Christmas!

Christmas always starts on Christmas Eve, so that's when I'll start. :) We spent our Christmas Eve over at our friends, the Dansie's house for dinner. We had a delicious traditional dinner of turkey, potatoes, etc. I was in charge of rolls and desserts, so of course we had three desserts to choose from. We had a great time eating and talking, and before we knew it it was bed time and time to go home.

We had the kids get in their pjs and I snapped a quick picture in front of the tree. Then I took one of the tree because it just seemed so pretty this year and I love Christmas trees.

We were woken up around 6:15 by three very eager children. Joel and I managed to get out of bed, and after a family prayer we headed down to open presents! Obviously I don't have pictures of every present being opened, but I still took a lot! I'll just do a quick caption on each.

Audrey was pretty content in her Bumbo for most of the time we were doing presents.

Adam got some new shoes from Mom and Dad.

Audrey got a fun little ball she can hold on to and munch from Aunt Amy.

Audrey had Will for Christmas, and "she" got him the first 12 books in the Magic Tree House series. He's read all of the books in the series (except for one), but he decided that he wants them so he can read them again.

Adam got Jenna a watch!

Jenna got Dad some new headphones to use while playing his guitar.

Dad got Adam a gun that holds 12 darts at a time! Bonus!

I had some help opening my present from Amy.

Here I am admiring one of the lovely platters she got me.

Audrey helped open some of her presents. She was pulling the bow off...

Then she immediately put that bow in her mouth.

Can you see the smile on his face? He just opened the amazing blanket that Amy made for him.

And I mean amazing! It's big, it's soft, and it's obviously super cool. We've all enjoyed this one!

Then came the BIG one. A Wii!! We are way behind the times, and finally bought a Wii. This was the initial reaction when they opened it. They both looked at Joel and said, "We got a Wii!?!?!?" It was so funny! They were all quite excited about it.

From there on out there were just Wii presents. Games, controllers, etc. They were happy about the Wii Fit!

And Will wanted to pose like this. I'm really not sure why he wanted to, but it cracked me up!

It was a beautiful, crisp morning here in Green River. It snowed off and on for most of Christmas Eve. But it was sunny and super cold on Christmas! They view was gorgeous.

We had shoveled our sidewalk probably three times on Christmas Eve, but it was so windy that night that the snow drifted up in front of our steps. It was probably a foot or two deep.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and having fun! We made our Miis for the Wii. Played some Wii games, played Pass the Pig, which was a game we got from Daniel Jay. (A real game, not a Wii game). We snacked on candy and leftover rolls, played some more Wii, played our new game of Yahtzee (NOT on the Wii), talked to Grandmas, and generally hung out. It was a wonderful day!

Cookies

The week before Christmas Adam got to decorate some sugar cookies at a friend's house. He's such a cheesy smiler!

His cookie matches his face!

My friend, Jen, was holding Audrey and I just couldn't get a smile out of her. (Audrey, not Jen) :)

My Little Girl

I don't have any new pictures of Audrey to go with this post, so it's just words this time around.

My little baby is changing so fast. I want to keep track of some of the new things she's doing.

Last week, I believe on Sunday the 9th, she finally started rolling over from her back to her tummy. I say finally because she's over five months old, and I seem to remember my other kids rolling before that. However, I can't believe that my baby is becoming mobile. She always rolls to her left side, and once she gets on her tummy it's not long before she's not too happy about it. Unfortunately for her she doesn't roll consistently from her tummy to her back, so she's stuck there.

She's been a chewy, drooly mess for a couple of months now. Earlier this week I happened to look in her mouth and BAM, a bottom tooth. It really snuck up on me because I hadn't been watching for it.

Last weekend Joel and I set up Audrey's new crib and I took apart her bassinet. I got a little teary. The real crib is in Jenna's room, but Audrey only sleeps there during the day. At night she sleeps in the port-a-crib in our room. I think over Christmas break we'll try having the girls sleep in the same room at night. Then we won't have to worry about Jenna not getting enough sleep for school and we can just try things out.

She loves to grab for things, and anything she gets in her hands go straight to her mouth. She's still eating rice cereal, but that's the only food we've introduced so far. She's doing better at actually eating it.

She loves to be held and entertained. She doesn't like to be left alone, and when I leave the room she'll cry if there isn't someone else there to distract her. She does like her exersaucer, and usually as soon as she goes in it she grabs the attached toys and pulls them directly into her mouth. She will watch our Baby Genius Mozart movie that we've had since Will was a baby, and that keeps her attention for awhile.

She loves to look at Joel's phone or my ipod. The bright colors and things really grab her attention.

She's a pretty good sleeper most days. She naps well (most days), and she will put herself to sleep if I put her in her crib when she's tired. She still likes to be swaddled. At night she can go 6 hours without eating, but she still wakes up between feedings and has to be wrapped up again or given her binky.

