Christmas Vacation

We got back from our Arizona Christmas trip on Sunday. As always, it was lots of fun and hardly seemed like we were there for a couple of weeks. This year, the bulk of our Christmas festivities were with my side of the fam. We switch off with every other year being with Jake's side or mine. Just makes things easier that way! Anyhow, here are some of our favorite Christmas memories from this time around. I want all of these pictures in our future blog book... so there are a lot!
Christmas Eve was spent roasting hot dogs and making smores. We all had so much fun... I hope it's going to be a new tradition. Luke especially loved watching Grandpa Paul start the fire and could not get enough marshmallows. After stuffing ourselves with food, we played games and opened presents. Christmas Eve has always been my favorite part about Christmas!
Our little fam...
Luke and Grandpa!
Fun roasting!

Even more Christmas Eve...

Luke was excited about Santa, but thanks to a late Christmas Eve, he didn't wake up until 9:30 or 10:00! Jake was off at about noon with Ben to go to the Spurs vs. Suns game. I guess it was a pretty slow game, but picked up in the end. The Spurs won on a 3 point buzzer shot! Jake is a pretty die hard fan, so it's only fitting that he was watching them play on Christmas with Ben!
Luke checking out his stocking loot...

Ella's first Christmas!

Last year when we were in AZ for the holidays, my mom put some chocolate ornaments on a little tree in the house, and Luke loved it! So, this year she and my dad had some waiting for him. This little dude couldn't get enough. He had fun picking oranges off of the tree outside too.

We went to see The Polar Express in 3D. It's Luke's favorite movie now! After we saw it at the IMAX, Luke watched it like 10 more times on DVD before we left. Grandma sent it home with us, so he can watch it even more! haha. We were stylin in our glasses...

Yeah for riding the merry-go-round in the mall!

Luke, Abby, mom, and I made a gingerbread train....


Another highlight of the trip was wedding dress
shopping with Abby! She didn't find the dress
when we went this time, but we had fun! Here are some dresses she won't be wearing. Haha. I found the most ridiculous dress in the whole store and she tried it on for kicks. Haha. It's that green and black beauty. :)
We had fun. Love that girl!

We went to the park one day with the Smiths. All the cousins had fun running around together and riding bikes while the adults got to hang out. Joe, Rick, Ben, and Davey made and launched rockets and the kids counted down for them to blast off!

more park fun...

We got to go listen to Joe and MC6 perform at the temple again this year. Nice work guys! They are awesome. It was fun seeing all the lights again, too.

Dad took us to ride the ATVs one day. The sun was deceiving! It was soo cold. Totally worth it though! It was such a fun place to ride. Luke is still talking about riding the "tractors" and splashing in the muddy water. Thanks for a fun time, dad!

We had a late Christmas Eve dinner with the Smiths. It was great being with everyone. Luke was soaking it up. He likes being Ethan's shadow. Cute cousins!

Jenny and Todd introduced us to the goats at Jenny's parent's house. They are funny little guys! Luke kept eating their Lucky Charms. Haha. He did give them a few though. We took them for a little walk.... fun times!

My dad's birthday is Dec. 31! So, we had a birthday party for him. Everyone came over to eat waffles and omelettes for breakfast. Abby and I had a fun time decorating the kitchen for it. Happy 48 dad!

We went to visit Grandma Taylor... Jake's cute grandma. Isn't she the most stylish little lady around?! She and Ella got to meet for the first time.... and yep, ella's headband is falling off in this picture and it looks like Luke is eating his sleeve. oh well..
I found some new favorites on this trip! First up, Fresh and Easy's Strawberry Lemonade! Sooo good! Even beats out Chick-Fil-A's lemonade in my opinion, which is pretty hard to beat. Also, my mom introduced me to Naartjie. They have super cute baby and kids clothes! Such a fun place. Last but not least...




















I finally got to try Sprinkles!! Mom and I took Luke and Ella with us one afternoon. Their cupcakes are so yummy. I want to go again! Between us, we tried strawberry, orange, lemon-coconut, and white. Strawberry was my fav! Go next time you're in Scottsdale!

I got to see two of my cute BYU roomies and their families. Love these girls!...

We had family pictures taken. Here's one of a billion :)...

It was a memorable trip. We were lucky to be able to do so much with family! Luke and Ella were great on the plane rides. Luke is in a crazy airplane and rocket loving stage right now so he was a happy guy!
Checking out the airplanes in the airport and once we were on the plane...

Santa left a present in TX for Luke, so he got to come home to it. Woo hoo!
Now we're just getting back in the swing of things here! Jake is back to school, and we're getting back to our normal routine. It was fun having a break from everyday life for a little bit!

4 Years of Marriage and Other Tidbits...

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to try and blog once a week. I've missed a few weeks here and there, but overall I blogged much more this year then I did previous years. Woo hoo! Our home computer has been run over by an annoying virus of some sort...the windows applications won't even come up anymore. That's my excuse for missing a couple of weeks! Luckily I had just backed up all the pictures we had saved on there a few days before it started doing weird things. phew! So, since Jake is home tonight with his trusty school laptop, I thought I'd do one last post of the year. Tomorrow I fly with the kiddos to AZ, and Jake will come out on Friday to be with us! Crazy that Christmas is here already.
Before Christmas though... our anniversary is Thursday! Happy 4 years Jake! I love you. Since I'll be in AZ and Jake will be in TX, we're going to celebrate next weekend in AZ. We're taking advantage of the grandparents for babysitting! :) It has been a great 4 years, and they feel like they've flown by. At the same time though, so much has happened since. I couldn't ask for a better husband. Here are a couple pics from our wedding day! It was the coldest day ever! But the best day ever too. The first two are actually pictures of pictures... hence the not so great quality on here. Oh well.

