Never thought I would see the day....

For those of you who have actually spent some time with both of my monsters you will understand this more than others. It has been somewhat rough going between Jack and Ella the last nearly 2 years and I spent most of those years serving as referee and bodyguard. In the beginning poor Ella was just a victim but recently she has definitely learned how to hold her own and even get a few punches in now and then. But, I am SO HAPPY to report that the last few days and maybe even weeks they have actually gotten along for the most part. We definetly still have our fair share of squabbles but they are getting fewer and further between. They are playing together, laughing together and just plain old enjoying being with each other. I hope it lasts at least a couple more days because I am really enjoying just being with them rather than breaking up all the fights between them!

Backfire

So Ella has this insane I mean insane attachment to anything Minnie Mouse. She has this Minnie that she insisted on dragging EVERYWHERE and it is actually really cute that she loves her but the doll is HUGE! So I got the brilliant idea to buy an exact miniature replica for her for Christmas to replace the giant one. Well not only did the plan completely backfire but she was gifted some new Minnie items that are now added to her collection that must accompany her everywhere!! And now much to our dismay she has now added her pillow pet and her new blanket to the ensemble!!

It's a good thing Southwest doesn't charge for luggage because I have a sneaking suspision that most of them will be joining us at Disneyland!


And I don't even want to discuss the Minnie jammies that we have to fistfight her to remove or the heart attack she had at the Disney store the other day when I wouldn't let her hold EVERYTHING that she saw that had Minnie on it! Definitely a potential for major meltdowns when we get to Disneyland! We must avoid ALL gift shops!


And to top it all off now that Ella thinks she needs all her essentials Jack has been insisting he sleep with his giant Mickey Mouse and giant pillow pet too. If I didn't have my own slightly insane attachment to my own pillow and blankie I might think they were crazy. And I just may be sneaking my own "essentials" into our suitcase and taking them to Disneyland too!

Another Christmas Come and Gone

I do it every year and this year and every year I say I am not going to do it but it always happens... I get so stressed out by Christmas Day I have such a hard time enjoying it. Therefore, I have hardly any blog worthy pictures of the actual day! Next year I am going to try my hardest not to wait until the last minute to do things and try to not worry if I got everyone enough and try to just savor the moment! Luckily Santa pulled through and got Jack that camera he wanted for Christmas so now we have about 300 pictures of the side of Ryan's face and about 176 of me pulling the ugliest cheese face ever. When I get a chance I will have to load some of Jack's masterpieces! So although I didn't get any good ones of Christmas day I did get a few of the fun things we did leading up to Christmas...

They looked so cute on the day of Jack's preschool program. It's a good thing I snapped a few pictures before we walked into the garage because by the time we got to the car Jack had rubbed all over the side of the car with his white shirt and was filthy and Ella ripped both of her pigtails out before she even made it to her carseat. At least they were cute for those two seconds... I can't speak for the hairdo that resulted after ripping the said pigtails out!





We headed to Idaho the week before Christmas since Grandma Rosie didn't have to work and we did lots of fun things in preparation for Christmas. We made caramels, fudge, suckers and a big pre Christmas dinner. We made it to the jump house, visited great grandparents, grandparents and cousins. It was a great week and I really enjoyed getting to see a lot of my family! We also made it to the chilli feed and fireworks they do in my hometown. It was so fun and Jack loved going on a tractor hay ride with Santa. I even managed to convince Ella to get on the ride and this turned out to be the closest she got to Santa all season long! Ella HATED the fireworks but Jack LOVED them and talked about them for days! I was so glad we were able to go and enjoyed visiting with some people I don't get to see very often! Still today if you ask Ella about the fire booms (fireworks) she shakes her head no and starts backing away! She may be slightly traumatized!






Christmas morning we spent at home with Grandma Rosie and Bapa Lee and then we headed over to Paxmans for more presents and fun. I can't believe how wonderfully spoiled and loved we are. We got way more than anyone could ever ask for and we are thankful for each of our families! The biggest hits that Santa brought this year were a dumptruck and a camera for Jack. Ella loved her sunglasses, minnie mouses, and her electric toothbrush. They really are very easy to please so I don't know why I stress out so much about what they will like!



And quite possibly my favorite picture from the Christmas season...

Completely unbribed I found them nicely sitting next to each other watching tv with Jack's arm around his sister. I love them so much... especially when they are being so sweet!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas filled with family and fun and we wish you the happiest of New Years!

Preschool Christmas Program

Yesterday was Jack's Christmas program with his preschool and he has been so excited for us to come watch him perform. It was cute to watch him although he knew none of the words to the songs and was on about a 5 second delay on all the actions after he would watch what the others would do. It was funny and my favorite part was after every song when the audience would clap he would excitedly clap and clap too! He was pretty proud of himself and so were we. Santa also made a surprise visit and Jack was excited to tell him what he wanted for Christmas. Once again Ella wanted nothing to do with Santa and wouldn't even get near him!

Gingerbread house

Grandma sent us home the other night with a gingerbread house kit and Jack has been dying to do! We have kind of bribed him that if he was good we would do it that night for a couple of days but shockingly it took him several days to actually earn being able to do it! :) They had a great time and were really sad when the candy ran out and it was time to be done. Perhaps if they wouldn't have eaten half of it then they wouldn't have ran out so fast!

Check out the tonsils in this one.

Thanksgiving 2010

Ella in a turkey induced coma...

Grandpa Lee as usual asleep on the couch after Thanksgiving dinner at Grandmas!

Emma, Jack and his "wife"
He calls his cousin Ainslee his wife and says he's going to marry her.

I think this was pretty much all Jack had for Thanksgiving dinner. 5 olives.

And the little Missy making sugar cookies after dinner!

So here I am finally blogging about Thanksgiving. Only three weeks late.... could be worse I guess! We spent the holiday in Idaho as usual after braving the blizzard of 2010 to get there and a nearly 5 hour drive! The holiday was spent eating lots of delicious food and laughing way too much. It is always a good time when we get together. Ryan and Jack spent the entire day after Thanksgiving helping Lee dig out his truck that had gotten completely stuck in the snowstorm. Jack thought it was great fun and Ryan and Colton also helped him build a snow igloo. He loves going to Idaho because he gets 100% attention and just soaks it up! He loves hanging out with the boys and doing manly jobs! We also ran over to the Rupert square at the last minute and watched Santa turn on the Christmas lights and then the fireworks! It was so much fun and Jack loved it (Ella slept through the whole thing!!) I am so glad we decided to run over there and brave the freezing cold. I didn't bring my camera so of course no pictures but Jack's face while watching Santa and the fireworks was priceless!

Sledding

Over Thanksgiving Idaho got dumped on with snow so we took advantage of it and went sledding in the backyard. It's just a dinky little dirt pile hill but it provides us hours of entertainment. On a sidenote... you don't even need snow to enjoy it! Often times during the summer the kids can be found out back with their saucers sliding down the pile of dirt! But this day we did have snow and we had so much fun!

I hope we never grow up because we had just as much fun as all the kids did!

Jazz Game

For Ryan's holiday party at work this year we were able to go to the Jazz game on Friday night. It was so much fun and it was great to spend time with all the fun people he works with! Although we were about 45 minutes late to the dinner because someone forgot their tickets.... (AAAACCCCHHOOOO.... JEFF!!!!) we still made it in time to have dinner and make it to the game. We had lower bowl tickets which was fun because we are usually clear up at the top when we go so it was fun to be closer to the action! It was a great holiday party and can you even believe only 12 days until Christmas?????.... and I haven't even blogged about Thanksgiving yet!! I better get busy... In other news.... Finals are this week and then school is done for the semester!! Wahoo!
Oh and thanks Listen for posting pics on Facebook which I totally stole because I didn't even think to grab my camera. Oh and a big thanks to everyone who watched the rugrats so we were able to enjoy the night out!

Temple Square 2010

Saturday night we decided to lose our minds and head to Temple Square with the monsters. We decided to go all out and invited Mistie and Duane to join us. So we had 4 children 3 and under and it was a tad bit crazy. We did manage to not lose any of them so that was an accomplishment although Avery did take a small swim in the reflection pool! The kids really wanted to ride in an elevator so we headed into the Joseph Smith Memorial building and headed up. On the way down Jack and Avery managed to push all the buttons so we made a short stop on every floor the entire way down! Overall it was a great time and when asked on the way home what his favorite part of the night was he quickly stated that it was the hot cocoa we snagged from a street corner booth on the walk home. Next time instead of attempting downtown Salt Lake I might take him to the Maverick on the corner and get him his cocoa!







My favorite part of the evening was when we were walking the 5 blocks back to our car in the pouring rain... did I mention we got completely drenched in a downpour? Anyways, I told Jack and Avery who were huddled in the stroller that they were just like pioneers. Jack didn't miss a beat and quickly replied "Well you guys are stupid." At that moment walking through the rain pushing our two strollers I could actually agree with him! :) It was crazy, It was hectic but it was fun and the memories we made of the night won't be forgotten!