Christmastime

Wow, where did the time go? And why do I have so few pictures of all the stuff we did this month? Oh well, we did a bunch of fun stuff and I can't really remember it all right now because I basically have no short-term memory when I'm pregnant. Really wish I'd taken more pictures for that reason! Oh thing we did do was go see the lights at temple square. We haven't been in years and I just don't think it's the same without the malls right across the street. We used to always go see the lights and then go inside the mall to warm up and get a treat. Now there are not many places to go inside and get warm and no where to get a treat. But it was still lots of fun! Very quick visit though since the kids were freezing. Apparently I didn't bundle them up enough.

Josh and I went to the Kurt Bestor Christmas concert for our anniversary. It was so good! We also went several parties and the kids met with a couple of Santas. I think that confused Sydney a bit. She must have noticed they didn't look or sound quite the same. She asked me if they were the real Santa Claus's. So I told her no they're not really Santa, but they are happy, jolly and gave you a present just to be nice so that's really what Santa is all about anyways. We think she might become a non-believer pretty early. That would be fine with us. We're not really big on the Santa thing and try not to focus on it much anyways.
So Christmas Eve finally rolled around. Do everyone else's kids go a little crazy the few days before Christmas? Ours sure do! The anticipation of Christmas was making for some emotional children. I didn't really think about it being caused by Christmas until it was over and everyone has been much happier ever since.

The kids and I got new jammies for Christmas.

It's hard to pick a favorite gift but we did recently have a lot of fun with the fire pit that Josh's brother and sis-in-law gave us. I've been wanting one for years because I always like going up in the mountains and roasting stuff over a fire. Now we can just do it in our backyard!

Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas too! We had so much to be grateful for this year. We can only hope that 2010 will be just as good!

Photo shoot

Here's what I did today! I took these pictures, edited them, printed them and got them in frames. Yes, I am feeling very accomplished. It's about time I updated some of the baby pictures around the house. I'm no professional so please don't look too closely. They are good enough to be framed in my opinion. And since my kids cry pretty much every time we go to a photo studio, throwing a sheet over the back of the couch works much better for us!

Natalie's a sheep

This is a how Tanner talks now. "Na-any's a sheep" means Natalie's asleep. It's one of Tanner's favorite phrases since he's usually the first one up every morning. Tanner also likes to call things "two one", we haven't figured out what it means. He'll say this things like "Daddy's a two one", "It's a two one", and whine about "two one." He talks about "two one" when he's happy, sad, annoyed. Who knows! He still jabbers on in his own special language and will tell me whole stories that way, but he's also starting to throw in a few more English words. So we're happy about that!

Our staycation

Shame on me, I've been a bad blogger lately! It could have something to do with my laptop dying and going through the process of adjusting to my new laptop. Thanks Josh! Glad you understand how important a computer is to me. Anyways, no photoshop on this computer yet so the pictures are not edited. About a month ago we decided to do a little "staycation" (a vacation where we stay home for those not familiar with the term). We did go down to St. George for the first few days so we were away from home for a bit enjoying the nice warm weather.

Here are the kids doing some exploring in Snow Canyon.

Playing in the sand dunes.

The kids are getting to a good stage where we can actually take them to a restaurant without completely embarrassing ourselves. So nice! When we got home we made a list of some things we've wanted to do or see but never get around to it. We decided to get a 6-month membership to the Discovery Gateway museum. The kids love it there and I'm excited to take them this winter when we get a little stir-crazy.

My favorite thing about the museum is that they have all these toys to play with and yet my house stays nice and clean.

The next day we went downtown to the church history museum. Sydney actually has requested to go back to this one more than the discovery gateway. She really loved the "I am a Child of God" exhibit. There were a lot of fun things for kids to do and there was a station that looked like a hospital nursery with lots of little baby dolls and you could hold them, rock them, pretend to feed them, etc. I was happy Natalie really enjoyed the babies too. I hope she likes having a real baby around in May! I'm a little concerned she might get a bit jealous. We'll see.

We walked around temple square and went in one of the visitors centers and also had lunch on the grounds. It was a very pretty day.

On our final day we just went to the zoo to see all the baby animals we've been hearing so much about. My pictures from that are still on my little camera. It was our first visit to the zoo with no stroller. The kids did pretty well! I'm just loving the fact that they can all walk, talk (sort of), and feed themselves. I guess it's time to start potty training soon. Ugh. Anyways, it was a very fun and low-stress vacation that I would definitely recommend.