What a great Christmas!

This was our first Christmas that we would spend together with just our little family.  We were a bit worried, since we don't have any traditions yet, that it would be quite boring.  We were relieved to find, that, on the contrary, we had a really fun and satisfying Christmas.  We started on Christmas Eve by visiting Chris's 98 year old Grandma, who is visiting in Mapleton for a few weeks.  She is an amazing lady and we try to visit her whenever we get the chance.  After visiting with her and running some errands, we visited Chris's friend Bill and wished him a Merry Christmas.  He was glad to see us, as he always is, and we had a nice visit.  We had dinner with some neighbors that night, and had fun singing Christmas carols with their family. 

 

I think our girls had a great Christmas.  This will be the first one Lily will remember, so we wanted to make it a good one.  As you can see, we are trying to turn her into a mini-us.  She also got a doctor kit.

Happy Holidays!

So I did get a new camera, and finally managed to learn how to download the pictures.  So far I've had fun learning to use the features on the camera, and we are enjoying the video feature.  We spent Thanksgiving Day at my brother's house in Logan.  From there we went to Rexburg, along with my parents and two siblings.  We were able to do some sealings in the temple for some family names we've been working on, and had a great experience doing that.  My dad is a sealer, so that made it all the more special.

The first of December we ventured out into the cold to see the Christmas lights downtown.  It was relatively warm, so we thought it would be a good night for it.  We had a great time, and the crowds weren't as large as we had anticipated.  Downtown looks a bit different with ginormous holes where the malls used to be.  

Our Halloween

We had a fun time at our neighborhood trunk-or-treat at our church.  Lily was a ladybug and Kate was a Jack-o-lantern, thanks to some great hand-me-down costumes.  Lily didn't remember last Halloween, so she thought it was pretty neat that you could just walk up to someone and they would put candy in your bag.  When you think of it, its quite a concept.

Here are some other pictures of our kids, Lily on a Sunday with her cute pigtails.  That's the only day I can get her to wear them.  And cute Kate.  She's a smiler.

I'm going to get me a camera

So my plan has been this week to buy a digital camera for me. If any of you know my husband, he is a photographer, and his smallest camera occupies a bag that is bigger than my diaper bag for 2 kids. So if we leave anything home when we go somewhere, it's the camera. And he does take really nice pictures of the kids, but they tend to stay in his computer somewhere where I haven't yet been granted access to. So I figure if I can get me a small camera that could fit in my purse (or even in the diaper bag), I may be able to post some pictures. However, given the fact that we are spending a bundle of money right now to repair the transmission in Chris's car, that may not happen for a few more months. So just take my word for it that our kids are growing fast and are really adorable.

We were able to go to Logan yesterday to help my brother lay sod in his new yard. Chris took his last day off of the year, and we had a great time. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather spend the day with than my family. Lily loves playing with her cousins, and this time she even got her fingenails painted for the first time in her life. Thank you, Ailee. This morning the first thing she said to her daddy was, "See my pretty fingernails!"

Jodi's official first blogging entry

So I am currently enjoying what we call "Mommy's quiet time," which is what happens when Lily refuses to take a nap. And amazingly enough, she actually leaves me alone and plays pretty well by herself. Usually during quiet time I read, or do FamilySearch Indexing, or anything else that she can't do with me. Today my plan for naptime was to make the 50 cups of playdough Chris promised for a scouting activity, but I'm afraid that would not make for a very quiet quiet time. Not that I don't have other things to do. Tomorrow we have an enrichment meeting that I'm in charge of, and Thursday we leave for a week-end camping family reunion. I'm the enrichment leader in my ward, as well as a ward organist and family history consultant. Chris is on the high council and the stake young men's pres. I guess they believe in multi-tasking in our stake. So there are Sundays I play the organ and Chris is in another ward, leaving our girls at the mercy of the ward. I figure the bishop should have called someone to be our Sunday nanny if he won't release me as organist. Tonight we are off to the State Fair. Should be a good time.

Computer Skills at 2 1/2, What is next

It is amazing what these kids can do. What a rising generation.

Lily Prayer Song

We think she's cute! She sings very well.

My Girls

I have wanted to start something that I could share with my family and friends so here it is. I love my girls! Here is one of the latest pictures of them all together.