Christmas 2015 and Welcome 2016!

Christmas was wonderful! We did some fun things leading up to the big day, like driving through Layton City's Christmas lights, reading Christmas books, taking supplies to the animal shelter, buying gifts from Layla to Marcus and Marcus to Layla, singing Christmas songs, baking, etc. I feel like we did a lot more Christmas activities in the month of December this year than in any Christmas seasons past. It was fun!

We spent Christmas Eve at the Bott's and had a yummy dinner then opened lots of presents! Santa was a little upset because Grandma and Grandpa gave Marcus the same thing that Santa was planning to bring for his big gift (a pretend workbench) and they also gave Layla the same exact Lego set that Santa had planned on giving her. So, things got switched around last minute, and it worked out fine, but from now on Santa needs to communicate with the grandparents about gifts!

Katie and Brandon gave the kids these masks from their favorite show, PJ Masks.
Definitely a winning gift this year!

Before bed we read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2 and talked a little bit about when Christ was born, why we really celebrate Christmas and give gifts, etc. It definitely brought a nice spirit into our home and we all went to bed feeling peaceful I think.

Marcus woke up at 7:20 on Christmas morning and we went and woke Layla up. She said, "Are there presents out there?" and then when she saw them she was disappointed and said, "Oh, that's not very much," which made ME disappointed! Thankfully after a few minutes of looking over everything, opening things, and eating some breakfast, she was excited and happy with all her presents.  (And next year Santa will be wrapping most of the kids' gifts so that they get the excitement of unwrapping them!)

We played for a couple of hours and then realized that we had to get dressed and head to my grandma's! We got ready fast and then drove slow because of the nasty snow storm in Salt Lake. Gratefully we made it safe and enjoyed a delicious brunch with everyone. Evelyn looked like such a little princess in her fancy Christmas dress and furry shawl.

We headed over to my parent's house after that to open even more presents and we all had a great time! Last was a visit with my grandma Miles, who is losing her memory drastically and has a really hard time, so it was kind of hard for me to visit her because she is not herself, but I was glad to see her and bring a smile to her face.

Harvey got a new house for outside.
Unfortunately, Santa didn't realize that Harvey is WAY to big for this house....

After a long day we headed home and played some more. Mitch's parents came over for a minute and then we hit the sack! Successful Christmas for sure!

Christmas break has been wonderful having Mitch home with us! Though he's been very busy working on our entry way! He is adding wainscoting to the archway and it is looking amazing! Hopefully he'll be done in the next week. I'll have to post a pic once it's done. 

We did have time to go to the temple together. Mitch and I also went on a double date with Kevin and Nicole to dinner and a Utes basketball game. It was a great night and we always have fun with them. The kids spent that night at my parent's house and they had a great time and didn't want to come home.

The kids and I have kept busy playing their new games, playing pretend, running errands, hanging out at my parent's, etc. Mitch and I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese today (Layla's one request before going back to school). I took the kids to the mall the other day and let them ride on the train, which was a rip off, but they LOVED it. I thought it was worth it though because I snapped a couple adorable pics of them. 

New Year's was low key this year. I asked everyone what junk food item they wanted and then we pigged out on it after a steak dinner. Layla requested Kitty Litter cake, which she helped me make. Mitch requested pink wintergreen mints and Hostess cupcakes. Marcus just said, "candy," and I wanted Pringles and Little Debbie snacks. I also bought a can of spray whip cream and went around squirting it in everyone's mouths. It was a huge hit. And very funny! We each had some of everything and we were all sick afterwards. #worthit. Also, Little Debbie snacks are nasty! I haven't had them since I was a kid, and I am no longer a fan! We had hats and poppers and noise makers and we counted down at 7 pm and the kids were in bed by 8 pm. That's how we roll. ;) Mitch and I watched the movie, "Interstellar" (loved it!) and by the time it was over it was 11:40 pm so we stayed up to watch the ball drop and realized just how old we are because we didn't know who any of the famous people were besides Ryan Seacrest and Carrie Underwood. We're a little out of the loop, but probably happier because of it. ;)

2015 was so good to us! We couldn't ask for more. Excited for 2016! My biggest hope is that Mitch will wrap up his dissertation and be all set to graduate in the spring of 2017! I'm sure no one is wishing for that more than Mitch himself! Also, Marcus WILL be potty trained in 2016, and Layla will probably finish Volume 1 of her Suzuki piano books. As for me, I'd like to do some more photography this year. Yay for a new year!

Randoms December 2015

Once again, it's time to write down the list of things I want to remember when my kids are grown and I'm missing the days when they were five and two years old (seriously, they're at the BEST ages right now!).

I took some pics of my kids in their Christmas outfits the Sunday before Christmas. I never get around to doing this early enough to send out Christmas cards, but if I did, I would have loved to use these pics! (only edited better.)

