Valentine's Day

I didn't have much time to plan Valentine's Day this year seeing how we were sick the week before.

I woke up to a card from my boys (James picked it out...he loves Mickey). Paul had left it before he went to work at 5:30. James was a good boy and let me sleep in until 8:00 before fussing.

James and I did a little craft for Daddy. He colored a bunch of paper and I cut the little hearts. I held his hand to write the letters (which he gets a kick out of). Isn't it so cute?  Then we strung some hearts up on ribbons. He had such a blast. I let James pick out a balloon (he calls in Ribb, like ribbit).

I dipped strawberries for dessert.

Paul got out of class earlier than expected so we went and picked up some Macaroni Grill to go and brought it back home. We spent the evening watching Secretariat and even got to go on a walk.  We also introduced James to shadow puppets. He had such a blast making little animals with his fingers on the wall. He literally laughed himself to sleep :)

I can't believe it's been 4 years since Paul and I first got together. Sometimes it seems shorter, sometimes it seems we've never been apart.  We have been through a lot but we are better, stronger people for it.

I am so thankful that I get to spend the rest of forever with my sweetheart!

Not Much to Report

I realize it's been forever since I blogged.  Sadly, as I look back on January the only thing that really happened was all of us catching a nasty cold and being holed up in the apartment due to freezing weather. I am very pleased that it's over.

UPDATE: just after I finished typing this James started throwing up. This went on for 10 hours. It was horrible to say the least. 5 loads of laundry, one blessing and  a roll of paper towels later, he's back to his old self. He even managed to scribble on every wall in the apartment while I was in the bathroom this morning. Thank goodness for washable crayons!

James is growing up so fast!  He finally got his glasses and is just so cute!  He is pretty good about wearing them. After an hour or so he'll usually need a break since they are pretty snug (they have to be that way to stay on). 

His language skills have just exploded over the past few weeks. He always has something to say and no matter what you say back to him, he'll always ask you why.

Going for a ride in his wagon.

Just lounging.

The picture above inspired us to get him this chair. He loves it!

VERY excited for dinner at In-N-Out

Sorcerer's Apprentice

Christmas!

We held our 4th annual cookie day with my sisters this year!  As usual, Reanna made some pretty scary cookies. James got to decorate his first cookie!  There was a lot of frosting and half-eaten candies, but he had a lot of fun.

Decorating his cookie.

After years of failed cheater houses, we decided to make our own. Martha Stewart provided the recipes and inspiration. They actually turned out amazing. Sadly, this is my first successful gingerbread house EVER.

On Christmas Eve we headed up to Salt Lake for the day. We walked around temple square for most of the day. We took James to the visitor's centers and the Beehive house. He had a lot of fun running around the Joseph Smith Memorial building and looking at the pretty trees and fountains.  We probably should have started a little later than we did because by the time the lights were turned on James was ready for bed! 

I made orange rolls after James went to bed and we unloaded the closets full of hidden presents.  I'm so grateful to all the people that knew of our situation this year and thought of him. I'm pretty sure he had the best Christmas ever!  THANK YOU THANK YOU to all my amazing friends!!  We are truly blessed. 

We have spent December studying the New Testament and reading about Christ to James. In the December Friend there was a tree with lots of little ornaments. Each ornament has a scripture that answers a question about Christ's birth. We would read one every night at dinner and let James put the ornament on the tree (with help).  He really loved this. We got this great book for Christmas about making Christ the center of the holiday in our home. We got some great ideas for next year and will be starting a wonderful new tradition next year!

At the PIE in Salt Lake City.

Christmas morning was awesome. I think I woke up first...pretty sure I did :) James ran out into the living room and just stood there with wide eyes whispering "wow" over and over again. It was so cute. He ran over to the powerwheels, hopped on and said "bye" and waved, like he knew he could drive it away! He's so funny. He's having so much fun playing with all of his toys.  He only had baby toys before and was very bored with them. I wish I had taken more pictures, but we have it all on video.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas!  We're excited to start a new year and make new goals for our family.

Christmas Festivities

We have been so busy with Christmas festivities that I almost forgot I had a blog!
Here are some highlights of what we've been up to.

• Made Christmas cards for the elderly with my sister.
• Collected tons of clothing for poor children in El Salvador. Paul started the drive last week and sent the clothes home with one of his International employees.  With only 5 days we managed to collect more clothing then she could take with her!
• Made candy: caramels, chocolate covered cherries, orange truffles, mint truffles, fudge and divinity. whew! Thank goodness that's over with.
• Watched a million Christmas movies.
• James learned to say "ho, ho, ho!"  It's absolutely hilarious. Any time he sees anything remotely Christmas related he shouts it as loud as he can. It's awesome.
• Attended our Family Christmas Party.  It was our first year with the new tradition and it was a lot of fun. Yay for new traditions!
• Wrapped James' presents--Finally!

Now we're getting ready for Paul's work party tonight. We have our annual Sister's Cookie Day coming up and then we're spending Christmas Eve in Salt Lake (hopefully it's not freezing cold).  I have been really bad and haven't taken pictures of anything this year. I need to charge the camera battery and get on that probably.  Have a great Christmas everyone!

Thanksgiving

The original plan was to go to my parents but we ended up doing our own thing this year.  I'm so glad that we did! I love having our own family traditions.

The Menu:

Roast Turkey with Apples and Oranges

Southern Cornbread Stuffing

Apple-Orange Cranberry Relish (Grandma Cohoon)

Green Bean Casserole (um, thank you Paula Deen!!)

Sweet Potato Bake

Pumpkin Pie

Cherry Pie

Frozen Cherry-Pineapple Dessert (Grandma Willardson)

Hawaiian Rolls

Spinach Dip

On Wednesday I prepared all the casseroles and made the desserts and appetizers. I also made up some monkey bread dough for the morning so we'd have something to snack on during the day.  Wednesday was a much more hectic cooking day for me, but I managed to get it all done fairly stress-free.

Thursday morning we woke up early (like every single morning since becoming parents) and I finished making the monkey bread. We chowed down on that while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with James. He jumped around and danced with each passing float.

After that Paul started on the Turkey and football commenced.  I started cleaning up in preparation for Christmas decorations--which by law in our house must go up the day after Thanksgiving. I got the boxes ready to put away the Fall decor and moved the Christmas boxes in the house. At this point we were starving. Smelling that turkey was killing us!  So we brought out the dip a bit earlier than expected, but whatever.

After the turkey exited the oven, my casseroles promptly entered. It was not as stressful as last year. Probably because it was just us.  I'm kind of sad that I didn't grow up having Thanksgiving dinner. I feel like I missed out! I love Thanksgiving and hope that James will grow up loving it, too.

Can I just say that Paul makes the best turkey EVER? Because he does. He really does. We have been eating Thanksgiving dinner for two whole days now and probably have another two days worth of breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm ok with that :)

First Taste

Yum!

I finally figured out how to get him to eat carrots: Spinach dip!

The spread.

Helping me check the lights.

We are so grateful for our many blessings this year and the many wonderful people in our lives.  I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Gratitude

This season I have been trying to be more grateful. I really do have so much to be thankful for. This year has been trying for us at times, but always in the background is the love of the Savior for us. We have felt His love on many occasions as we have traveled down the path of life.

I am thankful for my family. My husband works SO hard at school and work. I know that sometimes he is overwhelmed with all that is on his plate and yet he pushes through, not complaining so that I can be a stay-at-home mom.

I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has entrusted us with a precious child to raise and love and cherish. He brings so much happiness and joy to our lives.  I love that my home is filled with little laughter. I feel that I have much to learn from him and enjoy every moment of being his mother.

I am thankful that no matter where we live we can bring the spirit into our home. Moving around so much makes it difficult to feel "at home" but the spirit in our home is always the same.

I am grateful for eternal families. Having lost so many loved ones can be very difficult during the holidays, but the knowledge of the gospel and the special bonds we share make all the difference.

I am thankful that our Savior loved us so much that He volunteered to be a sacrifice for each of us.  I am so glad for the atonement and for it's application in our lives.

I am grateful for amazing friends.  We have been so blessed with friends who always seem to be in tune to our needs and are always giving of themselves. Through our friends we have been able to feel the love and compassion of the Savior and look forward to the day when we are in a position to help others in the way that we have been.

I am thankful for a plan in a bad economy. We have steady income with benefits and the prospect of moving up in Paul's current job.  Even though things are rough and I get antsy to be in a home of our own, we do have a plan and slowly but surely we will get there.

I am grateful for the scriptures and for the children's scripture stories from Distribution. I love walking past James' room and seeing him "reading" his favorite books (if you ask him he'll tell you that everyone with a beard is Jesus).

What are you thankful for?