Christmas

Well, I'm a bit late getting around to a few of these posts, so sorry for the Christmas overload in advance.

This year was really a great Christmas. Not only did the kids make it so much more fun, but it was really relaxing this year. After trying to think of why it wasn't as crazy or stressful, I boiled it down to a few things, so I thought I'd share them with you as more of a way to imprint them in my brain as a reminder for next year:

1. Advanced planning and preparation makes all the difference. Having all of the gifts bought by Thanksgiving, wrapped a week later, and put together before the 15th really allowed us to enjoy the holiday.
2. Keeping the true meaning of Christmas forefront in mind helped me not worry about the little things that did or did not get done.
3. Not worrying about capturing everything on camera/video or getting the perfect shot.

This last one was more poignant the day of Christmas than anything else. Last year Jeremiah and I drove ourselves crazy running around trying to get the entire morning of Christmas on film (either video or camera) and this year we decided not to worry so much about it. Although we did keep the camera handy and snap a few shots, we found that what we really missed out on last year was seeing the joy and excitement of the kids opening presents because we were stuck behind the cameras. This year was a lot different and although I didn't get as many pictures, I feel like I gained a lot more being apart of the experience instead of trying to just record it.

So that having been said, here are a few of the pictures I did manage to get this year:

I realized I never took a picture of our tree this year, so thought I'd better put one of it on here. We decided to try out an artificial tree this year to see how we liked it versus the real tree we've gotten every other year since we've been married. The jury is still out on the verdict - so many pros and cons to both, we're still trying to decide which we like best!


Here are the gifts that Santa left this year. As you can see, 3 of the 4 members of our family wanted bikes. I decided that since I am 4 months pregnant and not supposed to be on a bike anyway, I'd forego that request this year. I bet you can't guess which bike is for whom!


The kids were thrilled with the bikes Santa left them. In fact, the stocking and sleds were pretty much thrown to the side as they examined their new bikes.


And here's a picture of both Zach and Hailey opening one of their presents. It was cute to see how happy and excited they were as they were opening their presents this year.



In all, it was a very fun day. We were also happy to have Nana, Papa, Aunt Kylie, and Uncle Jedd join us for lunch and even some games in the afternoon.

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope that all of you did too!

Christmas Eve

Thanks to advanced planning and organizing, we were ready for Christmas by almost Thanksgiving this year. This allowed us to really enjoy the month of December and especially the few days leading up to Christmas itself. We have a ton of things that we like to do on Christmas Eve and we were able to spread them out and really relax the whole day.

One of our favorite traditions is to make sugar cookies to leave for Santa. The kids love to be apart of the whole process - mixing the dough, rolling it out, using the cookie cutters, watching them bake, frosting them, and then applying sprinkles.

Zach is really getting big, I can hardly believe how much he is able to do all on his own. He was able to frost the cookies all by himself this year - a bit step up from last year. He loved doing the sprinkles and was so meticulous to make sure it they were very evenly spread out on each cookie.


Hailey is still working at her fine motor skills, so her Dad was kind enough to help her with the frosting. She was able very insistent on helping with the sprinkels and needless to say, her cookies were very well covered!


And of course the best part was taste-testing the finished product! Yummy sugar cookies!


While they were working, they each made 2 special cookies to leave for Santa. These are the cookies they chose all arranged on the plate we left for him.


Another of our favorite traditions is opening 1 gift from Mom and Dad. Since they got pajamas from Nana and Papa the day before (which we had to wash and wear again) they got slippers this year. Zach got Spiderman and Hailey got Dora. They were so excited and had to change right into their pajamas and put on their slippers.


After these fun activities, we settled down for the reading of the Christmas Story from the scriptures and talking about the true meaning of Christmas. The kids were very attentive and seemed to understand what we were talking about. It was a very fun day and the kids went right to sleep when it was bedtime. They really are good kids!

Family Christmas Party

The Annual Family Christmas Party was at Brian and Michelle's in Malad this year. WE all had such a good time! We ate, opened presents, played games, and opened more presents! It was wonderful!

The grandkids love the family party since Nana and Papa always do so many fun presents for the kids to open during the evening. They all definitely come running when they hear the words "present time!"

Here's one of the first presents, the girls got tutus and the boys got race tracks. Here are Hailey, Jocelyn, Nana, and Papa all posing as dancers:


One of the other favorites was when Nana and Papa gave everyone pajamas. My kids love the pajamas they get every year and were so excited to see what they'd get this year. Here's Nana and Papa posing with all the grandkids:


I snuck a quick picture of just Zach and Hailey in their Scooby Doo and Princess pajamas - they were so cute!


And of course the evening wouldn't be complete without an action packed game of Bingo. The kids usually do their bingo game first so that they can go play with their bingo gifts while the adults do their bingo game. Zach and Hailey had so much fun playing bingo and absolutely loved their gifts!


Thanks Brian and Michelle for hosting the party this year, we sure had a blast!

Reading Time

Now that Zach is getting better and better at reading, I've started suggesting he read to his sister. Especially when I see that they are fighting over having the same book. I haven't seen them both agree to this little suggestion until this morning. They were both fighting over the Five Green Speckled Frogs book and when I suggested Zach read it to Hailey, they both thought that was a fabulous idea! So they settled down next to each other on the couch and Hailey sat with riveted attention as her brother read/sang her the book.


It was so darling to see the two of them reading the book together. For once, it was something that satisfied them both and I didn't have to keep yelling or read myself (which is normally not a bad thing, but I was in the middle of doing the breakfast dishes when the arguments started).


I have to admit that I'm looking forward to this happening a little bit more now that Zach is really coming along with his reading skills. Hopefully they'll both be a little more willing to do it now that they know that they both enjoy it!

Playing in the Snow!

Up until a few days ago, we haven't had much snow here in Utah. Sure it's snowed, but not really much more than a few flurries and it's never really stuck around on the ground. Well, a few days ago, we got what I would term our first real "snow storm" of the year. The kids were so excited, they could hardly wait to get out to play in it. We had to wait until Zach got home from school of course, because he didn't want to miss shoveling the drive-way or playing with Hailey in the snow.

After helping me shovel for a few minutes, he gave up on the sidewalk and started playing with his sister. Their first order of playing was to make snow angels. It was hilarious watching the two of them plop down wherever (on the unshoveled portion of the driveway, on the sidewalk, in the flower garden, etc.) and start moving their arms and legs like crazed snow bunnies. But they were cute!


The next thing they did was take their shovels and start throwing snow everywhere - mostly on the already shoveling cement or each other. I didn't get a picture of this because I was too busy yelling at them to stop. Once I got the driveway and sidewalks shoveled and we'd determined the snow wasn't the packing snow we needed for making a snowman, I decided it was time to head inside. The kids were not even close to ready to come in, so I sent them to the backyward to play while I came in. When I looked out a few minutes later, they were having fun on the snowcovered swingset and slide. They couldn't get enough of climbing up the ladder (which must have been hard in all that snow gear) and sliding down.


They also loved climbing the monkey bars ladder at the other end and would take turns climbing up that while the other one went down the slide a few times.


In all, a pretty fun few hours for them. They sure love the snow and will wait until they are completely frozen before deciding it's time to come in. They must have inherited that from their dad because I HATE being cold!

BIG NEWS!

For those of you who read the blogs of other members of my family, you probably already know our big news. But for those of you who don't, we thought we'd submit a post to let you know that we are expecting again! That's right, baby #3 is on the way and scheduled to be here sometime the first part of June. I wish I had an ultrasound picture or something to show, but the office I go to doesn't do early ultrasounds unless medically necessary, so I'll have to promise to post a picture from the 20 wk ultrasound some time in January.

Needless to say, we are all very excited for this baby who has been wanted for a very long time! The kids are thrilled and keep rubbing my belly and asking me how the baby is. Hailey wants it to be a girl, but keeps calling the baby "him" or "he." Zach wants it to be a boy, but keeps calling the baby "she" or "her." Jeremiah wants it to be a boy, only because he doesn't want to be outnumbered by girls! As for me, I'm fine with whatever we have, it's nice to already have one of each so that it's less stress hoping for one or the other.

And for those of you ready to tease us about having twins - DON'T! As much as that would just make you all laugh, I think we'll just stick with one at a time.

