December and Christmas

December started out with that horrible windstorm and then life just kind of continued to feel like a windstorm throughout the rest of the month (isn't that how December always feels?). I have to admit that I was pretty happy when Christmas day came, just so I could sit around the house and not have to do anything for a while.

One of the first things we did in December was make a Graham Cracker house.

 I was surprised how well the kids did at not eating all of the candy for decorating the house. They had so much fun and loved helping me decorate it. I think we will try it again next year, but maybe we will try using real gingerbread instead. I bet it would hold together better than graham crackers.

Next I got to go on Beckett's first field trip with his Kindergarten class. We went to the Treehouse museum. I drove Beckett and two boys from his class in our car. Beckett was so excited and proud to have them ride with us. We watched a play that the kids participated in. Only one of the children was not afraid to say their lines in front of everybody. It was super cute. The kids also got to do a Chinese Dragon Dance. It was so cool. Each child got to hold one of the poles that held up the dragon and dance throughout the museum, while the adults made lots of noise with drums and cymbals. I think that might have been the favorite thing that we did that day. We also got to do a craft and then run free in the museum. It was a lot of fun.

After months and months of threatening to cut Anabelle's hair if she kept on sucking on it, I finally followed through.

On December 10th, I cut Belle's hair for the very first time, ever. It was difficult to do it, and not just for me, as you can see by the pictures, she wasn't too thrilled about it either. When it was all over though, I think she felt better about it, like she had passed a milestone and was a little more grown up.

I am a little sad that her long hair is gone. She had the cutest curls in the back of her head, just like me when I was her age. And just like me, once the hair was cut, the curls were gone too. But now her hair doesn't look all clumpy and gross. My mom didn't go for a styled cut, we just pulled her hair towards her mouth, and snipped it where it was just out of reach for her to get it in her mouth. Unfortunately, now it has grown just long enough that she can get it in her mouth again and she is starting to take full advantage of it. Urgh!! Why can't I get this child to understand how disgusting that is?! We have even told her that Paul (Matt's friend that Anabelle has quite the crush on, and yes, I am worried about that) doesn't like girls that suck on their hair, but apparently that hasn't fazed her. I guess she is just going to have to have short hair the rest of her life.

Also in December, I went on a date with my mom and aunt to see "A Christmas Carol." Two of my nieces and a nephew were in it and they did a fantastic job. "A Christmas Carol" is such a wonderful way to get you into the Christmas spirit. No wonder President Monson reads that every year.

I also got to go on a date with Matt to his company Christmas party, sans children. It was nice dress too. It has been a long time since Matt and I got dressed up to go out for a nice dinner alone (yeah. there were 400 other people there, but no children). We even got a nice picture taken, but I think Matt might have lost the link to our picture, so that was a bust. The food was really good and we sat with some fun people too. Despite the big let down of no gifts from the company, we had a really good time and were grateful to have had some time to ourselves.

That same weekend we also got to have a family sleepover with Matt's sister, Ana, and her wonderful family. We had a lot of fun having them stay with us. The kids had all kinds of fun together and Belle got to go shopping with Ana's family, so she had the time of her life. We adults made and ate way too much junk food and loved every minute of it. Isn't that what the holidays are all about anyways? I mean, really? One more bonus to having them stay with us, they put Netflix on our Wii, and have left it on there for us to use. It has been awesome! Ana and Scott, you are the best!!

The week of Christmas, both Anabelle and Beckett had parties at their schools. Beckett's was your standard school party. He came home with all kinds of gifts from his teacher and special ED teachers. Lucky duck. I don't remember getting presents from my teachers, let alone 3 teachers.

Anabelle's was a pajama party. She had a blast. Mrs. Claus came and so did the missing Gingerbread boy and girl (They went missing earlier in the month and sent them postcards from their travels all month long). Anabelle still talks about finding the Gingerbread girl. That must have been much more exciting than the big guy's wife.

