I've been a good girl!

Every Christmas Eve, we go out to eat, usually at a Chinese restaurant.  This year, we went to Jinbeh!  Restaurants like these are always fun when they cook in front of you.  The chef always puts on a little show, and the kids enjoyed it.   Here's the group!

 "WHAAAT?"

 After dinner, we headed out our house where we read the Nativity story.  This year, Paxton made a powerpoint presentation of our Christmas book, with the pictures and the songs, so it made it easy for everyone to see and to sing along!  We sipped on hot chocolate, all while reading and watching the story.  I love our tradition on Christmas Eve, because it brings us back to the true meaning of Christmas, and makes me grateful for the Savior, my family, and all that I am blessed with each day!

 The kiddos in their Christmas pajamas!

  

And Christmas morning, all dark, with the tree lights on!  I love that moment!

  Ty & Emery were surprised when they woke up to see a gigantic teddy bear by the Christmas tree!!  They love it!

We proceeded to open all our gifts, and the kids loved them all!
After the present opening, we ate pancakes, then rushed to get ready for church at 10:30am.
After church, we spent the rest of the day at Yaya's house.  We ate some delicious dinner, amazing fudge, and opened even more presents!!  The kids scored some awesome toys, books, movies, clothes, and more toys!!
The day after Christmas, we traveled to east Texas to visit 2 more families, where the kids got loaded up with even more gifts!!!   Seriously, this year the kids got way too much!
When we finally got back from all our travels Wednesday, I started organizing all their toys.  I boxed some up to store for later, threw some old ones out, and am still in the process of getting organizers for the ones I'm keeping out for them to play with!  It is seriously a mad house with how many toys they have around here!  But they have been enjoying all their new toys!  Neither of them have really taken to one particular toy.  They truly love all of them and are playing with them all equally.  Funny kids.

Paxton got lots of clothes!  He needed them.  He also got the running shoes he's been wanting for awhile.  They're the Reebok Realflex running shoes.  Very light, very cool! :)  He also got The Man With No Name Trilogy.  He has already watched The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.  He likes his western movies.

Santa brought me something really special this year!  I couldn't believe it when I saw it!  I always get blessed with big surprises at Christmas time, and this was definitely a pleasant one!  I'm super excited to get baking now.  After opening this, Paxton said, "You better go start making me some bread!"  ha.  Thank you SO much Santa, for bringing me the amazing Bosch!

On a different note, I have been trying to teach Ty his colors.  He knows some of them, but not all.  And I think he knows certain colors by memory, and not recognition.  Anyway, I got this idea from a friend and thought I'd try it.   He certainly enjoyed it!!

"Mmm, fruit loops!"

 And this just always makes me laugh.  Ty likes to put his own shoes on, but doesn't always put them on the right feet.

We were commenting on their pj's saying they looked like they broke out of Santa's elf prison... hehe.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Ty's Big Cut!

I love Ty's hair.  I love that it's soft, bright blonde, and straight with a little wave at the ends. I love it long and shaggy.  Of course, it needs to stay trim and neat, though.  Paxton kept wanting me to cut it short. He was sick of long and wanted a normal boy cut.  I kept saying NO!  I finally agreed to TRIM his hair last week... and oh what a mistake that was!  You can't tell how bad the cut was from these pictures, but it was pretty bad.  I decided to wait a few days and see if it grew on me and if it'd look okay after a week or so.  And I did like it.  It was still cute, just with a few little weird spots, but they would grow out eventually.  Paxton, on the other hand wanted it all gone, and he wanted it done TODAY! After a lot of convincing, I finally agreed to take Ty to a salon to get it cut.  I usually cut his hair, and I was even pretty confident about cutting it this time, but Paxton wanted it done professionally.  Whatever. 

So, today Ty got his big boy hair cut!      

                                                                                Before...

                                                                            During...

Getting it styled

                                                                            AFTER!!!

I guess he likes it!
And I like it too...
But I still miss his long hair.
He did great while getting it cut.  He sat there patiently, didn't move at all.  When asked, he looked down, looked straight, closed his eyes, and even had some laughs when trimming the back of his neck.  He totally did awesome!
So, he has several cowlicks that make his hair go in crazy directions. There is one part in the back that I don't like because the hair is too long, but if it was cut shorter, it would stick out and look out of place...  Whatever.  I still might chop that part off if it keeps bugging me.  Besides all that, he looks pretty handsome to me!
On the way to get it cut, I kept telling him we're going to cut his hair and he'll look really cool.  He has always said, "Ty look like a cool guy!"  So after his cut, he said that lots--- "Ty cool guy!!"  Plus, he was looking forward to his sucker at the end!!

