And He's OFF!

Not even two weeks have gone by since Andrew started to officially crawl and now he's already got some new tricks up his sleeve. And he's fast too! Seems this boy of mine is very goal oriented. :) Gets one thing done and moves right on to the next! Doesn't waste any time! We're really proud of how well he's doing. Just a few days ago, he surprised us by pulling himself up to the couch to the standing position and then walked along side it - and has been perfecting his stunts ever since! Here's some pictures of him in action:

Of course his motivation factor was the piles of laundry on the couch we had just got done folding. Hence this last photo with the socks landing on the floor! :) It's only cute when they're young! That's what I keep telling myself. He is for sure keeping us busy these days. But I'm loving every minute of it.

DAY FOUR - Write Letters To Santa

The girls had a fun time writing their letters to Santa Clause. (It was like they already had it preplanned what to write him! Didn't take long to do at all. :)) They kept it simple though. Not wanting a whole lot. This year we've been trying to teach them to think more of others and not of themselves. Jocelyn's been listening to the words more intently this Christmas season and one that has gotten stuck in her head is: "You better watch out! You better not cry! You better watch out! I'm telling you why! Santa Clause is coming to town!....He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!" The bad or good part, particularly! I'll guess we'll see come Christmas day! ;)

DAY THREE - Decorate Christmas Tree

Decorating the Christmas tree this year was easy peasy! And I don't think it looks half bad either! String some ribbon around the tree - a tree that is already pre-lit and there we go! This year we are making things simple with the young kids. I decided that I didn't want to take the chance of Andrew swallowing or breaking things from the tree. So the ornaments will stay packed away this year and we'll reevaluate come next Christmas if it's safe to put them up or not. Adding the ribbon to what was once a bare tree is starting to make things feel more like Christmas!

DAY TWO - Movie & Treat

Tonight we watched A Charlie Brown Christmas while eating big & fluffy Rhodes Cinnamon rolls that I made for the special event. And mmmm where they GOOD! So good in fact that I packed up 5 of the remaining 9 and sent them with John to work the following morning because I didn't want them to tempt me every time I passed the kitchen. A very good solution indeed! Our kids love Charlie Brown, just as John & I did as kids growing up. We had such a fun night! But that could have also been contributed by John treating me to a night off cooking dinner and bringing home Subway sandwiches. :) It's true: happy wife=happy home!

DAY ONE - Happy 29th!

My dear husband turned 29 today! I asked him what he wanted to do on his birthday which he replied "just spend time as a family!" So that's what we did (& used for our day #1 for our 25 days of Christmas)! I didn't want to do anything Christmas related today so we didn't blend the two occasions together...I thought both should be kept separate. This year he didn't want to go out to a restaurant for dinner so I asked him what special dinner he would like to have at home. I'm not kidding you. His first thought was, "I don't care if it's hot dogs." WHAT? I don't think so! I swear he loves hot dogs way too much! So I came up with a dinner for him on my own. Chicken rotisserie, mashed potatoes, penne pasta with Alfredo sauce, bread sticks and sparkling grape juice. The kids surprised him with some new dress shirts for work he's been wanting and I got him the much anticipated Wii game: Super Mario Brothers. I don't think he was terribly surprised I got it for him - although he looked pretty happy! I had purchased the game a month before his birthday when it was on pre-sale through Amazon and every so often, he would see it in a store ad or mention it and I'd either show little to no interest or say that we didn't need it. That seemed to have done the trick! :) hehehe After dinner and gifts, we ended the birthday festivities how we normally do it: a run to Cold Stone for some ice cream! Yum!

P.S. Sorry these pictures are a little yellow. I'm not sure why our dining room light does this to the camera flash. Except for cutie pie Andrew! :) His turned out perfect. Gotta love that smile!

"Happy Birthday honey! Enjoy the last year of your 20's! xoxo :p"

25 Days Of Christmas

We're starting up a new tradition this year. Sat the kids down and came up with some ideas on how to make December fun and enjoyable in the days leading up to Christmas. Here is our family's 25 Days of Christmas list - in no particular order. I will try to post on each day what we've done.