All of these things seem to be happening so fast for our little one. I'm just not ready for it this time around. I mean, yes, it's exciting when she does new things, and of course I want her to grow and progress. But it's been hard for me to give up my tiny newborn. I think it's because now I know how truly fast these moments go, and because we plan on Audrey being our last baby.

Okay, this is longer than I intended. I just wanted to record these things while I was thinking about it. :) Next thing you know, I'll be posting about Audrey driving or something (it feels that way to me, anyway).

Adam is five!

Adam's birthday was on Thursday, and he is a big boy of five! We started with presents first thing in the morning so he could play with what he got. He got a fun puzzle from Grandma R, and clothes, a cape and mask, and a new monster truck from us. He also got a very cool remote control car from Grandma and Grandpa K that came on Saturday.

After dinner that night we did cake, which was actually brownies. I did fruit dip for the frosting, and it was a very tasty combination! After that we headed to Jenna's school concert where we got to listen to some lovely Christmas music.

Happy Birthday to our little monkey! You are growing up, and we love you SO much!!

First Bite

We gave Audrey her first taste of "real food" on Saturday evening. She didn't seem to mind the rice cereal, and she wasn't even very messy. I would say that it was a success.

Thanksgiving

We stayed in Green River for Thanksgiving this year because Joel had to work the day before and after. We found out last minute that my sister, Adrienne, and my niece, Brianna, were able to join us from Utah for the day. I spent all day Wednesday baking (thankfully I had cleaned pretty much all day Monday and Tuesday, so when I found out Wed. afternoon that Adrienne and Brianna were coming I didn't have to worry about that). 

Thursday morning we started off our day with a Turkey Trot, which was actually just a short walk in the nice crisp weather. :) But at least we got out and walked, right? It got our blood flowing and it was a great way to start the day.

There was a marathon of the T.V. show "Swamp People" on, and they were all episodes Joel hadn't seen. Let me tell you what, he was like a kid on Christmas morning. He was so happy! It was funny, and I think we all got sucked into that crazy show at least a little bit.

Our turkey wasn't very big, so it didn't take long to cook. I think we ate "dinner" around 2:00. Since there's not a lot of room we had to do things buffet style. But I made sure to snap a picture before we started eating. Then I sat down and Joel got a picture with me in it. :) As you can see, it was a tight fit in our tiny kitchen/dining room area, but we managed, and it was fun!

After we stuffed ourselves with Thanksgiving food, we took a little break, cleaned up dinner, then of course it was on to pie. After pie we played a round of Trivial Pursuit. Adrienne and Brianna were on a team and Joel and I were on a team. The kids watched and pitched in when they wanted to. :) Joel and I won, but it was a very close game.

Adam was taking lots of pictures, most of which were of the walls, the TV, etc. But there was one of Adrienne and I chillin' on the couch. :)

It was a lovely Thanksgiving, and I am so grateful for all of my blessings and the blessings of my family.

Adrienne and Brianna had to leave on Friday because Adrienne had to work Saturday. But we did manage to watch a movie, eat some more goodies, and do a quick standing-ab workout. :)

2012 brought us a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Weekend

We had a busy weekend!

Friday evening I was lucky enough to be able to go to the last Twilight movie with my friends Jessica and Jennifer. We went to Taco Time before the show to get some empanadas. It was my first Taco Time experience, and it was pretty good. The empanadas were quite delish! I think we all enjoyed the movie, and it was great to get out and have some fun!

Saturday was Joel's birthday! He's 29 this year. Only one more year to the big 3-0! I'll hit the highlights of the day. First thing in the morning Joel opened his presents. The kids made him cards. You can't really see them, but Adam's card says "Dad Adam Happy Birthday", and he drew a picture of Joel and himself playing the matching game, and another picture of them hugging. How sweet!

I got him a new Wyoming hat, gloves, and a small thing of duct tape to go in his truck. He also ordered a truck cover a few weeks ago (so he doesn't have to scrape his windows in the morning), so that was kind of his birthday present to himself.

After lunch we went bowling. We tried to go to the one here in Green River, but as we were pulling up a lady was walking out and said they were closed until 3. That wasn't going to work for us, so we headed over to Rock Springs and bowled there. It's been years since I've bowled, and it was pretty obvious! We all had a great time!

Here's the final score. Yes, Will beat us all, but all of the kids had bumpers when they bowled, so that makes me feel a lot better. :)

Joel and I (and Audrey) went out to dinner at the Krazy Moose here in town. I get a huge kick out of that name! It was not bad. After that we came home, stuck some candles in the cherry cheesecake Joel had requested, and sang Happy Birthday. All in all I think (hope) that he had a nice birthday.

On Sunday Audrey got to wear the fun new outfit I bought for her online a few weeks ago. I am absolutely in love with the shoes! I also sang in sacrament meeting with a group of ladies. It was a lot of fun! I'd rather sing in church than speak in church any day. :) Although, we did speak in church a few weeks ago and it wasn't too bad. I also gave my first Relief Society lesson on the 11th. I'm really excited about this new calling, I think it will be a good learning experience for me.