. "Mom, I need five!" So I give him 2 more. "Mom, I need too many!" which I think means the rest of the pack, or all that are available, or as many as I can fit in my hands. It is always the same order: 3, 5, too many! Will also never wants anything, he only needs things. I may have already mentioned this one, but one day in the grocery store I made the mistake of walking down the candy aisle which led to Will screaming "Mom, I neeeeeeeed some candy" much to the amusement of the other woman in the aisle.

We were in Kinko's last week printing Bryce's thesis (he is finally done-hooray!) and Will was looking at all the greeting cards. He was taking them out one by one and saying "This is what it says..." and then he would say something random. I couldn't hear the first couple he said and then he picked up a card that had a cartoon picture of a husband and wife talking on it. Will looked it over and said "This is what it says: Go to the store!" I guess that is his summary of marriage.

I went to the mall with my little sister Mollie last Friday to try to get some Christmas shopping done. We were in Sears and Will started yelling "I'm stinky! I'm stinky! Nasty! Disgusting!" He was attracting quite a few looks. So I checked out the situation and discovered that he was perfectly clean--I guess he just wanted to embarrass me.