Christmas Eve was spent at Ana's house, having dinner, painting ornaments, and busting open a pinata. This is two years in a row we have done this, so I think we might start calling it a tradition. The kids did much better at painting their ornaments this year.

 You could actually see the different colors that they used, instead of mixing them all together until the ornament was unrecognizable, like last year. The pinata was also a big success. This year, they actually understood what they were doing, so it was a little more exciting. Ana found some super cute felt bags for them to put their booty into.

 We parents also got to play games, while the kids ate some candy and watched a movie. A great Christmas Eve, if I do say so myself.

My sister Christa, stayed with us over the Christmas weekend. It was fun to have someone else there to celebrate with us. She is always so good at helping the kids get excited about stuff and have lots of fun. Isn't that what Aunts are for? It was really nice for me because I had someone to talk to at night when Matt was playing with his Christmas gift, the Xbox.

Christmas was super exciting this year. Beckett remembered a lot from last year and so he was really into it. He wrote letters to Santa this year. The first one said,

Pretty direct and to the point. No messing around with that note. I think he started learning about sentences soon after he wrote that first note, because the next one said, "Beckett is the train." And then the final draft that he actually put in an envelope said, "Beckett, I want the train." Santa had no way of messing up that order. Anabelle also wrote her own letter:

I asked her what it said, and she said it told Santa she wanted a princess doll. I'm glad Santa could decipher that letter, because I never would have figured that one out.

The kids really wanted to leave out cookies for Santa, but we forgot to bake some. I don't think Santa minded because he wrote a very sweet note to the kids anyways, which they thought was pretty cool. Santa obviously got the message because Beckett got two trains and more tracks to go with them. Anabelle did get her princess doll (actually, she orginally wanted a set of all of the Disney Princesses, 7 in total, but Santa decided that was a little much), a Cinderella Barbie doll that she loves and Strawberry Shortcake with a bakery as a bonus. They got lots of other toys and wonderful presents that were loved just as much, but I don't want to bore you all with telling you about each individual gift, so I just went with the highlights.Thank you so much to those that gave us gifts this last Christmas. We loved and appreciated them all.

After Sacrament meeting that morning, Christmas day was spent at my brother Ben's house, eating more good food and playing more fun games. This is becoming a tradition as well. I guess we started all kinds of traditions this last year. We had such a good time, except that I started to get sick. The day after Christmas was spent mostly in bed, resting. I was able to actually take a sick day thanks to Christa. She took my kids home with her and brought them back the next day. That never happens for a mom. I appreciated it so much.

New Years Eve was a lot of fun. We spent it at our friends, James and Shana's place. We ate yummy pizza and snacks, and finally watched Captain America. We must be getting old though, because it felt like it took forever to get to midnight. We all kept saying to each other, "It's only 9?!", "It's only 10:30?!" Beckett and Anabelle, on the other hand, had no problem staying up that late. They could have watched stuff on Netfix all night long. They were mad when it was time to go.

Beckett enjoyed having a break from school, a little too much. I tried very hard to get him to understand that he was going to have to go back to school eventually, but I guess it didn't sink in because he put up a big fight when it was time to go back to school. It was worse than when he started school in some ways. I almost don't want to have Spring break if it is going to be like it was in January. Do you think they would give me a key to the school?

Lets get to Christmas as quick as we can

Okay people, I really want to get caught up on here, so, this is going to be fast. Besides, October through November were pretty quiet anyways.

We made carpet angels one day.

We went out for half priced sushi for Matt's birthday, and it was absolutely delicious, especially the FRIED cheesecake and bananas. Anyone in Ogden interested, let me know and I will send you the info. Totally worth it.

We did more for Halloween stuff this year than any year previously. Maybe it was because I totally rocked it this year and made Beckett the best costume EVER, and I had to show it off.

I think he likes it

One of the many festivities was a fair with Cousin Ally. Beckett had to have some pizza before he could get over the scary masks, but then he had a great time.

Belle on the other hand, was miserable the whole time.