Way To Go Cool Guy!!

dat be fun

We went to an ugly Christmas sweater surprise birthday party for our friend Brian!  It was so much fun!  There were about 25-30 people there, all in ridiculously ugly sweaters... it was so awesome! There were lots of fun friends, yummy food, and fun games!  Jeni planned some fun games inspired by the TV show Minute to Win It.  Lots of good laughs.  I especially loved the tacky photo booth that was set up with the single strip of christmas wrapping paper taped on the wall.   Perfect touch. 

When I went to thrift stores trying to find a perfect ugly sweater, there were none to be found. So I called Paxton's mom, Ann.  I'm glad I could rely on her to cover for us.  She had the perfect sweaters!  When it came to getting dressed, I got my ensemble on, shoulder pads and all.  Paxton put the sweater on and parted his hair to the side, but still need one last touch.  And then he put those black rim glasses- and then it was complete!  We had so much fun!!

We decorated our house for Christmas the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  The kids loved having the Santa hats on.  They looked so cute! 

Ty got a hold of a curtain rod I have hiding behind our couch... so the kids were playing together.  It looks pretty dangerous, but it was all under control.

Emery absolutely LOVES books.  She will sit anywhere and flip through the pages back and forth.  She always brings books to us, wanting us to read to her.  She has a favorite book- Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See.  We read it so many times, I had to hide it because I was so sick of it. 

After bath time, Ty & Em loving playing together.  Ty likes putting the towel on his head and running around, letting the towel fly up like a cape.
Ty also likes to drink his "bottle" with Emery on the chair.

Emery with her books and milk.  

Ty is really funny.  He is very particular about things.  He has to do them a certain way.  One night, Daddy taught him how to climb up in to his crib.  Ever since then, Ty has to climb in all by himself for naps and bedtime.  He also has to climb into the bath by himself.  At night when I leave his room for bed, he always has to say "Bye bye, see ya later, have fun, love you too!" Really fast!  And then I say, "I love you too!"  And he says again "I love you too!"  And then I say again "I love you too." And he will say it again, but I only say it twice !  Haha!  

Another funny thing Ty does, is in the car, if I'm not driving with 2 hands on the wheel, he will say, "Mommy! Drive like this!" and he'll put up his hands at 10 & 2.  Way to watch out for our safety buddy!  Thank you!

He has picked up on words that we say.  Awhile ago he would always say, "Uuuuummmmm" before he answered me.  Now something he says a lot is "Thas so annoyiiiiiiing!!"  He also says, "Mommy, Ty sad" or "Ty tired" or "Ty happy!"  And "Dat be fun!" or "Dat so fun Mommy!"

Emery is such a happy, sweet, and cuddly baby!  She has learned to hold her own with Ty.  When Ty runs near her, she squats down a little and braces herself for a fall, if she needs to.  She flinches when Ty walks by.  Sad, but funny.

We had a great Thanksgiving, and are now really looking forward to Christmas!  We've already driven around town and looked at Christmas lights, drinking peppermint hot chocolate, and sang Christmas songs.  Life is good, and we are so blessed!

Merry Christmas everyone!

giveaway at MFT

My friend Molly is having a giveaway on her blog over at My Favorite Things.  Lots of great stuff for moms, daughters, sisters, and kids!  Check her out!

And, I know, I haven't updated in awhile... Christmastime is here!!  Today I am set on getting lots of my shopping done.  This rain will not hold me back!

Dancing Machine

We went to a fall fest a few weeks ago, and they had little games, bounce houses, petting zoo, food and candy, and music.  We had a good time, and Ty especially loved the candy and dancing!

