A Very Merry Christmas!

We had a fun and relaxing Christmas up at the cabin this year. It was the first time ever that we've spent Christmas all by ourselves without lots of family around. It was a change but it was also very nice.

Santa was very generous this year and brought Alex and Johnny each a new bike. Alex got the Princess bike she had asked for and Johnny got a hot wheel/big wheel. Christmas morning while Brad was making breakfast Alex decided to write a thank you letter to Santa with the stationary she got in her stocking. Here's what she wrote (she was saying it out loud as she was making squigglies on the paper).
"Dear Santa,
Thank you for Johnny's motorcylce and my new bike and Dad's foot sleds and Mom's new orange"
(Brad got snow shoes and I got the 3 wisemen for my nativity set but all she remembered was the orange that came out of my stocking.)
After present opening time was over, Alex grabbed her 12 Dancing Princesses and Snow White and isolated herself in her room. I went in to snap a picture or two and Alex had me do an entire photo shoot of all of her princesses. We had one with her and all of her dolls, one with her and the 12 dancing princesses, one of her and Snow White and Snow White's dresses. One of her and just Snow White. One of the princesses without her and one of Snow White without her. She wanted to take a picture of each of them seperately too but that's where I drew the line. She sure loves those princesses though.
Johnny's favorite present was his eatable ball that Santa brought him. What a great idea Santa came up with. Johnny puts all of his toys in his mouth anyway so now he has one he can actually taste.
I hope everyone had as great of a Christmas as we did!

Johnny's Giant Candy Cane

The "balloon lady" at Albertson's this morning had a candy cane balloon left over from Christmas and thought Johnny was just too cute and HAD to have it. He was awestruck, he could hardly walk. But walk he did, all over the store carrying this gigantic candy cane around in his clutches. He couldn't just hold it by the string, he had to hold the candy cane itself. Everyone at the store had a fun time pointing out the boy with the candy cane twice his size.

"Maybe no one will notice if I just take one little bite off of the end"

Can you say PILL?

All I wanted to do was get ONE decent picture of the two kids together. Johnny was being such a pill, he pretty much had this look on his face the entire time. This is what inspired the red and white photo in the blog below. I figured I'd give it one more try but Johnny was still frowning for the camera so I opted for separate photos for our Christmas card this year. You can only work with what you've got. Of course as soon as the camera was put away, he was happy go lucky and playing around with us, all smiles. What a stinker!

Inspired by the season...

Our Big Four Year Old!!!

December 2nd Alex turned 4 years old! She is so grown up, just ask her! We measured her in at 42.3 inches tall, you know what that means don't you? She's tall enough to ride more rides at Roaring Springs, yeah! She requested a Princess Geneveve Party from the 12 Dancing Princesses. We had 6 of her friends over for a party in her honor where we decorated crowns, beaded bracelets, "whacked" a pinata (as Alex would put it), had cake and ice cream and opend gifts. She had a huge pile of presents, she got barbies, pets, play food, games, a soccer ball and much more. At the end of the party we played muscial chairs which I wouldn't recommend to a bunch of little girls hyped up on sugar and excitement. It's not fun being "out". While some didn't mind it so much some broke down in tears. We've learned our lesson and everyone walked away with smiling faces and a bag full of goodies. Alex spent the rest of the day closed up in her room playing with all her new toys. Whenever I would go in to check on her or try to play with her she would nicely ask "could you please leave my room now so I can play with my new toys?" Well ok then, she really does think she's so grown up now. Kind of scary but fun to watch.

This is her new favorite pose by the way, I've been seeing it a lot lately...hands on the hips and hips to the side. Not sure where she learned that one.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

You know how that old Christmas carol goes? "You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry, you'd better not pout, I'm telling you why...Santa Claus is coming to town!" Well aparently Johnny is familiar with this song and is concious about how much crying he's done this year because he was not too excited when Santa "came to town". December 1st was our ward Christmas party and as he does every year, Santa popped in for a visit. Alex was so excited and was one of the first in line to greet him (she has no doubt that he'll be visiting her this Christmas Eve). Maybe next year Johnny can expect more than coal in his stocking from Santa.

