Happy Halloween

Helaman was a BYU football player for Halloween this year. He loves football. He talks about it all the time, loves playing football, watching football on t.v. or live at the High School, and even used to pray that he was thankful for football every night when he would say his prayers. If you ask him how to play football he will say “Go, go, BOOM!”



We went to trunk-er-treat at the church this year. It took Helaman a little while to figure out what was going on, but once he realized if he held his bucket up people would put candy in it, he was very into it.

Crazy little 2-year old

Helaman’s two now, and his mom and dad can hardly believe it. It seems like just yesterday he came home from the hospital, and on the other hand, it seems like he’s been here forever.

For his birthday he rode our bikes to McDonald’s for dinner, and then came home and had a party with just the three of us. Mom took him into his room to change before the party, and dad got his presents out and set them on the couch. When he came into the room and saw the presents he started doing his funny little happy dance saying, “Yaye, yaye, yaye!”

He loved opening presents, and tried really hard to blow out the two candles in the cup cakes his dad has made. (but mommy had to help) His favorite present was the Thomas the Train that came in his movie, but he really liked his dinosaurs, too.

Aunt Cari and Uncle Josh came from Utah that weekend, so they came with all of mom’s family to give him their present on Saturday night. Helaman loved having another “party” and being the center of attention. Bompa Luis and Gradma Elsa and Jelly came too, and Jelly made some awesome car cakes for everyone to enjoy.

Helaman had so much fun after he was done opening presents he just kept laughing and running around in circles. He was cracking us all up.

Sacramento Temple Dedication

The Sacramento Temple is getting ready to be dedicated this weekend. Earlier this month Helaman, Mommy, Daddy, Bompa Luis, and Aunt Jellie went to the open house. As soon as we pulled in the parking lot Helaman started saying “temple” over and over. He was so excited. I think even at his young age he can feel how special it is. He was very good through the whole tour, except that he wasn’t thrilled about leaving the baptistry. He really liked the “Moo’s” there.

We are so excited to have a temple so close, and are grateful that we got to talk Helaman and Grandpa and Jellie to share in this special time with us. It’s something we’ll treasure for the rest of our lives, and probably into eternity. :)

The Fair

Helaman had a ton of fun at the fair this year. He was old enough and tall enough (well, not really, but we cheated) to go on all the little kids rides, and he loved it. His favorite was probably the slide, he wanted to go over and over. Lucky for him Grandpa and Daddy and Uncle Michael all like the slide too, so he had a lot of takers. When Mommy’s family was little they were all scared to death of the slide, but he loved the thrill.



At first Helaman only wanted to go on rides with a partner, so he and Greta did several. But eventually the carnies wouldn’t let Greta on any more. Luckily, by then he was hooked and didn’t mind going by himself. He would just smile and wave at us, and then cry for more when the rides were over.



He went on the Carousel with Grandma and she said he was more interested in how the ride worked than the ride itself, watching all the mechanisms the whole time. Which was partly true, but he really loved the horses, too.

The second day we went to the fair, Mommy made the mistake of telling him that we were going later. So, Helaman was too excited to take a nap and just layed in bed and talked to himself for an hour and a half instead. We thought he would be too tired to have fun that night, but he was loving it the whole time, even though he was SO tired.

Almost Singing & Talking

Helaman loves to sing songs, especially ones with actions. Daddy taught him to put this piece of cardboard over his head and act out “Little Cabin in the Woods”. He thinks it is so funny!

Helaman is at the age where he is constantly busy, and he’s keeping mommy really busy, too! She hasn’t even had tiem to update his web site for a long time. (That’s a good excuse, right?) But he’s tons of fun. He loves to laugh, and loves to be laughed at even more. Right now he’s working really hard on jumping, though it’s still just a violent toe-rise.

He’s trying really hard to talk right now, and is in to small sentences, like “help me”, “Bompa’s bed” and “bye-bye da-da”. He’s finally willing to try words he’s not quite sure how to say, so his vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds these days. He talks in big long sentences, too, but then no one has any idea what he is saying. But if you say okay when he’s done, that’s all he needs to be happy.

