December 2014

Only 15 days until Christmas! I can hardly believe it! We've had a lot going on lately. Marcus started going to nursery at church. I thought he would scream and cry the entire two hours and that I'd have to sit in there with him, but I underestimated him. He did cry, but for less than two minutes and then he was fine the rest of the time. Each time I peeked in he was either in the teacher's arms or standing right next to her, but that's okay!

Spiffied up for church!

We had family pics taken with my side of the family. I really love how they turned out! At the end I put the kids in their Christmas outfits for some pics by the Christmas tree. Unfortunately Marcus was D.O.N.E. by this point and all we got was a picture of him crying. Oh well, it's cute anyways! The week before family pics Marcus fell down on the sidewalk and scraped his forehead up. It was sad. I was glad they did a good job editing it out for the pictures!

My favorite picture!!!

Our sweet niece, Tennesey. She is a doll!

The week after Thanksgiving, Mitch and I were able to go to Orlando, Florida together! Mitch was invited to go for a conference put on by the people who awarded him his scholarship (I/ITSEC, which I can't remember what that stands for right now; something about simulation education). One evening we went to a black tie dinner with over 2K other people where Mitch was presented his scholarship award in the form of a giant check. It was awesome and I was so proud of him! I took a little video of him receiving the award, but for some reason it won't post here. It was a fun night to celebrate my smart husband!


(Side note: After the dinner I convinced Mitch that we needed to mail the giant check home as a keepsake. How often do you get a giant check, right? Well, we were almost back to our hotel, when we realized they had made the check out to Michael J. Bott instead of Mitchell J. Bott! Arghhh! I was so upset at first, but we quickly realized it was funny and now it's a good joke to call him Michael. And after standing in line at the local post office for an hour, we did manage to mail the check home.)

Also, I tried on the dress to the black tie dinner before I left and showed it to Layla. She said, "Oooh Mom, you look so pretty! As pretty as me! As pretty as I think I am!" ;)

We spent another day at the Kennedy Space Center, which was much more fun than I imagined. We learned a lot and had fun too. Mitch was in nerd heaven when we walked through the missile garden and he could tell me more information about the missiles than what was listed on the plaques.

On my birthday we went to Universal Studios! I picked it because I heard it had good roller coasters and I love roller coasters! Unfortunately, Mitch got really sick while we were there and we ended up in the First Aid station. He had a fever of 102. (See a pattern here? Marcus had a high fever when we were in Disneyland. Apparently we need to stay away from theme parks.) That definitely put a damper on our day, but we still managed to have fun. We stuck to easier rides or plays, etc. and I rode another roller coaster by myself. Pretty sure the people I was sitting next to thought I was crazy, because as my feet were dangling hundreds of feet in the air while moving at incredible speeds, I kept yelling, "Don't look down! Don't look down!" Ha, ha! It was quite the thrill! We ended the day after I got super sick on the stupid Harry Potter motion ride; I can't do the motion picture/moving all over rides. By this point Mitch was feeling a little better. We had a yummy dinner at Hard Rock Cafe too!

Our last day we drove to Melbourne beach and ate lunch before heading to the airport. It was a great little get away! I missed the kids, but thoroughly enjoyed my quiet time. :) The kids stayed with my parents and had a blast. Each day it seems Marcus picked up their phone and said, "Mamma, Dada" and they would call us. So cute! It's nice to be home and I'm thankful for the time I got to spend with my hubby! He also really enjoyed the conference, which is good, because they asked him to be a part of it, so we might be going again.

Here are some funny/random things the kids have said/done lately:
-While listening to the song "Always in my Head" by Coldplay, Layla said, "Maxon is always in my head. I can't get him outta there! He's too funny!"

For an activity with the young men and young women at church a few weeks ago we made kits for homeless people. The kits had things like socks, food, gloves, water, etc. We kept one in our car to pass out when we saw someone in need. I explained to Layla what it was and who we would give it to. When we finally passed it out one day, Layla said, "Mom, we should have invited him to come live with us!" I didn't know what to say and before I could come up with the best answer, she said, "Oh, but we don't have enough beds. Maybe I should have just colored him a picture." I am so grateful for a sweet, loving, and thoughtful daughter!

Marcus is sweet too. I love when they sit side by side in the giant shopping carts at Costco and Layla will lean in face towards Marcus and say, "Kisses!" and he will kiss her on the cheek repeatedly while saying, "Muah!" It's the sweetest. I've trained him to give kisses on demand and it's my favorite.

Baking pies for Thanksgiving, pumpkin and chocolate.
They turned out good.

I might have said all of this before, so excuse me if I'm repeating myself. The kids are both at such fun ages and they are playing together really well. I can't wait to give them their Christmas presents since many of them are things they can do together! When they play, Layla often calls Marcus by the name Gary and it makes me laugh every single time.

Layla drew this at church. It's Nephi with his brothers, Laman and Lemuel.
Nephi was a prophet from the Book of Mormon and his brothers were always
very mean to him. I think her depiction is spot on!

After preschool the other day, Layla's teacher, Miss Tiffany, pulled me aside and told me how impressed she is with Layla's reading skills. She said she has taught preschool for over ten years and that she's had a few readers over the years, but that "none have been as advanced as Layla, by far." She really does amaze me every day with the words she can read and comprehend. She is a little sponge!


Lastly, I have to note that I love the street we live on. We have the best neighbors! They are so kind, and this time of year they are also so festive! We have 20 houses on our street and all but three or four have Christmas lights up! That might not seem like much to some people,  but I've never lived in such a festive community. It's really fun to look down the street at night and see all the pretty lights. Our lights are all white and they are very pretty. But Layla told us that she's "disappointment that our lights are just yellow. They're not as cool as Lily's!" I love her use of the word disappointment, but we were sad that she has the grass is greener syndrome. Being the awesome parents that we are, we told her (exaggerated) stories of our childhood of no Christmas lights, no Ipads, no large tvs, no computers, etc. while she half-listened and acted annoyed. Ha, ha! Merry Christmas!