'Tis the Season

We've had a pretty busy December. I can't believe Christmas Eve is tomorrow! Where did the month go?

First off, the girls got to be in a Nativity play. They were both "wise women" and did a great job. They were mostly excited about the costumes they got to wear.

Here they are after the dress rehearsal:

With friends who were Mary and the other wise woman

The set was pretty awesome

Waving to Mom

Here's a video clip (they don't come in until the end):


Elizabeth also had her kindergarten Christmas program. Unfortunately Joe had a final that night so he didn't get to go. I did my best to get video of everything but it was not easy with a baby in one arm and so many parents/grandparents packed into the auditorium. I had to stand up only halfway so I could get video of her without blocking the people behind me. And of course she was on the opposite side as me.

Here's a picture before the performance...And here she is singing "Must Be Santa"... (try to find her!)


Joe and I also took the girls to the Nutcracker last weekend. It was Natalie's first time (she has been patiently waiting for two years since Elizabeth got to go and she didn't). They loved it! They were asking tons of questions and we did our best to be patient about that. I think they knew the story and the songs too well because they kept asking when certain things were going to happen.

Here they are before the show....

I love Natalie all folded up in the seat.
And yes we were second row from the top!

The theater

I meant to get one of the four of us but it didn't happen. Elizabeth's favorite part was the Waltz of the Flowers and Natalie's was the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (those were their favorite songs before, too). They also liked when the nutcracker changed into a real person. Magic!

The Boy is 15 Months

Time is going too fast. I can't believe that Nate is 15 months. I just wanted to catch up a little bit on this busy little boy...

I feel like I am just now starting to understand what it's like to have a baby that is "into everything". I thought I understood before. I remember the girls both getting into things. Playing with all the tupperware, pots and pans, and what not. But that was nothing compared to this kid. He just does not stop getting into things. And he doesn't stop at harmless tupperware; he pulls out large appliances like the crockpot and the rice cooker. He empties drawers. He digs into the trash. He can open almost anything. He already knows how to open ziploc bags (Natalie still asks me to open them for her!), pull the lids off of the plastic toy bins, and click open shampoo bottles. I won't be surprised if he's taking off screw-top lids soon. I finally put a baby lock on the cupboard below the sink and he was SO mad about it. I must admit I was feeling very triumphant watching him. He was pulling so hard. He'll probably break that off soon enough. He also enjoys playing in the toilet and unrolling the toilet paper whenever he gets a chance.

Here he is emptying the girls' drawers:

It's a good thing he's so cute and happy. He just learned how to spin around the other night and has been doing it all the time. It is so cute. He loves it when I lay on the ground and he can come sit on my stomach or on my head and bounce up and down. He loves to dance. It's very flashdance(or Chris Farley)-esque so you can't help but sing "I'm a Maniac" when he's doing it.

He's starting to throw some pretty good tantrums. Like tonight when I gave him a graham cracker and had the gall to break it into pieces and not give it to him whole. He throws food all the time still but now he understands how to clean up and it's so cute to watch him pick things up.

This boy makes me happy.

Look at those enormous lips! I love them!

4 Years Old

My little Natalie-boo turned 4 last week. I can't believe she's that big.

She wants to be big. She is starting to form definite opinions about things, especially clothes and hairstyles. She only wants to wear dresses and leggings lately and she only wants her hair done a certain way--right now either in braids or half-up, half-down. It has been driving me crazy. She is just in that stage. I remember going through this with Elizabeth. She and I still have the occasional struggle but it's not as bad. I guess it's just 4 year-old independence. I'm trying to relax about things but I just wish she would wear some of these cute clothes she has.

For her birthday, she chose to wear the above outfit. She's got a white sweater on underneath (not on top!) a white t-shirt and her "school uniform" on. That is a jumper someone gave us for Elizabeth to wear to school but it was too small so it got passed down to Natalie. I just think it's funny that she thinks wearing a uniform is so great.

Anyway, she had a nice birthday. We had the birthday dinner (burgers, fries and strawberry spinach salad this time), cake and presents. She also helped me put up our Christmas decorations that day. That is becoming a tradition, too.

Here she is opening presents...

She got some fun stuff like a pretend school kit...

(they have been getting good use out of that)

...and a Dinosaur Train game from Lizzie.
And some more practical things like gloves...

...and boots!

She loved those just as much. That's one of the beauties of girls (at least my girls)--I can give them clothes or shoes and they are thrilled.

She also got some lip gloss. Here she is showing it to Daddy. Look at that beautiful face.

Her poor chin! She had the dryness from Utah and then also got a scrape which we covered with a band-aid that somehow left a rash.

Here we are singing to the birthday girl:

She was very specific in how she wanted her cake decorated and I did my best to make it happen.

We are so proud of Natalie. She is such a sweet girl who tries so hard to be good. She is a good friend and a good sister. She will share anything with Elizabeth (the video shows that it sometimes takes a bit of prodding :). In fact, I'm always telling her she doesn't have to give up everything to Elizabeth. She is a peacemaker. She is so sweet to her little brother. He loves it when she plays peek-a-boo with him.

She loves to sing and dance. She is mastering the art of making up her own lyrics to songs just like her dad. Some of them aren't half bad! She wants to do things well and gets frustrated when she can't do something, but she is persistent. She is excellent at folding laundry! It amazes me. It's a good thing, too, because it can be hard to get her to clean up in other ways. She loves to draw (except when a drawing doesn't turn out how she hoped it would). She loves to make patterns with colors. She is becoming quite the little reader and has some sight words. She gets tired of sounding things out and doesn't like to practice much right now but she will look at books and read with me for hours. She loves to be tickled. She loves preschool.

And we love her.

