Holly Jolly Christmas

Christmas Eve!

So I am really slacking at getting our Christmas pics posted. They days are flying by, and I'd rather be sitting with my family than at the computer...go figure. We had an awesome Christmas and as usual it went by way too fast. I loved Christmas growing up, but I am pretty sure i LOVE it even more now that I have my own little children around. Banana was so excited she could hardly stand it. I love christmas eve just as much as Christmas Day because we have so many fun traditions in our family. One of my all time faves is waffle dinner at my Grandma's house. She makes the best butter syrup. It's a good thing she only makes it once a year, and I am too lazy to make it because I am sure the calorie count is astronomical! For those of you who have never tried it you are missing out.
Here's cousin Braxton and Banana in an intense game of mouse trap after waffle dinner.

My in laws always have a musical program on Christmas Eve, and it is always so beautiful. That whole family has amazing voices and I love listening to my hubby and his brothers and dad sing "O Holy Night" every year. I have it on video, but I can't get it to post...The highlight of the evening for me was when Banana sang the song she had been practicing for months. For those who don't know, Banana has been speaking Spanish for as long as she could talk, so her dad taught her to sing the Nativity Song (from the Children's Songbook) in Spanish. She worked so hard, and I was nervous that she wouldn't want to sing in front of everyone. But she did, and it was beautiful. Someone got it on tape, and as soon as I can get it, I'll post it! I was trying to play for her, but couldn't read the music through my tears...I know you can't imagine me getting emotional about something like that...

Miss Em and Cousin Franky were content all night to sit there and eat the wrapping paper...


This picture needs no words.Finally...letters to Santa. Banana wrote a very detailed list of what Santa was to bring, then added a few cute drawing to makei t complete. We put the letter in the fireplace and the ashes flew to Santa so he could read it...

Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread Houses

I have taken close to a million pictures over the last week, and I'm pretty sure that would take a REALLY long time to put them on this blog...so to spare you from that I am just going to do a few little mini posts to catch you all up!
We are still having a great time in Utah and the time is flying by way too quickly. We have had more snow here than I can ever remember us getting and Banana absolutely loves it. We had a wonderful Christmas, and I can't convince Banana that it's over. She won't let us tell her that it's anything but Christmas Day. Silly girl. These few pics are of decorating cute Christmas cookies at Grandma T's house, and of making a princess gingerbread castle at Grandma W's. I promise the next post will have some pics of cute little Em.

Making the cookies and enjoying all of the hard work she put into it. I am pretty sure for every cookie she frosted she ate two more...

This castle was way cute...on the box. It was the BIGGEST pain to put together. But Banana and Blayr didn't care, they had a blast and ate their fair share of candy while making this.

More fun pics to come! I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!

UtAh!

We made it! After a LoNg 20 hour drive we pulled into Price at 6:00 a.m. Only two hours later than we planned...We had no problems with the roads until we hit the mountain pass outside of Denver. I thought we were going to die. Not even exaggerating. That pass is usually bad when we travel it, but I've never seen anything like this. It was snowing, with winds somewhere around 40 mph, and lots of insane semi drivers. The snow was blowing so hard that I think the furthest we could see in front of us was two to four feet...for about two hours. It was dark outside so that didn't help the situation. It's a good thing that my hubby is such a good, calm driver in those situations. I was doing enough freaking out for the two of us. Despite it being three in the morning we were WIDE awake. I guess that's a blessing! We drove straight through with only small stops for gas and food. The girls did AMAZING. All of my worrying about miss em was for nothing. She slept pretty much the whole time. I think the longest she was ever awake was two hours, and even then she was pretty pleasant. I only had to climb into the baskseat about three times, for which I am grateful. Me, trying to get my body launched over the front seat, and squeezing into the tiny backseat is not such a pretty sight. I'm sure there were many entertained drivers passing us. I can't even describe what an awesome feeling it was to pull into Price and see the mountains. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the mountains. I love the midwest, but sorry it can't compete with the Utah Mtns. We are having a blast despite the tiny amount of sleep we have had. These are just a preview of the pics that show how much fun we are having!! Have a great holiday week!

