Christmastime in a Nutshell

Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to this last month!

First, we put up new Christmas window stickers and put a string of lights in the window.

Then we got out a few decorations, including our little Fisher Price Nativity. The girls love this nativity and it seems that we are now missing one of the Wise Men.

About a week later, we broke out our small fiber-optic Christmas tree. The girls had fun putting the ornaments on it. This is the same tree that Jon and I put up in our hotel room on our honeymoon. The ornaments still have floss on them, since we didn't have any other way of hanging them on the tree.

That night we put up Jon's Nutcracker collection. We counted 36 Nutcrackers in total, but I think that he got 3 more since we took this picture.

I must say that the collection is quite impressive!

We really enjoy sitting and admiring it. We'll be sad when we have to take it down.

We made a super quick trip to Utah and had to buy Savannah some new snow gear. She loved all of the pink!

Daddy helped the girls make a gingerbread house, or a gingerman house as Savannah likes to call it!

Jon did all of the construction and frosting, but Savannah did almost all of the decorating!

Melanie got a kick out of watching and sneaking any candy that she could find.

Savannah got to make a lot of fun Christmas things at school. She had fun gluing all of the cotton balls onto Santa's beard! We especially liked the ornament that she made for us for Christmas!
We have lots of fun this month. We also enjoyed going caroling, seeing the Temple Lights, having family parties and hanging out with friends! We love you all and hope your holidays were great too!

Red Day

I bought a pretty red dress for Savannah. She couldn't wait to wear it! It just so happens that Melanie and I also wore red on the same day. So we all snuggled in for a few pictures! They can be so cute!

Make-up

Savannah chose a little make-up set out of Grandma's Box a while back. She just loved it! The best was when her and Melanie came out of the other room and Savannah had done Melanie's make-up too! Ahh, what are sisters for?Savannah played with it nonstop for a few days and then she miss placed it. Unfortunately for Savannah, mommy found it first and it then the garbage monster ate it. Amazing how that happens!

Our Yard

We love having a little backyard, but unfortunately it has a problem with its grade. The back corner of our yard is 9 inches higher than the patio. Needless to say, all of the water from our sprinklers has been forming a large puddle right at the edge of the patio. In order to fix this problem, Jon and my brother, Bryan, rented a Bobcat last weekend. Bryan did all of the driving, but our yard was just so wet that they ended up making a "muddy mud pit," as Savannah likes to call it. The bobcat was kind of stuck and they had to dig their way out. So Saturday they made a big mess. But we lucked out and Bryan came back on Monday morning and worked on it all by himself. He even let Savannah help! The ground had dried some and he was able to finish what they had started. We really appreciate Bryan coming over and helping us out so much. There is still a lot of work to do on the yard, but Jon has some big plans. Thanks again Bryan for all of your help!

Preschool

Last Tuesday was Savannah's first day of preschool. She is in Ms. Kylie and Ms. Staci's class. She gets to go twice a week for a couple of hours. She's had lots of fun so far and is still excited to go back for more! Last week they learned about the letter "I". So they talked about indians. Savannah came home with a feather headband one day and a teepee the next. She loved it!

Halloween

I know that I'm a little late, but I thought that I'd put up a few Halloween pictures. Savannah was a butterfly and Melanie was a pumpkin. They both loved their costumes and I thought that they looked so cute!

We went down to our ward Trunk-or-Treat. The girls had fun going from one car to the next, I guess that Savannah had fun and Melanie just wandered around and gave up on her bucket after the first person put candy in it and then she just wanted to eat it. After a while, Savannah said, "I think that's enough candy Mom." So we called it quits and sat with Jon while he passed out the rest of our candy.

Cousins!

Jon only has 1 cousin on his mom's side that has any children. They came and visited about a month ago and so we tried to get a picture with all of the cousins. It was a little crazy but here they are.

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Of course we've had one more addition since then. Cute little Meredith was born at the end of October! We just love her; especially Savannah! She wants to go and see baby Meredith almost everyday!

Blue's Clues

Savannah loves Blue's Clues. She doesn't watch it very often, but she likes to pretend to play it every once in a while. Anyways, my mom tried to bribe Savannah to become potty trained. She bought a bunch of different things and put them in a box and told her that if she used the toilet, then she could pick something out of Grandma's Box. Savannah was so happy when she finally did use the bathroom and has to go to the bathroom each time we go over to my parent's house so she can pick something out of Grandma's Box. On time she picked a Nick Jr. Stamp and Sticker Activity Book. It came with some stickers and 2 stamps. One of them happened to be a Blue's Clues stamp. One night she was supposed to be going to bed, but was instead goofing around in her room. When I checked on her before I went to bed this is what I found: A Clue!

Why I'm So BUSY

I've had so much trouble finding the time to blog recently. And so I thought that I would share with you what I've been up to the last month and a half.

First of all, my mom had her annual Haunted House in October. I went over there a lot and helped her paint and get things going for that. Here is a picture of Sarah in the Bakery that I worked so hard to paint. Savannah and I were there all 3 nights that it ran and helped out by selling food and managing other little problems.

