It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year....

The finished product!
All of our stockings, except Paxton's. His should be arriving in the mail anytime! I got mine and Mike's from Things Remembered when we were first married. That is where I have continued to get the others. They are decorated a little different each year.
I was looking for this little door hanger tonight to put on the front door. Lyric had taken it and put it on her bedroom door :) I also decorated a tiny fake tree and put it in her room.

So, we ended up decorating tonight. It always makes me wish I could leave the decorations up year round! I just love everything about it. It reminds me of my childhood. My mom did the best job of making the Christmas Season so magical. Every year, I want to capture that same exact feeling I had growing up. I think it is something I will be able to relive through my children.

Lyric had such a fun time decorating. Mike absolutely loves doing the tree, this is our sixth Christmas together and I just learned this about him. So, I was more than happy to let him do it with Lyric. He has more patience than me, in that particular area. He is so good at making it really fun for her and having her help him a lot.

I pulled out her little Manger scene my mom got all of the grand kids, and had Mike explain the story and who everyone was. She got really into it. After her bath, her towel was draping over her head, and she said, "Look mom, I'm Jesus." I though that was too cute!

Christmas is Coming.....

On Saturday, we decided to get our Christmas tree. Initially, I was worried we were getting it too soon and that it would die before Christmas, but I didn't want to wait! Lyric was also very excited once we told her. Last Christmas, I was pregnant and feeling really yucky, so Ryan and Mike got our tree. I was excited for us to go as a family.
When we lived in Utah, we got our tree at Costco. It was beautiful and very well priced. So, we went to the Costco near us, but they only sell fake ones! We found a place that sold "fresh cut" trees. It was hard to pick one because they all started looking the same! I still get a little shocked to see how much they cost! The one I really wanted was double the price of the one we ended up getting! Once we got our tree home and put it up, I really liked how it looked. I love how it makes the house smell! We are going to decorate it tonight.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños!

Today is Lexi's 4th Birthday! Happy Birthday Ms. Lexi :)

Flashback Friday

December 2004

July 2007

I just love doing comparison pictures. These are both taken at the hospital before Lyric and Paxton were born. I think my tummy looks just a little bigger with Paxton! It is amazing the flood of memories and emotions that come back by looking at these pictures. I look at Lyric and Paxton, and wonder how it is possible that they grew inside of me for nine months! Simply amazing!

Why Do I Do This To Myself?

So, tonight I was craving fresh, chocolate chip cookies. I try not to make them because I literally eat all except the one or two Mike will eat. I was trying to think of ways to justify making them. So, I decided to make the dough but only cook a sheet full. I wrapped up the rest, and put it in the fridge. I figure my mom could use a nice, fresh plateful tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lyric helping Grandma with the mashed potatoes

Mike doing a little pre-Thanksgiving dinner workout
Ryan doing a little pre-Thanksgiving dinner video game playing
Kristy, patiently waiting for the food to finally be ready!Paxton watching football with Daddy
My dad cutting the turkey
Lyric and Grandma watching the food cook oh so slowly!
Lyric and Paxton with their turkey bones
Paxton tried a little lick!

Today we had Thanksgiving at my mom and dad's. We were short seven family members, but it was still fun. Lots of hard work went into the preparation from my mom and dad. Of all days of the whole year, the oven decided to start acting up! It literally would not go above 260 degrees. It made for a very interesting time of trying to get things cooked thoroughly and in a timely manner! Thank goodness the turkey had a head start before the oven started acting up! My mom bought these rolls that she had on the counter rising all day. We put them in the oven and decided to see if the broiler would help speed up the process a little. Well, next thing we knew, the tops of them were black and the bottoms were doughy! We then put in the yams, and after thirty minutes they looked the same as when we put them in! I had Ryan run to my house and grab my little convection oven. We cooked the yams in that.

Everything turned out very good. My mom had her traditional stuffing that is to die for. I have never tasted stuffing that good in my life! It is a meal in and of itself. After dinner, we had a variety of pies. Paxton tried a smidgen of sweet potatoes for the first time. He was not entirely thrilled! He didn't think too much of them. The day turned out pretty relaxing and casual. Now we have yummy leftovers. Thanksgiving is one of the few meals that I will eat leftovers of!

The Magical Kingdom

Lyric's little bed on the floor!

Mike and Paxton watching TV.

By about 7am, he was so exhausted!

On the tram to Disneyland.

Cheese!
Waiting for Peter Pan.
Lyric on the Carousal.
Mike and Lyric on DumboYummy fingers!

Lyric got to meet and take pictures with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Pocahontas. She doesn't look very excited, but she was just a little shy. In reality, I think she was in amazement that she was actually meeting the Princesses!
Lyric only slept for twenty minutes the whole day! It was right before the parade.