Em LOVES her Aunt Cole. And the feeling is mutual. They were both so excited to meet each other. I love having so many extra pairs of helping hands around!!
Banana and cousin Blayr. Banana can't get enough of playing with her cousins. It is so neat to see them running aroud, being crazy together.
A cute Banana in her new christmas dress.Em and Aunt Keek. She is such a happy baby out here, and is doing amazing with all of the new people she is meeting. Everyone can't believe how much she smiles, and how cute she is!Banana and Daisy love being silly together, and REALLY loved jumping on hubby's back for a solid fifteen minutes...hilarious to watch, but pretty sure he's hurting now :)

Lame

Well, once again the weather in this fantastic state has made it impossible for us to get back to Utah when we wanted. I can now say that EVERY TIME we have tried to traveled since we moved here the weather has pulled some sort of freaky manuever and made it such a pain to go anywhere. Seriously. It is ridiculous. I've been trying really hard not to get frustrated and just find the brighter side of things...is there a brighter side to an ice storm that could bring power outages, and horrible roads? I'm open for suggestions. Sorry. We haven't been home for a year now so a few more days shouldn't seem like that big of a deal, but try telling that to a two year old who has been talking about this trip for MONTHS. We were driving home from the store when we broke the news to her and she broke down in tears and said, "Papi the snow will go away so we can go to Utah. Okay?" She can hardly wait to go and sleep in her princess castle bed at Grandma's house, and play with all of her aunts and cousins. She's been carrying around some pictures of my sisters for days now and about every ten minutes she lays them out and we have to go through the list of who everyone is she will tell me why she's excited to see them. Pretty cute.
Well, wish us luck. Hopefully we get home by Saturday!! Sorry I have no pictures to share with you. The camera is packed in the suitcase, and I don't feel like digging it out..But fun Christmas pics are to come soon! Have a very Merry Christmas!

On A Lighter Note...

We took Em swimming for the first time and she LOVES it! She couldn't get enough of splashing around, and had too much fun chasing her sister around the pool. Banana is getting so much braver and can't wait to start swimming lessons next month. I thoroughly enjoyed relaxing in the "hot pool" (Banana's wording). She was sad she couldn't get in the hot pool with me. They are pretty strict there about who they let in there and I kept getting the evil eye from the teenage lifeguards whenever Banana would walk over to me...
Look at that smile! Her entire face lights up when she smiles, and I can't get enough of it!


We are SO excited to go to Utah in a few days! I can not believe that it has been a year since we were able to go home. We have a lot of family who haven't met Em yet and are anxious to. I am really nervous for the drive, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly. Banana loved the drive last year and only slept like 8 hours of the entire drive, and was still an angel...Em is not so much a fan of being in her car seat, and tends to be more of a devil anytime we travel. Either way it will be totally worth it to get home!

Banana got to go sledding for the first time this year, and apparently the hill we took her to wasn't big enough for her. She keeps telling us that we need to find a "bigger and bigger" hill for her next time!

She loves to be Santa and always asks us to come and sit on her lap and tell us what we want for Christmas. (And by asking she means telling us what we want)! We've walked past Santa at the mall a few times, and I still can't get her to go near him...should be interesting at Grandma's party.

I walked into the bedroom the other morning and found her doing this...she always practices with her dad, so I guess she thought that she could do it all on her own! It was too cute to be upset that she was playing with dad's expensive equipment. (I couldn't be mad if Dad wasn't).

Banana has picked up all sorts of cute and hilarious saying lately. My favorite of the moment is anytime she is exasperated or when she can tell that her father or I are, she shouts out "Aye yie yie." (I can't even pretend I know how to spell that).
When everything is going just right for her she tells me that everything is nice and cozy! And when things are going not so right for her all she can think to say is "Never Ever." I think that she gets so frustrated that her brain overloads and those are the only words she can think of. It's pretty hilarious.

