5 Years and Counting

Logan and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary last night.  Holy Cow I can't believe it has been 5 years.  We had such a good time together.  First, we went to see the movie "Juno."  It was so good.  That was the first time that I have been to a movie in a theater since before Collin was born.  Second, we went to dinner at a restaurant up Millcreek Canyon called LogHaven.  It was delicious.  We both were a little nervous driving up the canyon in the crazy snow storm we had last night, but it was worth it.  The food and the atmosphere were great. Lastly, we went ice skating at the Gallivan Center.  So Fun!  I have to say that we were pretty good and could keep up with all of the teenagers on the ice.  We were by far the oldest people there.  But, it was a lot of fun. Ice skating is something I haven't done in so long, but something that I would like to do more of.   So here is to 5 great years and many more!

Sophie's Big News!

Sophie is potty trained! 

 

Yahoo!  I am so proud of her.  I decided to give this potty training thing another try over her Christmas break.  I did a count down to the day Sophie would only wears panties.  The first day she wouldn't put them on, so I made her just wear pants without a diaper.  She hated that and quickly resorted to wearing her panties.  Anyway, I think she was finally ready.  I gave her a few big rewards in the beginning and then worked down to a chocolate coin every time she went.  Now she doesn't need anything and she is even beginning to tell me when she needs to go.  She still has an accident every now and then, but she is doing so good--we made it through a mall shopping trip without one. What a big accomplishment.  We are so proud of her, and she is pretty proud too.  I love to watch her jump up and down after she goes.  She now says "I am a Big, Big girl!"  We love you Soph. 

Christmas

I felt like we took so many great pictures this Christmas and made so many great memories that I wanted to display them in a fun way.  So here are a few scrapbook pages showing some more of our holiday. 

Merry Christmas

Christmas came and went again this year. What a fun, busy day. My kids must have been really good this year, because Santa visited and brought just about everything that they wanted. It was a special Christmas for me because it was really the first year that Sophie understood what was going on. It was magical to watch my children enjoy this amazing day.


It was an all boy Christmas for Collin.  He received trucks of all kids, cars, and his most favorite a basketball hoop.  He has quite the skills.  I just love this picture of him dunking the ball.


Sophie had one Christmas wish and that was for a pair of slippers.  Well Santa listened and she received.  She also got a bunch of princess dress-up stuff, games, and her favorite a kid tough digital camera.  She is quite the photographer.  She walks around our house snapping photos right and left.  


Logan and I enjoyed spending the day with our children and our families.  I feel lucky to have Logan home for the holiday and enjoyed every minute we could spend together.  


We hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas as well.  Merry Christmas!

Family Nativity

This year for Christmas Eve we were at Logan's parents house. It was a nice night visiting with family and eating yummy food.


Logan's sister arranged for the all of the kids in the family to put on a Nativity.  It was so fun and cute.  The kids did such a good job and played their parts so well.  Sophie and Collin chose not to participate.  Sophie wanted to be a princess (maybe we haven't taught her the Nativity story so well), and Collin was tired and wanted nothing to do with his costume.  


This is Clarissa our Nativity angel.  Isn't she cute?


After the Nativity we talked about some of the symbols of Christmas.  Each child got to pull a symbol out of Santa's sack.  Sophie pulled out a star.  This is her showing all of her cousins the symbol.


Collin spent most of the evening eating food (or should I say sweets).  He is always hungry and loves food, but he has a real love for candy.

Christmas Party

Well, it is that time of year again.  A time for family, friends, food, presents, parties, and fun.  We had our yearly Christmas Party at my parents house today.  It was a lot of fun for everyone.  Sophie especially had a blast playing with her cousins that she doesn't get to see that often.  They are quite a bit older than her, but I think to her that makes it all the better.  There wasn't a dull moment for her.  It is always so fun to get together with family.  This year we were able to have everyone at home, so that made it even better.


