Our Merry Christmas...

(Sorry this is a long post!)We had a great Christmas this year and what made it great was that we were able to spend it with both sides of our families. My parents came up here and we had lots of fun together. We went to TeMpLe SquARe to see the beautiful lights and nativity.

(top: view of the temple from Joseph Smith building, bottom: Jason, Noah, my Mom and Dad in the visitors center)

The next day we went ice skating at Seven Peaks and had a great time. Noah even got in on the action with his own skates. It was so stinkin' cute!

On Christmas Eve we went to my sisters house to watch a great movie about The Savior and have a yummy dinner. Then Tatum and Noah opened their Christmas jammies. They looked so cute!

On Christmas Day, Jason's parents came to our place to watch Noah get his Santa gifts. We got a few pictures of the loot:

Here's Grandpa Dean helping Noah open his nerf guns. They were his favorite gift. He also really loves his cowboy guns.

My parents gave Noah this cute little art easle and supplies that he got to help Daddy put together with his new tools.

Jason got me Rock Band for the Wii and we have had so much fun with it!

We hope all of you had a great Christmas too. Next year we'll have a new baby boy to join in on the festivities!

Merry Christmas!

We hope that all of you have a very Merry Christmas with your families and loved ones.

4 Wonderful Years

Jason and I were married 4 years ago today, December 18, 2004. This was our engagement photo:

Our wonderful wedding day. We were so lucky to have gotten married on such a clear day in December. My Grandfather got to seal us for time and all eternity in the Logan, Utah temple.

Here we are 4 years later on the beach at Malibu, 1 and a 1/2 kids later and still going strong. I can't wait to spend forever with you Jason, you are the best husband and father that anyone could ask for. Happy Anniversary babe, I love you!

Santa's New Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The tree is up!

We got our Christmas tree on Saturday. It is so beautiful but cost and arm and a leg. I'm thinking about going fake next year. Anyway, here are some of the pics:

Noah is such a big "helper". I actually gave him a knife so that he could "help" Daddy.

Then he helped me decorate the tree. Here is a close up of his decorating skills.

Here is the finished tree (the darn camera doesn't do it justice). I just love it and sit on the couch just staring at my beautiful tree. It will be so sad when it dies but it just makes it feel so Christmasy in our little house.

On a side note, Jason took me to the Messiah sing along in American Fork on Friday night. It is my favorite thing to do this time of year so he got HUGE husband points for that. You just can't listen to the music and not feel the spirit or at least tap your foot to the beat. After we sang the Hallelujah chorus, (which Jason participated in!) I just wanted more. It was a great night!

Our California Thanksgiving

We got to go to my parents house for Thanksgiving and had a great time there. Noah and cousin Tatum had so much fun playing together. Here they are in Aunt Eryn's room "playing" video games.

(not the best picture but they were so cute I had to post it)

We took the kids to the L.A. zoo and got to see Santa's reindeer. They weren't very active, but they were so cute!

Noah fell asleep shortly after arriving so I took some pictures of some of the animals. He woke up just on time to see the gorillas.

We got to go to old town Pasadena to do a little shopping and as we were finishing up there were Christmas carolers singing for everyone and Santa Clause was there for the kids to see. The Christmas tree in the backround was amazing, you could barely see the tree because of all the ornaments. It really added to the Christmas spirit and was such a nice treat.

The voters win!

Most of you guessed correctly .... our new baby is a BOY! When the ultrasound tech told us the news I thought I was ready to hear it but Jason and I were convinced that this baby was going to be a girl. Mainly because my pregnancy has been so different from Noah. It took us a few days to get used to the idea of having 2 little boys but now I am pretty happy about it. The ultrasound is looking up at the baby as if he were sitting down. You can see his cute little bum cheeks. We are now 16 weeks along and today I put my hand on my belly and could feel the baby kick. That was pretty cool! I felt little flutters though since week 14. We are so excited but I don't know if I am ready for another rambunctious little boy. Ready or not.... here he comes! Now we just have to pick a name.

Numero Dos

Baby number 2 is on it's way! We are 14 1/2 weeks along and due May 17. We just had the first ultrasound and everything looks good. The picture is not that clear but there is definitely a baby in there.

We were also able to tell what gender the baby is...but I want to tell my family first in person over Thanksgiving. So let's see if you can guess by taking the quiz on the side.

We are way excited to welcome a new little baby into our family. Noah and I both have May birthdays and so will this little one. At the ultrasound, Noah was there and he kept pointing at the screen saying there's my baby! I don't think he really understands yet but, he will make a great big brother!

We love pancakes!