1. bake & decorate Christmas cookies
2. cut out snowflakes
3. decorate tree
4. toys for tots
5. make cards for military overseas
6. take goodies to neighbors
7. make homemade fudge
8. nearby park Christmas lights
9. watch A Charlie Brown Christmas & enjoy warm cinnamon rolls
10. read the Christmas story & the true meaning of Christmas
11. put packages together for family
12. play in ths snow
13. write letters to Santa
14. make list of what we're grateful for
15. watch The Polar Express & have breakfast for dinner
16. make gingerbread house
17. Christmas devotional - 1st Pres. message
18. watch Frosty The Snowman & eat popcorn
19. birthday party for Andrew
20. Ward Christmas party
21. giving tree
22. family night for John's birthday
23. go to Aubrey's choir concert
24. make a Christmas card holder

25. watch Home Alone & have pizza night

Memory Monday & The Tree

I found this idea from a fellow blogger, Heather at unwrapped, awhile back and thought it would be fun to start up. So here it goes!

What is your earliest memory?
I really had a hard time deciding which memory was the earliest, so I'll just mention a few that comes to mind:

1. Going to the movies as a young girl with my Grandparents to see Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. Yes - on the BIG screen.

2. Sitting in my high chair and ripping out the pages to the Readers Digest and tossing them onto the floor and then proceeded by pouring my orange juice on top of the pages. All the while my Mom was locked out of the house by accident and tried to get my attention to open the door. Seems I was a little conveniently preoccupied! And boy was I in TROUBLE!!

3. Falling into my kindergarten's classroom lego box as we were all supposed to have a seat on the FLOOR for story time. Very embarrassing! Especially being the shy girl that I was.

4. I was getting off the school bus one afternoon when I was in kindergarten and an older student (4th or 5th grader) at my stop told me: "Hey little girl, don't bother going home because your Mom and Dad are dead!!" I ran home in tears! Gee, I wonder why I remember that. Maybe because it was a tragic thing to hear being only 5? Kids sure can be cruel sometimes!

5. Learning to tie my shoes. Going from velcro to shoelace is a huge deal! :)

6. Falling off the back of our couch while I was trying to imitate how our dog did it - apparently it was a little bit more difficult than it looked.

7. My Dad driving us around the yard in a wheelbarrow for fun.

8. My Mom made these yummy layered cakes for our birthdays!

9. I tried copying the way my Dad fell asleep every once in awhile by covering up my face with a magazine (my teddy bear worked too!) and here is a picture of me doing just that. Amazingly it worked and I passed out asleep with no problem!

AND...Last, but certainly not least...

10. Getting busted trying on my Mom's make-up and then throwing her make-up into the toilet. My Dad thought it was funny and I'm pretty sure I owe him for saving my life. (Sorry Mom...you forgive me now, don't you? Just cover your eyes when you see this picture and say YES!!) :)

So it appears that some of my earliest memories include falling, getting embarrassed or being frightened but I still remember them like they were yesterday. And most of them were very fond memories. Check back next week for another Memory Monday.

Tonight our family put up our Christmas tree. This year though, we're thinking of not decorating due to one major (and very good!) reason...

I think wrapping gifts and placing them under the tree will have to wait a bit as well!

I love how he's just sitting here mesmerized by the lights! How cute!

We had a blast putting the tree up for Family Home Evening and loved sitting by the tree watching the twinkling lights. I think we're going to get some ribbon to decorate it up a bit. I'm not used to starring at a bare tree. The spirit of Christmas is finally here! Music playing throughout the house, Nativity Scene displayed on the hall table, Eggnog in the fridge (or in John's stomach!) and a list of things to do for the 25 days of Christmas. One of which is to donate new toys to toysfortots - the kids just LOVE the idea of giving to those that are less fortunate. And really, giving is what it's all about: the TRUE meaning of Christmas.