Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Misc December 2013

We got a real tree this year, and it smells so yummy through the whole house!  We have some wonderful soft ornaments that Nikki made for us, and those go on the bottom of the tree where the kids can play with them.  Here are Jane and Colin putting some on the tree:



More tree decorating:




I saw this cool sunset where the shadow of the mountain behind me made the foothills in front of me dark.
The night after I took this sunset picture, it snowed heavily for the first time this season!  In the morning Jane ran into my room asking, "Mom, can I play in the snow?  Mom, I want to play in the snow!  Mom!  Mom, wake up!"  I rolled out of bed and put some warm clothes on her and sent her into the front yard.  I took a video from the window.  It's pretty boring, even though as a mom I love to watch my baby even if it's boring.  But I put some music to it to help it along a little.



Here are a few of my favorite pictures from that morning:




It's hard to tell but it's snowing heavily
On December 6, Michael and I went to see the BYU choirs give their annual Christmas concert.  It was totally amazing.  This is Jane and Colin waiting for their babysitter (neighbor Ashley).  They were both excited to see her!


Michael and I had a great time.  Unfortunately late that night, our basement flooded mysteriously.  Everything was so wet that we had to pull up the carpeting to vacuum up the water and it took days to get everything dry.  Pretty frustrating in such a busy month!


Jane couldn't sleep downstairs with her carpeting pulled up and half a dozen fans blowing constantly, so she had to sleep upstairs with Mommy and Daddy.  One night she fell asleep on the couch while she was snuggling with the kitty and it was so cute I had to take a couple of pictures:



Mommy with messy hair and Colin snuggling one morning.

Jane sharing cereal with Colin on the couch

Jane holding Colin on her lap.

This is a picture of Michael trying to convince me to
open my presents two weeks early.
At our ward Christmas breakfast this guy rocked the accordion.
I made dozens of these finger
light-sabers for Jane's cousins
as Christmas presents. Pretty cool!
Jane and Colin play pretty cute in the bath
Jane and Colin are able to play more and more together every day!  Jane hid inside this cardboard box to the delight of her brother.





Jane and Colin had a little early Christmas fun when Nana and Grandpa Dennis came over to celebrate Christmas before they left for the east coast.  Nana made Jane a beautiful duvet cover for her bed which will keep her roasty toasty!  The kids also got a few fun toys.  


Jane took this picture of Colin in his crib.
She loves to take pictures!

She also took this one of her and Mommy.

We had a movie night with Mommy's friend, Elizabeth.

Jane sat on my lap while we watched Elf.

Elizabeth and Michael on their devices!

One morning I came up the stairs to see Jane and Rocky
sitting like this.  It was adorable.

Colin and Daddy in church, both looking
so handsome.

Jane all dressed up (with pony!)

Jane and Daddy doing Mommy's hair.  Ouch.

Jane and Rocky getting in some good snuggles!


Here are Jane's beautiful projects from preschool this month!

Well those are all of the random pictures from December!  Now I'll put together posts for Jane's preschool play, Erika's sing-along, and Christmas itself.  

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Christmas Day 2013

This is the sweet face that I woke up to on Christmas Morning

Here's our beautiful tree with all of the presents underneath

Jane got this Hello Kitty shirt/tutu from Santa
and she LOVED it.  She also looked darling in it!
She knows how to rock those sunglasses, too.

She's holding Princess Anna, which she got
from Uncle Adam last night, and her puppy
purse that she got from Grandma. Quite the
ensemble! We told her that she had style.

Jane is thanking Colin for the present he got her - two My Little Ponies!
Colin was happy to watch Jane open her presents while he had some breakfast.


Jane also got some books for Christmas!

This is us trying to get Colin to open some of his presents.

Colin loves trucks!  What a good gift.
Grandma came by to see the kids open a few presents.
Jane loves this princess shirt!
Big hugs for Grandma!

Colin is starting to get the hang of this opening, thing, now!

He loves this Blocks table so much!  His favorite place to play with it is
sitting on top of it!

Hard at work.

This is the present that Jane picked out for Colin.
She's happy to help him open it, too!

Or open any gift that might be lying around!

You might think that it would be hard to build towers
while you're sitting on top of this table, but
Colin makes it work!


Mommy got busy cooking in the messy kitchen!  We had yummy eggs and
sausage for breakfast - but the real trick was getting dinner ready!


Grandma got Jane this flying dinosaur thing, and it was good for hours of fun
on Christmas.  You can see the cat under the tree is looking at it very suspiciously.
Daddy couldn't resist playing with it a bit, too.
Mommy didn't remember to take a picture of dinner until we were almost done with it!
I roasted a turkey breast, made gravy and Red Lobster biscuits (one of Michael's FAVORITES!).
But my favorite and most time-consuming dish for dinner was this stuffing,
recipe provided by Grandpa Ross.  It's the yummiest thing ever!  Also I made
enough to last us for a week!
I had to include this picture of Michael's
favorite Christmas gift - Wall-E and Eve mugs.
I showed him a picture of these online months
earlier and he flipped out over them, so I made
a note that they would make a good Christmas gift.
I think he told me they're his favorite gift ever.

I took a few videos from Christmas morning and put them together here:




It was a beautiful day!  The kids had a great time and we loved being together.