Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve I took the kids to play at the mall while Steve, my dad, and my brother Dean, put together the kids swing set. We then went to my parent's house for Jesus Supper. After dinner we always read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible and sing carols. We decorated gingerbread men and sugar cookies. I love my family's traditions. We went home and put the kids to bed. Christmas morning we got the kids up at 7:00 and opened gifts. They were so excited. Except Jakob, he was still a little sleepy. After they opened their gifts we told them to get their coats and shoes on because we had a surprise outside. They were so cute. They loved the swing set. As Jaxson said at the end of the video, "That was awesome."

Twas the night before Christmas.

The kids loving their gifts.

The big surprise!

We had church at 9:30 so we had a quick breakfast and got ready. We took a few quick pictures before church started. It is impossible to get all three kids to put their hands down, look at the camera, and smile (or at least look normal) at the same time.

Sacrament meeting was lovely. We came home and had our traditional waffle breakfast for lunch. After lunch we went to my parents house to skype with my brother, Carl, who is serving a mission in Brazil! It was so great to see his face and hear his laugh. He looks skinnier then when he left, but he is doing great. After the call we opened more gifts and hung out until dinner. Our best friends, the Simpsons, came over for dessert. I made a peppermint cheesecake with an Oreo crust and a chocolate cake from my sister's recipe blog. They were delicious! My friend, Nancy, brought eggnog and pumpkin creme brulee. It was amazing! We than took our sugar filled-hyper children home and put them to bed. Steve and I stayed up watching the movie The Help that he got for me. It was such a memorable day. We are so blessed with wonderful friends and family. Tonight my sister and her family come into town and we get to spend the week with my siblings and their kids. We are so excited! Now I just need to clean my house while my kids play with their new toys and Steve plays his new PS3 games. Tomorrow the party continues!

Ugly Sweater Party 2011

We ate, we chatted, we laughed, we opened gifts, and we wore ugly sweaters.
We had a great time.






The white elephant gift I made this year.
Jerrod will definitely keep it on his night stand...




This year's winners were the Gents for Most Festive



And Matthew won for the ugliest sweater the second year in a row.
I wish I had a better picture!

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Videos of Baby Jakob

Jakob started doing the army crawl a few days before he turned 8 months old.
He's getting better everyday and now he can really move! We shook his can of baby puffs and Hunter our cat thought is was his treats. So it's a video of Jakob and the cat.

Jakob saying "Dada"
He usually does it better but this is all we could get on camera. You can tell when he hears Steve's voice he loves his Daddy!

Jakob eating his first rice cereal when he was 5 1/2 months old.

He loves food and hasn't turned down anything I have offered him. He cries when he is finished. He is still nursing a couple times a day but he prefers baby food. Hopefully he gets teeth soon so he can feed himself more. He's so cute.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Happy 6th Birthday Jaxson

My little boy is growing up. He turned 6 years old yesterday. Every year I let him pick a cake from my cake decorating book and that is his party theme. This year he picked a alien cake so we did an "out of this world space party". I found a really cute moon cake on pintrest. It was really easy and Jaxson didn't care if it was a moon or space ship cake. We had his friend party last week. He was so excited.

After 6 years I have birthday parties down to a science.

First, the kids have a good old fashion balloon fight.

Then, they decorated space ships.

Next, they tried to land the space ships on the earth and the moon.

(As I was making the earth Jaxson said, "Don't forget Madagascar, Mom." I said, "Where is Madagascar?" He said, "Next to Africa." Sometimes it's humbling having a 6 year old that is smarter than me.)

Then, it was time to open presents. I have each child sit next to Jaxson as he opens their gift. They were so cute about it.

After presents it was time for cake.

Finally, the kids got to do what every kid wants to do at a birthday party... play with the toy they brought!

Jakob played with all the packaging.

Ehlana went upstairs to watch a movie.

All the kids had a great time and Jaxson played with his new toys the rest of the day.

Yesterday was his actual birthday. He took cookies to school and then we had a family party with pizza, cookies, and presents.

Thanks to all our family who sent cards and gifts! Jaxson loved them!

I can't believe it was 6 years ago (the day before Thanksgiving) that I became a mother. Jaxson is smart, curious, funny, sensitive, and caring. He has helped me become a better person. I could have never imagined how much this little boy would change my life and how much I would love him. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful son.

Happy birthday, buddy boy. We love you a million, billion, zillion.