Hiding, Headphones & Rings

One of McKay's favorite places to go is between the couches. There is just enough room (conveniently) for him to squeeze through. We keep some of his books back there (they don't all fit) and he loves to go back there and read them. I'll be fixing dinner or something and he is really quiet. Usually he is sitting somewhere reading a book. I am so glad he loves to read books, though sometimes I think he takes advantage of the fact that I will almost always stop what I am doing to read a book he brings to me. I have a feeling we will be moving the couches to make the 'door' bigger when McKay gets bigger.

We opted to put up a little Christmas tree this year and leave our big tree in the garage. McKay loves our little tree and will often go back there to look at the lights, growl at the bear ornaments, or smell the tree. (yes, it is fake). The Christmas lights in our house are always on as long as McKay is around!

Whenever I am in my room folding laundry or something McKay is usually playing in the closet (unless he is putting Jordan's clothes or shoes left on the floor in his (McKay's) hamper). Today he found my water shoes and kept putting the little draw string up to his ear. Sometimes we let him hear the music playing on the ipod on one headphone an inch or so from his ear. It looked like a headphone to him.

I kept asking him if he could hear music and he kept trying to hear something. They do look pretty similar. This picture was taken with the video camera. :(

I don't think I'll ever put these rings up! Who knows what he will do with them next?! He also walks around the house with canning bottle rings on his arms, left over from playing in the lid drawer. He is getting pretty creative with where he puts things. He filled Jordan's shoes with Legos and stuffed all the lids he could into the dishtowel drawer that was open a couple of inches. I am thoroughly enjoying McKay as his personality continues to develop and as he explores and learns. He is a fun little guy with a contagious laugh.

Wrapping Paper Test

You Are Considerate and Mature

You approach the holidays with responsibility and cooperation. You'll do your part to make sure that everyone else has a happy holiday. You aren't particularly picky or high maintenance during the holidays. You're happy to be in the company of people you love, and you're willing to "go with the flow." Of all the types, you are the most likely to give someone exactly what they want. You're also the most likely to wrap all your presents well - to prevent peeking!

The Wrapping Paper Test

Broken

Today I was videoing McKay and the camera battery died. So, I plugged it in, set it on the kitchen table and started taking pictures with my digital camera. McKay is getting taller and can reach EVERYTHING. He started to pull on the video camera strap. I reached to save the video camera from sudden death and the digital camera in my hand hit something... still not sure if it was the table, a chair, or the wall. The lens won't retract now and the camera doesn't work. :( I have a few pictures I haven't posted yet and I CAN take pictures with my video camera - the quality isn't as good though. I wonder if it is too late to send a letter to Santa...

McKay-boy & the Christmas Creche

Can you tell where the oatmeal landed when McKay was in-charge of the spoon? Now I remind him, 'nice and slow', with each bite he takes. He gets excited and goes too fast and oatmeal flies off the spoon REALLY well.

McKay loves to peek at us when we open the fridge. Some games never get old!

Tuesday night we went to Palo Alto to the Christmas Creche exhibit. We were not allowed to take pictures but you can click here to go to the website. We were able to watch a Marionette show about the birth of Christ, which McKay really enjoyed, especially when we sang songs. It was amazing to see the different nativity scenes from all over the world. Each one was so unique and reflected the country in which it was created. All of them had a Baby Jesus even if instead of sheep or donkeys they had elephants. We figured that at least 50% of the people there were not members of our faith and several of the nativities had been loaned by other churches in the area. What a wonderful tool to bring the community together, in our church building, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. No one who attended this amazing event could have any doubt that we are christians. Every room in that church was filled with nativities and a sweet spirit. We plan to make the Creche exhibit a part of our Christmas each year.

2008 Christmas Letter

Minutes from the Annual Moser Family Meeting
Date: December 1, 2008
Attending: Jordan – Managing Member, Maria - Managing Member, and McKay – President

All present agreed that 2008 had two major events that affected the entire family.

1. In April, Jordan graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor degree in Construction Management.
2. In May, the whole family moved to Santa Clara, California. Everyone present at the meeting agreed that this was a good move for our family and that we are enjoying our new location. We were very fortunate to find a great duplex with several parks within a mile of our home. We have enjoyed several day trips including to San Francisco, to the Beach in Santa Cruz, and to the state parks.

Next, we discussed the activities of each member of the family.

• Jordan was thrilled to graduate from BYU after four and a half years of intense schooling. With the recent turn in the economy, we are even more grateful we decided he should increase his credit load and go to school year round to graduate a year earlier than planned. After a seemingly endless search for a job, he accepted a position as an Office Engineer for Hensel Phelps Construction in Northern California. He has enjoyed the learning curve and has progressed quickly. He has been trusted to oversee responsibilities seldom given to an office engineer and is quickly earning the respect of those with whom he works. Jordan enjoyed going with his Dad and some of the other ‘Moser Men’ on a four-wheeling trip to Moab, Utah. The trip was the perfect graduation present! Jordan’s current calling is to make sure the church gets cleaned every Saturday morning (every other month). He has taken advantage of the opportunity to play basketball after the work is done.

• Maria has enjoyed transitioning to being a full-time stay-at-home mommy and a CPA part-time instead of the other way around. She likes the change-of-pace of being able to work for King & McCleary (the firm she worked for in Utah for four years) several hours each week, depending on their need and her time. She loves being home with McKay and watching him learn and grow. She is the second councilor in the Young Women’s Presidency and has enjoyed getting to know the young women in the ward as well as the other leaders. She always has some project she is working on and never seems to get bored!

