Christmas 2011

We spent Christmas Eve with part of John's family having a lovely buffet dinner and a mellow evening. They were gracious enough to invite my mom and Aunt Barb to join as well. We sang Christmas songs, read a Christmas picture book, and made it home early. It was low-key and fun. A week after Christmas, we had "Christmas 2" (as Sam and Lily were calling it) when my dad was in town at my parents' house. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of either of these fun evenings. 

Christmas morning, we had my mom and Aunt Barb over for a gigantic breakfast (way too much food, but it was oh, so good!) I thought we'd have to distract Charlie from the presents long enough to eat breakfast, but the concept of Christmas morning/Santa hasn't really sunk in yet. After breakfast, we had to tear Charlie away from playing in the toy room to come open presents! Why did we even buy anything? He was pretty into his stocking that Santa brought him and once he saw the presents, he was really good at getting the wrapping paper off. 

George didn't get any presents from us this year. He was happy with the ribbons and watching Charlie's antics.

Aunt Barb and Mom brought gifts that were the hit of the day. The first was a talking Lightning McQueen that asks, "Where's Mater?" Sure enough, the next present to open was Mater!

I found a set of real mini-sized tools for a great deal months ago and saved it for my tools-obsessed little man. Charlie loves real tools and turns every kitchen utensil into a tool. He needs lots of supervision with them and some of the tools (the hammer especially) have been on "time out" in the cupboard quite a few times.

I love this picture- look how happy he is! 

Figuring out the pliers

Showing off his sweet suspenders

George thought Charlie was pretty entertaining

After opening presents, we hurried to get ready for church. I had arranged for my friend, Sarah Maxwell, to come sing a special musical number for our sacrament meeting so I wanted to be sure that I was early to the meeting to meet her. I ended up leaving John, my mom, and Aunt Barb home with the kids so I could be sure to be there. Being in sacrament meeting by myself was the best present I could have gotten! I loved being able to focus on the talk and not be entertaining kids the whole time. :) Bishop Miller gave a great talk and Sarah sang The Wexford Carol beautifully!

Unfortunately, the kids didn't nap so the rest of the afternoon and evening were a little challenging. We went over to John's parents' house and opened presents and ate a delicious meal. I One of our favorite traditions is the dollar gifts. We each come up with a creative gift to give to everyone but it can only cost a dollar. It's always so fun to see what everyone thinks up! This year some of the highlights were little toy guns that shoot foam discs (Mark and Chelsea) and dollar bills folded into origami frogs (Sam). We gave everyone little kitchen egg timers in the shape of tomatoes and taught everyone the Pomodoro Technique that John uses at work to increase his productivity. 

Currently...

-Listening to Adele

-Watching Friday Night Lights (just finished the last episode on Netflix, sob!)

-Instagram for the iPhone. (No iPhone? Try Ink361). I love taking mediocre photos and turning them into mini works of art. It makes capturing the everyday moment so much more fun. I'm getupandplay if you want to follow along. 

-Reading Rachel Thurston's beautiful photography- this post about her  daughter is pure joy. 

What's up with you?

Thanksgiving 2011

For Thanksgiving, Mark and Chelsea were gracious enough to host us (and most of John's family) at their home in Boise. They worked so hard to have us there and we appreciated it! It was George's first road trip, and that part was rough, but Charlie was extra dreamy in the car to make up for it.

Traveling with two little kids takes so much stuff- it really overwhelms me! This time, the only thing I forgot was the camera battery. Ruh roh. So most of my pictures are from my phone and from other people's cameras.

We went to a fun park and had the place to ourselves, probably because it was pretty cold- Charlie liked climbing on this dinosaur.

It was fun to see how much Emma has grown. She is such a fun, happy, pink little baby and has the cutest little personality! The trip wasn't complete (literally, John was packing up the car as I took this picture) until we had the obligatory side-by-side cousin picture. Emma is 5 months and George is 3 months.

Chelsea snapped this one of Charlie playing with James' toys- he was in heaven.