And just because I am super prideful about this, one more picture of the awesome Thomas

Another thing we went to was the YM/YW Halloween carnival, which Matt helped with since he is now in young mens. It was a lot of fun. We also went to the Treehouse Museum for their Fairy Tale party. This time we went with our friend Krista and Aspen. This might have been our favorite thing we did that month.

They got goodie bags. How nice is that?! - Sorry Livia, I didn't get a picture with Aspen

Then, of course, there were the school parties. I did Anabelle's hair so pretty for hers. She let me use my 3 barrel crimperish iron. It was a little nerve wracking, but we made it through and she looked so beautiful.

Beckett's Halloween parade was fun and brought back lots of memories of when I was in Elementary. All the kids were super excited. I felt really cool when a lot of the older kids at Beckett's school commented on his costume. I don't know if I will ever be able to top it. Okay, I'll stop bragging now.

Halloween night we spent at my brother's, in Kaysville, which is becoming a tradition. Honestly, it is mostly because I don't want to trick-or-treat in my neighborhood. Plus my brother's neighborhood gives out good stuff, like full size pixie sticks, which should not be given to toddlers I might add.

Guess what this is a picture of...

Nope. Those are bats. Beckett watched a Wild Krats episode where they talked about bats. He then made a bat of his own. He clipped a little sheet of paper with a bag clip and then began flapping it. His invention did sound like a bat flying and kind of looked like one flapping its wings. Anabelle had to join in as well, only she used multiple sheets in a sandwich bag. It didn't sound quite the same as Beckett's.

Beckett had a puke day during November. It was awesome, especially when he puked all over in the car, right after we had all went out to eat dinner. Not cool. I did feel really sorry for him while he was sick. He kept saying, "I don't want to throw up any more." in a sad and frightened voice. Poor kid. At least it was for only 24 hours.

Thanksgiving was spent with Matt's brother, Nate. We had a great time and ate lots of super good food. We played lots of games, shopped Target on Black Friday, and saw the Black Canyon near Nate's house. Matt had been to the canyon before, but the rest of us hadn't. It was really cool. It is a canyon made of black rock that is almost straight down, and super deep. I would never go hiking around the edge of that place. It was uniquely beautiful, but I think it would be much more pretty in the summer or spring. If you are ever in Montrose, you should take a detour and see the Black Canyon.

Well, those two months are down now. Just December and Christmas to go.

Brought to you by the number 30, letter B, and trains

So I am finding myself once again having to play catch up on here. Last time we left off, Beckett had started spelling CAT and Anabelle was starting up her photography business. Since then, I have turned 30, Beckett started up school, Belle started teaching an exercise class, and we all have gotten sick.

We will start with Anabelle. She has been very busy. She has traded in her photography business for teaching exercises. Lately she has been taking me to the exercise place (which is Beckett's room), and then has me lay down on the bed. She then has us put our legs up in the air and then we grab our legs and moves them rapidly in and out. The first time we did this, I laughed so hard. I don't know what exercises she has seen me do to give her this idea, but it sure is fun. One time, we had Beckett join us and that was not easy to fit all three of us on there. It was a hoot though.

Anabelle received a tent from my brother's family. His daughters had out grown it and so they passed it along to her. She and Beckett both love it. It is a princess tent in the shape of a castle and it even has little flags you put on top. It is pretty sweet. I probably would have loved it when I was little.

They especially love to watch movies in it. You can see Beckett peeking through the window to watching one.

She is still very much involved in her fashion designs. Here we have a lovely little number:

If you can tell what all is there, she has a pioneer hat on, upside down, a swimsuit that is much too big for her on top of her shirt, accessorized by orange and purple plastic necklaces and a beautiful yellow hand bag.  She is going to be such a famous designer. Maybe Matt can retire early.

The kids have also been into playing with my laundry baskets lately. Belle especially likes to turn them upside down and crawl in and just play in there. Beckett got a picture of her playing in them one time.

