Christmas 2010

This was our first year having Christmas by ourselves. It was kind of nice not having to worry about packing, finding a sitter for Chanel and TRAVELLING. But we sure did miss our families. Luckily we had some friends that decided to stay around for the holidays too. We had dinner with our friends Mike and Jen and then played some board games. Then for Christmas eve we had biscuits and gravy at our friends Jonathan and Hillary's. They have a son Tale's age and lets just say they weren't the best of friends but finally figured out a way to play in the same room by the end of the night. :) For Christmas we were planning on going over to our Bishop's house but they ended up getting really sick so we had to come up with a Christmas dinner menu. And Tahri came up with a good one. We got steaks, shrimp, and tuna. Tahri pretty much did the whole dinner, he seared the tuna, bbq'ed the steaks and cooked the shrimp in butter and garlic. Oh dinner was sooo yummy.

Leila also got to try some rice cereal which she LOVED!!! We couldn't feed her fast enough. :)

Christmas morning, I handed out all the presents and from youngest to oldest we open them. Here is Leila with her pile. We didn't get her much because we figured we would go big for Tale since she pretty much has no idea. But she got lots of presents from her Gigi and Papa and her family in Idaho. Thank you everyone for my wonderful presents!!!!Tale had the biggest pile, but he didn't quite get the concept. He would open a gift and then just want to play with that. He didn't care for the rest of them. But then I started opening a section of the gift and then once he got a glimpse of what was inside he would rush to it to open it. He is totally into Trains and Toy Story right now. He got a tent and a chair and he loved it! He put all his toys in there and eventually his chair and just stayed in there for a good part of the day playing with all his toys. Mostly trains.

But I think he favorite gift was from Santa who brought him a train table! When he walked down the stairs and saw it his face lit up so big and he rushed over to it. He took most of it apart so we might have to glue it down. But he loves his trains!!!It was such a wonderful Christmas! Thank you so much to everyone that sent us cards, gifts and Christmas wishes we love you all so much! And thank you to our friends that stayed around. And thank you Santa for being so good to us this year!!!!!

First Play

We had our Branch Christmas party and the kids put on the smallest "play" ever. :) But they were so cute. Tale was a Shepard and of course he fought with me when trying to put on his costume. As soon as he got on the stage he was trying to get off. But he was sooo cute, I wish he would wear things on his head, his outfit would have looked so much better. Poor kid I just wrapped a couple of my scarfs around him and wallah a shepard! :) Of course as soon as the song was over he wanted it off. But I guess I'm grateful he at least made it to the stage. Santa was there too but he wanted nothing to do with him. so no picture with santa. :(

Cuteness!

We had a playdate at Grahams house and they all loved playing in the kitchen. There were all these toys in the living room but they wanted to clean up the kitchen. Except my son, ha! He was monitoring the cleaning. Mommy must not clean enough. ha! Tale found one of Norah's dolls, he was carrying it around and being so sweet to it. Then he lifted up his shirt and put the doll diagonally across his stomach. I was like what is he doing? The other moms were asking the same thing. Then one said I think he is breastfeeding her. I wasn't quite sure if that is what he was doing until he took the baby and put it over his shoulders and started to tap her back. I just about died, it was the cutest thing I ever saw. I kept trying to get a picture of it but he would run away every time. This was the only picture I could catch of him with her. It is incredible the things they pick up on. Oh and he wouldn't let anyone on the train either he was guarding that toy. He is obsessed!

5 months

This is pretty late, but I thought I should post it before she turned 6 months. :) I'm not sure about her stats but she sure is growing. She has to grab everything in her sight. She loves to pull my hair, laugh, be tickled, and loves attention. She "crawls" in a circle and backwards. She rolls over all the time from both her tummy and her back. It is getting so hard to change her diaper and dress her. She tries to roll away and has the strongest kicks! She also gets up on all 4s in the crawling position and usually falls on her face. :) She can also sit by herself. I love this picture because it is sooo what she does all the time. She puts everything in her mouth but she loves to suck on paper. I'm forever taking it away from her but that is the thing she always grabs for before anything else. I'm not sure what it is about paper but she sure loves it. Oh she is sooo cute!

More California Fun

While we were there we got to meet up with one of my best friends Melody. Her son is about a year older than Tale, and the last time they visited us, Tale was a little too young for Jonas to play with him, but this time around they had a blast together. They all loved going on the rides even Leila.
It was fun watching my dad with Leila, just like my brothers she had him wrapped around around her little finger.
My mom bought Tale the Toy Story series and he watched it on her computer like the whole time they were there. Then he became obsessed with Buzz lightyear too. So she went and bought him a Toy Story backpack and shirt and he wouldn't take it off.

Oh how we miss gigi and papa.........They sure did spoil us while we were there.

Wedding

One of the main reasons we went to California for Thanksgiving rather than Christmas was because one of Tahri's childhood friends was getting married and he was in his line. It was such a beautiful fun wedding, it was at a winery in California and the location was absolutely beautiful. It was really fun seeing old friends and meeting some of Tahri's friends that I hadn't met before.

This is a picture of Tahri with Adam and Andrew. Andrew was the groom and he is in the middle. They lived in the same neighborhood and have known each other since like the 3rd grade. That is one cool thing about living in one area for a long time, you make childhood friends that you know for most of your life.

I didn't know anyone there, but they had a table with the spouses/girlfriends of the groomsman, and these are a couple of my new buddies that I made that night. They were so much fun!
It was so nice to get out with Tahri, we hadn't been out together in a long time, mainly because my kids freak out when we leave them. But they did AWESOME with my brothers and my sister in law. They like never cried. They probably had way more fun with their uncles then with me. :)

They took them to the park, watched movies, played games. They were the best babysitters, and Tahri and I got to stay out a lot longer then we anticipated.

Oh and Tale is like obsessed with Thomas the Train. I saw these PJ's at the Walmart for like 5 bucks, and the boy did not want to take them off! He thought he was the coolest thing ever. It had rained most of the day, and the park equipment was really wet, but he insisted on wearing it to play, and after they gave him a bath he had to wear it after that too. They put it in the dryer and then had to iron it dry for him so that he would stay happy.
Leila was pretty good, she won't take a bottle so I was worried about her. But she played with the guitar and everyone took turns holding her until finally she fell asleep. I told them to just let her cry but they couldn't stand it. But when you look at those big blue eyes I could understand why............... :)You guys are the best babysitters, thanks so much for letting have a fun night.

Family Photos

While we were there we took some family photos. Oh it was such a challenge to get Tale to cooperate, but there were a few good ones.

We took some in Charger gear.......My brother Josh bought the kids their outfits, how cute is Leila in her cheerleader outfit. :) Tale loved his jersey, he still asks to wear it now.


A few in black by the beach but they didn't come out very well.

My mom bought the kids matching outfits but Tale was just not into taking pictures. He just wanted to go play by the water. We didn't get too many good ones of these either. We need to learn how to work with the shadows.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we went to California and we got to hang out with my family. Oh it was so nice being in San Diego and seeing my brothers and my parents. My parents brought Kalbi ribs, manapua, poke (raw fish), rib eye steaks, guava cake, passion fruit cake, and all kinds of Hawaiian candy. Oh our dinner was sooo ono! My brother Jared marinated the meat with the seasonings my parents brought. My brother Josh grilled it, and my sister in laws mom hooked it up with all the traditional Thanksgiving goods, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. We had a feast! Then we sat around the fire and laughed and laughed! It was an awesome day. I miss everyone so much, I'm so thankful for my wonderful family!