Young Love

We spent the weekend at my parents in Cache Valley. I took the opportunity to have an angel photo shoot with Emma. We found an old pioneer house that had stray cats as it's current tenants. The temperature was 6 degrees out and Emma was barefoot and coatless. All worth it if you ask me. She is such a champ to go along with all of my crazy ideas and schemes.

Monday I whipped up a fancy little camera strap. I must give credit to my friend Carrie for providing the inspiration.

As part of our new year we have all set goals for ourselves and our family. One of Emma's is to only watch one show a day. I thought it would be hard on the whole family, but she plays so well and is actually much happier and content throughout the day.

Wednesday we met the Foofs at McDonalds for a lunch date. Something we need to do much more often.

Lydia has a love of her life...Taggy. It is the tag on her beloved blanket. She can't go anywhere without it. She holds the tag in one hand and sucks her thumb with her other. Awww, young love.

Friday we actually had a date night. I didn't manage to take one photo even though I dragged my camera along. So this is a photo of our friends Cody and Holly Stowers who we went out with. They used to frequent my blog and journal much more often, something I hope they'll do again this year.

I worked all day on Saturday and so Ryan had the girls. But lets face it, a lot of sleeping goes on in this house, so really, it's like he only had them for a half day ;)

Sunday we had a nice time getting out of church at noon and just staying home all day. We had a fun family night with pizza, orange julius, popcorn, and a family movie. THIS is just one way that makes us a happy family and is the thing Ryan and I will miss the most when the girls are grown.

Photo a day challenge

My friend Carrie inspired me last year by completing the "Photo a Day Challenge." I decided this year to have this be one of my goals. I know it will take some getting used to, and will be a time commitment, but I think it is a worthy project. So here we go. This isn't a great way to start off, but at least it's something :)

We had a fabulous New Year's Eve, filled with a sealing, brunch, reception, clean up, and then headed on over to a fabulous New Year' party at my parent's house. The little girls have been hauled around town and thrown off their schedules with all the Holiday events that by the time New Year's Day came around Lydia couldn't fight it any longer and spent most of the day sleeping.

Sunday my parents came out and joined us for dinner. Afterwards I showed them the video I made Ryan for Christmas. I tried to upload it, but our Internet is lame and after thirty minutes I gave up. So this day, sadly, has no photo.

January 2nd- No photo (I'm still new at this concept of a photo a day)

It is definitely winter outside!

I volunteered in Emma's pre-school class. Goodness me, I learned two things. One, it takes a special person to purposefully choose to teach little children all day. Two, the difference between boys and girls is almost frightening.
Emma, Lydia and I drove all the way to Lehi for me to buy various KSL items, one of which includes me new camera. Along the way we stopped at IKEA for the girls to play and us to have lunch with the Johnson girls. IKEA has got it going on!! Wish I had one close to us.

Spent a large portion of the day editing my cousins wedding photos.

For FHE we set goals for all of us, weekly and in the next year. Emma did a great job meeting all her goals so we had a mommy/daughter date night. These photos don't show it, but she was more excited than if it were her birthday. We ran errands and went to Olive Garden. I truly had a great time with her and just can't get over what a friendly, loving little girl she is.

I'm still new at this photo a day thing so it will take me a while to actually getting my camera out. Saturday night we went to my parents for a yummy, yummy dinner and then the Caspersons came up for a game of Zarahemla and hot tubbing. Great week to start the year!

Totally Tasteless

My parents hosted a Totally Tasteless New Year's Eve party, and everyone really went all out.

That's Ryan sporting his chest hair, I accompanied him in a see through shirt with a colored bra, classy. Sara had her hair ratted and her jeans couldn't buckle up. Cody sported a Coors Light t-shirt and Brody made sure not to wear deodorant or socks, so he was ripe to say the least.


Each couple gave a 5 minute tasteless presentation: ~bragging about children's sports achievements~ reading a story for kindergarten children and telling what the teacher is REALLY thinking about the children~bragging about sports prowess (84 year old grandma)~ guest etiquette~buying a pension plan~doing a slow dance with your spouse and needing to "get a room"~weighing everyone and spotlighting their problem areas~passing a jar around for donations for a college couple~leading the group in a nursery song complete with body actions~~and my personal favorite....a video about tonsil stones. You should check that out on u-tube. Sick beyond words to express, that was our contribution :)


Fabulous, and unforgettable New Year's Party!


