Peace. Love. Joy.

I just love this time of year! Being able to see my kids get so excited and have so much fun is truly amazing. It doesn't get much better than that. Rylee was so excited this year and could not wait for Christmas to come. Every morning she woke up in December she would run to eat her chocolate out of her countdown calendar and then find where "Buddy the Elf" had landed that morning. Then she would run in to wake me up and tell me where she had found Buddy. She is so cute!
She was able to go see Santa three times this year. First, in Richfield, two days after Thanksgiving. The second time was at Brett's family party, and the third time was at my family party. Dax actually did great in Richfield, but at both family parties he cried when he was put on santa's lap. I think a lot of it was to do with all the noise and all the people there. He is pretty shy. Rylee, of course, was a big girl everytime and got right up there and told him that she wanted a button-eyed teddy bear and a new bike.

On Christmas Eve we always open up one present, which is always pajamas. The kids got matching Christmas Madagascar pajamas. Rylee loved hers....and Dax just loved helping her tear all the paper off. Brett and I also got presents with pajamas in. Rylee thought it was pretty neat that we all got new jammies to wear to bed that night. Dax was in bed by 7:30pm, and Rylee by 9pm, but she did have a tough time falling asleep at first.

Dax actually woke me up at 7:20am Christmas morning, so I fed him and we just hung out in the room until Rylee came to wake us, which was about 7:30am. Poor Dax is sick. He has a bad cold and cough. Poor thing! Rylee was so excited and wanted to run right out there. I kept telling her to wait so I could go in first and record her coming in. She was so happy to see that Santa brought her both a teddy bear with button eyes and new bike. Dax got a little ride on truck that plays nursery rhymes. I was actually surprised that she took the time to see what was in her stocking before running for all those presents. After looking in her stocking, she started opening presents like crazy and handing everyone the ones that had their names on.
It was so cute because everytime she opened a present she would say, "just what I always wanted!" or "I have always wanted one of these!"...and always a "thanks mom and dad." What a sweet little girl. Dax had took the nerd rope from Rylee's stocking and carried it around all morning, it was so cute.
The morning was great! Both kids loved their toys and gifts and were having so much fun with everything. And you could tell by the mess around the entire house.

After all the present opening and cleaning up, we all showered and got ready and I started the ham for dinner. We invited Brett's parents, Rick & Judi, over for dinner. They came around 3pm to see everything the kids had got for Christmas and just hung out. Cooked dinner, had some wine, played with toys, watched some t.v., and then ate a delicious ham dinner. Of course Rylee's favorite part was the mashed potatoes and gravy. I think that is about all I got her to eat. Afterwards, we all had some pie, it was delicious.
Later that night Andrea, Kris, Dylan, Trinity & Teyara all came over and brought some games. The kids watched movies, played with toys, and played Jr. Yahtzee while us adults and Dylan played regular Yahtzee. It was a good time. What better way to spend Christmas than with family. It was great!
We look forward to another great year with Family and Friends.....

I truly feel blessed to have such a great family; a great husband, two beautiful and sweet kids that I love so very much! Without them in my lives it would not be the same. They mean the world to me and I am so happy that we are able to be toghether during such a memorable time of the year. I am so thankful that we are able to provide our kids with such a great Christmas....I am very blessed to have such great family and friends and I wouldn't have it any other way!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Dax is 9 months old....

I truly cannot believe my baby is already 9 months old. It sounds so old to me to even say it. When people ask how old he is I have to count two or three times cause it just doesn't seem right to say 9 months! He is growing up way too fast. I took him in to get the 2nd part of his regular flu shot, finally. They were out for a very long time so it took a wile to get him in. While I was there I had the nurse weigh him and measure his height.

Age: 9 months

Weight: 18 lbs 9 oz.

Height: 29.5 inches

He is such a little sweetheart. He has two bottom teeth and his 3rd tooth is barely poking through (its a top tooth). He can crawl just as fast as I can walk around the house. He is right there under my feet at all times, chasing me from room to room. He loves digging through his bin of toys or crawling to the bathroom to get in the bin of bath toys. Anytime I forget to close the closet door where the shelf of food is, he takes my cans out and rolls them around. The other day he had found the box of spaghetti noodles and dumped them everywhere. He stands up to everything and anything he can take ahold of. He even stands up to his push toy and tries to walk with it, but it starts moving too fast and so he hurries and sits down. He walks along furniture all the time and what use to be out of reach no longer is. That is a hard one for Rylee to remember. She is so use to just putting things that she don't want him to have on the couch, but now he can reach them.

He tried ice cream for the first time....I broke off a tiny piece of my peppermint ice cream sandwich and he loved it!

He is my little vacuum cleaner, so I have to watch him like a hawk or at least make sure there is absolutely nothing small enough to choke on because it will go in his mouth. When Rylee was little she would pick things up and hand them to me...nothing ever went in her mouth. With Dax its a completely different story. The second he spots something, his mission is to get it and put it right into his mouth. He has choked on numerous things from caprisun straw wrappers to corners off fruit snack packages to pieces of paper, just anything that boy can find. It scares me everytime! And its hard because I constantly watch for things, but with a 4 year old around the house, little things like that are getting dropped left and right.

He is already starting to LOVE his daddy. I just hope he is not becoming a daddy' boy...I swore he was to be a momma's boy. The second Brett comes in the door from being at work, he gets so excited and crawls right for him. He absolutely adores his big sister and loves playing with her. Now that he can get around its so cute cause he will follow her around the house. Today she was hiding in her room from him and she would make little squeek noises. He started crawling for the living room thinking he could hear her in there and then she squeeked again and he paused and then headed for her room. It is just so cute. Or she will be pushing around his toy and she follows her and chases her around the house. He laughs at everything she does. I love it!!!