So that's our big news! Thought we would share with all of you whom we know and love!

Uncle Taylor - our Misisonary!

Since Taylor was scheduled to enter the MTC on December 2nd, as many of us as possible traveled up to my Mom and Dad's house the night of the 1st to have dinner and be there as he was set apart as a missionary. It was really fun to be there with him and see him take this next important step in his life.

While we were there, we took a couple pictures with him:



The kids just love Uncle Taylor.


As you can see, he takes time to play with each of them. Zach thinks he is the neatest thing ever and can't wait until he can be a missionary just like Taylor.


Sometimes you can tell how much someone loves you by what they're willing to do to make you happy. In this case, Hailey was in heaven reading Taylor a story while they were both "dressed up."



Although the kids don't quite understand what it means for Uncle Taylor to be a missionary, they sure are excited to send him letters, pictures, and cookies. Looks like I'll be busy baking the next little while! I'm sure the reality that he will be gone for a long time will set in when they realize he's not at Nana and Papa's house whenever we go up. I'm willing to wait for that as I'm having a hard time dealing with it myself! But no matter how hard it is for us or for Taylor, we know he is where he's supposed to be and we are so proud of him. Jeremiah and I are especially grateful for the good example he is setting for our children. Taylor, the people in Oklahoma are lucky to have you! WE LOVE YOU!

Temple Square Lights

Since Thanksgiving Weekend the whole family was together, we decided to take a quick trip up to Temple Square in Salt Lake to see the lights. Our family loves this tradition and we look forward to it every year. It was a bit chilly, but we were all bundled up and stayed fairly warm.

It's amazing at how much time and effort is put into doing all of these lights around Temple Square. It really is breathtaking. Thanks to my sister-in-law Afton (thanks again!) who brought her camera, we were able to take a quick family photo in front of the temple:



We really had a great time and were so glad to be there with family! We love you guys!

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving this year was bitter-sweet. Sweet in the fact that my entire family was able to be together. Since we are growing so big, it's been hard to get ALL of us together at one time. But we all did it this year for a special reason. And that reason is what made it slightly bitter. It was the day that marked the last week before Taylor left on his mission. And when I say bitter, I mean a happy-bitter because we are all so proud of him - but just a bit sad because he'll be gone for 2 long years.

Since it was one of the last times (other than his farewell a few days later) that we were all together, we decided to get a big family picture. Well, it's been cold and there was still snow on the ground, but we all tropped up to the local park and took a picture in the snow and all. It was a bit chilly, but well worth it for the result. Here's the finished product - a family picture that will be the last one with all of us for the next 2 years:



I'm so glad we were able to all be together for Thanksgiving and for Taylor's farewell a few days later. It really made the holiday special.

Zach's 1st Grade Thanksgiving Program

Yesterday Zach had his 1st grade Thanksgiving Program. Jeremiah, Hailey, and I went over to see our favorite 1st grader perform!

The whole group was dressed up like pilrims or indians. Here's our little pilgrim boy:


He did great singing - we were so proud of him!


Isn't he the cutest pilgrim you've ever seen?



He had two parts in the program, here he is saying one of his parts:



And here he is singing:



We just love the programs that we get to see at school! Zach was so happy and we were so proud of him - good job Zach, we're so proud of you!

Catching up on some random things ...

I kept thinking that I didn't have much to post the last week or two, but when I downloaded some other pictures from my camera this morning, I realized there were a few I hadn't remembered taking and in order to get caught up on everything, I figured I'd do one big post of all these small random pictures I have.

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to do a movie night for family home evening. The kids have been wanting to see UP for quite a while and when it came out on video, Jeremiah hunted it down at a Redbox and we went and rented it. The kids brought their beanbag chairs down from upstairs and we had a fun time watching the movie, eating popcorn, and snuggling under our blankets. What a few family home evening!


I know I recently posted about Hailey's pink obsession and showed her hairstyle that day - a ponytail. Well, a week or so ago she decided she wanted to do pigtails instead. So after a little work getting them in, we just had to take a few pictures to show them off. I couldn't believe how long her hair was getting!


She loved the pigtails and ran around all day swishing them from side to side. It was so funny!


On Saturday we decided to divide up and getting some Christmas/birthday shopping done. Hailey went with her Dad and Zach went with me. While we were already one-on-one with each of them, we decided we'd also find a place to have a little treat. Unknown to us at the time was the fact that there are very few places in Lehi that actually sell donuts! So Jeremiah opted for a small bakery in the center of town, but had to bring their donuts home due to there being no place to sit and eat them in the bakery. He said that watching Hailey eat her donut was one of the cutest things, so he just had to take some pictures of her. After getting her an apron and pulling her hair back, he gave her the donut she chose - a maple bar.


He said she dug into the donut right in the middle (like she does everything else) and started eating it like a piece of corn on the cob.


He said she got about as much frosting on her face as she did in her mouth - too cute! Zach and I ended up at the same bakery, but he wanted to eat his donut in the car before we headed home, so I didn't get any pictures of his donut eating. His didn't have any frosting, but it was still cute to watch him enjoy it.


What a fun time we had with just one of the kids - we've decided to do more of these little "mini-dates" more often.

By the way, you can see we got Hailey's hair cut right before these last pictures were taken - it's so cute and she just loves it! It's cut just to her chin and very fun and bubbly - just like she is.

Pink

Anyone who knew me growing up knows that I did not like the color pink. In fact, that's putting it nicely - you could say I HATED the color pink and didn't want anything to do with it. Thinking back now, I'm not sure why that was - maybe it was a deep subconscious way of not wanting to fit into the typical "girly" norm - which I am anything but. No matter the reason, back then I found myself wanting to be associated with anything but that color.

But I find in life that you grow in and out of things during certain times. And certain things come into your life that make you rethink your opinion on certain things. Well, my adversion to pink has come to an end and it's all because of a little sweetheart named:

HAILEY

From the moment she was born, she has LOVED the color pink and anything girly. Everything she chooses to own is pink - clothes, shoes, books, dolls, crayons, coloring books - you name it she's probably got it in pink. In fact, the only reason she has anything of a different color is my trying to make sure she's got some variety in her life. But. if you ask her what color she wants wants anything to be, her answer will always be pink. If you ask her what color she wants her breakfast to be - she will choose the color pink - whether it's realistic or not. She is by far the biggest fan of pink I know.

Today during lunch, I was having a conversation with my little almost 4 year old and here's how it went (this is typical, although the topic of the conversation could be anything):

Hailey: Mom, what color are your eyes?
Me: Mine are green.
Hailey: Mom, what color are Daddy's eyes?
Me: Daddy's are blue.
Hailey: Mom, what color are Zachary's eyes?
Me: Zachary's are blue, just like Daddy's.
Hailey: Mom, what color are my eyes?
Me: Blue, just like Zachary and Daddy's. Aren't you lucky that you and Zachary have beautiful blue eyes just like your Daddy's? You are such cute kids!
Hailey: Mom, I don't want to have blue eyes.
Me: Why not? They are so beautiful honey!
Hailey: I really wish my eyes were pink!
Me: You want pink eyes - don't you think that would look a little silly to have pink eyes?
Hailey: No, pink is beautiful and it would match my shirt.

Seriously, how can you argue with that logic? Not only is she into pink, but is a wizz at color coordination already. As I looked over at her, I realized she was right - blue eyes definitely did not fit in with the color scheme she had going on today. Just so you understand what I'm talking about, I'm attaching a couple of pictures of her:


As you can see, she's in pink from head to toe. She's also been into ponytails lately too, so can see that's what we ended up with for a hairstyle today. However, you'll notice that it's complete with pink bows!


So in thinking about my previous adversion to pink, it's easy to see that not only am I not as opposed to pink as I used to be, but I actually like the color now. It's definitely not my favorite by any stretch, but I find that I actually love it in certain situations - especially on my daughter.

Of course, how could someone this cute in pink not change your mind???

Halloween Fun with Nana

I'm still way behind on my posts, so forgive how late I am at getting these on here. Last week our Nana came down to spend a few days and do some fun Halloween projects with the kids. They had so much fun with her here.

Their first project was to make a skeleton out of pvc pipe. Zach felt very important because it was his job to color in the face, so he set to the side coloring it in - a look of concentration on his face. Hailey helped Nana put the skeleton together.


