Christmas Catch Up - My Favorite Gift

My favorite gift this year was not one I received. It was a wreath I made for Micah's Mom. Every year at Christmas I set out making a variety of photo gifts including an annual scrapbooked calendar for Micah's grandma and various scrapbook photo albums, etc for other family members. One year I even made a quilt... Needless to say, in addition to all of the shopping, Christmas is a pretty busy time.

This year I made something a little different as a gift for Micah's Mom. After her hospital stay I collected all of her favorite flowers that she had received and took them home to dry them with the intention of making something special for her to treasure. When I finished her wreath on Tuesday I was so excited with the final product that I had to show someone. I almost blogged about it that minute but I realized that Micah's Mom reads the blog so she would more than likely see her present before Christmas. Well, she has received it now so I decided to blog about it anyways!

I included her newest favorite quote which she repeated often during her hospital stay. We just look at it as a reminder to be grateful and happy that she is better now and we get to spend precious time with Grandma!

The big roses next to the bow were the ones from the Governor so we had to put those front and center :)

Christmas Catch Up - Four Christmases

Have you seen that movie? It is actually pretty funny!! Raider loves to relish in the fact that he gets 4 Christmases every year. (One with my Mom, One with my Dad, one Christmas morning, and one with all of Micah's extended family). I'm not sure if he equates the number of Christmases with the amount of gifts or what but he was awfully bummed last year when we stayed in Sacramento for Christmas and invited everybody over all at once (which really only meant 2 Christmases).

Well this year we resumed our regular routines and did Christmas with each of our different parts of the family and although it wasn't anything like that movie we had our share of chaos and laughs and fun times.

Here are the girls at one of our christmas events:

Christmas Catch Up - Good Friends

It is so nice to have good friends. I have truly learned over the course of my life how important good friends really are and I am more grateful than ever for the friends we have. One of the best kinds of friends are the ones that have known you forever - through the ups and downs - you know from when you were a dorky, giggly, boy-crazy high school girl, through the early married times and now having kids and being able to watch them grow up at the same time.

Before Christmas we had the opportunity to get together with some of those friends and we had a lovely time watching the kids play and enjoying each others' company. I am stealing this picture right off of my friend April's blog:

You can click here to see all the rest of the photos she took. Thanks April!

Christmas Catch Up

I can't believe it has been 10 days since I have posted on the blog!! Those 10 days have flown by fast but they were filled with lots of fun. I have written numerous blog posts in my head but haven't had the chance to physically write them on the computer. So over the next day or two I am going to do a mass post with all of the catch-up posts from Christmas around here!

Starting with Haylie's preschool performance...

SOOOO cute. It was one of those really proud parent moments. (sort-of...but we'll get to that). Haylie's preschool had a Christmas carol performance night at school. Haylie had been practicing for weeks and every day we sang her songs together. My favorite was "We wish you a Merry Christmas." She had little hand motions and new verses I had never heard (Let's all do a little stomping, Let's all do a little stomping, Let's all do a little stomping and spread Christmas cheer. Let's all give a little smile...)

So as Haylie's preschool class entered the sanctuary she spotted me in the audience and I waved to her. Wrong move! She was crying and whining the rest of the way down the aisle saying, "I want my Mommy." Then when she got on stage she was totally distracted for the first two songs. She finally got into gear for "We wish you a Merry Christmas."

It was so cute though to watch her up there like such a big girl with all her friends.

Now she's having fun!

James was proud of his sister too

Haylie was so excited that her cousins came to watch her performance

SOOO Serious

James is our little serious man! Ever since he was born he has always had such a concerned look. One thing I have noticed about him lately, that seems so different from Haylie, is that he appears to be unaffected by any sort of praise. Most babies, or at least Haylie, when receiving a round of applause or congratulatory "good job" will stop what they're doing and soak up the praise. Haylie has always relished in the attention and seemed to really enjoy that Mommy and Daddy are proud of her. James, however, continues on about his way, whether it's taking steps or putting legos together he never reacts, even when I explode into clapping and whooping for his job well done, he is determined and focused on the task at hand. I have no idea what that says about his personality but it's so funny how different they can be!

Taking Turns

Haylie loves to play with her baby brother...

and she is even learning to take turns!

Santa and Noah

One of Haylie's favorite Bible stories lately is Noah's Ark. I think she is finally starting to understand about Noah's obedience to God vs. just the story about the animals. She has a little felt board that she got as a present last year; she can stick Noah and the animals to the board and move them around on it. She used to like to play with the animals but lately she just loves to carry Noah all around with her in the car, to the store, etc.