Well, we're off to a fun party at our friends house and we only have to take one child with us!! Thanks Randy!

Rantings and Ravings

-Disclaimer-
This post is about a subject that has been on my mind recently. Please don't take it personally, or think that I am talking about you. If it were about you, you would know. We all have trials that we have gone through, and lessons we have learned from those trials. These are just some ramblings on my thoughts of a subject that I feel strongly about. (And it was written after three hours of sleep and a night of a screaming child).

Ok, I have to get something off my chest. This blog is a sort of journal for me so you get to read all of the good, bad, and the ugly. And if you don't like it then...don't read it. One of my biggest pet peeves is I guess what you would call a two faced person. I don't really like that term, but I can't think of anything better to describe it. I know at some point in our lives we are all guilty of that, and I am no exception. But when it is something that happens all of the time, I think it says something about your character. And when what you are doing is purposefully hateful and petty, especially if it is towards someone in your own family, I think you should take a long hard look at yourself and see if you are being the kind of person you want your children to become. We all make snap judgments of people and how they act in certain situations, but until we can see into their minds (which will never happen), we have no place in passing judgement. We all know how hurtful it is when you find out things that are being said about you. Especially when it is by family/friends. Or family that you consider friends.
Growing up, my parents were always striving really hard to teach us to make right decisions and my mom was a big advocate of not gossiping. It was all but punishable by death in my house if we were caught gossiping about anyone. Period. Even if it was someone who had wronged us. I struggled with that for a while in high school and into college, but now that I am trying to raise a family I try really hard to let my mother's influence rule that part of my life. So my point (and I do have one) is please be watchful of what you are saying and to who you are saying it. No matter how confidential you think your conversation is, it usually isn't. No one wants to be on the receiving end of hearing what hateful things have been said about them. I am working so hard to better this part of my personality, and I hope that everyone out there is working on that as well. This is the perfect time of year to put grudges, pettiness, and selfishness aside. Be more mindful about what you say about family. Whether it be immediate, in-laws or extended. The purpose of this life is to gain eternal life with our eternal families. Try and make everyone that falls into that category feel loved and included. Just try harder to be a better/nicer person.

That's it. I have stepped off my soap box. And here's a cute video to make this post not so lame.

A little bit of everything

Christmastime is here! It is absolutely my favorite time of year. I love the smells, the lights, being with family and friends, and the speical Spirit that you can feel. We have had some great missionary opportunities lately, and some fun times with friends.
The first item on our Christmas checklist was a tree. We found a neat tree farm to go to this year, which we LOVED. So much better than buying your tree at Menards. Since we moved out here Hubby and I have both really missed going in the mountains with our families to cut down our tree. This was the next best thing. Almost better cuz we weren't freezing to death!

The official inspection of the tree. We really wanted a tall one, but the taller they got, they fatter they were. We have limited space, so Banana picked out this perfect Banana size tree. We love it!

This is how Em spent the day. As Banana would say she was "nice and cozy."
After a fun morning of tree hunting they had a nice fire with warm cider waiting for us. Well, not really warm cider, more like cold cider...they forgot to plug it in to heat it up.
One of our friends from school let us borrow his Wii over the Thanksgiving break. Now, those of you that know me well know how much I dislike gaming systems. For the most part they're not fun for me, and I get bored out of my mind watching ppl play. Anyhow. I am now a believer. Wii's are awesome. Banana had the time of her life, and kicked out butt at bowling. Seriously strikes almost every time. It was so much fun. I wish that I could justify spending the money on one...we almost talked ourselves into. Then we remembered that our money doesn't grow on trees. That's a shame.

Nauvoo
We went to Nauvoo to do a session last weekend. We didn't want to get a sitter for the girls so we just switched off. They have an awesome building across the street for families to wait in. It has tons of toys, a tv and everything else you need to keep your kids enteratained. It was a fairly decent day outisde so we spent some time walking around and enjoying it all. There is something special about the atmosphere of that place. I can't describe it, but I love going there.


