Merry Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas. I hope we have started a new Christmas Eve tradition. I asked Nick to help me clean the house - I remember being told when I was a child that Santa did not come to a dirty house (I suppose it was to motivate us) and that is what I told Nick and Ellie all day. Well, when Nick cleans he really cleans - he scrubbed the bathroom from top to bottom, pulled out the fridge to vacuum out all the dust bunnies and scrubbed the grout. I've come to the conclusion that I would clean just as well if I didn't have two little ones to keep up with. Or maybe I'm just trying to convince myself...

Anyway, later that evening we made gingerbread cookies to leave our for Santa:

On Christmas morning we went out to the tree after trying to convince Ellie to keep her Christmas pajamas on. She insisted that she get dressed. Ellie got a new three-wheeled scooter and we asked her if she wanted to ride it. She didn't want to and to prove her point, threw herself on the floor and threw a fit. Merry Christmas to us! That was all in the first fifteen minutes. The rest of our morning was happy, and fit-free though, thankfully. We had a fun time opening presents, and the kids were very pleased with what Santa brought them.

Here Maren is enjoying her new jumperoo:
Ellie got a bunch of furniture for her dollhouse. The dollhouse itself was mine when I was a child, but the furniture I had has gone the way of all lost and abandoned toys. This new furniture is pretty detailed, but still kid-friendly. Except for the teeny tiny little accessories that go with it (like the spoon which is about a 1 1/2 cm tall - those got put away for another day).

Maren enjoyed the wrapping paper the best:

I got a new coat, scarf, and hat (among other fun things, like a hair straightener). Nick got a breadmaker, which he has already made some delicious creations with. We had our traditional aebleskivers for breakfast and then were planning on going to my parent's house, but it was snowing, and we decided to postpone that trip. We did go to my brother's house and had a delicious lunch there. Later that evening we went to Nick's parent's house for a Christmas steak dinner and then opened presents with the family.

Ellie and Seth got lots of fun stuff. Here they are reading their books:
Maren and Grandpa.

Here's Maren and Maybe. This photo turned out a little fuzzy, but I thought their faces were just too cute. I sure hope these two grow up to be good pals.

Here is our family, green and red all over. My sweet girls.
Ellie's photo pose.
On Friday we went to my parent's house. Dennis and his family were there too and the girls had fun sledding together (for as long as it lasted - Ellie was done after about 10 minutes).

And now we are enjoying post-holiday activities like playing with all our new toys and cutting down boxes for recycling. The best part is just having Nick home from work and enjoying some time together as a family.

Family Christmas Party

Yesterday we went to my family's annual Christmas party. It took us awhile to get there with the frightful weather and all (25 mph on the freeway). We were sure glad we were able to make it though. It was a lot of fun to be with family. Oh, and delicious food, too.

Ellie and Aspen being good pals. Ellie and Madison ringing their bell in our sing along.

Me with the cute girls.

Angel Ellie.

Angel Ellie and angel Aspen.

Maren was baby Jesus in the nativity. Here she is with Joseph (aka Austin). She made a pretty good baby Jesus until she started screaming.

Our little family did a pretty amazing performance (I'm being sarcastic, by the way) of "The Friendly Beasts". Maybe I can convince Nick to post the video later.

Maren, Ellie, and My Friends

Yesterday I took Maren for her four month check-up. She now weighs 15 lbs (75%) and is 25.5 in. long (86%). I always hate the part where my babies get their shots. After the second poke Maren made a sad face and that was it! What a trooper! She even gave the nurse a huge smile when she was done. That's my Maren. What a sweetheart. As an update to my last post, Ellie seems to be readjusting to life and is not as clingy, thank goodness. I can't believe how much she learns every day. She is such a great big sister. She loves to talk to Maren and takes good care of her. Can you believe how big she looks in this photo? I can't believe she is going to be 3 soon.

And, I hosted our book group Christmas party last night. I had a great time with my bestest friends in the whole world (minus a few of my other bestest friends...). Seriously, I am so grateful for the time I get to spend with these girls every month. It lifts my soul and reminds me that I really am a person, and not just a wife and mother. These girls know me so well - some of them I have known for 15 years. They know all my quirks and weaknesses and love me anyway and I feel I can just be myself around them. Gosh, it feels good.

Maren making friends with Dray, Heather's baby. They could make a cute couple someday, don't ya think?

'Tis the Season

On this beautiful, sunny afternoon (where is the snow?), my darling children are snoozing away, and being as it has been an entire week since I last posted, I thought I'd take the opportunity.

We had FHE with my brothers and sister and their families this last Monday and we enjoyed making gingerbread houses. Ellie put all the goodies on ours (that is, the goodies that escaped her mouth). Isn't it lovely?

And here the girls (Aspen and Ellie) are raiding the goodie table. That is the best part about gingerbread houses, is it not?And yesterday I took the girls for a walk outside in the cold (does that make me a bad mother?). Maren looked so darn cute all bundled up, I had to take a photo. Just look at those chubby cheeks! Don't ya just want to kiss them? I know I do. A cute photo of my girls.

