Christmas Eve 2014

This year we decided to do Christmas Eve just at home. I'm really glad that we did. We combined some of my traditions with some of Micah's and did a few that are new to our family from the past few years.

We started off by making cookies for Santa. This year we decided to go with traditional sugar cookies. Brighton didn't really decorate… he just ate.

 Lila did a great job though. I was really impressed with her creativity. We made a lot of cookies but decided on just a few for Santa. 

Then we had soup for our dinner. This will be one of our traditions every year I think. I made a copycat version of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana. It was really good. I'm so glad that it turned out. I also made french bread. Yum! I finally got to use my snowman dishes. It's the first year I've done so. We also used my snowman baking dish to hold the bread and Christmas serving spoon and fork for the salad. The whole dinner was yummy and I had a great time preparing it and the kids had a great time eating it!

After dinner the kids had a bath and got into their new Christmas pjs. Lila was in heaven. She still loves Frozen… so do I. :) I couldn't get a picture of Brighton in his Spider Man pajamas. He just did not want to stay still. 

Before bed we each got to choose a Christmas song for the family to sing and read the Christmas story in the Bible. I also read a book called Away in a Manger that has Thomas Kinkade pictures of the nativity in it. We watched Frosty the Snowman then the kids went to bed listening to "The Sugarplum Fairy". It was such a great night and I loved having it be just my little family. I always loved this night with my family growing up, but I think I'm finally ready for it to be set aside for my own family.

Holiday Happenings 2014

This year felt jam packed with activities! They were done with my family though, so it was a lot of fun. We started off the Christmas season by going to "The Forgotten Carols" with the girls in my family. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that show. It always helps me to really get into the spirit of the season. I really wanted to take Lila this year because I know that she would love it, but kids have to be 5. I don't know if I can wait two more years!

The next day, we had our baking day. So much fun and so delicious as always! Here's a spread of all of our buckets filled with the treats to take home.

 I made the cheesecake cookie cups. They're the things at the very top of the picture above. They were really good. They took some time (probably took me longer than it would another person), but I felt like they were well worth it. Everything everyone made was delicious. I love trying out new recipes with my siblings. It's a great way to spend time together and try new things without having to do all of the work! 

This year we had the kids create brownie Christmas trees. I made the brownies (my favorite recipe, of course) and brought the peppermint sticks for the trunks, but my sisters Laura and Rebecca brought the frosting and sprinkles and that made all the difference. It was a fun way for the kids to participate in the day without having them do menial stuff.

Right after our baking activities the majority of my family participated in the Santa fun run. So much fun! Even Lila and Bright took part in the action. Brighton was very good in his stroller and Lila ran quite a bit of it. Eventually she did get tired and sit with Tracee as she waited for everyone to finish (Thanks Trace). It was so fun to see Lila and Brighton in the race. I actually ran most of it. I would've run the whole thing (as planned) but part of it I had to hold Lila and I'm not fit enough to carry her and really run. :) Once I handed her off to Tracee the race suddenly seemed a lot easier. ;)

I was way ahead of them at this point. ;) 

Lila and I were off to the bathrooms so we missed out on the ending photos. :( At least Brighton was there.  

Thanks Grandma for pushing Bright!

Look at the jolly runners. Again, I was ahead.

 

Lila hanging out with Tracee during the race. 

Hallie was very sweet and pushed Brighton for a good part of the race. 

The whole gang ready to go!

At work we decorated gingerbread men. My team decided to do gingerbread pirates after we read a book to our second graders about them. They turned out really adorable!

Here's mine:


My whole team:

I also made this wreath for my front door, but no joke, not even 24 hours later it fell off the door and broke. :(


I was sad, but no worries, one of my students gave me a door decoration as part of their gift to me. It smells so good and is beautiful! I wish my phone took better pictures.

Later several people in my family sang carols at a retirement home in Santaquin. They had this beautiful sleigh set up so we took advantage and took some pictures.

We also went caroling to some of our old neighborhoods. It was so good to see everyone!  

I think we did some other things, but I can't quite remember. Anyway it was a busy but awesome holiday season! 

Thanksgiving and the Break

I'm so behind in posting about all of our wonderful happenings over the past month or so. Today I am going to catch up! :) 

Thanksgiving this year was a whole lot of fun. We again went to my mum's house to partake in delicious turkey, mashed potatoes, and vegetables. I really should've taken a picture of my plate with all of the food. It was so good! If you look closely at the plates though you can see these cute favor bags that my sister Laura made. She put runts and bugles in them to look like cornucopias. They were really adorable. I'm such a sucker for those type of things. 

Laura and my little man:

My beautiful little girl ready to get some food. 

Being goofy as usual

This year I decided to be in charge of the rolls this year instead of a dessert (which is what I normally love to do). I saw this idea on pinterest where a girl created gratitude rolls. I asked everybody in my family to email or text me things they were grateful for, then I printed them up and wrapped them in foil then stuffed them into the rolls.

Don't they just look delicious?

It was a lot of fun reading what people were grateful for, especially for me because I got to see all of them.  The only problem was the roll recipe I used was a new one, (a delicious one) and so I didn't know how many it was going to make and it made way more rolls than slips of paper that I had. It was really funny to watch people open up their rolls only to find it empty. It became the grandkids goal to find all of the papers. It still ended up being great though because we would share what the paper said so everyone got to hear it. 

I thought it was a really fun thing to do and I hope people are willing to do it again next year. I think I may even leave the names of the papers and we can guess who said what. I'll also make sure to ask for twice as many thankful thoughts. :) 

Brighton giving me a sweet smile. Isn't he the cutest?

This was his first Thanksgiving that he could really eat what we ate. 

