Can't believe it is a new year!

So we have entered a new year! So here are a lot of pictures from since Christmas.

We went to my parents to house for Christmas eve and here was the try after Santa came. It was fun to have Jesse there to have the magic of Santa in our home. We also had a really need talk with the adults about memories and some lovely stories were shared. I LOVE Christmas Eve!

Jesse got some little parachuter men. And my parents landing has always been perfect for this kind of thing. So him and his Aunt Katie had a good time doing this.

Matt, my brother in law, making his famous rolls. It's a must during the holidays and I could have a meal alone of these rolls. We call them one-hour- rolls.

The Christmas goodies. There are layers to this. It was pretty ridiculous really. But what can you expect when everyone likes to bake?

Jesse got a new bike and his Uncle Paul helped him ride it around outside. He was in heaven!

The Christmas loot we brought home. A little ridiculous.

Jesse developed Croup the day before Christmas Eve and he was ok for a little while but it worsened the day after Christmas. We all got to be a little lethargic for a day. It was kinda nice to be lazy!

Charlotte's first time eating yogurt on her own.

not too successful.

Jesse turned 4 on January 5th. We tried to make the day special for him so it started out with balloons all over his room (blown up and put in there while he was sleeping). I woke up to him in the crib with Charlotte playing with balloons. :)

He also woke up to the house decorated.

And insisted on wearing his doggy costume.

AND we had some delicious monkey bread for breakfast. Yes, it is as good as it looks

Riding his bike some more.

Going for a walk/bike ride together.

We let Jesse open a present from his grandma and grandpa Summers on his birthday. The rest he'll open today (Sunday) when family comes around.

Jesse helped me make his cupcakes.

Andy was sleeping for his graveyard shift. Charlotte was in bed as well so Jesse and I sang happy birthday and he got to blow out some candles. It was quiet but he liked it.

And that was our last couple of weeks. Loads of fun! What a great year we are looking forward to.

December

So I'm a little behind. It seems when I try really hard to do well at one thing, the other things suffer. In this case I was trying to eat well, drink all my water, stay in my calorie intake, and exercise. So everything else seemed to go to pot. I have not given it up this week but am trying better to manage my time :)

So here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks:

Jesse is really into costumes right now so here is one he favors

Playing outside on one of the "nicer" days. Charlotte always wants to ride what Jesse is riding so this is the compromise.

For one Christmas Party I made mincemeat pies. Very fun! And sort of traditional in the family. These ones were a little big for my taste so I borrowed a small tart pan and am going to make them again for my family :)

I have started letting Charlotte eat on her own. It is always a big step for myself to do this because I HATE messes and especially when our dinner table is over carpet. But I let go and let her eat her cereal with a spoon each morning. She actually ends up eating more with her hands but it is practice AND it keeps her entertained more than anything else! This morning she went through two bowls of cereal.

Sunday we had Andy's cousin and his wife and daughter over. This is Grayden and Sophie. Such a fun couple and an ADORABLE little girl!

Monday morning we decided to do another family tradition of sorts- eggs and soldiers. Jesse has never been a fan of eggs so we thought we would try this. He only ate one but it was progress!

My smart little man playing a rolling marble video game. Andy and I are always amazed at how he thinks and how coordinated he is in these things. Hopefully we can mold that cleverness into something more....productive? :)

Jesse is always the big helper and here he is helping me separate the red beads from the rest. After a while he told me: "Mom, it's okay that the black is with the red." And I looked in the bowl and apparently he was sick of the task and started just putting whatever beads wherever. hmmm...

And here is the finished project! That is right- I only get three Christmas cards! Hahah. I am sure that when I start getting on the ball enough to send out Christmas cards then I will get more in return. But I am happy for those that remember me :)

I will not be updating again until after Christmas, so Happy Christmas everyone!

Holiday's begin!

Utah trip, Part 2:

Jesse LOVES his uncle Bobby who always takes the time to give him special attention. Here they are playing a game.

Aunt Tiffany reading Jesse his evening book. He loved to have everyone there to read him a book each night.

Downtown Ogden there by the municipal building they have the Ogden Village which is a large amount of small (basically children) houses that are decorated. Hard to explain but Jesse LOVED it! He was running from house to house to see what was next. This picture is kind of dark but Jesse was holding hands with his cousin Theron. cute :)

Cousin Theron:

Jesse being a solider:

The little decorated houses:

Family picture, minus Andy. This gives you an idea of what is inside the houses. So fun!

Monday morning early we headed out of town and on the way through the canyon we saw many people parked on the side of the road. We were pretty confused and wondered what they were looking at. Lo and behold there was a steam engine coming around the bend and we were able to see it!

Eventually when Charlotte gets bored with food she just starts to crumple it into small peices. We looked back and there she was, covered in crumbs.

A couple days after we got home we got a REAL tree to put up. It was fun and it smells so nice!!!

The finished product.

This kid can make quite the faces....We made an ornament together (thanks Shelly Stephan!), and I couldn't get him to pose normally.

These socks lining the wall is our newest advent calendar. I told Jesse that if he is good, a little elf will come by each day and put a present in his sock. Sometimes this little elf comes in the middle of the day and Jesse will be out of the room and I yell telling him that I saw the elf and he will look and look for him!

My happy Charlotte! I capture a rare smile. This girl has been so moody this week- I hope this isn't a permanent thing!

Beginning of Vacation

Thursday we left for Ogden, Utah. We headed down in anticipation of seeing Andy's sister, Tiffany, come off her mission on Tuesday. We have been busy running all around doing the things that we like to do. Here are a few pictures from the beginning of the trip:

Kids asleep in the car (I was the only one awake at the time)

Once we got there it snowed the next day. I made sure to have all the kid's snow clothes so that we could do some playing in this foreign concept of snow...Charlotte liked it but got cold quickly.

Andy must have missed it so much that he wanted to do some shoveling...

Jesse acted like he was born for the snow! Throwing snowballs, making angels and just generally being a boy.

We decided to build a snowman and he turned out to be huge!!

Here is our finished snowman...mustache and all..

Coming in from the cold. Katie was with us because she was flying to Oregon to do some hunting with my dad.

Saturday night Andy and I headed to a BYU home football game. It was chilly but fun to do something we had never done together! They won 42-7.

We even got matching hot-chocolate mugs. YUM!

Cosmo even came up close to us!

Sunday was an experience- Charlotte was grouchy pretty much ALL day! Andy and I didn't get to sit down for one moment until she went home before sacrament for a nap. Jesse was good so that made up for Charlotte's grouchy mood.

Jesse got a hold of Grandma's camera and figured out how to use it. :)

And our weekend ended by playing a game of Settlers of Catan- one of our favorites. Here Andy is in one of his more "normal" poses :)

More pictures to come of Tiffany's return on Tuesday!