• McKay turned the big ONE on July 17th. This year included a lot of FIRSTS for him including, walking & running, seeing the ocean, flying on a plane, his first words (mama, eese (Cheese) yoyo (yogurt), ha (hat), dada, ya), lots of baby sign language & animal sounds, his first hair cut, a mouth full of teeth, and the list goes on. He LOVES to be outside and points to all the airplanes, birds, dogs, flowers, and butterflies we see. He is very friendly and waves to everyone he sees & usually is rewarded by a smile and ‘you’ve made my day!’ He loves to smell all the roses in our yard (sniff sniff!) a few times each time we go out and loves to spin around on the grass and pretend to be dizzy long after the real dizziness has worn off. He loves to play on the beach and can’t wait for his parents to set him down once we get close enough for him to walk. He loves to read books and to go to the library program for ‘Young Ones’ each Thursday morning. He empties the lid drawer in the kitchen AT LEAST once each day (with permission… the drawer is too heavy for him to open on his own!) and plays with his Lego-blocks every day. He loves to watch Baby Einstein, especially Baby Da Vinci which talks about body parts. McKay loves to sing songs, especially if they have actions, and bobs his head every afternoon when the music truck (a.k.a. ice cream truck) drives past. He asks for a bath in the evening and gets SO excited when it is finally time to dump all his bath toys in the tub. McKay loves to do whatever we are doing and often insists on being able to watch what we are cooking, which can be quite tricky sometimes. He imitates the inflection in our voices and always makes us laugh at his accuracy. Whenever he sees or hears Daddy and Mommy kiss, he can’t be left out and gets a kiss from Daddy and Mommy too. McKay is our delight and joy. We love being his parents and couldn’t imagine life without our sweet ‘little man.’

After discussing our activities for the year, all present agreed the Moser Family had a wonderful year and hope our family and friends enjoy a safe and happy holiday season as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and usher in a New Year.

Thanksgiving

We went to my Aunt Mary's home in Palmdale, CA for Thanksgiving this year. The drive both ways was AWFUL. The freeways just weren't big enough for the volume of cars. A drive that should take five hours took us at least seven each way. On the way back we went about ten miles (and that is being generous) in one hour. We agreed it would have been better to drive 9 hours straight than to be stop and go, crazy drivers cutting you off, etc the whole way. Oh well. McKay was pretty patient both ways, thank goodness.

My brother Christopher (missionary next to me) is serving his mission in Palmdale/Lancaster and was able to come for Thanksgiving dinner. His release date is February 11,2009 (my birthday). It was a lot of fun to see him again and we had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving day.

Elder McCleve's birthday is December 4th so we surprised him with a cherry cheesecake with 21 huge candles on it. It was delicious (if I do say so myself ;)) and he was really excited to eat it. We figured a missionary going home soon didn't need anything that takes up too much space... so we gave him a huge bag of Peanut M&M's, a bag of homemade granola, and a cd of Christmas Music. We really enjoyed spending the day with the missionaries.

Mary offered to watch McKay for us while we went to Universal Studios (thank you!!) We had a wonderful time. The park was not very crowded and we only had to wait about 10 minutes for one of the rides. As we were returning to the park after lunch, a couple asked if we wanted their 'Front of Line' passes since they were leaving. SURE!!! It didn't take us long to see all of the attractions at least once. We really enjoyed our day.

The set for 'The Grinch Who Stole Christmas'.

War of the Worlds. We only saw previews but it was pretty amazing to see a plane cut in half!

McKay with Aunt Mary showing off her 'Best Aunt' award. We REALLY appreciated her watching McKay for us as well as her amazing hospitality. We had a wonderful weekend.

Things to Remember

11-24-08
McKay likes to go behind the table and mess with the outlet that is three feet off the floor. So I arranged the table and chairs so he couldn't get back there & plugged in my wall flower. He got up from his nap, moved his high chair and the chair and got back there! I guess that 'trick' won't work anymore.

11-19-08
Today McKay and I met Jordan for lunch. We were talking and I said 'really' in a surprised tone and McKay copied me almost exactly from the back seat (only he didn't say 'really'... just the same tone & pitch as I did).

McKay's current sign vocabulary: way too many to name!

This morning, McKay was getting very frustrated because he didn't have my full attention. I finally finished what I was doing and took him to the rocking chair and held him close while we rocked. Every now and again he'd lift his head up, grin at me, turn his cheek for a kiss and lay his head back down. After 5 minutes or so, he was happy again. He's such a sweet boy.

11-16-08
When I ask McKay if he wants to read a book or go outside his response is usually 'ya ya ya ya' with his head bobbing up and down.

When we say 'come on' to McKay he starts waving both his arms in the 'come on' motion.

I think more people in our ward know McKay's name than ours.

McKay pinches his knees together when I am trying to fasten a clean diaper on him or snap up his onesie. The grin on his face tells me he knows EXACTLY what he is doing.

11-13-08
Today McKay and I were outside enjoying the 75 degree weather. We like to sit on our front porch step together. Well today, McKay kept coming over to me holding out his hand for me to hold and as soon as I would grab it and stand up, he'd laugh and point back at the step for me to sit back down. This happened several times; it was pretty funny.

11-6-08
Whenever McKay hears water running in the bathroom he starts asking/signing for a bath. He gets so excited for bath time!

McKay can point to his head, hair, ears, eyes, mouth/tongue, fingers, toes, and bellybutton. I'm sure I missed something...

McKay is very friendly and waves to everyone he sees walking or driving by. There are a lot of people in the grocery store!