Before Julie headed back to Oregon we all went to Gateway and ate at Thaiphoon, our favorite restaurant. Everything about it was divine!!

Ryan and I went to Logan for a couple of days to go through the temple with my cousin. It was my first time I attended the endowment session for someone else and I was so happy to be there. Then we spent the next morning helping the Jensens decorate for the reception.


Jessica and Brad were married on New Year's Eve and even on her wedding day Jessica (the baby whisperer) still took time for the kids.

Christmas Celebrations

My parents are notorious for hosting great parties. This Christmas they got us all a hotel room at the Ogden Marriott and we saw the Christmas villages, went out to eat, and then played games in their suit. Instead of an ugly sweater contest we had a crazy hat contest, and the competition was fierce as you can tell.
Emma has a good amount of girl cousins, unfortunately 8 of them live in the Portland area and only two live here, one of which is 17. However, if I could only pick one Emma's age to live here, it would be Milly anyways. They are like peas in a pod and get along great. In fact it's easier for the two of them to be together then have them one on one. Poor Lydia has no cousins her age, nor will she ever. But all the big kids dote on her and love to have her tag along.


For Emma's Christmas Program Santa came by for a visit. Good thing, because although I had the best of intentions, this was Emma's only visit with Santa this year. I am so thrilled with the pre-school I enrolled Emma in and really lucked out that the teacher ad curriculum are better than I expected.
Ryan's sister Julie came and stayed with us for just shy of two weeks over the Holiday. Sadly, we had a lot of family parties and other commitments, but she was good to stay with the girls and I got her hooked on LOST to keep her busy while we were gone.
This year for Christmas Eve we put luminaries in our cul-de-sac so Santa would know where to land his sleigh. We didn't leave my parents house when we planned so we didn't get the luminaries lit until midnight, and I used tea lights instead of votive candles. So next year we will use votives and get them lit sooner. Great learning experience though and looking forward to perfecting it next year.


I love this photo of the three cousins. The above photo was last year on Christmas Eve. They haven't changed too much. This was our first year NOT spending the night at my parents house for Christmas Eve. It was very "different." Not good or bad, just different. Might take some getting used to, but it was fun to be on our own schedule.


Emma woke us up at 9 and we were happy to have that little bit of sleep. Lydia was NOT amused to be up. We put her back to bed at 9:45 and she slept until 4 in the afternoon when we had her open up the rest of her gifts.




I went to bed at 6 am. I took a photo of the clock before I went off to bed. I like to have everything "just so." Julie gave us Jenga and we enjoyed playing the multiple times during the day. We had a yummy breakfast, napped for four hours, dinner, and then Ju and I saw a movie at 10. Fabulous, relaxing day filled with reflections of family.

We watched "come see the light," a six minute tear jerker video of Christ and all cried as we bore our testimonies to each other. That might be my favorite part of our day. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and is enjoying their New Year.

...something blue

My dear cousin Jessica ( the baby whisperer) just recently got married and that is one of many reasons for me lack of recent blog posts. So I am trying to catch up with events in order that they took place. I threw Jessica a shower at my mom's house and had a great time catching up with family. I invited Brad (the fiancee) so that everyone could have a chance to get to know him as well. We played a game in which we saw who of the guests was most like Brad, and some interesting tid bits about him came out ;) Also, we had the couple sit together as we all went around the room and gave them our marriage advice. Jessica was a great sport to wear the wig I bought for her to go along with the theme. Even with blue hair it is obvious she's a beautiful girl.

Christmas traditions

Have a special stocking (preferably white) that is set aside as Christ's stocking. Each year have every family member go around and write down one gift of service they want to give Christ throughout the next year. For example, smile at five strangers every day, donate to the homeless shelter every month, visit the elderly every week, etc. Then the next year have each member of the family go around and share experiences they had while performing their gift. Then each person add s anew gift into the stocking for the upcoming year. We're starting this with Emma who is 4 and I think that is an appropriate age.