Secondly, I was called as the secretary in the Relief Society in our new ward. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing. But Sundays are always crazy (and last Sunday Jon and I spoke in church). It seems like I have to remember to do something for Relief Society everyday; unfortunately, I don't have a very good memory and end up forgetting things until the last minute.

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And last, but not least, I am expecting again and haven't been feeling all that great. I'm am currently 11 weeks along and am due May 28th. I'm just glad that it's before the hottest part of the summer. Jon seems to think that it's a boy this time and continually refers to the baby as a he...he thinks that he can will it to what he wants it to be. It will be about another month and a half or two before we actually know what we're having.

So there you have it...what I've been up to and why I've suddenly become a horrible blogger. Hopefully, here in the near future things will calm down a little and I can put up some regular posts!

Savannah's Big Day

I know that it's been forever since I had a chance to post something, but the last day that I did manage to post something was a BIG DAY for Savannah!

First of all, she decided that she did NOT want to wear diapers anymore. She basically went and put some underwear on and then sat on the toilet about ten times. After she had done this for a couple of hours I followed her into the bathroom and told her that I needed to wash my hands. A little bit of running water seemed to do the trick! She went once and she didn't ever wear diapers again. She wouldn't even wear pull-ups at night! But amazingly she stayed dry the first few nights. Then she got an ear infection and kept wetting the bed, not to mention that the medication that we had to give her also gave her diarrhea. But she's doing pretty good...only a few accidents because she is the master of holding it and waits until the last second to run to the bathroom and just can't get herself up on the toilet in time! Sorry no pictures of her sitting on the toilet, but if you ever see her, she'll be happy to tell (or show) you what kind of panties she has on.

Secondly, that big toe nail that was so nasty looking finally fell off! It didn't hurt her at all; except she told me that she wanted daddy to fix it. Too bad daddies can't fix everything! But the nail is growing back just fine and you wouldn't even be able to tell if you just glanced at it.

Needless to say, Savannah is growing up quickly and is anxious to go to school and dance, now that she is potty trained!

Sisterly Love, Part 2

Did I mention that I love it when Savannah is nice to Melanie and keeps her entertained?

Sisterly Love

The other morning I had the girls sitting on my bed. I just thought that Savannah was so sweet to sit and read to her little sister. And Melanie loved it!

Plus I thought it was really funny that Melanie's hair was sticking straight up and her tummy was hanging out of her pajamas!

New Dresses

I saw these dresses at Wal-Mart and was able to convince Savannah that it was pretty cute. I got a matching one for Melanie. I'm hoping to get their pictures taken some time in the near future.

Halloween Costumes!

I just love Halloween!

I've been talking to Savannah about what she wants to be for Halloween this year. I've finally been able to convince her to wear the little wings that I bought for her 2 years ago! So she wants to be a Butterfly! We went to a costume store today and finished off her costume by buying a pink leotard, pink slippers, and a wand. When we got home, she was so excited to put the entire outfit on. I thought that she looked pretty cute!


And I got out our old pumpkin costume for Melanie! She was so excited to put it on! I remember how much Savannah loved that costume! I eventually had to hide it from Savannah because she had grown out of it and still wanted to squeeze into it! But Melanie absolutely loved it, and will make a cute pumpkin too!

Sitting Pretty

I finally broke down and got Melanie a regular carseat. I think that she likes being able to see everything while we're riding around. Her and Savannah sure looked cute in their matching carseats!

And I'm just happy to not have to lug that infant carrier around anymore!

Cleaning the Yard

We have a small backyard and the previous owners left a push mower. So, since we don't have our own lawn mower, then Jon cut the grass with the push mower. Of course we didn't have a rake either; so we stole an extra one from his parent's house a few days later. When the time finally came, Melanie decided to help Jon rake up the grass. She was so cute!

Wild and Free

Does anyone else's children like to run around like little animals? Savannah hates having me do her hair and is always telling me that it's okay because she's wearing a headband. And on this particular day, she stayed in her pajamas until we went over to grandma's house (who then needed the help of my sister to wrestle some clothes onto Savannah) and her face was dirty with chocolate pudding too! Yeah, I took her to Grandma's house and left her just like this!

Story Time

Savannah and Melanie love books!

Melanie is almost always carrying a book around and trying to find someone to read to her. One night, before bed, Melanie managed to snuggle in with Jon on the bed and got him to read to her. Savannah loved the idea and joined in on the action!

The Airport

I've been trying to play catch-up with all of my pictures ever since our move, so sorry that these are a little late.

About 1 1/2 weeks ago I took my girls and my grandma to the airport to pick up my cousin. The girls got a kick out of looking at the airplanes, just from the parking structure. Savannah was so upset that our trip to the airport was so fast and that she didn't get to ride any airplanes.

Lovin' the Yard

Savannah and Melanie love being out back! It's so nice that the weather is cooling off slighly. I cleared our patio off so they could ride their little bikes and scooter around back there. They are totally loving it!