It reminds me of when I looked out the holes in the Bridge of Sighs, in Venice.

While they were sick, they made the baskets into little beds and watched movies all snuggled up inside with their blankets and pillows. Such creativity!

Beckett has been super busy. Not only has he been busy taking pictures of his sister (which I discovered was a lot when I put the pictures on the computer from the camera), but he has started school. I found the perfect preschool for him. When I opened the phonebook to start my search for a preschool. I saw one that had a train in its advertisement. I thought to myself, "There is the perfect school for him." I called around to get an idea of how much it would cost for Beckett to start up school and they were all ridiculously expensive (most of them included a meal or two in their prices, but still) and when I called Preschool Express, I was so pleased to find out that they were much cheaper than the rest. Now it really was the perfect school for us. The kids and I went and checked out the school and it was great. The teachers are mother and daughter and they were so kind and fun. They showed me everything they did at their school and how much they teach the children there. I couldn't believe what all they started teaching them (fractions?!). I am really pleased with this school. I have seen some good improvements in the month that he has been going.  Beckett loved his first day. Because it is a train themed school and they have lots of train toys, and he was pretty stoked to play with them. His first day also happened to be the day they had their "Hundred's Day" party. They count every day and each day add another number until they get to 100. Then they have a party. That happened to be Beckett's first day. So it was a fun day with games and cake. The weekend after his first day he got sick though, so he wasn't able to go all the next week. Then that next weekend, he got pink eye, so he wasn't able to go back to school until Wednesday. So he was gone for a week and a half. Luckily, his teachers allowed him to make up those days he missed. He was very excited to go back for his second day, but he hasn't been as excited about going since. I think he realized that he really doesn't get to play with the toys all the time and he has to do work and so he doesn't love it so much anymore. In fact on the way to school for his 3rd day, he asked me, "Mommy, can you go with me?" My heart broke. I hated school as a kid, so I totally felt his pain, but it is so good for him to go. He has learned so much more than I can teach him at home. I have been pleasantly surprised he hasn't had a problem with me dropping him off though. I was so nervous that first day that he would freak out about me leaving him there with a bunch of strangers (we still have a hard time with dropping him off for primary), but he hasn't had any problems at all. He has asked me on the ride to school for me to stay with him, but that is as bad as it has gotten. I am so relieved. 

He has really struggled with writing and coloring. He has never been one to sit down and color. Even in primary, he would give me his little picture they gave them to color and it would barely have been colored on. But I now realizing how important coloring is. It makes total sense now that I see the connection between coloring and writing. So new moms, make sure you take time to sit down and color with your kids (even if they aren't all that interested in it and try to make you do it for them), and help them gain control over that motor skill. He is improving though. Here is a "B" he drew hours before his first time going to school:

You want to know something funny. When I saw him draw this, I thought to myself, "Oh my goodness, his teachers are going to be so surprised at how much he knows without having gone to school yet." Man, was I humbled when his teacher came out with his first worksheet and told me how little he could do. He has improved a bit since then. His last worksheet they gave me, you could see that he tried to color in the right places and even with the right colors. I was so proud of him for his improvement and effort. I have bought a few writing books and things that will help me help him, so I feeling confident that he will catch up with his peers soon.

This is the "first day of school" picture.

The necklace on this beautiful boy is what they made at their 100's party. It has 100 beads on it.

One more thing about Anabelle and Beckett's first day of school. During the morning, after I had talked about Beckett going to school, Belle came up to me and said that she wanted to go to school. I told her that you can't wear diapers when you go to school. A few minutes later, she came in the room without a diaper on. Then I said that she had to use the potty and wear big girl panties. A little while after that, she ran to me and said she had gone potty and was wearing panties. I had to think fast for another excuse. Luckily she isn't three yet, and so I told her she had to wait until after her birthday before she could go. She pouted a bit, but then gave in that she couldn't go with Beckett. It was pretty cute. But I was in a state of shock. I thought, "Is it really going to be this easy? Was school all the motivation I needed for her to want to go potty?" Well, it was short lived. After school, she peed one more time in the potty, but had accidents all the rest of the day. I was a little saddened. I was really hoping we were all done. Alas, we are still in pull-ups. I am thinking about really cracking down after her birthday. Anyways, here is a picture of Anabelle on Beckett's first day:

Notice the long face and the backpack. So sad.