Luminaries were one of my favorite childhood traditions. In Arizona my parents went around to the neighbors and asked them to all have luminaries lining the sidewalks of our streets. It made for such an enchanted sight on Christmas Eve and really added to the spirit of unity. I will be asking the neighbors in our little cul-de-sac to participate this year with us. In Arizona brown paper bags worked great, but here we might have to use mason jars.


Lee's market place is my very favorite grocery store. They are always so great about baking bread specifically for you in any color you need. For every Holiday I like to special order colored bread and make a festive french toast or even just simple sandwiches. I have a buttermilk syrup recipe to go with french toast that is to die for and I like to color that as well.

A few years back my parents gave us all this book and encouraged us to read it by Christmas Eve so we could discuss it for our program. Then they gave us all jars and we started our own little collection of spare change. The next year we had such a great experience with finding just the right family/person to anonymously give it to. I think a mason jar and this book would make a fabulous gift.


The BEST TRADITION ever invented is the elf knock. The story goes that on Christmas Eve Santa sends one of his elves to go up ahead of him and knock on the window to signify that Santa will be there soon. The kids must then DASH off to bed as fast as they can, and if they wake up, or don't go to sleep, Santa will skip their house and not come. Sounds harsh, but we have yet to ever have a child not play along. Of all my nieces and nephews and all of the different personalities we have, we have never had a child get out of bed. I started this when Emma was two and it is just the cutest thing you've ever seen. Be sure to have your video camera out to capture the excitement. The best is that once the kids are down the adult program can start. It's nice to have a spiritual program without having the kids interrupting or worrying they might get up at any second while wrapping last minute gifts.

There wasn't a photo to show this, but this tradition started with my mom's dad, then passed down to my dad, and now this year Ryan will be doing it for our girls. On Christmas morning the kids wake up, etc. But they can't come to the family room where the gifts are until the dad goes to check and see if Santa has come, and if he has then he yells "Good ga'll he's been here!!" That's the signal for the kids to come running down the hall. I doubt anyone copies this tradition, but it was just such a tender part of my childhood and it meant so much knowing it all started from my Grandpa Earl.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Noel

I'm going to try not to write too many words since I am so sick of blogger. I will see it through until the end of the year and then I am switching to a different blogging world. Hopefully my words will match up with the photos....25 minutes later, nope, they don't. They'll be lumped down at the bottom for anyone who cares to read them and match them with the photos. But let's be realistic, people just want photos anyway.

Below is Lydia sporting this year's Christmas pajamas. I'm so glad I gave them to the girls early so they can be enjoying them.
























Lydia is obsessed with "ANNIE!! Annie! Annie!"

I can't believe I don't have one single photo of my date night with my sisters and my mom, and a separate one of my sisters and my dad. But Ryan met me and the girls at the hotel after our date with my mom ended so we could take the girls swimming. They loved it, even though this is kind of a bad picture of all of us.


Emma is so good to let me do whatever I want to her hair. I did it up like Cindy-Loo-Hoo and got such a kick out of it.

Lydia is so good when Emma is in bed. She just plays quietly and loves to get into Emma's things knowing she can have free reign over her toys.


My parents had a delayed Thanksgiving dinner so my sisters could go with their in laws. We played some great game and all enjoyed our generous prize of the white elephant game....the kids especially :)

This is Elfie Noel. She lives with us until Christmas morning when she'll return with Santa. She moves through out the house periodically and keeps an eye on everyone. She makes sure there is Christmas spirit, love and service in our home. She reports back to Santa each night. She can only move if nobody is around to see her (like Toy story characters.) She is the best invention ever and I'm so glad we have her.
On December 5th was St.Nicholas Eve. If you leave your shoe outside your door the elves will put a gift in it in honor of St. Nicholas's birthday. Emma was lucky enough to have the "elves" fill the floor of her room with balloons. That meant more to her than anything.

This is such an accurate photo of my girls. Lydia trying to get on the computer to watch Shamu or Amals (animals), and Emma playing with her "friends" as she calls them. I don't know why, but these little girls love to take their pants off. Weird. I swear they are not just copying what they see at home.
Today I went over to my friend Carrie's house and she let me use her studio. She took all the photos for me and now I am green with jealousy that I don't have my own studio. Thanks again Carrie!!