So.. some highlights of the last couple of weeks include...

*Jake took half of the natl. boards today! The other half is tomorrow. It will be nice when he is done with this! Hopefully it will be the end of picking him up late at night at the school library.

* My little sister is engaged now! She and Chris are so cute together... he proposed last weekend. We're so excited for them! You guys, before you know it... 4 years will have passed since your wedding day and you might have little munchkins hanging around your house! crazy.
aren't they cute?!

*We took Luke and Ella to see Santa. Luke had been looking forward to it, but once he saw the creepy old guy sitting there, wasn't so sure he wanted to sit on his lap. I don't blame him... I remember being a little afraid of Santa myself. He didn't say anything to Santa except for "I want some toys"... as we were walking away. Let's hope Santa heard!
*Our last trip to Sea World. We always get our money out of our season passes! It was sort of sad realizing that it was our final trip there since we'll be moving in the spring.
Luke and Jake on the Texas Splashdown...

* We put up our Christmas decorations at the beginning of the month. I was hesitant to do it since we're just going to be here for a couple weeks, but I'm glad we did! It wouldn't have felt like December without them.

*We have gone on a few car rides so Luke could see the lights. So magical to a 2 year old!

*I got Christmas cards off today! I love paper... and stationary... and hearing from old friends and relatives I don't see often... and getting cards in the mail.... which is why I've been doing it every year. I figure there are other people out there that like these things, too. Maybe someday in the future, I'll just post a Merry Christmas message to everyone on my blog and hope they see it. For now though, I like real cards :)

* We've gotten some fun packages in the mail and so many treats from friends, family, and neighbors. It all started with Kristen's yummy marshmallowy chocolate and peanuts, and we've been digging into other stuff since. Luckily I've been running, so I still fit into my clothes. Haha.

Some pictures from tonight. Luke was having fun pushing Ella around in his wagon. She seemed to like it too!

Low lights of the last couple of weeks...

* Luke is NEVER going to go with me to the store again. Well, as long as he is 2 years old and doing naughty things anyway. Over the past month, he's discovered that he likes pushing stacks of folded clothes onto the floor, yanking jewelry off of the little hanger things onto the ground, and running around like a mad man just to make his mom chase him. Bah! As a former Gap employee... it bugs to see freshly folded clothes messed up like that! So, Mr. Luke, you'll be staying home with your dad from now on when I go shopping.
In addition to his store behavior, he has been obsessed with my cell phone. He's always telling me to "stop it mom... I need my phone! Give it to me!" Lots of times I will put my phone on the charger and then not be able to find it... Luke has it. He even took it to church without my knowing it. I guess he was marching around nursery acting like he was talking on the phone. He's called my mom a few times on accident and some other people too. Sorry guys! He's quite the little prankster. Not that I let him have my phone every time he wants it.. .usually he is sneaky and manages somehow to swipe it when I'm not looking.

*Jake went to the Dr. and found out that his finger he hurt while playing flag football really is messed up. He has what's called "mallet finger"... and it's going to take a long time in a splint to heal.

* Another trip to the testing center was a bust. Boo! I'm not in the mood to elaborate this time...

Sheesh... such a long post. Well, I think that's it for now! See ya in 2009. :)

Such a Brother

Luke is always asking to hold Ella lately... well, he likes the idea of holding her, or of her sitting by him. But, when I put her next to him or on his lap, he changes his mind pretty quick. He either forgets she's there, or his arm gets kind of tired and he lets her fall down. I thought it was funny that it always happens like this so a couple days ago when he asked for Ella to sit by him, I got the camera out.
Luke's baby holding skills...
Luke: "Ella needs to watch Bob the Builder with me. I NEED to hold her." (If you've been around him lately, you know how much he NEEDS things. Haha)
Here we go... He's pretty attentive at first.
Watching Bob is more interesting though...

He remembers she's there...

After I sit her up again for him, he decides to lay on her.

Had enough sister stuff. Back to the show.

Thanksgiving 08

Thanksgiving was nice and relaxing this year! We hung out with friends and ate way to much good food at the Jessop's house. Thanks guys for a fun time! The Baldwins and Woods were there too. We stuffed ourselves, then played some games, watched some football, and the kids played. Luke loves hanging out with Dylan, and I don't think he ate more then a few bites of food so he wouldn't miss a second with his buddy.
Jake and the kids before heading over for Thanksgiving dinner!
Sherry, you should be proud of your son! :) I know he's been a good chef for a while, but who knew he would be so good at making his mother's rolls? They turned out great! Here's the baker at work. Oh, and I've decided that every recipe with mammoth amounts of butter is just the best. This one is no exception.

The guys watching a game...

Even baby Matilda liked the food!

Way too much pie. All of it was so good though. I think we divided it out and took home 90% of what was there since we were all so full.

Travis entertained Luke and Dylan with a remote control helicopter. They were loving it!

Ok, so this does not have anything to do with Thanksgiving, but I thought it was funny. Lately, Luke insists on doing just about everything himself. He will throw a tantrum if you help him put on his shoes, brush his teeth, buckle his car seat, pretty much everything. Must be what the terrible twos are all about... fighting for independence... aaa! Drives me nuts. Anyway, Jake told him to go get some clothes for the day since he didn't want to wear what I got out for him. This is what he picked. Haha. Don't be jealous.