Our new ward doesn't start until 12:30 (unfortunately), so it gives us time in the morning to make a hot breakfast. I asked Noah this morning if he wanted pancakes and immediately he started jumping up and down saying, "yes pancakes yummy!" and then he started doing a pancake dance (shaking his booty). I wish I could have gotten that on camera, this boy loves pancakes!

Here is a great pancake recipe by Alton brown that you can use and store dry then add the wet stuff when you are ready.

Instant Pancake Mix:

6 Cups All purpose Flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3 tsp. baking powder

1 Tbsp. kosher salt

2 Tbsp. Sugar

Wet stuff (use 2 cups dry mix):

2 egss, seperated

2 Cups buttermilk

4 tbsp. melted butter

Directions:

-for the mix:

Combine all of the ingredients for the mix and store in an airtight container. Shake well to mix.

-for the pancakes:

whisk together the egg whites and buttermilk in a small bowl. In another bowl whisk the egg yolks and the melter butter together. Combine the buttermilk mixture with the egg yolk mixture until well combined. Pour into 2 cups of the pancake mix. Whisk together until just combined. Cook on a hot griddle.

The Big Move...

So, we moved again. Moving is never fun but Jason seems to make the best of it by playing tetris with our stuff in the back of his truck. He is such an engineer! Look how packed he got the back of the truck. I was very impressed.

Noah is always a big helper. He helped me pack the boxes with random things from around the house... including himself.

Here we are in our new place making the first meal. Noah is cracking the salt shaker for the pasta water. I just love that he likes to help me cook.The first snow at our new place. By the time we got outside, the sun had melted a lot of the snow but we managed to make a little snowman. This was the result of Noah kicking it over 3 times. At least he had fun, in fact I had a really hard time getting the boy back in the house!

trick-or-treat!

I am a little behind in my blogging but had to post about Halloween. That is the day we moved but we managed to get a little trick-or-treating in. Noah was a cute little monkey and I was a witch. Noah loved knocking on doors and getting free candy. We had a good time! Everytime we would come to a new house I would tell Noah to say "trick-or-treat" when they open the door. Then, he would say it right away and when they opened the door, he would just go for the candy and say nothing. Maybe next year he'll have it down.

Here he is at our new place counting his loot. We didn't get a lot because he got tired of walking and I got tired of holding him. Grandma Melanie and Aunt Amanda got Noey the lightning McQueen candy bucket. Of course that was a huge hit with him!

Picture Preview

My Sister-in-law, Amanda took some pictures of Noah on Saturday at the home of a friend of hers. They turned out amazing and I can't wait to get my hands on them. At the house they had all of this antique stuff like old tractors and motorcycles and old signs. It made the perfect backdrop for great pictures. Here is a link to Amanda's photography site: Mendenhall Photography

I just wish Noah would look at the camera more so we can see his cute face. He's just too busy checking everything out to look at the camera!

yummy cupcake

So, I left Noah sitting on the counter for literally less than 30 seconds to go grab his sippy cup. When I got back this is what I found:

I left him sitting there to help me make lunch. He loves to help mommy and watch me cook. Well he happened to be sitting next to a chocolate cupcake. That is just too irresistible to not eat. Thankfully it was unfrosted! And, he still ate his lunch!

Tagged!

I don't normally like to post these tags on my blog but, it has been a long while so here we go...

8 things:
8 t.v. shows I watch:

1. The Office
2. Jon & Kate plus 8
3. Unwrapped
4. Grey's Anatomy
5. House Hunters
6. Dora the Explorer (thanks Noah)
7. Take Home Chef
8. America's Funniest Home Videos

8 things that happened yesterday:

1. Started packing for the move (yes were moving again)
2. Did laundry
3. Played indoor soccer with Noah
4. Noah took his poopy diaper off all by himself (not pretty)
5. Made yummy balsamic chicken that no one got to eat but me.
6. Got some books for Noey at the library (his are all packed)
7. Ate 5 chocolate chip cookies (oops)
8. Had a weird dream that Jason wanted a 2nd wife.

8 Favorite places to eat:

1. Macaroni Grill
2. Taco Bell
3. Olive Garden
4. Mimi's Cafe
5. Bombay House
6. Tucano's
7. Los Hermanos
8. ColdStone

8 Things i'm looking forward to:

1. Taking Noah trick-or-treating
2. Saturday night when Jason will be done with the FE (HUGE test)
3. Being in our own home so we don't have to move so often
4. Having a sibling for Noah to play with
5. Christmas in the snow
6. Jason graduating (in May!)
7. Spring
8. Getting Noah potty trained!