Almost the whole crew (missing Jeff who took the picture, and the babies). The food was incredible- everyone contributed something delicious and everything was made from scratch and gluten-free.

John was a patient "road" for James to drive his cars on.

We are so thankful for our wonderful families!

Family portraits

Photographed by the talented Jeanette Soffe.

Simple, chic nursery

I'm so behind on blogging and instead of catching up, I will direct you to a photo tour of my little (darling, hilarious, beautiful) niece's nursery as designed and photographed by my sister, Catherine. Check it out here.

George- 2 months

George, my dear, you are your own little person. Of course, one might say, but sometimes it's hard for me to remember that you aren't Charlie version 2.0. I love you just as much as I loved little two-month-old Charlie and much of the day to day is the same as it was with him. But sometimes you'll do something that is so utterly unique and it gives me a little peek inside your unfolding personality.

For example, you have a quivery, quavering chin a lot of the time. It's usually not because you're cold, it's just part of you. It's gotten especially darling as your cheeks get chubbier and all that lovely baby roundness jiggles along with your chin.

You love to be held and often have a hard time napping on your own. But if I hold you, you'll sleep for hours. That usually doesn't happen because I have another little guy to chase around, but I enjoy it when it does. You usually take a few short naps in the morning and if I can get Charlie to nap in the afternoon, I cuddle up with you in my bed and we all sleep for a few hours. You sleep best when I'm next to you.

This past week you've started sleeping through the night! I'll put you to bed around 8 or 9 pm and you usually wake up to be nursed at 11 or 12 then you'll sleep until 6 am. And if I'm lucky, I can nurse you back to sleep until 7 or 7:30 when Charlie wakes up.

You are a sweet, social baby. You love to be held and rocked, sung and talked to. Both Grandmas are excellent at this. You have won everyone's hearts with your big smiles, little coos and the occasional, elusive laugh.

You've started to "wake-up". You aren't a newborn anymore who can sleep anywhere and loud noises bother you. This is pretty tricky with your boisterous big brother, but luckily I'm learning your the tricks to keep you happy.

You love music- it soothes you when we're driving in the car, especially. We even have a go-to song for you, I Was Brought to My Senses by Sting. We skip the first minute or so and get to the fast part of the song and you calm right down. We play it so often that Charlie now sings along with the chorus.

We feel lucky to have you in our family, little guy.

November 2011

Busy November! My dad came for a visit to meet George and be here for his blessing, we celebrated my birthday (29) with both my family and John's family, we had an early Thanksgiving dinner with my family.

I love Charlie's face in this one!

Grandpa soaking up Baby George time 

I don't think I've blown out my own candles in 7 years- love those little helpers!

Halloween 2011

We had a pretty low-key holiday this year- Charlie wasn't feeling very well and George was totally oblivious. We went to our ward party which was fabulous but crazy. There are so many little kids in our ward and they were running around crazy in the gym. I don't mind that one bit, except that it meant that Charlie wanted to run around with them. He's not really to the point where I can just turn him loose without being right next to him. John was on the committee in charge of the event, so I was essentially flying solo trying to corral a sick (but wild) Charlie with one arm and hold George in the other arm. Thankfully, a very sweet newlywed saw my predicament and offered to hold George. I took her up on it and she held him for over an hour! Thank you, Kamber!

The night of Halloween I didn't think we'd go out because Charlie was still under the weather. We answered the door for a few trick-or-treaters (including some of our new neighbors who we met for the first time). Charlie loved answering the door- he asked everyone to come in and said, "Hi, I'm Charlie!" to all the kids. After seeing him so excited about it, we went out for about an hour to a few houses on our street and in our ward. It was so fun to be out among our neighbors and to see so many little kids! That's something that definitely drew us to this neighborhood. 

My mom showed up at my house one day with boxes of her Halloween decorations and decked the Halloween halls for me. It was nice to have a few festive things up because decorating definitely didn't make it onto my to-do list this year. 

The Decorations

Skeleton tee and skeleton jammies

my little Scarecrow

the Scarecrow and the Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin

trick-or-treating