On Halloween night, we had a block party BBQ.  Several of our neighbors brought different things, and we ate dinner and hung out in front of our house, passing out candy to trick-or-treaters... the 5 kids that came!  No, there were probably more than that, but not many more.
I took Ty around our block to trick-or-treat.  He had so much fun, and I did too!  Halloween is way more fun with kids around!  He got scared of any houses that were decorated too much... after seeing a few scary ones, he got scared of just orange lights.  I had to carry him up to the door on those.  But I taught him to say "trick-or-treat" when they open the door, and he loved saying it.  He was the cutest Peter Pan I've ever seen!!
Emery went to bed before most of the party started.  She is teething, and was just exhausted, clingy, and fussy.  Next year, she'll have more fun!

5yr Anniversary Trip-San Antonio, TX

We just got in from our San Antonio trip for our 5 year anniversary. We had a blast! Since Abby always does the blog posts, I figured I would finally do one. Anyway, I took off work Friday and we flew down to San Antonio Friday morning to start our weekend:

Lunch at Whole Foods Market (we love that place)

 Me being stupid

After lunch, we had a 60 minute couples massage scheduled. I have only had one massage my whole life and I was pretty young so I don't really remember it. This one was so nice!! I think I am hooked now. It was really relaxing. After the massage, we checked into our super nice hotel called The Best Western :) It was actually pretty nice for a Best Western but it was kind of in a shady part of town. Let's just put it this way; when Octavio at the front desk tells you to not walk West of the hotel at night, you are not in a nice area. Octavio was cool though, he hooked it up while we were there.

After we checked in, we decided to go out to eat somewhere we could watch the Rangers game. We went to a hamburger place and watched the Rangers lose the World Freaking Series that they had in the bag the night before!!! That seriously put a damper on the night but we got over it pretty quick when we got back to the hotel room. What?

Okay, the next day we woke up early and went to the San Antonio Temple. For all of you who plan to go to this temple in the future, just FYI, you have to have a reservation to do a session. Crazy huh? We didn't have one so they put us on a "standby list". Luckily, we made it in and the temple is beautiful inside, its really amazing. Afterwards, we walked around and took some pictures below:

 I love this Tree of Life stained glass window

 Creeper pic #1

 Creeper pic #2

 Creeper pic #3... Oh wait, thats a normal one

 Aww, thats cute...

 I almost broke my ankle on this one

 Creeper pic #3

After the temple we decided to walk into downtown and tour the city. This was an old Cathedral built in the late 1700's. Whats more amazing than anything about this picture is that I caught a bird in mid-flight just to the left of the tower on the right. 

 Down on the Riverwalk

 They were filming these two guys for a commercial. They were two local wrestlers that are going to have a big match in a couple of weeks. After they were done, I went up and asked the guy on the left when the match was? He looked at me and said, "Right now!!" It was pretty funny until he had me in a full nelson.

 We saw tons of weddings going on

 This guy was cool

 Remember the Alamo!!! Since Abby grew up in Idaho, she missed out on Texas history so we read all of the exhibits in the Alamo. She is an expert now.

 Being goofy

 Saturday night we went to Fogo de Chao. Wow, it was so good but we ate way too much meat. It was a really nice restaurant right on the Riverwalk.

Sunday we woke up and went to a local church for Sacrament meeting. Abby was a little nervous because the majority of the ward was latino's but they ended up doing the meeting in English. It was their primary program so we had a good time watching all the kids and it made us miss our kids!!!

After church we cruised on over to the Mexican Market. It is located in downtown but is separate front he Riverwalk. This was way cooler than the Riverwalk. They had tons of little shops, live music, and good places to eat. Here we are at Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurant:

 These guys sang a love song to us. They came up to us and said: "Would you like a love song?" I said, "yeah sure".  We listened, clapped, and I gave them $3 (a tip) and said "thanks guys, that was awesome!" The guy in the blue shirt paused for a second, looked at me, and said "Its 6 dollars". Haha, we laughed so hard, but what did they expect? They didn't tell us it cost any money. From then on, we just laughed at other people's surprised looks as they went from table to table.

Here is a short video of their performance. I think it was worth $6.

After that it was time to head back to the airport to go home. We were ready to come home and see the kids. Luckily, they were still up when we got home and we got to play with them and give them the prizes we bought them. We are so lucky that Yaya, Melanie, and Mr. Steve were able to come out and watch them for us!!! Thanks guys!!!

Lastly, this is a video of Abby and I just being goofy. I love Abby so much, we have so much fun together. It's so amazing how we can get away for a weekend and fall in love all over again.