He’s also quite the monkey these days. He loves to climb on his slide/mini-jungle gym and just about everything else. I am convinced he has a thrill-seeking personality. He loves riding motorcycyles, being startled, sharp turns, and anything else that gives that little thrill feeling. It’s so fun watching him grow up and develop into such a little clown and dare-devil.

Dying Easter Eggs

Helaman loved "dying" Easter eggs. He died a couple at Grandma Maggie's house, but wanted to do some more when he got home. Since it was a pretty scary proposition, we just let him put his plastic eggs in containers of water, which is all he really wanted anyway. He loved playing in the water and dunking the eggs. We had a huge mess when we were done, but at least we could just wipe it up!

Easter at Nina's

Sunday afternoon we went Easter egg hunting at Nina's. Helaman was old enough to understand this year, and loved putting stuff in his basket. He kept looking for eggs long after everything was done. He really enjoys picking stuff up right now (I know, enjoy that while it lasts!) so this was the perfect activity for him.



That is until he discovered the candy...

Easter at Grandma's

This is how we spent our time Easter egg hunting at Grandma Maggie's. First you find some candy. Then you cry becasue mom said you can't have any more candy. Then Uncle Michael or some other sucker gives you the candy. And you eat it like a little monster.

Helaman ate so much candy on Easter he was wired until midnight. When we go home from grandma's, he literally ran around in circles screaming because he didn't know what else to do with all of his sugar energy.



Uncle Mike was in big trouble...

Easter Outfit

Mom just loved this outfit, so she had to include a picture. My first guayabera.

Growing Monkeys

Helaman is growing up so fast. He loves his stuffed animals, and carries them around everywhere. His favorite changes every day, but this particular morning he went around for an hour being hugged by his monkeys.

Growing Teeth

Helaman's favorite food is apples right now. Sometimes it's hard to get him to eat anything else in a day. He even says apple. Well, more like bopple, but we know what he means.

He actually says a lot of words right now. I made a list, but I probably forgot a few. At any rate, here's what I can remember:

• choo-choo


• juice


• I love you


• ball


• grandpa


• grandma


• outside


• bye-bye


• moon


• shoes


• bath


• ball


• dirty


• omar


• ma-ma


• da-da


• greta

Omar is my favorite word. He used to call his dad Omar da-da all the time. So cute!

If you look closely in the photo you will see some of his coloring. He likes to eat the crayons, and color on everything but paper, but sometimes he gets the paper and sure loves seeing the marks he makes.

Growing Manly

Helaman loves being around other boys. As soon as his dad gets home he only wants his dad. Greta is the one exception, he still loves her tons.

He loves to do all thing little boy. He plays in the dirt for hours, makes car noises and drives his cars around the living room. He loves trains and planes. And he loves animals. In fact, he can make several animal noises. He moos like cow, baas like sheep, and quaks like a duck. When you ask him what an elephant says, he lifts one arm up like a trunk (but doesn't make any noise?) and he snorts and snuff like the rhino in his book. He can also point out several other animals in his books or on his chair.

Growing

Helaman is almost 17 months old now. He's 31.75 inches and 22 pounds 8 ounces. He's still pretty skinny, but that doesn't seem to stop him.

Helaman is talking a lot now, well, for a baby. He finally started dancing, and can run a little bit now. He's just started going to nursery for the last couple of weeks, and loves that too. He knows how to fold his arms to pray (although he can't quite understand to keep them that way). I'm constantly amazed by how big he's getting. Where did my baby go?

Helaman's Christmas

Helaman had a great time on Christmas Eve with the Santanas. He loved playing with his cousins, and seeing Santa Clause and eating lots of good (bad for you) food! He got lots of great presents too!



Helaman especially loved the tricycle that Nina gave him. We couldn't get him off of it. He isn't quite tall enough to ride yet, but he loves to sit on it and twist the handle bars and make the peddles spin with his toes.



The next morning, Helaman found Santa had left him some more suprises under the tree. The dragon puppet is from one of his favorite Baby Einstein videos. He was really excited to meet this friend in person.

You can also see the chair in the background that was his present from mommy and daddy. He is so weird, he likes to get into it by going over one of the arms.



Uncle Michael was really excited about this elephant toy, but Helaman loves it too.



We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!