And speaking of my girls... they are not always cute. Well, I take that back. One of them is always cute, and the other is most of the time cute. Can you guess which one? Anyway... Ellie has been on my nerves ever since coming home from vacation. I don't know if it is because she was used to being by our sides 24/7 or what, but she has been velcro lately. She has to be by my side all day long and it just drives me crazy. It makes it very difficult to get things done around the house, as well as leaving her anywhere, including nursery (which she used to love). Sigh.

As for the one which is always cute, she is like, the best baby ever. She is so easy - keep her fed, clean, and napped and she is one happy girl, always smiling and giggling. If only they could stay that way forever.

Deck the Halls

We are getting in the spirit of the season around here. I love this time of year, and it is even more fun with young children. It is fun to watch Ellie - she is really picking up on the whole Christmas thing. We pulled out our tree, and Ellie put all the ornaments on by herself (I admit, I did some rearranging). She requests that we listen to Christmas music and has asked why we don't have Christmas lights on our house (we have lights, but I certainly don't blame Nick for not wanting to put them up - although last night he did say he was going to try). Nick being festive.

Maren too.

My beautiful girls in red (thanks to Grandma Dee). We had our ward Christmas party and Ellie was very excited that Santa Claus was there, but she refused to sit on his knee. She did tell him that she wanted a book for Christmas.

Disney Cruise

Here is the longer post I promised... and boy is it long! There were just so many cute photos I wanted to include. It was a wonderful family vacation. My dad is the one to thank for this one - he took my entire family (minus one sister's family who could not come) on a 7 day cruise. Of course we loved it, what wasn't there to love? So, on to the photos:

Here we are waiting at the car rental place in Orlando. The girls were excellent travelers, and no, we did not check Maren in at the gate.We spent a day at the Epcot Center, which was a lot of fun. We were very thankful for Alicia and Jonathan who came with us and watched the kids a few times so we could ride something that moved faster than 1 mile an hour.
Sporting our beautiful 3D glasses from "Honey I Shrunk the Audience". Ellie didn't enjoy it all that much, there was a huge snake that jumped out and scared her, and a big dog that 'sneezed' on us. She still talks about it.

And here we are before boarding the ship. My mom got our entire group matching bright green t-shirts. It made it easy to spot our family!
And here is my family - there were 46 traveling in our group. This photo was taken after our Sunday morningside, which we held in one of the theaters.Here we are at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island just for their cruise ships. This was my most favorite stop because it was very relaxing - no hecklers (like Mexico) and lunch was provided for us. That is the Flying Dutchman in the background from the movie "Pirates in the Carribean". Pretty cool - it has amazing detail.
Maren taking a nap with Grandma.

Ellie playing with Aspen in the crystal blue waters. Nick and I got to go snorkeling, and it was pretty amazing. Lots of fish, and some 'planted' sunken ships and such. My brothers reported seeing jellyfish, stingrays, and crabs.

This was one of Ellie's favorite things: meeting the princesses. She now spins her dresses because of their influence.



And this was one of Nick and I's favorite things: soft serve ice cream available anytime. Oh, and fries too...delicious fries. I think I can blame the extra 5 pounds I gained on the ice cream. It was worth it. Here Ellie is enjoying some ice cream on Grandpa's lap.
Here is Nick and I at dinner on one of the dress up nights.

Our family with Mickey and Pluto. Ellie played catch with Pluto, which kind of freaked her out, but overall, she did very well with the characters. We rode the elevator with Donald Duck, and she thought that was pretty cool (and so did I).
In Cozumel Nick went scuba diving and I went shopping with my brothers and their families. He'll have to add photos of his dive if he wants too. He said it was pretty cool.

In Grand Cayman, we went on a semi-submarine tour. We saw lots of fish and two sunken ships (real ones this time). A diver jumped into the water to feed the fish, which explains the photo below.
This is from the Pirates IN the Carribean dinner. We are making our best pirate faces. I obviously could never be a pirate.And the littlest pirate on the ship - I love this photo for three reasons: first is obvious, Maren is wearing her pirate bandanna; second, she is making her 'turtle face' which is a new thing for her and I think it is way cute; third, I don't look so bad myself. :)These are photos taken from our character breakfast where all the characters come around and take photos and give hugs and such while you eat. Our waiter made us these hats out of napkins. The entertainment never ends on a Disney cruise. We got these Minnie Mouse ears for Ellie because it is a necessity for a Disney trip, right? Ellie didn't think so, she won't wear them. But I did. And Maren did too. Here is our mini Minnie:Our family after Thanksgiving dinner. We still had turkey and pie, but it just wasn't the same. Being in 80 degree weather didn't help.Our last full day was spent at Castaway Cay once again. Most cruise ships only spend a day there, but because ours was a holiday cruise, we got to double dip. I was glad, because, as I mentioned above, it was my favorite stop. They had a huge Christmas tree set up and decorated, which was kind of weird - it certainly didn't feel like Christmas. Swimming with Grandma, Grandpa and Aspen. Ellie loved the water (no waves on this beach), but did not enjoy swimming with the school of tiny little fish. Just relaxin'. And our parting shot with our ship, the Disney Magic. And it was.