Merry Christmas!

I love this time of year.  There is no other time of year that brings magic like Christmas time. We tried to balance teaching the boys about Jesus and the spiritual side along with the Santa and whimsical traditions of Christmas.  Lincoln learned several Christmas songs this year at school and has been singing them for us over the last couple of weeks. Grandma Tutu, Grandpa Tutu and Aunt Natalee came to visit this year which has bee a great treat.  Since they left on Christmas eve we had Christmas with them the day before so between that, 


Ricky's birthday and today, it feels like we've been celebrating for days.
We've been busy with our normal traditions of seeing Santa, making candy, shopping, decorating the house and playing Christmas music.  I always enjoy the holidays.  On Christmas eve we went through the playroom with Lincoln and asked him what toys we could give away to other kids who didn't have any toys.  Surprisingly, we was willing to give away quite a few of his toys so we packed up a big box of them to donate. We go through the playroom several times a year and dejunk and pull things out to donate. We haven't really included Lincoln before but I think this makes for a good tradition.  He knew Santa would bring him new toys and he was so concerned about the kids that wouldn't have toys.  He has such a tender heart.  I see lots of volunteer work in our future!


For the last month Lincoln has been saying he wants Santa to bring him a "bike with two wheels and a helmet."  Luckily for him that's just what Santa brought. Logan would be happy with whatever but has enjoyed playing with a play kitchen when we go places that have one so that's what he got.  Lincoln decided that since we don't have a chimney that Santa had to sneak into our house.  We told him that we would leave the door open for him.  Luckily they were both good enough for a visit from Santa!  We had a wonderful morning opening presents, playing with toys and just hanging out together.  It's not a white Christmas but it was a bit chilly this morning. Tonight is our first official family movie night and we will be watching "Up."  None of us have seen it and Lincoln is excited to stay up late and eat popcorn and other goodies.


It has been nice to just celebrate Christmas with our little family and our little tree and to start or continue our little family traditions.  At the same time, we miss our friends and family that are far away that we've had a tradition of seeing on Christmas.  It's a time of year to be with friends and family and we look forward to the years ahead when we'll be able to see and enjoy more of them.

 Christmas Morning before the boys came down stairs. 

 Logan opening his present from Grammy.  This was the first Christmas for him that he could actually participate.  Last year, he slept through it.  This year he actually enjoyed opening presents. (mostly shredding the tissue paper.)

The kitchen was a hit!  I think Logan is glad to have big toys that are his.

Who knows, maybe I will have a chef one day!

 Lincoln got a new junior basketball for his new sports class he starts in a couple of weeks.

 Lincoln was on his new bike first thing after we opened presents.  He is quite good at it already and has asked us to take off the training wheels. There isn't much that he's afraid of. 

 This cute smiled turned into a sad frown after he had a little spill later that morning in the driveway.  Luckily he got away with just a scrape on his knee.  I got it all on video and now he likes to watch himself crash over and over. Thankfully he can laugh about it now - at the time it wasn't so funny to him.

 Logan's a big boy now and likes to sit on the couch.  He thought he was so sneaky because he took an ornament off of the tree. 

This picture was taken after church on the 26th...the last day that Lincoln was in nursery.  My baby is growing up to be a little boy and is going into primary.

 Logan loves quick baths in the sink.  As we were getting Logan ready for church I realized that he isn't going to fit in the sink for much longer.  He too is growing up so quickly.

He is so precious and he's at a great age.  He has just decided that he is going to walk.  He's known how to walk for a while but he was choosing to crawl.  Now, he chooses to walk and he walks everywhere!  He has also become a lot more verbal.  He copies what we say and makes up words to have conversations with us.  He is becoming a toddler very quickly.  

Logan The Magician

We've learned that Logan has learned to make things disappear.  How do you ask?  Great question.  Kitchen trash can lid opens, insert object, daddy takes out the trash and the object is gone forever!


It's taken several weeks of investigation before we figured out where things were going.  First it was Ricky's flip flop.  Who loses just one flip flop?  It was mysterious.  We searched the entire house, garage, car and never did find it.  Since then, more things have been disappearing. We noticed that Logan has started to pull stuff out of the trash if it's full and he can reach it.  Last night I watched him go to my drawer in the kitchen with all of the measuring cups and spoons.  He took my 1 TSP measuring spoon, walked over to the trash, lifted the lid and dropped in the spoon.  He fully intended for it to disappear but luckily I was there to rescue it!


I was excited to know that we solved the mystery but sad to think about everything that has gone out in the trash over the last couple of weeks.  You can bet that we're watching more closely as Logan heads for the trash can.

