Christmas House!

This was Stevie's last day of school before Christmas break and his class preformed 3 Christmas songs in their Chirstmas program and then we made a ginger bread a.k.a. gram cracker a.k.a. holiday house together. The founder of this school is Jewish and so it is a holiday house not a Christmas house. So funny. Stevie didn't do much singing in the program but he did sway with the beat and the rest of his class. I got it all on video but between Lilly and the video camera I didn't get any still shots. I promise, when I grow my 3rd arm I will be all over it!

This house was a lot of work to make...Stevie had to taste every piece of candy before applying it to the house...quality control? Lilly just wanted to do anything that Stevie was doing (eating candy) and again I only have 2 hands. But despite by limitations we built this beautiful house. On the way home from school Stevie begged to be able to eat some of it. I told him over and over that we needed to at least save it long enough for Nana and Papa to see it. He grumbled over the decision but what could he do, he was strapped in his car seat. As a side note...c00toes to the maker of the car seat buckle...Stevie can undo the top buckle but not the bottom one...once he is in, I'm in complete control. Wahh-ha-ha-ha!!! (evil laugh) Anyway, we had to make a slight detour to Walmart for diapers and as we were getting in the car after our shopping trip, disaster struck!!! In my defense...it was the 2 hands thing...if only God had made us with 3 hands the house would still be standing!! I dropped my purse onto the front seat to help Stevie into the car, forgetting that I had put the house on the front seat, and absolutely demolished it. Whoops!!

I was so afraid to tell Stevie what I had done. I imagined the tears and lots of wailing. So I waited until I had control (seat belt thing again) and told him, cringed and waited for the screams. Stevie calmly looked at me as said, "Can I eat it now? Nana and Papa won't want to see it all squished!" I laughed and told him no. Then the screams came! We drove home, pieced it together, took a quick picture and literally the thing fell apart a millisecond after the camera clicked. Then I let Stevie eat it!

Brother and Sister!

I love this picture even though it isn't the best angle. Stevie had come in from outside, grabbed his blanket, and snuggled with Lilly. He really does love her and is very gentile and cute with her. She patted his head and they stayed in this position for quite a while. I love my babies!

It's Begninning To Look A Lot Like Chirstmas!

Stevie helped set up the Christmas tree this year. As you can tell it was a fresh tree...we freshened it up outside in the fresh cold air for a couple of hours to get the dust off! He had fun sliding the branches into the slots. I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of us decorating the thing but Stevie helped Papa with the lights (he even helped Papa wind up the lights when we took the tree down) and Nana and I with the decorations. He loved the ones that Adam had made as a kid and the little Nutcracker characters the best. Lilly helped too. She examined and tasted everything within reach to make sure it was suitable for the tree.

This was the first Christmas home in 3 years and I had a wonderful time going through all the old decorations. It brought back a lot of fond memories.




Antie Samantha got the kids an advent calender this year and to be honest Stevie wasn't very interested in it until I told him there was chocolate inside the little windows. He tried to convince me another day had passed after his nap so he could get two chocolates a day. I never gave in and he never gave up asking!


Lilly loved hers too. She would work at getting the little doors open for a long time. She even got a piece of chocolate out on her own. After that she knew exactly what Stevie was doing when he opened his door and she made sure she was right in the middle of things until I gave in and let her open hers too! (this is where I break into song and sing you..."everything you can do I can do better" they are really getting to be brother and sister and she will not be left out! So cute. I can see Steve's suborn personality coming through...wink wink...because of course it couldn't be mine!!!

Lilly's Ugly Hat

This time I'm not even going to take the time to apologise for not writing or keeping up with this blog. Instead, I'll spend the time posting as many pictures as I can.

So, this is Lilly's winter get-up. Mom and I got the hat for her at TJ Max and I think it is adorable on her. Papa on the other hand thinks it takes away from how cute she is. He is always teasing her to get that "ugly" hat off.

What do you think? I think there is no way to make this kid look anything other than cute cute cute!


Now when Papa tells her to take the hat off, (if it isn't fastened under her chin) she pulls it off and laughs! It is such a game for them!

Thanksgiving!

Once again I'm so very behind. Thank you to everyone that keeps checking back to see if I've posted. I finally got my Christmas cards done and I'm taking a break from all the paper. I'm only about a month behind. Not too bad! I hope!

Anyway, this was our thanksgiving trip. We got up early and drove to Salt Lake. We were lucky enough to have lunch with Nana and Papa Great. Isn't this picture of the girls in pink just adorable!!!


Here are the men. Stevie talks non-stop and was trying to tell Grandpa about some toy he wanted to play with.

This is a picture of Lilly at Nana Great's house in Bicknell. She is playing with "Big-a-baby-havey." This is Sarah's and I's baby when we were kids and that's what we called her. She is missing all her hair and most of her eyelashes but she still makes for a great baby!

Too Cute!

Oh, Stevie was in high heaven...riding on the four-wheeler with his favorite cousin Seth. Stevie took to Seth like white on rice and wanted to know where he was and what he was doing at all times. I hope Seth still wants to have kids after this weekend. They were pretty cute together and Seth was patient and easy with Stevie! At one point Seth got out one of his scopes to his rifle and let Stevie look through it and kind of play with it. You would have thought he had given Stevie a million dollars. He carried that scope, put it in and out of its box (very carefully), and made up stories about it. Seth is Stevie's hero!

Auntie Sarah and Lilly!