So, the other day when we were unpacking all of our christmas boxes, we found a little talking Santa doll that we picked up at some White Elephant gift exchange. Micah pulled it out and asked Haylie, "Who's this?" Well, by now you can probably guess her response, "Noah!" No Haylie, "that's Santa." "Nooooo," she said with a tone that meant silly Daddy - you're mistaken, "That's Noah!"

I still haven't decided if we are going to do the whole "Santa" thing with our kids yet but that was too funny of a story not to blog about :)

And to go with it - a couple pictures of silly Haylie:

Hello, Who's There?

James talks on the phone more than Raider!

Who's The Boss

Everyone has their good qualities and their bad qualities. I have struggled with one impossible personality characteristic all my life. However, I have learned to accept this innate quality that comes barreling out of me at any opportunity it gets: BOSSINESS! That's right I'm bossy! :) Everyone else knew it - just ask my younger sister - she'll happily tell you, since I have played mother to her most of her life.

Well Haylie is going to have to learn the same thing because it appears to be in her genes, passed down from her Mommy. Every chance she gets Haylie is bossing someone around - she mostly does it to James because he can't talk back, but every now and then I hear Haylie scolding Raider for something or telling him what to do, and trust me that is hilarious. I am laughing just thinking about it. Raider gets this look like, "who do you think you are?" and Haylie continues on, "Do you understand me Raider?" The other day Haylie was bossing James, telling him he needed to sit in his chair and eat his food, when I gave her my look of disapproval, to which she dissapointedly replied, "I know, I'm not the boss."

Then today, she was once again instructing James where he could and could not play when I told her, "Haylie, you don't need to boss him around. You are not the Mommy." The following conversation ensued:
H: "I will be a Mommy in a little bit."
M: "When?"
H: "When I get 5 and older, then I will be a Mommy...(thinking pensively)...and I will be the boss. That's what I will do."

Simply Put...

...Haylie really likes the Christmas Tree!

The Hunt

In search of the perfect one...

Bring in the hounds.... Not that one!

At last - Raider found the winning tree:

Miss Manners

Haylie has finally learned her manners, or rather how to use her manners to get her way :)

Please - When Haylie wants something and Mommy or Daddy says no, the instant reaction is of course a little mini-fit. However, recently I have been explaining to her that is not how to get your way. Tantrums only get you in more trouble. The appropriate response is to say please Mommy and we can have a discussion about it. Now, whenever I say no - Haylie gets this adorable puppy dog look and says "plllleeeeaaaase Mommy." Oh man - it is really hard to say no after that nice response!!!

Sorry - This is Haylie's new favorite word. In the last couple weeks she has started sayng it all the time. If she bumps into be, "Oh, sorry Mommy." She drops her fork on the floor, "Oh sorry Mommy." It is funny how often she says it - I'm not even sure where she picked it up from! The best incident was when Haylie was taking a nap in Mommy and Daddy's bed. I came in to check on her, only to find her sitting in a pile full of crumpled pages from the book I have been obsessively reading lately. I started in telling her she CANNOT rip pages out of Mommy's book, only to be cut off by a very sincere sounding, "I'm sorry Mommy." I continued on..."Mommy really doesn't like that, because now I can't read my book because it is broken..." And then she reminded me, "but I said I'm sorry Mommy...." Where did she learn that?? Well it is just the sweetest thing - it is very hard to discipline her when she says sorry so quickly and looks like she really means it.

Here is a cute picture of Miss Haylie being silly in James' Bumbo seat:

Thankfulness

I waffled about posting the requisite "Thankful For" list on my blog for Thanksgiving this year. And after thinking about it enough I was just overwhelmed with all the things I am truly thankful for in life. I just don't think life could get much better these days. I am so blessed to have more time to spend with my family, fabulous friends, a career I can be successful at, a hobby I am absoutely loving, and a God who loves me and wants to have a relationship with me. Lately when people ask how I am doing I can't help but say I am just loving life. Things are working out so well in every direction I am just praying it never ends! I am thankful though that God gives us seasons of life and allows us to experience the highs and lows so we can trust in Him and rejoice in Him.

One of Haylie's favorite Bible stories is the story of the ten men who Jesus healed and only one of them returned to say Thank You (she likes going through each of the men - he didn't say thank you, he didn't say thank you, he didn't say thank you....he said thank you!). I pray that I would remember to be thankful to God each day for the things I have in my life and impart that onto my children.