Happy Birthday Little Man

Hard to believe this sweet little guy is already two! He is such a fun kid and brings our family so much joy. He is talking up a storm these days and can effectively communicate everything he wants - hopefully this will help avoid any tantrums that sometimes come with this age! He loves trains, trucks, cars, etc. (anything with wheels) and also loves Mickey Mouse, Tigger and Pooh, and basically anything "Playhouse Disney." He loves to read stories, sing songs, and play with his brother and sisters. He is especially a Daddy's boy and every time I am on the phone, regardless of who I am talking to, he follows me around and says "Talk to Daddy!" Mark never fails to get a thrilling "welcome home" from work with Ammon yelling "Daddy's Home!" running to the door, and smothering him with hugs and kisses. We love you Ammon - Happy Birthday!

Blowing out the candles (or at least thinking about it)

Josh started prepping Ammon for his presents a few days before his birthday. I thought it would be in vain, but one of the first things Ammon said when he woke up in the morning was "open presents?" He got the hang of it no problem!Enjoying a musical tractor from Grandpa H

Enjoying a musical card from Grandma & Grandpa B

A train puzzle that makes a choo choo sound when it is done. He figured out how to do this puzzle so fast!

Excited about a new Richard Scarry book

Poor little Ella was sick all weekend. Even though she had a high fever, my ever-selfless sweetie managed to color a train for Ammon, which of course he loved.

I love how excited the kids are for him

His Super Sleuth Cake!

Ultrasound Successful!

Thanks to Steph, my awesome sister-in-law who has some sweet connections, I was able to get an early ultrasound today! So fun to see my baby 5 weeks earlier than scheduled! AND the funnest news of all is that we found out the gender! Check out these pics!

These are the little legs, kinda crossed...cute!

Cute little hands up by the face
Another cute little hand waving at us
And the best one of all...seems pretty certain, huh? Sorry kid, no privacy!
We are so excited to welcome another baby boy! How perfect for Ammon to have a little buddy. He can already say "little buddy" and it is so cute. They will be 2.5 years apart...just about right to be best friends and wrestling partners. The baby looks healthy and seems to be doing really well - this wasn't a complete diagnostic ultrasound (I'll still have that at 20 weeks) but it's always a relief to see a healthy heart, two arms, two legs, etc. Now on to picking a name!

The Rest of December...

The kids in their Christmas Jammies from Grandma & Grandpa B

We hosted Mark's family for Christmas Eve...after a yummy dinner we played some fun games
Mark and I had an awesome get-away weekend in Park City for our 10th Anniversay. Thanks to Kris and Amy for taking such good care of our kiddos! This is a HUGE snowman that was at the city park...wow!

Holly sitting on Santa's lap after her dance performance

Strike a Pose!

Ella was so happy to perform in her preschool program

And to sit on Santa's lap!

Holly cheesin' it up in her school's Christmas program

Mark and Ammon enjoying a little bonding time outside

Decorating Christmas sugar cookies

Christmas Day...a favorite new book for Mark

Ammon enjoying his new tractor

Holly in her new cheer gear

Ella in her new princess pretties

Reading "The Monster at the End of this Book" - one of my favorites from when I was young

Ella, our ever generous sweetheart, game Mommy her Ariel princess, her ballerina baby, and some awesome glasses! She had them all wrapped up and under the tree for a few weeks before Christmas. She's a keeper!

Josh reading the letter Santa left him; complimenting him on his good deeds over the past year

We also hosted a New Year's Eve party & had a great time eating, talking, & playing games with several families from our neighborhood. Sorry no pics...but the 1:30 a.m. bedtime sure wiped me out the next day! Happy 2010!

Stuff we've been up to

In no particular order:

Last night we went and drove through the lights at Thanksgiving Point - we've never done it before and so it was lots of fun and very magical. Their designs are really cute, and we especially loved the Simon Dewey display at the end. The kids were also happy to see some live reindeer (even though they were sleeping). A fun and festive night!

We are saddened by the loss of Mark's wonderful Grandma, Gladys Stum. She passed away Friday, Dec. 4 at the age of 92. She was an important part of our lives and we will truly miss her. She was amazing! We especially have great memories of trip to the cabin with her - I love this picture of her reading a story to Ella - she was always ready to do anything for the kids and they really loved their great grandma. I'm so glad they got to know her.

This is in Bryce Canyon at a reunion - Grandma doing some yoga with the ladies! She was a great example for healthy living.

We attended her funeral this past weekend and were very uplifted by the messages and memories. We were also grateful to be able to see so many extended family members - I am very lucky to have married into such a wonderful family!

Earlier in the month I took Ella and Ammon to the Festival of Trees. This is a fun tradition for me - something I've done since I was about 12. It's a fun way to ring in the season.

We were especially amazed by this gingerbread train. I can't believe how anyone could make this - it's even bigger than it looks in the picture. So neat!

