Playing Catch-up

Well I know it's been what? 3 months since Christmas, but I've got to get all of our happenings recorded (no matter how late,) for posterity, right?! Anyway, our Dec. started off well with a rip-roaring ward Christmas party. At the end of the party they had all of the kids come up to the front of the room, so we sent Jack up. He did so well with all those older kids, he was reverent, folded his arms, and bowed his head when they said the closing prayer. He kept his arms folded while they sang a couple Christmas songs
And then all of a sudden from across the room entered the big man himself and all the kids shouted, "Santa!" and took off running across the room. I turned back around and this is what I saw...
The lone man standing there watching. No one told him that he was supposed to run towards a big, hairy, man dressed in red. I don't know that the pictures or my words tell the story very well but I was busting up laughing, it was quite comical. Both the kids did make it on to Santa's lap, without any tears or fears, just a couple of questionable looks. All and all a pretty enjoyable night.

The Christmas festivities continued with a brief visit to my parents house and a birthday celebration. Not "THE" birthday, just mine. We had a great time, but unfortunately, no pics. We continued on to Spokane to enjoy a BIG Frederickson Christmas eve party, complete with a nativity reenactment. We supplied a cute little shepard that looks a little like Yoda (because it was) and an adorable little sheep.

The holiday season was wonderful. The best part of course was just being with family.

Our little Sadie has had a lot of "firsts" since then. She got her first and her fifth tooth in a matter of a couple weeks.

She now claps and sings along with songs such as "Patty cake," "3 little monkeys swinging in the tree," & "if your happy and you know it, clap your hands."

She is getting her brother and fathers curls. No fair! Where can I get some of those?
She finally stopped nursing! Yeah! And moved straight to a sippy so I don't have to wean her off a bottle.

She can pull herself up and cruise the furniture.

And my cute little girl learned how to do this...

As for Jack, he got to have a little snow fun this winter. He is saying and doing new things everyday. He still loves to sing.

And he learned how to lift weights by watching his mother workout.

As for Bryan and I, are latest project was to paint our bathroom cabinets. They were an oak color, and we painted them white. And yes, that is an elephant on our countertop, I learned towel origami.

It's Potty Time!

*WARNING this posting is rated at least PG for some nudity and toilet talk. Shield your children's eyes and ears!

We haven't official started potty training Jack, mostly because I don't think I'm ready. However we bought a little potty and checked out "Elmo's Potty Time" DVD from the library just to start introducing the subject. The DVD has a few catchy little tunes on it, however my child has developed a little potty mouth, literally, from watching it. I swear the kid knows like ten different words for going to the bathroom. I think the best was the other day when Bryan told Jack that he was going to go poop in the potty. Jack responded with, "It's Dukie!" Of course we did what any mature parents would do and we laughed. So now it seems to be Jacks favorite choice of words in reference to the bathroom. Which led to a couple days later when Jack was riding in the car with Bryan and was singing "I love to see the Temple." He got to the part where it says, "I'll prepare myself while I am young, this is my sacred duty." Only Jack sang, "I'll prepare myself while I am young, this is my sacred Dukie." The kid is funny, what more can I say?

Halloween Festivities!

I think Fall is such a great time of year. Sure I miss the warm days and I'm already dreading the snow that I know is just around the corner. But I love all the colors on the trees, the pumpkin patch fun, and the ritual which makes being a parent all worth while... dressing your little kids in Halloween costumes! Life is so much fun when you get to relive all your childhood memories with your children. Actually I don't recall any memory of going to the pumpkin patch when I was a kid, but the other activities that surround Halloween, carving pumpkins, dressing up, and going trick-or-treating are still fresh in my mind. That's probably because I was still doing that when I was in college, but at least now I understand why all those people gave us "twenty somethings" dirty looks as we stood on there doorstep and shouted "trick-or-treat!"






I think Sadie won the cutest costume contest at our house this year. She was our little "SadieBug." Although Jack kept calling her "Spiderman." Jack donned the duck costume this year, however, we only got this one picture of him with his hood up because Bryans got a quick trigger finger, and it wasn't until after we came home that night and took his costume off that he decided now would be an ok time to put on his duck feet that his mother spent all afternoon crafting. Bryan came home from work, changed his clothes, put a big belt buckle on that I had from Oklahoma, and some moccasin slippers that he had as a teenager and called himself "cowboys and Indians."And as for me, I know that's not the best picture of a flapper girl, however don't you worry, I was feeling real good about myself that night as I was wearing a dress I wore when I was in high school and the only part that was a bit tight was in my chest! All and all, we had a great time just spending time together as a family.

Dance of the Baby Hippos

Our ward had a Relief Society Fall Social with dinner and entertainment. Bryan was recruited as part of the entertainment. He starts out the farthest on the left. And that's all that I have to say about this.

We love aunt Lisa!

This past week my parents took a well deserved cruise, leaving all there kids behind, of course. However my sister Lisa came to stay with us and really had to put up with a lot from us so I thought I'd give a shout out to her "holla." Here is just a few of the highlights of what she had to endure from the week.
1. On Sunday we are pulling up to our not so traditional looking mormon church and Lisa asked, "what church is this?" To which Bryan replied, " the catholic church." Lisa- "WHAT? I've never been to the catholic church before."
2. Being called "Lisa Marie Presley" about a billion times, again thanks to Bryan.
3. Being woken up to the screaming and crying of little children every morning.
4. Having to watch "The Letter Factory" when I know she wanted to watch the rerun of the presidential debate.
5. Trying to say her morning prayers while be whacked in the head by a two year old. (we won't mention any names)
6. Playing "keep away" with her glasses and a two year old, multiple times.
7. Seeing her brother-in-law parade around in a tu-tu on stage at a church function. (Don't worry the video of that will be posted soon!)
8. And finally, having to witness the truely joyful moments of motherhood as her sister (that's me) tries to get her two year old to eat his dinner, gives up, and allows the child to climb on the counter. Moments later the child falls off the counter bringing down the dinner plate of rice with him all over the floor. All the while, child #2 all of a sudden has poop leaking out her diaper on to the floor and pillow, sitting behind her, and oh yeah, it's all the way up her back and into her hair too. Ahh! Isn't life grand?
Thank you Lisa for putting up with us and for cleaning up the rice! We loved having you and you are welcomed back anytime!

Sleepless in Seattle (in color)

First he was afraid of it...

Then he smiled at it...
Finally he trusted it enough to look away from it!

It was fun to get over to Seattle and take advantage of free lodging at what we like to call, "Dads second house." Too bad they can't even call it a bachlor pad, it's just a dirty little 800 sq. ft. house in an area of town that I wouldn't want to call home. But Bryan has been working over in Seattle for the past couple of months and his boss is footing the housing bill so we took advantage and called it a weekend getaway. We all had a great time.

Sadie spent most of the time eating her blanket in the stoller, but she paused for a few photo opts.

I think this was the best picture taken, notice the light shining threw the cracker. Man I'm a good photographer!I love when my children are playing together and both are happy. It's a heart warming thing to listen to Sadie laugh at Jack for doing absolutely nothing. And despite the abuse he sometimes dishes out, Jack really loves his little sister.

Sleepless in Seattle

Over conference weekend Amy and the kids came down to Seattle and we had a lovely time experiencing the best Seattle has to offer. We went to Pikes Place Market and Jack and I were going to take a picture by the monster fish and one of the workers, a hispanic guy, that I initially thought was a woman, pulled the tail of the fish and it jumped and startled Jack pretty good. We also went to the aquarium and the Ballard boat locks.