Isn't it fun? We wanted to set it outside, but with all the wind we get here, we would have lost our treasure for sure, so he had to stay inside. The kids just love it and look at it every day.


The next project was making some foam masks we found at the dollar store. Zach is really into pirates right now, so finding a pirate mask was so much fun. Hailey wanted to be a pirate just like her brother, so we convinced her that her mask was a pumpkin pirate. She seemed happy with that and ran around the house for the next few days saying "arrr, pirates!" It was so funny.


After the masks were done and played with for a bit, they moved on to the next project, which was making some spiders. The kids thought these were so neat and loved sticking the pipe cleaners into the foam balls to make the legs. We have a mama and 3 babies since we didn't quite have enough pipe cleaners to make 4 large spiders. The kids pick these up and play with them everyday, against my wishes and I'm always having to straighten out their legs and get them looking like spiders again.


We also found these fun Halloween clings at Walmart, so the kids next moved on to decorating our back sliding glass door with their window clings. I've decided that clings are so much fun! They are fairly cheap and if you keep the backing, you can reuse them year after year.


Lastly, Nana and the kids moved on to decorating some cupcakes. Nana asked what fun halloween colors the kids wanted the frosting and the replies were: pink and blue! Not exactly traditional halloween colors, but they were insistent, so that's what they got. Thank goodness for the halloween themed cupcake holders and toppers we had to remind us they were for halloween!


Don't they look yummy???


After all of those projects, the kids were more than happy. They ran around checking out their projects and playing with their masks. Thanks Nana for such a fun time - we had a blast!

Our Annual Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

I'm a bit late in posting this, but wanted to share some pictures from our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch over a week ago. Our kids look forward to this day every year when Grandma takes them to the pumpkin patch where they get to pick out their very own pumpkin to take home.

One of the favorites at the pumpkin patch we usually head to is the little kids hay maze (they have a corn maze for the older kids and adults) - the kids absolutely love running around in the little maze. This year the popular game was the two younger kids (Hailey and Branson) trying to catch and keep up with the two older kids (Zachary and Ashton).

Despite not being able to keep up with the older boys, Hailey and Branson rarely lost track of each other - most of the time that was done by holding hands.


The older boys loved to climb up and over the bridge and point out where the younger kids were and climb down and take off before they reached them.


This was one of my favorite pictures this year - they had some huge pumpkins and it was so cute to see Hailey and Branson sit on one for a quick picture.


Out looking for pumpkins in the patch - good thing Uncle Taylor was there to help them choose a good one!


And of course a quick picture with Nana before running off to play in the hay maze again!


One of the funniest experiences this year was Hailey being determined to find a purple pumpkin out in the fields. Despite how many times I explained to her that the pumpkins grow to be orange, she was determined she would find a purple one. After looking and looking and looking, she picked out an orange pumpkin and was only ok when Nana told her she could head home and paint her orange pumpkin any color she wanted.

When we made it back to Nana's house, Hailey decided that not only did she want to paint it purple, but pink and red as well. So with her paint brush and paints all ready, she tackled her painting project.


Zach wasn't nearly as picky and decided to paint his blue with white vampire teeth.


After the pumpkins were painted and set aside to dry, it was time to decorate some cookies. With some orange frosting and chocolate chips, off they went decorating their pumpkin cookies.


Zach was very meticulous at getting the right amount of frosting and arranging the chocolate chips just so. He's definitely a perfectionist and take after his mom is that respect!


Later after dinner, it was time for trick-or-treating. Now that Nana and Papa have grandkids all over that can't make it to their house to trick-or-treat every year, they have started up a tradition of trick-or-treating early inside the house. Every adult gets a bag of candy and goes into one of the rooms of the house. The kids get dressed up and go around trick-or-treating to every door.

Zach was a firefighter again this year and Hailey decided on Sleeping Beauty as her Halloween costume. They were so cute, I had to take a picture of them both before the trick-or-treating began.


Here's a picture I caught of them after Jeremiah opened the door as they knocked. They were so cute saying Trick-or-Treat!


And here's the gang in their halloween costumes. They are all so cute and they were darling all dressed up!



We had a great day - thanks Nana and Papa for making the day so much fun and creating such a fun tradition!