I also made all of the grandkids these turkey crayon holder things. They were really simple and turned out cute. Thanks Ems for the idea!

We also took a picture of all of the cousins together in their shirts that we made. Lila had to have her hair redone for the picture. It was a beautiful mess from playing. So if you noticed that her hair is different, that's why. Thanks Tracee for doing it so much faster than I would've. It was quite the challenge to get all of the kids to somewhat look at the camera. Brighton kept trying to take off and poor Mia was so sick. They sure do look cute in their shirts though!

I love Thanksgiving. It's such a great time to have together as a family!

During the break Lila also went mini-golfing with her cousins. We got there a little bit early so all of the kids played games together. It was really funny to watch Lila try and keep up with older kids. They're always so sweet and helpful. They try and help her to feel included and successful. I'm so grateful that Lila has such wonderful cousins. 

Anyway, it was Lila's first time and she was pretty good. She did get bored by the end and only wanted to look at the glow-in-the-dark sea creatures on the walls. We had a couple of meltdowns but overall she loved being with her cousins. She even did one of the holes in 3 strokes all by herself! I was proud. :) After, they played at the arcade where Lila won 15 tickets by herself. She bought an eraser and a ring with it. Surprisingly, Lila still has her ring. She broke her eraser that day.  

Lila's cousin P is just a little bit older than her. It was really fun to watch them together.

Getting ready to hit the ball.

Lila doing her best!

Waiting for her turn.

A few of the sea creatures that Lila just LOVED!

This year my Thanksgiving break was calm and relaxing. I really enjoyed spending time with my extended family, but also having time with just my little family. The holidays are the best. :) 

18 months old

On November 20th Brighton turned 18 months old. I wanted to wait until his appointment to post, so that's why I'm just writing about it now. :)

About a week and a half before he turned 18 months, my friend and I were discussing the verbal skills of our boys. Her little boy is just 10 days older than Brighton. She had asked me how many words he said, and I said not many, anywhere from 8 to 10. Brighton has been slower at speaking than Lila was, but I wasn't concerned. She had been concerned because her little boy has had health issues since he was born and so he has been receiving therapy. One of the people that comes to her home to perform the therapy (not an actual therapist) mentioned that her son was really behind verbally for his age and that he should know 50 words by now. First of all, not that it is impossible because I know that there are some, but I don't know any 18 month olds that already know 50 words (and legitimately know 50 not just that their parents translate for them. ;) )  I told her that I'm not at all concerned about Brighton (and he knew less than her son) and to trust her doctor. She decided to do that and when she went in for her appointment the doctor said that he was just fine and that he's not behind at all. Every child at this age develops at different speeds. They don't start to really look at what words they know until they are two years old. Anyway, the reason I tell this story is because during that next week and a half Brighton started saying 7-8 new words. He suddenly took off. Had I bought into what that person who performed the therapy had said then I would've been really concerned, but look, just over the next few days Brighton suddenly almost doubled his vocabulary. I just think it's awesome how quickly kids learn and develop. :) (By the way, I know the girl was trying to be helpful, but really, she just stressed out an already stressed out mother who has a sick child.)

Since we're talking about Brighton's verbal skills, these are the ones that he can say:

mom

dad

help (this is adorable)

no (honestly, his favorite word)

ow

what's that

where's she

shoe

shirt

book

boo

hi

bye

let go (he picked that up from Lila)

un uh (how do you spell that? I couldn't figure it out, it's when you're saying "no")

ball

get out (when he wants out of his high chair or car seat)

get down (again, when wants out of his high chair)

go
shh (while putting his finger to his mouth)

Other things that Brighton loves include:

LILA- number one (still his best buddy, they are really cute together)

hitting things (we try to keep this under control, but he just thinks it's fun to bang things together or hit things against the ground and hit Lila, but he thinks he's playing)

blocks

BOOKS!!!

food

drinks (especially out of cups)

popcorn (just like his mom)

getting into everything

climbing on everything

bath time!

water

his green ball

pulling down his diaper

chocolate

mom

MAGGIE! (she is incredibly patient with him)

throwing things

getting chased

giving kisses and hugs

looking out the windows

playing with the curtains 

grinding his teeth (this one drives me crazy!)

string cheese
giving high fives

Brighton is a great eater and sleeper. The only thing that I can think of that I can't get him to consistently eat is broccoli. I think it's because of the texture. I could be wrong though, there might be more things that he won't eat, but that's all I can think of.

The stats from his appointment are:

height: 32.25 inches (39 %tile) so much bigger than last time! (from 6 %tile)

weight: 23 lbs. (36 %tile)

head size: 19.25 inches (86 %tile)
*funny thing about his head… we thought he would be off the charts because last time his head measured at the 99 %tile, but it turns out they measured it wrong. This time his head was a 1/4 inch smaller than last time and our doctor said that heads don't shrink, so it must have been measured wrong last time. So, Brighton does have a big head just not as big as we thought. :) 

Brighton is such a wonderful little boy. When someone is crying or sad he tries to comfort them. He loves other people just like Lila does. He seems to already love nursery. He is really social, but I do think he's a little more momma's baby than Lila was. He has been such a wonderful addition to our family. 

We love you Brighton!

In his new 12 month old coat. :)

I have to explain this picture… That day, Brighton kept bringing me a bunch of Lila's shirts for me to put on him. The funny thing was that he wouldn't let me take of one before putting on another. By the time we were done he had his onesie on and five of her shirts. One of them was so big for him that it looks like a pretty little dress. :) He loved it. It took a while before he would let me take them off. He loves to get dressed up, just like his sister. He's obsessed with shoes and everything.  

Brighton loves to show us where his belly button is. :)