This is how I found Em when I walked out of my session. Bundled up and asleep. It was so cute, and everyone we saw had to stop and look at her. Banana put on a good show for everyone, and was excited that the temple wasn't closed this time.
And here is Banana on the drive home. She had been waiting all afternoon for her treat. I handed the fries to her, then turned back not even two minutes later to talk to her and she was passed out. I've never seen her choose sleep over fries...
Here's Banana's first snowman of the year. And some cute girls.
And finally us. Palmer had their winter party the other night, and we went with some friends and had a blast. We haven't gone dancing in a LONG time and it felt good to be able to spend some quality time together, doing something that we both love. No more village inn at midnight for me though...sorry Liz!

Thanks A Lot

We had an incredible Thanksgiving with some great friends. It was so nice of them to open up their home so that a lot of us who are away from family could spend time together. The food was delicious, and the kids all got along!! I know it's a little late for a thanksgiving post, but it's always nice to remember what I am thankful for...

* My husband. I have a patient, sweet husband who is a good voice of reason in a house full of girls.
* My two adorable girls. They are sweethearts, and I LOVE being their mom. They make me laugh (and sometimes cry) every day.
*My friends. They are our family out here and I love every moment we get to spend together. It's not often in life that you find friends who know every part of your personality and love you in spite of that.
*Our families. They are spread out all across this country, and we miss you all every day. I am so grateful to be a part of such wonderful families. I'm grateful to call my family my friends.

It's Always Fun When Grandpa Comes

I'm a little behind on my blogging...so the next few posts are all about playing catch up. My FIL came for a quick visit last weekend and fun was had by all. Lots of spoiling took place and the time went by too quickly. We were sad that my MIL and SIL couldn't make the trip, but we are so excited to have them all come for a visit in February! Both of the girls warmed up to their Grandpa pretty quick and he spent most of his free time letting Banana entertain him in her bedroom. It was neat to hear all of the giggles coming out of her bedroom. We don't get family visiting too often but we take full advantage of it when they are here!

Check out the awesome Christmas moose(s)? Grandpa got for the girls. They antlers light up and it plays Jingle Bell Rock. That's about the only song we've heard at our house since he left...

The morning we took him to the airport...Banana was not too thrilled about that. Neither was Grandpa.

A bit of randomness...We bought Banana Sleeping Beauty a while ago and it came with this tiny princess make up kit. Well, I left the room for no more than two minutes and found my girls and their beautifully made up faces when I got back. Em thoroughly enjoyed having it put on her face, not such a fan of mom taking it off.

I Heart Twilight

Well, I did it. Me and a few of my friends braved the crowd of crazed teenage girls and went to the midnight premiere of twilight. For over a month I was so excited about it. I couldn't wait. Then on Thursday night I put the girls to bed, and sat down to relax and unwind. Then it hit me...there would be no quiet time for me. And I suddenly started to realize how totally insane I was for ever thinking that this would be a good idea. I started thinking about the lack of sleep, getting up bright and early the next morning to take care of the girls, and getting the house ready for my FIL to come into town (which I totally procrastinated). I was almost asleep on the couch when I got a call from Liz telling me to turn on the news. Apparently they were doing a story on the movie and had some reporters down at our theater, and the line was INSANE. Um...we thought we'd be golden if we got there by 10:30. Ha! So we got our old butts in gear and got down there fast. I should have realized how crazy it would be when I talked to my mom at 3:00 and she was dropping off my little sis's at their theater in Price. That's right 3:00. I just thought they were doing that cuz it's Price...small town, only showing at one theater.
But, we made it and even got decent seats. They let into the theater over an hour before the show started, and we attempted to play a card game but quickly canned that idea when we ran out of room to play (great idea though C)!
I was pleasantly surprised with the movie. I wasn't expecting much, and came away happy. It had a few cheesy moments, but I found myself getting caught up in it anyway. Not as great as the book, but worth the time and money. I had a blast with the girls...but not so sure I'll ever do that again. Miss Em was wide awake to greet me when I got home after 2:30...how nice of her :)
btw: if we look exhausted it's cuz we are. Apparently midnight is too late for us "oldies". Ok, we weren't the oldest ones there, but pretty close.

