the four of us: December 2010

12.30.2010

Merry Christmas!!

Jack definitely got the whole Christmas celebrations a lot more this year.

He loved learning more about the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and all that is made possible through him. We are grateful for this time of the year when we are able to celebrate his glorious birth.

He was also into Santa. He would always point him out anytime we saw him in the store or on someone's lawn while driving down the road. He loved reading Christmas books and stories. His favorite was The Polar Express. We had to read it every night, and even when putting him to bed, he would ask us to tell him the story again. It was usually the abbreviated version because we couldn't remember the whole thing, but I think we might have it pretty much down by now.

Jack was so excited to wake up to his Stocking full of goodies from Santa.

Loving her new jumper from santa and hat from grandma nan and papa frank

Jack was sure not to let any of Santa's leftover cookies go to waste. Cookies for breakfast, doesn't get better than that!

My mom made my siblings and I stockings when we were little and we've used them ever since. My sisters and sister-in-laws have all made stocking for their kids so I decided I would do the same. I started Jack's right after he was born hoping to have it finished before his first Christmas. But no such luck. I got most of it done, but not all of it. I started Steve's soon after that but still didn't have it finished. So 2 Christmas's came and went, and neither of their stockings were finished. When I found out that I was pregnant with Sydney, I was DETERMINED to not only finish Jack's and Steve's, but also one for her. It took me a little while, but i finally finished all of them on Christmas eve!!! And it feels SO good to be caught up.

Here's the lineup:

This year was very different, but we had a great Christmas and feel very blessed to be healthy and happy.

We were glad to be able to spend some of the day with Steve's sister Becky and her family, but we sure did miss being with our other family and participating in the fun traditions we've grown up with.

We are so grateful for all of our family and friends and hope y'all had a great Christmas as well.

our christmas littles

Ready to go to our friend's house for soup and fun for Christmas Eve

In their Christmas jammies ready for Santa to come

our little wiseman

Oh Christmas Tree...

ohhhhhh, Christmas tree!

At the beginning of the month, we were invited by some friends in our ward to go cut down our tree. This was our first experience with this and we were really excited! We knew it would be a lot with a toddler and an infant in tow but we were still looking forward to it. We knew we were going up to a designated area in the mountains, but we thought it would be a huge Christmas tree farm with a large variety of shapes and sizes that would be easy to find. Come to find out, things were a little different than what we pictured in our minds.

After a drive up the mountain, with 5 cars in a line, we arrived at "the spot". We all piled out of our cars, bundled Jack up, I strapped Sydney to my chest, and we started our journey to find the "perfect" tree. We knew it was going to be a challenge when Jack, our very active and very independent 2 year old (who also looked like the little kid from the Christmas Story that couldn't put his arms down), wanted nothing to do with holding our hands. Sure enough, within the first 5 minutes he tripped on a root and face-planted into a huge log. Lucky for us, from that point on, he wanted to be held.

Although I lugged my camera up and down the mountain, I didn't have an extra hand to pull it out and take pictures.

Here he is later that night after we had cleaned up his nose a little bit. It looks much better than it did earlier that day, and now he has a nice scar to show for it.

Let's just say, the "perfect" tree was harder to find than we hoped. And we quickly realized that we were going to have to turn our focus from the "perfect" tree, to any tree that would hold lights and ornaments. After searching high and low, literally, we found one that would work and that we liked so we cut it down. Then we had to cut it in half in order to get it into our house. Needless to say, it was really tall. Oh yeah, and sparse.

Here's it is in all it's Charlie Brown glory...

The adventures of the day wore little Sydney out.

While it may not have been an ideal situation at the time, we really did have a great time and we just might try it again next year, but maybe at a place with more options.

12.08.2010

4 months

Sydney is 4 months. I still can't believe it!!

She is such a joy to have in our home and we couldn't imagine our lives without her!

Her Stats at 4 months:

Length: 24.5 inches (58%)

weight: 12 lbs 1 oz (16 %)

She's changed so much and has become so much more active over the last 2 months.

Some things she loves to do right now are:

smile and laugh

jibber-jabber and "sing songs" as Jack likes to call it

Roll from her front to her back

scoot in circles while on her back

and play with her toes

Here are a few pictures of our baby girl at 4 months:

of course Jack has to show us that he knows where his toes are too!

We love you sweet pea

and we can't wait to see what you learn in the months to come.

Turkey Day!!

It's crazy to think about what a difference a year makes.

Last year at this time, Steve had just had his second (including the one he had back in high school) back surgery. He was one week into recovery and we were spending a quiet Thanksgiving dinner at home with just the 3 of us, followed by dessert and sparklers with our good friends the Malcarnes. We were so thankful for wonderful doctors and modern medicine to help relieve Steve of some serious pain and discomfort.

Little did we know what the next year would bring: another back surgery a few months later, graduating from Grad school, the stressful job hunt, moving across the country while 9 months pregnant to an unknown area, and welcoming a sweet baby girl. A lot has happened in the last year, and we are so thankful and feel very blessed for these eventful experiences that have only made us stronger and have brought us to where we are this year. We can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us.

Our Thanksgiving holiday this year didn't go as planned, but we still had a GREAT time with Family!

We were scheduled to meet up with Steve's family at his Grandparents ranch in Aurora, Utah but the weather had a different agenda. Because of the big "blizzard" that was forecasted for Utah, a couple of Steve's brothers had to cancel their trips. Which caused all of us to think twice about going. We decided it would just be safer for everyone if we just stayed where we were and hoped for a reunion another time very soon. Lucky for us, we have Steve's sister within an hour of us, so we were still able to spend the time with family. One of Steve's brothers was already in Utah so he convinced them to drive out here and spend the week with us. We all packed up and went down to his sister's house for some nonstop family fun. Although we didn't go far, it was nice to get away for a few days. And even better to only have a short trip home when it was all over.

Here are a few pictures of our Thanksgiving week: