Owen laughing

I just needed to have some laughing videos of Owen, since he's ALWAYS laughing!  So here are a couple that I caught on camera.  Playing with Dad and playing with Kate.

Christmas morning video

Merry Christmas!!

We had a super awesome Christmas morning, greatly improved from last year when Whitney refused to wait for anything or anyone and opened all her presents in about 5 minutes! :) This year was so happy and chill and fun.  We all came down at about 7:30 and dug into the stockings and Star Wars-themed presents from Santa. :)  

So many classic faces from Whitney!  

with her new light saber toothbrush!

Loving Katelyn's missing front teeth smiles!  And the PJ's I made!

 Owen was a little confused...what are we so excited about?  

And then he saw the suckers in his stocking!

 And promptly opened and ate one, and no one stopped him!  Wow, this is the best day ever!

 Then he found a toy from Santa, sweet!  Candy and new toys?!?

 And he finally figured out what all those packages were for- ripping!  We didn't really buy him any new toys (only Santa did) we just wrapped up a bunch of old stuff that I put away when he was born, for this purpose!  And it worked great, he LOVES all his "new" toys!

 Whitney enjoying one of her favorite presents- a treasure box full of treasure!

 Owen walking to me with his new toolbelt on- and you can see his cute top teeth.

 Kate with a doll and books from Grammy and Grandpa Jamie- and you can see another huge pile of books behind her arm!  The girl asked for lots of books, and she got them!!  She was thrilled.  And they might actually last a couple of weeks!  She's read a couple already. :)

Owen reading a book from Grandma and Grandpa

 Kate with her cowboy boots from Aunt Jenae!

 and my favorite present to her- yellow monkey rain boots!

 Whitney in her Star Wars shirt from her cousin Caleb, and SW PJ pants I made all the kids.  

 And Owen's favorite present- this little push/ride-on car thing (it was also Whitney's fav present on her 1st birthday!) :)  He kept plowing through the wrapping paper pile with it, loving rides on it with Eric pushing, and-

 even trying to give Whitney rides. :)

 We had nowhere to go, so we spent the day reading tons of new books, playing all our new games, going sledding, yay!  and watching Brave.  What a happy family day.  Love, laughter, and kindness.  Oh and Eric gave me perfect presents, but the best present has been spending so much happy time with him, with and without the kids.  Life is so good.  

Christmas Eve

First, a few shots from December in general.  We've seen a lot of this:

 and this:

 as Owen LOVED to crawl under the tree and just lay there for a while!  So silly.  And then he'd crawl out and try to unplug the lights.  :)

Also we got to play with Lydia for a WHOLE day, it was so fun. Whitney talked to her in a cute high voice the whole time, and Owen loved her and kept trying to touch her face and hair, which she didn't love!  But she liked him in general.  

 We dressed up so cute the Sunday before Christmas, but these are the only 2 that would take a picture! 

 And here's Christmas Eve!  We went up to Elizabeth and Kjarom's so we could all Skype with Elder Kurtis Murray together!  The girls enjoyed a little air hockey and foosball.

 And here's the cuties, the girls are wearing the Christmas shirts I made for them!  

 And we acted out the Nativity with minimal props we brought from home:

 Mary and Joseph

 the shepherds

 the wise men

 and the little shepherd wanted to hold and kiss baby Jesus! 

and apparently he stole the gold too...

 Can't get enough of this boy.

We sang carols all the way home, it was really fun.  Oh and I should record the other joys of our Christmas season.  Katelyn and Whitney really got into the Christmas spirit, making little presents for their friends and cards for their teachers, wanting to go caroling to lots of people, wanting to sing every time we were in the car, it was great!  We also did this really cute Christmas countdown we found in the church's Friend magazine for kids- in involved giving a gift to the Savior each day.  Things like "include someone who isn't always included", or "do a secret nice thing for a family member" or "write a card for someone who is lonely" or "show your gratitude for our beautiful world by taking a walk and appreciating nature" and lots of other good stuff.  It was cool to focus on a different thing each day, and it definitely kept us thinking of Jesus Christ and why we have Christmas.  

The last couple of days before Christmas were especially good.  Katelyn was so cute on Sunday, I was doing my hair before church and she brought me a glass of ice water and a peeled orange, with the slices wrapped in a napkin tied with a red ribbon!  It was such a sweet surprise, and I just loved that she thought of it all by herself.  Then later Whitney and Katelyn decided to "shine dad's shoes" aka they took them all out and arranged them neatly and wiped them with baby wipes and left him a note saying "this is your Christmas present".  Also on Christmas Eve I walked into the toy room and Whitney was happily cleaning all by herself!  And then Katelyn said "I would like to sweep for you!"  It was so fun and made me so happy.  I wish it was always Christmas, for those reasons!  