 

 

 

 

Marcus. Oh he says the funniest things! Pretty much every time he opens his mouth, he me makes me laugh. If it's not what he says then it's the way he says it. Here are a few of his latest:

• As I'm getting him dressed, he runs away from me. I sneak up from behind and put his shirt on over his head and he says, "Whoa! What's happening to me?!" (If you could only hear his cute, little voice, it would seem that much cuter. He really has the cutest voice! And he puts so much expression into what he says that it makes it even funnier!)



His smiles lately kills me!

• His most frequent phrase is, "I not need help! I do it ALL by myself!" He also yelled this very loudly while we were in sacrament meeting because I didn't let him put the cup back in the tray...
• Also while in sacrament meeting, when it's so quiet and he was mad, he yelled, "No pwesents and no birfday cake fow you!" (Pretty sure everyone around us was laughing.)
• Mitch came to sacrament late because we left something at home and when he did come in Marcus kept yelling, "No! Not my Daddy! You go home, Daddy!" to the point where I had to take him out in the hall and then he said, "What's going on?" and I said, "You're in trouble," and he said, "I in twoubwo?" and I had to remind myself not to laugh but to let him know that he was indeed in "twoubo."



He put this Santa hat on and wore it for three days straight! He really likes hats.

• He rarely calls Layla by her first name, but usually refers to her as "my sistew," though he is getting better at saying his "r"s now, which makes us sad, because it's so cute how he says "sistew." He loves her so much, even if he does bite and push sometimes. :/ He's always saying, "Where my sistew go?" and "No, my sistew pway (play) wif me," and "My sistew can do it!" It melts my heart!

He always drinks the milk in his cereal bowl, sometimes before he eats the cereal.

• Marcus is still OBSESSED with the show PJ Masks by Disney Junior. I don't think I've heard him call Mitch "Daddy" in weeks, but he calls him one of the villians names from the show. ;) We all have different characters that he refers to us as and if we call him Marcus it makes him very angry when he's in character mode. 

• Layla is so sweet and has been so good lately! The other day she was asking for something (probably candy) and thought I would say no, so she put her hands under her chin, batted her eyes, and said, "How can you say no to this face?" And I really couldn't. ;) 
• It's so fun now that she can read! We played the board game Sorry the other day and it was awesome because she could read the cards and play really well!
• Her piano teacher has been having her practice playing with her left hand soft and the right hand (melody) loud. She told us that one day it will just click, like a baby learning to walk, and Layla will be able to do it on all her songs. Well the day came and she can do it so well now! I'm so impressed and excited! She is a very good piano player and I feel like she's starting to enjoy it more and more. Her piano teacher said she has coached several piano teachers who can't play with their left hand soft and that Layla is so young to be able to do that. Proud parent moment for sure. I have a very talented daughter!
• She likes to "tuck" Harvey in when he lays on her bed.

• So the other day Layla and Elsie were playing at our house. As Elsie was leaving I heard them talking about delivering invitations to their friends. When I asked about it, they told me that they were having a party at Layla's house on December 19th. What the?! I had NO idea about this and they were about to invite their friends without me knowing. I didn't even know what day of the week December 19th would be and had to look at the calendar. They had made their own invitations and spent a lot of time on it. They were each inviting two friends. After seeing their excitement and their hard work on the invites, I said they could have the party. But I made them add a time to the invitation. They had forgotten that important bit of information. ;) The party came and we got chocolate milk and doughnuts, played pin the carrot nose and buttons on the snowman, played a Christmas drawing game, and danced to Christmas music. Everyone came and Layla was in heaven. They all wore "fansy" dresses like the invitations said. I'm really sad that I didn't take pictures! I really need to be better about that. But I did take a pic of one of the invitations. This one says to "bring 1 set of party lights" ha! (I told her mom not to worry about that part;)

• I went to the food pantry for Salt Lake City with our church mutual group. We had the job of putting pasta into smaller bags to be shipped to soup kitchens around the state. It was fun and we had to wear hair nets so we looked silly.
• We got SO much snow this week! Mitch was out of town, so I had the task of snow blowing the driveway myself. It was hard because the snow was so slushy. Thankfully some good neighbors helped me finish! The snow sure makes everything look pretty. I took some pics on our way to the library the other day because it was just so beautiful.

• This pic is from when we visited the chocolate factory a few weeks ago:
• They love for Mitch to hold them upside down and chase them around.
• If they're not pretending to be PJ Masks, then they are pretending to be my kittens. ;) Here they are "sleeping" in their "kitten bed."

• Speaking of sleep, Marcus learned to climb out of his crib. :/ So we switched him to a toddler bed and it's been a bit of a struggle. He rarely naps now so today I found him asleep like this in his rocking chair. At least he is getting better about sleeping in his big boy bed. The last two nights he's done very well.

• Maybe I already posted this, but they got new jammies. 

• I love my kids!!!!!!!!!