Thanksgiving in Utah

We had quite the adventure over Thanksgiving, traveling to Utah and back in 5 days. It actually went pretty smoothly, with a few hiccups along the way.

First off, we tried to leave early Tuesday morning (around 4am) and only made it about 45 minutes when we learned the highway was closed over the pass and we wouldn't make it out that night. We kept the car packed and used Tuesday to get some more things done and then tried again early Wednesday morning. This time we had clear skies (although some icy roads over the pass) but made great time considering the season. I really think I should write a book about long car trips with kids. Well, I guess every family and every kid is different so the book would really only apply to us, but still--I feel like I have this thing down to a science. Or, maybe it's just that our kids are so used to traveling that they are easy in the car. Who knows.

(Here are a couple of tips if anyone would like a little preview to my book: 1)Try to pack healthy snacks to eat in the car. This will help prevent many messes and also makes everyone more pleasant to be around in my opinion. We've done the fast food route and I personally think it increases the likelihood of grouchiness and/or car sickness mishaps. Older kids are probably fine with burgers and fries (heck, that's all we ever had in the car when I was growing up and I did fine) but I think it's too much for young kids. Plus, kids will eat up anything like it's candy during a 12 hour car trip when nothing else is available, including raw broccoli. 2)Bring extra plastic bags! They are essential, whether as trash bags, car sickness bags, or blowout-containing bags. OK, I'm done with my schpiel.)

Now, when I tell you about our little incident in the car on the way, I think I will lose all credence as an expert mother type....

We unintentionally brought along a hanger when we grabbed Natalie's snow coat from the closet. It was one of those kind of thick white plastic hangers from the dollar store or someplace. Elizabeth was playing with it and somehow Nate got a hold of it and was playing with it, too (we didn't notice he had it). Suddenly, there is this piercing cry from the backseat. I look back to see Nate, with the hook part of the hanger IN HIS EYE and he's trying to pull it out himself and just yanking on his eyelid. (Shivers) It still makes me sick just thinking about it. I reach back and get it out. The first pull on the hanger didn't even get it out, it took another little turn, but we got it. Needless to say, Joe and I are freaking out and Joe pulls over to the side of the freeway. We get him out of his seat and I hold him. He had some brownish tears come out at first and he took a little bit to calm down but after that he was completely fine. Man, we were sure he was going to be blinded forever or something. His poor eye was swollen and draining that day and the next but since then he has been fine, thank goodness.

His swollen right eye

But, aside from that, we had a good drive. Here are some pre-incident pictures from the car...

He loved when Lizzie would read him books:

He also loved playing his favorite game on Daddy's iphone.
I think it's so funny to watch a little 1 year-old using an iphone.

He really is the best baby in the car. That is a blessing. Our DVD player just broke so I was nervous about this trip but he did great. I seem to remember the girls being very difficult in the car at his age, forcing us to watch whatever their favorite video was over and over just to keep them happy.

Anyway, we made it to Utah and the girls wasted no time to begin their pleas to play out in the snow. It was like in the teens when this next picture was taken but you couldn't tell by looking at them:

We had a great Thanksgiving with Tom, Lorna, Richard, Jace, Jon, Jaime and family, at Lori and Dustin's beautiful home with their family. They were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed a delicious meal. One main purpose of our trip was to finally meet our little nephew Jace. He was so adorable. He is about 2 1/2 months younger than Nate and I think a little bit bigger!

A little bitter about it...
(just kidding--he was mad because I pulled his thumb out for the picture)

Nate with his older cousin Todd

They were cute together this trip.

Friday night we all met at Temple Square to surprise Marsha. Our other main reason for coming out was to celebrate her 60th birthday.

Despite some hints from the kids, she says she was still surprised:

By the beautiful Christus statue

I just thought this one was funny...

(Poor Natalie's chin got all dry and chapped in Utah)

Grandma with some of her progeny:

That's with 5 kids missing!

It was freezing cold but fun to see the beautiful lights.
With Uncle Richard in front of the temple:
Our family:
I forgot to take off my hood so I look a bit ridiculous. Oops.

Some of the kids by the temple:
The scene in the backseat only minutes into our drive back to Jon and Jaime's:

Some other highlights of our trip:
-Seeing Brad and Kelli and kids and their new beautiful home. Oh, and Cafe Rio. Yum. No pictures, unfortunately. We're still sad they left CA but glad for chances to visit.
-An adults-only party for Marsha Saturday night with everyone together. We ate delicious Filipino food and had a karaoke party. We had so much fun. There is some video floating around but I think we're all hoping it goes away. :) Some of my favorite moments from the night include Tom singing "Ice, Ice Baby", Joe nailing "Feeling Good" by Michael Buble, and a rousing "I Will Survive" by all the girls.

All in all, a great trip and we're so glad we decided to go. The trip back took longer than expected when we hit holiday traffic in the mountains (the roads were dry, at least). We are definitely looking forward to our FIRST travel-free Christmas in 4 years. Now if we could just make it through finals...

Fall Catch-up

My friend across the street took some really cute pictures that I've been meaning to upload. They have some great trees for dropping leaves in their yard and they let us come jump in the leaves one day. It was such a perfect day, weather-wise.

My boy

Looking at this baby face makes me want to freeze time:

Don't grow up and become a man, just stay my baby forever.
Not possible? Well, I guess that's OK.

All smiles

Mid-conversation with his little friend, Sydney:

Too cute

Working hard on that leaf pile:

Playtime!

I thought this one was funny...

So sweet

I was messing around with the camera the other night and took these...

I had no idea he was smiling like that. So funny.

Natalie all ready for the ball, with homemade crown, veil and everything.

Elizabeth finished her soccer season off with a team pizza party:

In line with some teammates for her trophy:

My beautiful soccer star:

Next up: Thanksgiving and Natalie's birthday.