The girls right before our walk! We always go for a walk the day after thanksgiving. All cooking and dishes are over ...for the moment...and everyone needs some fresh air. These 3 women cooked for 20 some people all weekend, looked damn good doing it and deserve metals!
Stevie decided he wanted to go on our walk too. We started out and not 5 minutes into it he wanted to be carried. I can't carry both of them so we headed back to the house. We grabbed the 4-wheeler and caught up with them. But when we got on, so did Duch, the dog. So, Stevie is holding Lilly, I'm holding both of them, Duch is leaning into all of us and somehow I managed to drive. It cracked me up!
"I want my MOMMMMMMMA" Lilly and uncle Andy

Do you think she is warm enough? And that is Aunt Becky in the background!

Our Hero Sethie!!!
Stevie is teaching Uncle Karl how to play Super Mario on the Nintendo! That is Andres in the background. He is Auntie Sarah's boyfreind and a very nice man. I really enjoyed getting to know him better this trip!
Cousin Christina and a screaming baby Lilly!

This is our trip home. We drove until just past Salt Lake. Both kids were tired of being in the car and hungry. We stopped at a McDonald's and let them play and eat. Nana was so generous to Lilly...she let her crawl through the jungle gym. Poor Nana, I don't think she will ever stand upright all the way again! Those are little tubes and there aren't many places to stretch out! The best had to be when they slid down the slide. Nana had to lay flat on her back to fit. But they made it!

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. We missed Steve more than anything. He loves to go to the ranch and "play" with the boys. Maybe next year honey!

But it was great to see the family and let the kids experience some different things. Some of the stuff I didn't get pictures of were:

1. Stevie rode the horse...I then had an allergic reaction and had to rush to the closest store (20 miles down the road) for allergy medication!

2. The boys...to include Uncles Andy and Karl tried to catch craw dad in the frozen pond at our uncle Milton's house. It all started when they were cleaning a fish they caught and found the remains of a crawdad in the belly of one of their fish. There was then a large discussion about how you catch a crawdad....which turned into...lets go catch a crawdad. So they took some turkey bones, dropped them in an old sock, tied the sock to a stick and we all drove up to the pond. First they had to break the 3 inch ice on the pond and then they dropped the bone in the water. It might of worked but we all froze before we could really find out. Stevie, Papa and I drove up the canyon a little ways to see some of the scenery. The dirt down there is red and the mountains are purple. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth!!! Stevie and I decided to climb one of the purple hills. It was so dang steep and made of this crumbling clay material that we literally slid down the slop. We brought back a baggie of dirt to show his class mates. I'm not sure the dirt ever made it to school...but it was a good idea!

3. We stayed up untill the wee hours of the morning "solving the problems of the world" as my Grandma calls it. I love our late night talks. It is my favorite part of Thanksgiving. Just visiting, maybe a little arguing, but all in all good discussion!

4. I forgot Lilly's little bed and she doesn't sleep with me at all any more. So I tried to make a bed with two blankets on top of each other as a mattress, and then rolled up blankets as a perimeter. It didn't work. One night she woke up and started to cry and by the time I woke up and got to her, she was sitting in the closet crying. It made me laugh.

I think that is about all I didn't get pictures of. I was an idiot and forgot both cameras. Oh well the above pics are from my phone. It does pretty well. I can't wait to get the pictures of Stevie and Lilly on Santa's lap. That will be my next post!

The Park

These Pictures were taken right as the sun was going down and are hard to see. Plus I had to use my phone camera instead of my fabulous Nikon! But this park was too awesome to not take pictures.

I don't get much one on one time with Stevie these days. Mostly because a baby is a full time job and partly because Dad is deployed. Anyway, we heard about this new park opening up near the zoo and had to check it out. We left Lilly home with Nana and Papa and we headed out. This park was so cool. It has everything. Swings, slides, climbing wall, those spinning chairs like the ones in Santa Fe, hand operated tractor scoops, this big boat like thing that sways back and forth, this hippo that shows the different organs of a body that Stevie is crawling in below, an entire music section where you can play these drum like columns, or a wooden piano like instrument, all kinds of ladders, steps, climbing apparatuses...the list is endless. We had an absolute blast running together though this place. We played chase and tried out all the different toys and all & all had a great time.
This is Stevie in the spinning chair. The first time he did he continued to ask me to spin him faster and faster and faster. He was a blur. But, the second time he didn't want to go so fast. It makes my head spin just thinking about it. I sat in it too and Stevie spun me around by grabbing my leg and running round and round.

I would never trade Lilly for the world but days like this is when I miss our times together. He is an amazingly fun kid to hang out with. He would find something new to try and go running off toward it...get half way there and turn back to me and yell, "Com'on Mom, lets try this one!" There were several other kids his age at the park too, and usually he will make a new friend and they will play...but this night it was all about the two of us. He wanted me to do everything he was doing and visa versa. We had a wonderful time and I can't wait to go again!

Pumpkins!

Every year I run into the problem of what to do with the pumpkins after they have served their purpose at Halloween. This year the kids were so sick and we were getting ready for our trip to Santa Fe that we didn't even carve ours. So they had been sitting on the kitchen floor for 3 weeks and we finally made the decision to do something with them besides throw them in the compost. I am one of those weird ones that don't like pumpkin pie so we decided to bake these, make the pumpkin mush that you need to bake with and turn them into cookies. They were awesome! Of course anything is good with chocolate chips in it! So this is Papa and Stevie cutting into the first of the 3 we cooked and mushed.

Stevie told me after Papa made the first major cut into the pumpkin that Papa was cutting up Lilly's pumpkin. Stevie wasn't ready to say good bye to his yet! And besides it made a great stool!

Of course I couldn't resist throwing this picture in. She is so cute!