Seriously, I have felt a true desire to have Christ in my heart more this coming year, and to approach every situation with Him in mind.  I know my life will never be perfect, but I really want to conquer my temper and my easy discouragement and speak more calmly and kindly to my children. Like I do when Eric's home. :)  So hopefully I can see progress in those areas for myself this year. :)

Thanksgiving

I figured out I can upload a couple of pics at a time, just not 12 like I had been doing.... whatever.  I just don't want to pay for my blog.  

So--here's Thanksgiving!  We had our feast and fun with Eric's family in Fruit Heights, including a little basketball and volleyball practice.

Whit learned to dribble

 Kate did a lot of passing and shooting (she's going to play Jr. Jazz basketball for the first time in a couple of weeks!)

 Elizabeth and Kjarom played volleyball and Owen and I rolled a ball around on the grass.

 The next day we headed up to Pocatello to see Eric's grandparents and other family, and then went to Rexburg where Donny, Christine, Jonathan, and Melissa are in school!  Derek was there too, it was quite the party.  The girls explored Donny and Christine's tiny but SO cute apartment, 

 we all hung out, 

and saw the sights of Rexburg!  (Which took about 10 minutes haha)

Do you think maybe Whitney didn't want to take a picture??

The temple is beautiful!  But it's so cold!  

Anyway it was such a good time and I'm so glad we went up there so we could spend time with my siblings and get to know the place where they are going to be living for a few years.  

On a side note, I've decided that I really like where I live.  Well, I like where I live in relation to where my family lives.  Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to live about 1 hour from my parents.  That would be AWESOME.  But since we're not dying to live in California, and since we don't really want to live anywhere in between here and California (Vegas?  no thank you!  Eric's a major heat wimp.) We are located in a prime spot for multiple visits from my family as they go back and forth from Provo or Rexburg!  Our Rexburg-ites stopped on their way home for Christmas and spent the night, and it was SO FUN.  We ate treats, played the ever-amazing drawing game, and I got to play Dalmuti=heaven!  Also we get to see Derek lots because he's only 30 minutes away.  ALSO, Katrina lives only 3 hours away, and we got to see her TWICE this month as she came up for various events with Phillip's family!  Hooray!  My kids love Lydia.  So, although we miss our California cousins and family, we do get to see everyone pretty often considering how far we live.

And thankfully, we live close to all of Eric's family, (when they're in the U.S.!) so they fill the void for me :) 

Anyway, it's been a great month or so for seeing lots of family!! 

Owen's first day of walking!!!!! Oh my!!!!

So apparently I can post videos but not pictures??  ugh.  Anyway, I can't believe it, but this video is proof, Owen can walk!!!!!  Holy cow!!!!!  My little baby!!!  he's so cute I want to go wake him up and kiss him right now!!!!  But I won't.  Enjoy.

Whitney the other day

I'm out of space for pictures, so until I figure out how to fix that, I can't catch up about Thanksgiving.  But I do have stories about Whitney from a few days ago.

The other night right before dinner, I had to put Whitney in time-out for hitting Katelyn.  Then I busily finished preparing dinner, Eric let her out of time-out, and a few minutes later we ate.  Fast forward an hour to the next time I entered my bedroom, and my shoes were all out of my shoe holder, flung about the room, the picture frames on my cedar chest were face-down, and a box of stuff that had been on the chest was now in the bathtub.  What?  Instinctively I called "Whit-ney!"and yes, she had done it. "I was just mad at you mom for the time-out.  I'm not mad anymore!" She helped me clean them up, but I just couldn't help thinking, "what is she going to do when she's a teenager??"  and that reminded me of a conversation we had earlier in the day.  She had done 5 chores to earn a movie, and she picked Peter Pan.  So after the movie she was telling me about Never Land
W: "It's 2 rights, and then a left to get there."
Me: "The second star to the right and straight on 'til morning?"
W: yeah, and when you go there, you never have to grow up!
Me: oh yeah, if you stay there forever.
W: no, even if you come back, you still don't have to grow up!  I don't want to grow up.  I really don't want to be a teenager.
Me: (laughing) I really don't want you to be a teenager either!

Also that same day, she called me a "poop", and I tried to get out a couple of responses without laughing, but my lips were quivering as I stared at her angry face, and finally the laugh just burst out of me and she busted up too and it was great to be laughing with her.

Oh, my Whitney girl.