Most parents are sensitive to their children's insecurities. I'm like "I KNOW Johnny isn't going to like this, but I want the picture!"

Trick-or-Treating

Our Prettly Little Princess
And Our Silly Little Pumpkin
Morgan, Alex, Ashley (Stroller), Kindra, Branda, Alayna

Jack-o-Lanterns

We had fun carving pumpkins as a family this year. As always, Alex avoided the mess and Johnny dove right in. She got mad at me when I asked her to take the lid off that pumpkin not knowing it wasn't cleaned out yet.

Johnny's, Brad's, Laurel's, Alex's
Notice how Alex happily holds the lids on the pumpkin's as Johnny unsuccessfully tries to pull them off.

Gotta have one of the whole gang!

Our Silly Spooky Scary Pumpkins

The Pumpkin Patch

Ah...how I miss the ocean!

We took advantage of a couple of the nicer days of our visit to spend some time at the beach. Alex has gotten over her fear of the sand however the ocean was a different story. Our first visit to Moonstone she stuck her nose up at the ocean, but the second time we went she was swimming in it!

Johnny was hard enough to keep away from the water, he loved every bit of it. He not only liked the feel of the sand under his feet, he liked the taste of it in his mouth!

Uncle Matt and Johnny heading off into the surf.

Long Time No See

While in Cali I was able to catch up with an old friend I haven't seen since my wedding reception. Elizabeth Harvey and her two adorable daughters Kayla and Hannah. We met at the discovery center in Eureka, (thus the large teeth in the background).

Intense Concentration

Grace and Alex, concentrating on a seriously important computer game.

Sojourn in Utah

We first stopped in Utah to catch a BYU game with Jolene and visit with our friends The Smylies.

Welcome Home Little Bro!

Matt's home from Iraq, thus the inspiration for our journey to Eureka!

They're finally seeing eye to eye

First Day of Preschool

Alex started Preschool today. She has been talking about starting school pretty much since she could talk. She's been counting down the days since her Dad started school over a month ago, she figured she should've started school then too. When she woke up today and I told her it was a school day she about jumped out of her socks with excitement. The fact that school didn't start until 1:00pm was torture for her, and for me, since I had to listen to her beg me all day to let her go to school already! She insisted on wearing her new "fall" clothes even though it was 80+ degrees outside. It was so cute watching her walk down the street to her first school day with this huge backpack on her back. She has 3 friends in our neighborhood that she is going to preschool with and we switch between houses for school. I can't imagine watching her walk into a school room with an huge backpack on her back next to lots of other little kids with huge backpacks on their backs. Although she is already picturing that day and can't wait for it as well. She came home today with her first homework assignment, "just like Dad" and couldn't wait to get started on it "all by herself". Our little girl isn't so little anymore (it doesn't help that she's taller than all her friends too). I hope she always stays this excited about school but we all know the excitement wears off after a few years.

Ah, to be young again...

When was the last time you laid upside- down in a chair and read a book?

And no matter where Johnny is, he always feels like he can get just a little bit higher.

Camera Flirt

Alex's new favorite piece of clothing is her new pink skirt. She has worn it two days in a row already and asked, as she was changing out of it into her pj's, if she could wear it again tomorrow. 3 days is pushing it, it'll probably wind up in the dirty clothes hamper. But you can be certain that as soon as it is clean again, she'll be showing everyone how it twirls when she spins around in a circle.

Frosting Fiend

We went to our nephew, Brayden's Birthday party the other day where of course everyone over 2 feet tall was served cake and ice cream. This is Johnny doing his best puppy dog look in hopes I would be kind enough to share mine with him. Now how can you turn that down? At first I gave him some cake, apparently that wasn't sweet enough for him.
He spit it out with a terrible look on his face as if I was feeding him spinach and continued to beg until he got a fork full of frosting. How he knew that there was something even better spread ontop of the cake, I do not know but he was quite persistant until all of the cake was gone.