My mom always has the kids put on a little performance.  It started when I was little, I would play Christmas music on my violin and then we would all sing Christmas carols together.  Well, I don't play the violin for everyone anymore (in fact I wouldn't even say I could play), but the performance has evolved.  Now the Grandkids sing songs that they have learned, and we still all sing carols as a family.  Sophie was so quick to jump up in front of the group.  She suggested the first song--"Once There Was a Snowman."  She was so stinking cute.  She sang every word and did every action.  I was so proud.


Another hit among the kids was "Jingle Bells."  My mom has a bunch of jingle bells that the kids shake while they sing their hearts out.  Sophie was having a blast!


This year my brother Dennis played the guitar and had some of the grandkids sing to it.  It was fun to hear his musical talent.  The girls did a good job singing too.  Maybe he will play every year!


The family is always grateful that my Grandpa is able to make it each year. We love having him there to enjoy the holiday with us.

Through The Eyes of a Child

Tonight we had a big snow storm that started off with some pretty intense hail.  Sophie was looking out the window and yelled at me "Mommy, that popcorn is making a big mess!"  She then continued to yell at the window, "Stop popcorn, stop!"  To her the hail looked just like popcorn.

Later on we were driving home from my parents house and the snow/slush was spaying up from beneath the tires of the car and Sophie said, "Mommy we need a sled."

I just love seeing and experiencing things through the eyes of a child.

Beautiful People. Beautiful Art?

I remember my friend Jacob the art student lamenting to me about his fellow artists.  He'd get so frustrated with illustration artists who would draw a sappy picture of a model looking girl. He'd say that just because the subject is a beautiful person that doesn't make it beautiful art.

I also think about a commentator I heard on the radio who was talking about the end of experts.  He was demonizing the internet as a source of free information that makes everyone feel they can be an expert overnight if they just do the right Google searches or check Wikipedia.  His claim was that it was destroying the lively hood of the real experts out there who truly studied and learned their craft.

Well, I know I'm not likely to create an artistic masterpiece or be an expert photographer, but I really like some of the pictures we have taken of these little guys.  I guess that's the wonder of digital cameras.  You can take hundreds of photos and never run out of film.  If you give someone enough tries, even the worst athlete could sink a basketball shot that a pro wouldn't even consider trying in a game.  When I get complemented on my landings at work sometimes I like to reply by saying "Well if you bowl enough frames you're bound to get a few strikes. Right?"

E-I-E-I-O

Collin loves to sing.  His favorite songs are "Old McDonald" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."  He is so fun to watch and listen to. I thought I would post a video clip of his talent for all of you to see.  He usually sings more than this, perhaps he is a little camera shy!  He is so cute--I love him to death!

Winter Show

We had a big milestone in our house this week.  We were able to attend Sophie's first ever public performance.  It was so much fun.  Her gymnastics put on a "Winter Show."  She was so dang stinkin' cute.  I was filled with so much pride.  I sort of got teary--I was so proud of her.  She did such a good job and wasn't the least bit intimated by all of the people that filled the building, she just went right out there and did her best.  I will never forget her standing with her arms up in the air shouting "Ta Da Ta Da!"  Well lets hope I don't, because I of course forgot my camera, so you will just have to use your imagination and visualize how dang cute she was!

A little Spice in Our Life

Lately Sophie has been kind of a "spicy" girl.  She has a shirt that says "More Spice than Sugar"--this perfectly describes our dear little girl.  She is going through this phase where she is grumpy about everything that we do.  We took her sledding yesterday--no fun at all!  We went to Temple Square--wanted to go home!  A play date at a friends house--not what she had in mind!  She is such a silly girl.  I can't quite figure her out.  I love her to death, "spicy" and all! This picture was taken earlier in the year, but I thought it was a perfect depiction of her "spicy" side!:)

Temple Square

One thing that I love about Utah in the winter months, is the lights at Temple Square.  They are so beautiful.  Logan and I decided to bundle the kids up for family night yesterday and visit the lights.  It is so fun to walk around in the crisp, cold air while you experience the beautiful scenery.  It is neat to see the kids get excited about the Nativity scene and the baby Jesus. Sophie really enjoyed the muti-cultural Nativity scenes, and Collin liked pointing out Jesus in the pictures in the Visitors Center.  It was a lot of fun and a good time spent as a family--I just can't seem to get enough of these people that I love like crazy! 