Orange County Work Trip

Earlier this month I had another work trip to Southern CA.  This time is was our old stomping grounds in Orange County.  I was there for a few days and got to pack in a lot of fun things besides work.  First I hit up the good old Brea Mall for some Christmas shopping. I was able to meet up with Calee for some shopping in downtown Brea followed by a dinner and a show at the Brea Improv.  The show was good and we were seated right next to the stage.  We were a little worried that we were targets for the comics but lucky for us there were plenty of other more interesting people to pick on. It was a really fun evening and I was glad to spend some time with her. 
Two days were taken up by job fairs for work in Diamond Bar and Irvine but t was fun to see and visit with some old co-workers who came to help at my events.  Before we flew home we took the afternoon to spend a little time on the beach.  I was traveling with a teammate from Arizona and she had only been to the beach once before and it was when she was a teenager.  I took her to Newport Beach so she could go put her feet in the sand and water but I felt bad because it was such a cold day we didn't stay long.  My work events were a success and my free time was fun so all in all, it was a great trip.

 Calee and me in Brea after the show. 

Sarah and me on the Newport Pier. 

Happy Birthday, Ricky!

This year was a low key birthday for Ricky.  His mom, dad and sister were here and I was off work so we got to enjoy lots of time together.  He chose In-N-Out for lunch, he went to a Bible Museum while Natalee and I had the boys at Chuck E Cheeses, and then he and I went out shopping and to dinner to celebrate.  We tried Elephant Bar, which was okay - I wasn't overly impressed. It wasn't much but it was nice to just spend some time together for the evening.  Next years going to be a big one!

Happy Birthday, Ricky!!




Family Pictures
We got our family pictures from our photo shoot in November with Kim in CA.  They deserve their own post but since I'm adding them later and I want them to be in my blog book, I had to add them to an existing post.  So, here they are!

 At least everyone is looking but no smiles from the boys.

Logan was so squirmy.  It was nap time and he wanted down.

Daddy put him down...upside down.  

Who knew it would be so hard to get a family picture with just four of us?!

This is what we ended up with.

I love the pictures with Ricky and me. They were a fun excuse to cuddle in the park.

Lincoln decided to grace us with his presence on this one and I think it's adorable.

We haven't taken pictures like this since our engagement and wedding so it was kind of a fun flashback to those days. 

Lincoln

 We took these pictures on his birthday.  He's showing you that he's 3!

I love this little boy!

 He was fascinated with the leaves.

 Logan

He just turned one and is a solid little guy for his age.

He is my sweet angel. I love this little guy too!

He is all boy.  He loved the leaves, dirt, sticks, whatever he could find.  He is a curious one.

Small Town Life

When we were deciding where we wanted to live there were a lot of things we had to consider. Having lived in the hustle and bustle of LA/Orange County and then in the very small town and slow paced Pocatello, we knew there were pros and cons to both. One of my favorite things about Poky was the small town feel...hometown parades, mom and pop restaurants and all.
We are really lucky to have all of that here. Our city is still large enough that we have great options for food, shopping and activities but we also get to have the small town feel. Our city puts on some sort of event at least once a month. From free family movie night at the baseball stadium to a huge annual Christmas party. We always see people we know from either the neighborhood, church, the gym, or preschool.
We spent Friday night (December 10) at a city block party which consisted of a tree lighting ceremony, multiple musical entertainment groups, food vendors, we watched eight hot air balloons be filled (pretty entertaining and fascinating if you haven't seen it before) fireworks and skydivers jump with flares and land right in front of us.
Today, Saturday, we spent the afternoon back at the stadium for the final day of the event.
My camera battery died so I don't have good pictures but here's what we did...

Lincoln, Logan and I rode an elephant
Went in a traditional petting zoo
Went in a petting zoo with massive turtles, an alligator, and snakes
Lincoln got a balloon hat from a cute clown
Shopped in the crafts boutique/vendors
Car show
Lincoln did a couple baseball games
We won Spring Training Tickets
Played in the massive bubble tower
Ate snow cones
Carnival train ride

I didn't go last year because I was home with Logan (who was just about 4 weeks old) but it's become a fun tradition for us. I'm thankful that we have a fun, safe, awesome city that promotes families and fun!

I never imagined that I would be so scared to ride an elephant.  I think having to hold on to the boys while rocking back and forth (so much rocking it could make someone sea sick) made me more nervous than I thought.  It was fun and I would do it again though.

I think this is Logan's first petting zoo.

 The picture is blurry, and you can't see Logan because he was sleeping in his seat, but it was the closest to a family picture that night that I could get. 

 I never knew that hot air balloons were so bright and loud.