She wanted a Minnie hat with her name on it. She got it and LOVED it!
On Small World
Small World
Lyric in the car on the way home. I looked back and saw this! She was wiped out. She liked wearing her hat with her name in the front!

Mike has this whole Thanksgiving week off. We knew that we wanted to do something fun. We decided on Disneyland. We went this past February and had a really fun time. We thought it would be good to go one last time while Lyric is still free! So, we left Monday evening and stayed in a hotel. Lyric got to sleep around ten, and we got to sleep around 11:30.

Paxton woke up at 4:30 to eat. I figured he'd eat, go back to sleep, and I'd still have a good two hours of sleep before we had to get ready. Well, he had other plans. He acted as though it was 4:30 in the afternoon and did not want to go back to sleep. As Mike, trying to lighten the mood, said, Paxton was just too excited about Disneyland! That excuse might have worked if he were just a little older than four months! By 5:00, Lyric was awake, I have the lightest sleepers in the world! I had visions flashing before me of the most whiney, fit throwing, meltdown day! At 6:15, after no success, we figured we might as well get ready and go!

As we were getting off of the tram to enter the park, a man came up to us. He asked us if we already had our tickets. We told him no. Long story short, he was an employee scalping his free tickets for money. We ended up getting in for $40 total! That saved us $100! When we went in February, we got in for free. A lady had two tickets that still had a day left on them. We have had pretty good luck in that area!

The day turned out really fun. The weather was beautiful. It was definitely different with two children, especially one of them being a nursing baby. We ended up staying from 10am-10pm. Lyric loved all of the rides she went on. Mike tried taking her on Splash Mountain, but she was about an inch too short! The new Nemo submarine ride was really cool. I felt a little claustrophobic being closed in under water, but I survived! Disneyland was decorated so beautifully for Christmas. It was amazing to see all of the intricate work and detail. I really look forward to the next time we can go again! We got home at 2:30am. We were so beyond tired! I was dozing off in the car, and about every three minutes I was looking over at Mike to make sure he was still awake! He was a trooper. His body can last longer than mine on no sleep!

Makes Me Chuckle

We all know that moms and dads have different roles in their children's lives. That is no exception with Mike and I. There are certain things that I introduce and do with Lyric, and vice versa with Mike.

Well, Mike loves getting Lyric to watch new things, especially things he can enjoy with her. One of their favorite things to watch together is The Princess Bride. For some reason this makes me laugh! It just doesn't seem like the typical movie a 2, almost 3, year old would be into! In my whole 24 years of life, I had not seen any of this movie until Lyric started getting into it. She will ask for it several times a week. I have not yet sat down and watched it all the way through, but putting the bits together that I have seen, I am sure I have seen it all. Samuri Jack and Avatar are two others they enjoy together. Those are both weird cartoons that Mike has all of the seasons on DVD. Good bonding time for them :)

I Took the Recommendation

So, tonight Mike and I took Jamie's recommendation to see this movie. She definitely wasn't hyping it up, it was SOOO good! Typically, by the end of a movie, I am impatiently waiting for it to end! I loved every second of this movie. It touched on every emotion possible. Mike even really liked it! Going into it, he had no idea what the movie was about, so he was not able to make false preconceived notions about it! So, like Jamie said, if you have not seen this yet, do it now!

Enjoying The Weather

The weather around here has been so beautifully ideal! I absolutely love it! We went outside for a little bit today. Lyric loves to swing and is in the process of learning to "pump" her legs. She does it, just not hard enough to have it work! I put Paxton in the baby swing for the first time. He enjoyed so much, he almost fell asleep in it! I know this perfect weather is not going to last long! Fog and rain will be here before we know it. At least it is not snow, as beautiful as it is to look at, I do not like living in it! Mike was sad our first Christmas living here because we did not have a real "White Christmas." I, personally, am perfectly ok with this! Our fog could be considered a form of a white Christmas!

My Grandma

On Saturday, Jamie and I, along with Paxton, took a speedy trip to visit my grandma. It turned out to be such a fun day. It is interesting to see, each time I visit, her older age becoming more apparent. She is still good old grandma, and I love her to death. She was hilarious hamming it up for the camera! Normally, she is quite hard to get a picture of!
We had a fun day of visiting and, of course, eating! I am so glad we took this opportunity to visit her. All of our kids, except for Paxton, stayed home so that we could enjoy the time uninterrupted and not have grandma feel overstimulated! I hope to be able to visit her again soon :)

Tubby Time

Last week, I decided to put Paxton in the tubby with Lyric for the first time. I have this seat that I used with Lyric that I really like for this stage. He absolutely loved it! He was mesmerized with the whole thing. Lyric was so excited to have him in there with her. She wants to take a tubby with him every night. The next time she was in with him, she acted like he was a Christmas tree and stacked and surrounded him with all of her toys. Of course he didn't mind or really even notice!