Bathtime is definitely a favorite! The second he hears that water running he is ready to dive in. He sits in there and plays with the toys, crawls around the tub splashing. He cannot get enough of it.

I have had a hard time getting him to eat baby food in the jar lately so I have tried to think of everything and anything I can feed him because I know at 9 months he shouldn't be strictly on formula. He seems so picky to me and everything I try he acts like he doesn't like it. I finally found something he loves...its Beechnut Oatmeal with mixed fruit. For breakfast I mix it with Gerber juice and for dinner with formula. I still try other foods everyday, but he is not loving it like this oatmeal. I am just glad to find something he will gladly eat.

One of his dislikes are hats...I cannot get this boy to wear a beanie or anything. Which makes it hard when we live where the weather is extremely cold. I can get him to wear a jacket with the hood on, but nothing pulled over his head like a beanie or hat. Its impossible because the second I start to pull it on his head he is trying to pull it off, even before I have let go of it. It drives me crazy! I had bought santa hats for both kids to wear for a picture, but that was not happening.

He is so much fun! Every single day he is such a joy to us and we cannot imagine life without his sweet and loving personality. He loves to talk and make noise...its so cute to watch him learn and discover new things each day. We Love You Dax....Happy 9 month Birthday!

Another BIG day....Brett turned 30 years old. For his birthday we did cake and ice cream on Friday night, which was the day before his birthday, then Saturday the two of us went to Mesquite. His awesome parents had offered t take the kids a night so we could get away for a night to have fun. We had such a great time just gambling, having dinner, hanging out....it was so nice! We got up Sunday and had breakfast then headed towards home. On the way we stopped in St. George to see our friends Aldo and Jessica. They just had a new baby, Audrina. She is such a little doll. In the short time we were there I took some pictures of cute little Audrina. It was so good to see them all. Jessica looks great...you would never know she had just had a baby 1.5 weeks prior. Then we headed home. It turned out to be a great weekend! Brett is such an awesome daddy and husband. He deserved to have a great time! I LOVE you so much babe....happy 30th birthday! Remember: We are only as old as we feel and I know you don't feel a day over 25!

Rylee helped blow out the candles!

Sugar Overload!

I guess that is what this time of year is all about! Today Rylee and I made homemade sugar cookies. I used to always buy slice and bake sugar cookies since the funnest part for Rylee was simply sprinkling the cookies with red and green sparkles. But this year we went all out! Making the dough, rolling the dough, cutting out cute christmas shapes, baking the cookies, frosting and decorating them and then delivering them to family. We had a blast....and in the end a very messy kitchen. But it was all worth it to see that cute smile on Rylee's face. I love thinking of things we can do together that she will have fun and always remember. It was really cute because she kept asking me if my mom let me make cookies when I was a little girl too.

Here is how our cookie making day went:

Rolling the dough....she did so good!

Cutting the dough into cute shapes with our christmas cookie cutters!

Being very carefull not to tear the shapes.

Look at that face concentrate...what a good little ccokie decorator!

Lots and lots of sprinkles...

The complete project!

Now if that is not the cutest smile ever!!!

A Pajama Thanksgiving...

This year we spent Thanksgiving day with Brett's sister Lennette and her family. Since it was only going to be our two families getting together, we decided we might as well be cozy, warm, and comfortable while stuffing our bellies as full as they would go. So we decided it would be fun to have a "pajama Thanksgiving". We had a lot of fun. The kids were warm and comfortable and we could all just lounge afterwards and hang out. Rylee is always so excited to see Savanah & Cruz. She just adores Savanah so much and loves having Cruz chase them around and tease them. This was Dax's 1st Thanksgiving! I let him try some mashed potatoes, yams, and even a little taste of chocolate cream pie. He loved it all. That was actually the first food he had tasted besides baby food.

Dax helping Aunt Lenny & Cruz find the best deals for "black friday".

After we all stuffed our bellies, Lennette offered to watch the kids while we catch a movie. So we went and watched Twilight: New Moon while Rylee and Dax stayed with Aunt Lenny, Uncle Sam, Cruz & Savanah and played. It was such a nice break for Brett and I since we rarely ever get a chance to do those kinds of things.

Afterwards, we just hung out, played, and watched Four Christmases. The next morning I opted out of any and all black friday shopping madness, which was nice for a change. Around noon we packed up and headed home.

On Saturday we took the kids to see Santa in Richfield. It actually was not planned. We went over to do some shopping and saw Santa. Of course Rylee was way excited to see him and wanted to go sit on his lap. Even Dax sat on his lap without crying. I should have taken a picture with both of them together, but didn't.

It was nice having Brett home for a 4 day weekend. We went for a ride in the mountains on Sunday. Brett and Rylee got out a few times and played in the snow while Dax and I watched from the warm truck. Rylee loves playing in the snow. There was one incident where Rylee was running down a hill and the snow was so deep she took a face dive right into the freezing snow. She was a little upset after that....but it only lasted 5 minutes and she was ready for more ice cold snow.

We had to get a quick one with Dax in it...

But here is where Dax and I spent the rest of the time....

And afterwards, everyone was exhausted. Brett and Rylee layed in front of the heater to thaw themselves out, and they zonked. Dax must have also been exhausted cause he fell fast asleep in his swing-thank goodness for buckles!