Than the Man

Happy Birthday to our FAVORITE missionary!! We love you!!!

Our Little Artist

So there really isn't anything too exciting going on around here...I just wanted to show you some cute pics. Banana has suddenly become totally obsessed with drawing on her "noodle" (magna doodle). I stopped paying attention a while ago at what she was drawing (mom of the year, I know), then one day I was out shopping and Hubby text me a pic of something she had drawn. I was shocked. Here is something similar to what she had drawn...


He told me that he was in the kitchen and she started yelling for him to come and look at her drawing and he found this awesome drawing. She had no help whatsoever. She knows exactly where to put all of the body parts and granted, they aren't always proportional, but she does it w/o help. It's fun cuz she usually adds her own flair to each one. Sometimes her little person has freckles, sometimes silly teeth and a tongue, or crazy hair and glasses. Crazy. It's sad to say that my toddler's artistic skills already surprass mine. She totally gets it from her dad. I couldn't be a prouder mama!
Anyhow...We had to get some sort of family pic to my MIL for a project she was working on. Sad as it is, the last time we were all in a picture together was at Em's blessing. (My fault...not a fan of being in pictures). So I sucked it up, and we took these. It was quite an ordeal. Not so easy to get two kids to cooperate, look at the camera at the same time, smile, and do it all within the time the timer on the camera allows you. But, we ended up with at least one decent one. At least the kids always look cute.
On a parting note, I bought my ticket to see Twilight! Me and my other insane friends are going to the midnight release of it...Yep, we'll be there with all of the crazed 14 year old super fans. And not ashamed at all. I am a little worried about keeping myself awake, but that's what caffeine and popcorn are for right? The next day my FIL is coming, so hopefully my children nap that day so I can get some rest. Wish me luck!

Heritage Canyon!

We enjoyed Hubby'slast day of break by getting outside and enjoying the GORGEOUS weather. It was around 70 degrees, and made me dread the coming winter even more. We headed to this place called Heritage Canyon which is an old settlement in...a canyon. It is so pretty, and quiet. Hubby came here with his family several times when he was growing up here, and we visited our first fall out here. We didn't make it last year, but I am so glad we made it again this fall. There are so many fun little towns and historical places to visit in Iowa and Illinois. Love it.

Banana was a little bit, ok a lot, terrified of this swinging bridge. I have to admit I was kind of wary myself. The ones I have been on before seemed much sturdier than this one was...It took a lot of coaxing, and begging to get her to go across it. There were several bridges in this place, and every time we would come to one she would have a tiny (HUGE) meltdown.

Em's new favorite game is to pull my hair, then laugh hysterically that I am in pain. Both of my girls are obsessed with my hair, and I'm finding it hard to break the habit...cute habit, but oh so painful :)




Our favorite covered bridge. We took some pictures here the first year we came, and had to get some more. I was having issues with our camera, and the sun was being annoying...sorry it's not a great shot.

Kind of neat, kind of creepy, really OLD church. Sometimes the old buildings around here freak me out. I have flashbacks of all of the scary movies i have ever watched that have taken place in the woods/scary old buildings...



We had to make a stop at this neat windmill that's on the drive home. The inside was closed for the season, but there was a city worker there who took pity on us and took us on a private tour. It was pretty cool, and nice to have it all to ourselves. Once again Banana was freaked out by the inside. We're having issues with her and enclosed spaces. She hates them, and isn't afraid to let us know.
And finally, no outing is complete without a trip to Culver's!! Absolutely one our favorite places to eat out here. Sad to say, but Banna knows exactly how to get to the one in town. It doesn't help that it is across the street from the dance studio...Have a fantastic weekend!!