 I wanted to get a picture of the family in front of the lights, but once we were there I had second thoughts.  Too cold, and too much work to get the kids out of the stroller to pose for a picture where neither child would be looking at the camera!  So, I have to settle for this picture that I got off of Wikipedia.  But, it captures the Temple better than I could have I am sure.

Elf Yourself

Our good friends the McReavy's e-mailed us this.  It is always fun to see our girls together:)!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9604286469

Enchanted--not so enchanting!

The rain has been pouring down all day today.  It is cold and wet outside.  It seemed like the perfect day for a movie.  So I loaded up the kids and off we went--to the kids first ever movie in a theater.  Was I crazy?  Sophie was excited and couldn't wait to watch the big screen or the "big TV" as she called it.  I chose the movie.  I wanted to see a kids movie, but also one that I thought I was going to enjoy as well.  I had heard that Enchanted was really good and Sophie's cousin that is 4 really liked it.  So that was the one.  We got to the theater and got our seats.  The kids were ready.  We made it through the previews and some portion of the animated part of the film.  Then I heard the binky drop--I tried not to panic:)  Collin was being really good, but was getting upset that he had lost his binky.  So I pulled out the fruit snacks.  While all this was going on, the movie had gone from being animated to real life.  I looked up just in time to see Sophie turn to me, burst out crying, and say, "I want to go home."  Ohh!  I felt so bad.  How could she have liked this less.  I quickly tried to calm her down as we grabbed our coats and things and tried to make it out of the theater without being too much of a disturbance to others watching the movie.  I think that I made a poor movie choice.  Sophie is scared easily, and I think that it was just a little too much for her--she couldn't bare to see a princess go through so much!  So to Sophie Enchanted was not all too enchanting!  We'll try again another time with a different movie, if I can ever get her to go back:) 

Playing in the Snow

Sophie has been asking to make a snowman for days now, and so today I thought, "Why not?" So we got bundled up and went out together.  The snow was perfect for making a snowman. Sophie thought it was fun rolling the giant balls and made sure we had every part of the snowman (eyes, nose, mouth, buttons, and a hat).  We didn't have the usual snowman parts, so we had to improvise but it still looks cute.  



Collin loved the snow as long as it was on the sidewalk.  I think he felt a little unsteady in such deep snow, or maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was wearing boots that were 2 sizes too big!  Along with making snowmen, Sophie discovered how fun it is to make snow angels.  She ran around the yard making angel after angel.  What a great time of year.  The kids also discovered the joy of eating snow.  When it was time to come in Sophie wouldn't leave her snow treat outside, so we put it in a bowl and she ate it inside! HaHa!

'Tis the Season

What a great time of year it is!  We finally have snow on the ground, which I don't love too much, but it wouldn't be Christmas without the snow.  It really is beautiful though.  Sophie thinks it is wonderful!  She is so impressed by it and loves to see all of the tracks that have been made in it.  She also loves to play in it.  She came in from shoveling with her daddy the other day and said "Mommy, I need some hot cocoa!"  I felt so bad that we didn't have any, but she settled for chocolate milk, and said that "it made it all better!"  She is so stinking cute!:)  


Along with the snow, we have the lights, the tree, the decorations, and the music all making it such a fun time of year.  At our house we have one of those Hallmark signature holiday animals--ours is a snowman, that plays music--that of course brings the party to life (or so they want you to think from the commercials).   Anyway the kids love it.  They fight over who gets to turn it on, and then they both dance up a storm until it stops--and then they do it all over again.    Sophie really enjoyed herself when we decorated the house.  She loved playing with the nativity and putting the "Sophie" pictures on the tree.  Collin is loving the decorations as well, however is has no idea what they are about.  I just love sharing this magical time with my little ones.