Ammon is obsessed these days with anything that has wheels. This car ramp was given to us when Josh was young and he was never into it, but when we found it in Grandpa's play closet Ammon couldn't have been happier. Nice find! Ammon is always carrying around a few cars, trucks, or trains, and loves to watch "I love toy trains." I think he's definitely all boy!

You never know what you'll get when the kids get their hands on the camera! Mark is quite proud of this cute little Rudolph that he made though

My birthday was this week - Ella was so excited to give me her Barbie Computer. How sweet is that? Of course she said I have to share it with her still, but I love how selfless she was to go and get one of her favorite toys and wrap it up for me all by herself! Sigh!

The little angel herself:

One of Holly's many drawings I receive that day!

Holly's picture, and of course the traditional blueberry cheesecake mark made me - Yum!

Don't mind that I have no makeup on...I stayed home sick from church Sunday with a bad cold, but agreed to photos anyway. Mark gave me a new game - "Manila" - it has been on our "to get" list for many years so I'm really excited to finally have it - it is so fun!

another fun gift was the new Lion House Bakery cookbook. I can't wait to try it!

Lots of more events happening in the next few weeks so stay tuned for more posts!

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving, ETC.

Lots to post about! I just wrote a letter to my in-laws and realized I could copy most of it here for my "journaling" sake if nothing else! We had quite the bout of sickness hit Ammon, Ella, and Holly the 2 weeks prior to Thanksgiving. Yucky colds, sore throats, and coughs. Ammon got it, then Ella, then Holly, then it cycled through all three of them for a second time! We had several weeks there where we couldn’t even go to church as a family. It wasn’t flu, just the yucks. I was ready to scream I was so sick of runny noses & kids coughing all over me, and being stuck at home with sick kids! Luckily everyone seems to be healthy now and we are enjoying being able to get out of the house and enjoy some of the holiday festivities.

Thanksgiving was an adventure for me this year! Doing the whole feast on my own was quite the undertaking. We had for appetizers homemade shrimp cocktail, homemade cheese crackers, and roasted pumpkin seeds. Then for the main meal pumpkin bisque, a brined & roasted turkey, homemade stuffing (from homemade bread), potatoes and homemade gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, roasted yams, spinach salad with homemade cranberry vinaigrette, and homemade Lion House recipe rolls. Oh and of course you can’t forget the homemade pies: pumpkin, and cran-raspberry-pear. Yum! I really wore myself out the few days before the feast, but it was worth it because Thanksgiving day was wonderful. The food all turned out great, and although I wasn’t sure how it was going to be, having just a small group was actually nice. Mark's sister Heidi and my dad were our guests; other than that it was just our little family, and having special time with our kids was great. I guess sometimes as we gather with larger family groups we tend to let the kids play with cousins and don’t even spend that much time with them, but this year we really enjoyed each other. The afternoon was even nice enough for us to go outside and toss a football and ride bikes. Here are some pictures of Holly and Ella helping me make some pilgrims and indians placemarkers for the table:

A picture of the table all decked out:

Josh, Mark, Heidi, Holly, Dad, Ella. If you look close in the picture you can see little tiny glasses (holding our cocktail) as well as salt and pepper dishes on silver trays, something I requested special for my dad to bring out of my mom's china cupboard so we could have a memory of her at our dinner. Bless his heart, my dad polished those silver trays for 3 hours to get off the tarnish! And of course Ammon!

Turkey, cranberry sauce, and Stuffing

Green Bean Casserole, roasted yams, spinach salad, rolls, pumpkin bisque. Potatoes and gravy missed the shot, and darn! I never got a picture of the pies...they were beautiful if I do say so myself

The customary nap after the feast

The day after we headed up into the mountains with two other families from our ward to cut down our Christmas tree. It was a really great day. We followed tradition and went to “The Gateway Grille” in Kamas for lunch, then drove further in and then hiked quite a long time before finding the perfect tree. I think it’s even better than last year’s! There was just enough snow to have fun in but not so much to be hard to walk in. And the temperature was perfect – not too cold. The kids had a great time especially because their friends were with us and we came home that night and started decorating.

Saturday morning Mark and the kids did the whole tree while I was at the temple – what a great deal! I got the rest of the house decorated and that night Mark and I watched a really good movie called “Facing the Giants.” It’s a motivational movie, similar to “Forever Strong.” It’s made by a Baptist church about a football coach/team and was really faith-promoting. I'll have to post pictures of the finished tree soon.

We visited Santa at the mall the other night, and after they all sat on his knee we were having a discussion on whether or not it was the “real” Santa. After a variety of opinions, Josh realized that Ammon had sat on Santa’s knee several minutes without crying (Ammon is usually very wary of strangers) so that was the clincher and convinced them all that it must be the real Santa. It was so cute. I'm glad we still have the magic.

We are all looking forward to a fun and festive month. Happy Holidays!