We also have been lucky to babysit for our friend Livia. The children just adore her baby Aspen. Here they are all snuggled up together watching Despicable Me (a very good show if you haven't seen it):

Another cute picture of the kids with some more friends. I couldn't resist snapping this picture.

Beckett had his first field trip last week. We went to Macey's grocery. The kids had a hard time with it at first. Beckett was nervous about going on a field trip all that morning. I think because he just didn't know what they were and didn't know what to expect. Plus, he has always had a hard time with crowds, noise and strangers. And that all was going on and so he was really scared at first. They took us to the dairy section first and into the back to the refrigerator where they stock the dairy. That really made Beckett, and Anabelle, upset. He really refused to go in the butcher shop (which I wasn't too sad about missing). We waited in the front for the group. We looked at the fish and shellfish they have on ice in the display case. I think that helped him calm down because he was willing to continue on with the group and even put on his hairnet. I am sure that the fact that he was going to get a cookie in the bakery had nothing to do with his willingness to participate. He was fine after that and even left my side to go look at things and get samples of food they were giving out. Belle on the other hand was just nervous the whole time. I am sure the next time will be a little easier for both of them. Beckett has even asked if we are going on a field trip again. I wonder if he is going to be disappointed when he doesn't get cookies and cream popsicles on the next one.

Valentines was pretty boring the kids had just started their colds and so we just spent the night at home, which was fun. We watched Red, which was a good movie. I recommend it. And no, it isn't a weird, independent film. It has Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren in it. It is a fun spy/action film. Go rent it if you are in the mood for some laughs and some action.

We also went to the Train Show at the Union Station again this year. It was awesome. They had an entire train set made out of Legos. It was so cool. I couldn't believe all that they had built using Legos. Beckett liked it so much, he just kept moving. He couldn't look at anything for very long because something new would always catch his eye as soon as he stopped. Matt said he was like a crack addict at a needle convention. I think we have just started a new tradition in our family.

I turned 30 in January. I don't feel any different. It wasn't a big deal. I don't think I am old now. The thought that my brother could be a grandpa in 6 years kind of weirds me out, but I don't feel old. It was a pretty low key birthday. I have never been one that enjoys a lot of spotlight, so it was great. I did get to go out with my parents and have frozen hot chocolate at Kneeders in Bountiful. It was pretty good. I rather quite enjoyed it. I got some presents and went on a date. I can't really remember what we did (is that bad?), but I am sure we had a great time. Maybe that is a sign that I am getting old.

I got pink eye with the kids. In fact, twice. That has to be one of THE MOST annoying diseases to have. That burning feeling and you can't itch it or touch it. And it feels like you have a hair poking your eye all the time. Urgg! So annoying. I'm getting all worked up just remembering it.

I have started prepping my flower beds. I am just itching to get started on planting and tending to them. I think this is the first time I have wished that winter would move on its way and let spring move in. Usually I am content to wait until April or May, but this year I can't wait to get my hands dirty.

Matt is doing well. He is still busy with work and school. This week is Spring Break, so that is nice. He is using the time off to read "Two Towers" from the Lord of the Rings. He has been playing a little bit of disc golf with some friends lately. He has really been enjoying that. I can't think of much else to say about him. Things have been pretty quiet for him since last I updated.

I am getting ready for Anabelle's 3rd birthday next week. She wants a princess cake (surprise, surprise), so I am thinking one of those cakes with a Barbie in the middle of it and looks like her dress. Does anyone know how to make one of those? I was thinking of using a bunt pan, but I don't think it will be tall enough to go to the dolls waist. We will have see. Wish me luck!