8 Things on my wish list:

1. Go to Italy just me and Jason
2. A beach in Utah
3. Run a marathon
4. Have happy, healthy, and productive children
5. My family to move to Utah
6. A beautiful home with a beautiful yard
7. To see my Grandmothers again
8. Take my Mom and Grandpa to Cuba to see where they used to live

Now I tag Elyse and Lori and anyone who has the desire...

St. George

We got to go to St. George this last weekend. My Dad was playing in the Huntsman World Senior Olympics there in basketball so we got to go down there and spend some time with him. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see him play basketball, we were still able to have a fun time. My Mom and youngest sister were not able to come so my dad decided to take Elyse (my sister) and I out to Tai Pan. That is something that my mom would have taken us to do so it was a nice treat!

The boys got to go golfing at the course right by my parents condo so we caught up with them on the last couple of holes for pictures.

Here is Jason putting and my Dad.

Here is Grandpa Lynn (my Dad) after a great drive.

Elyse, Tatum and Eric. Tatum's behind the wheel!

Here is our little family. Noah is a natural golfer already. He can hit the ball with the club like 10 feet. I think we will have to get him a set of mini clubs for Christmas. Notice how we are all wearing shorts and summer clothes? It was a nice 80 degrees or hotter the whole time!

So, just because we were on vacation do you think Noah's terrible two's took a break?...Yeah right! He and Tatum decided to tag team and Grandpa found them on Elyse and Eric's bed with baby powder all over them! They did smell really good though.

It was a fun trip and a much needed break from our everyday routines. We were able to go to Nielsen's frozen custard of course and the kids got to go swimming, I got to go shopping, and the guys got to go golfing. I would say it was a pretty successful trip!

BeeBee's

So I have been asking myself what can Noah possibly do next after living through VapoRub, Black Frosting, Soap-Paste, and Lotion? Well, he never ceases to amaze me!

Yesterday, Noah got his little chair and climbed up to reach the stuff on top of Daddy's dresser. Usually Jason has a couple pieces of candy up there. This time, Noah didn't find candy, but he found Jason's air soft gun BB's safely kept in a little twist-off cap container. Well he was able to open it and he decided to stuff 4 BB's up his left nostril... why? Well, I was able to get 3 out by having him blow out through his nose but the 4th one was way up there and I couldn't get it out! So, slightly freaked out, I called Jason at work and he asked all of his engineer buddies what to do to get a little BB out of our child's nose. They had some pretty good suggestions like, using a nose plunger or trying to make him sneeze. Well Noah kept breathing out through his nostrils and finally the 4th BB came out. I am so happy we didn't have to make an emegency room visit!

Soap-Paste

This morning I was brushing my teeth and Noah walks in and decides he wants to brush his teeth too (again). He is a very independent litttle boy, so he goes to his bathroom and gets his toothbrush down. He couldn't reach the toothpaste so the next best thing was handsoap. That is when I walked in to find him about to brush his teeth with SoAp! I stopped him and cleaned off his toothbrush but I should have let him try it. It would have been so funny! And, he would have learned that soap is not a good substitute for toothpaste.

My sweet boy

While making dinner the other night I needed to get some spices from the cupboard that I couldn't reach. So, I got a chair and climbed up on the counter to reach the spices. Well Noah saw me do this and he says, "be careful mommy". He was genuinely concerned that I not fall. He is just so sweet sometimes.
Then today I was holding Noah and attacking him with kisses and I told him that I love him and then he says, "I love you mommy". That just melted my heart! There is nothing better that a mommy can hear from her baby. I love you little boy, we are so blessed to have you in our family!

A Snake!

Noah and I were outside the front door today sweeping the path and as we walked back in, Noah said there was a snake. Well... here is a picture of it:

It's an earthworm, but he thought it was a snake. He's so funny!

Frosting

The terrible two's continue! You would think that after the lotion incident, I would learn my lesson and never leave Noah alone. If I did that then my life would be totally normal and boring. Thank goodness for a curious llittle boy.

So, while I was in the kitchen putting up the Halloween decorations, Noah got into my cake decorating droor and found a tube of BlAcK frosting. Of course he had to choose the black tube, not the yellow one! He then proceeded to the living room (with light colored carpet) and untwisted the cap and started rubbing it into the carpet! Are you kidding me?! What a little stinker!

Here he is in the tub...

Noah was very lucky because black frosting does come out of the carpet. I scrubbed and scrubbed it but now you can't even tell it was there. Hallelujah! He also got some on the ottoman, here he is trying to clean it. He did that without me even asking him!