 We wanted a picture with this guy because we thought he looked like Troy. Maybe a cousin?! =)

 This skydiver landed right in front of us and Lincoln gave him a high five and told him awesome jump after he put his parachute away.  Still to this day when we drive by the field Lincoln says, skydivers land there.  It's pretty cute. Uncle Asa would be proud.

A Splash of Color

I decided our home needed a little color. When we moved in the builder had already painted all of the walls plantation beige but I needed something more. I started with my office and I decided to paint a wall in my office red! It was the first time I had ever actually painted and I think it turned out great. Of course, I have a fabulous husband that helped me despite his dislike for brightly colored walls. That has changed! He actually likes the color!  Still not a fan of the project but he supports me and makes it happen. Love him!
Since the red turned out so well, we took on the playroom. I wanted a warmer color so we went with Chocolate Truffle brown...how could you go wrong with paint by that name!?!
Lincoln was really excited we painted his playroom. He calls it his brown wall. 
Our bedroom and Lincoln's room are next!

My office wall before.

My sweet husband was prepping the wall for me and this is what I found when I walked back in the room.  He's adorable.

My office wall after.

 Playroom wall before.

 Playroom wall after.  I love it!

Movie Night

I wanted to start a new family tradition.  Logan goes to bed pretty early so I thought that Lincoln, Ricky and I could have a movie night. Lincoln loves movies and amazes me at how much he gets and understands from them.  We got "Up" for Christmas this year so we made that our first movie for our monthly movie night.  Lincoln and I popped popcorn, made chocolate chip cookies and snacked on other treats as watched the movie. 
I thought it was a cute movie.  It has a very different style than most movies and it moves pretty slow.  I was worried it wasn't going to hold Lincoln's attention but I was wrong.  He loved it.  He was very engaged and watched every minute of it.  He laughed at the funny parts and was concerned for the characters at all the right places.  He's even asked to watch it again. 
I really enjoyed the three of us spending cuddle time together and it was fun for all of us.  We will be making this a monthly event from now on!

Conversations with Lincoln - He is Smarter Than We Know

Lincoln and I were working on a toy Star Wars computer that he got from Tutu for Christmas.  We were playing a spelling game.  A picture is shown first and then you have to spell the word. The picture was a jug of liquid being poured out.  The word was jug.

Me: What's first?
Lincoln: "J" and he proceeded to push the j.
Me: Okay, what's next?
Lincoln: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Me: I'm thinking "u" what are you thinking?
Lincoln: I'm thinking about brother Logan's kitchen.

Logan got a pretend kitchen and with it came little plastic jugs.  Who knew he would put that all together.
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There is a vacant building next to Lincoln's pre-school.  We've been talking to him about it for months.  He often likes to point it out to us.  Last night Ricky took Lincoln for a walk. Lincoln was on his new bike and Ricky was walking.  They went past a house that's for rent.  There's a big lock on the front door.

Lincoln: What's that on the door?
Rick: A big lock.
Lincoln: What is that big lock for?
Rick: Because nobody lives there and the house is empty.
Lincoln: It's a vacant building!
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He has a gift with directions.  We don't always take the same way to and from places.  As we picked Lincoln up from school today the plan was to grab dinner while we were out instead of coming straight home. Within seconds of passing a road that we would take to come home he yelled from the backseat, "Your going the wrong way."  Ricky and I said, we're going to get some dinner.  He knows his way around this town better than most adults.

Random Thought

I don't know which is worse...when someone says they are going to do something and then they don't or when the person who got the short end of the stick doesn't call them on it. 


The best time for you to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust. -Josh Billings


Let your tongue speak what your heart thinks. -Davy Crockett


Two very different perspectives.  Is there a right or a wrong way?

Blessed

Even before Thanksgiving came I was feeling very blessed. Things are not ever perfect but I'm very lucky, humbled and blessed to have what I have.

We had a low key, stress free, delicious dinner with our own little family of four. Ricky and I cooked traditional turkey, corn, green beans, deviled eggs, stuffing, roles, fruit salad and had pumpkin pie for dessert! We decorated for Christmas and just spent the day together as a family. Our neighbor made us a cute centerpiece paper turkey and we were supposed to write on the feathers what we were thankful for. It made for great dinner conversation. 

Here's what I'm thankful for:

An amazingly wonderful husband who is also my best friend.

Two adorable little boys that I love so much. 

Jesus Christ and the knowledge of the gospel.

My freedom, this country and those that serve to protect it.

Our home

A stable job

Friends and family

My health and healthy children

Technology

And so much more!

Our centerpiece, Lincoln and Ricky cooking away.

Logan was ready to eat.  He loved it all!

This is a little art project Lincoln did at school.  I thought it was so cute!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010!