Christmas 2015

 We started our Christmas morning waiting for daddy to wake up.  This is 6:15 am right before we made daddy get out of bed.  The kids were beyond excited and weren't willing to wait until 7am like daddy requested.

 Luke and Clara both had a wonderful Christmas in which they were handsomely spoiled. Luke asked for nerf guns and 13 hot wheel cars to make his collection a complete 100 cars.

 

 Clara asked for a Barbie Dream House and just about everything else under the sun that she could think or possibly think of.

 Ellie spent the morning chewing on wrapping and watching her big brother and sister squeal in excitement all morning.

 Although neither Luke or Clara got their complete wish list, I think they were both very happy with their gifts this year.

 Clara woke up saying she heard the reindeer on our roof last night and a bright red light shining through her window which must have been Rudolph's nose!

 

Christmas was magical.  We stayed in Lehi with just our little family.  We also woke up to several inches of fresh snow, and it snowed most of the day.  We got a total of 9 inches on Christmas day!  We spent our afternoon playing in the snow and sledding.

 

The Polar Express

This year to get into the Christmas spirit, we had the opportunity to ride the Polar Express.  It's a train ride that takes you to the north pole!  You get to eat delicious cookies and hot chocolate.  Once you get to the north pole, Santa hops on the train and gives everyone a special Christmas gift.

The kids loved the train ride and we sang songs the entire way to the North Pole. Everything about the ride was magical to Luke and Clara.  They loved every minute.

Santa gave everyone a special Christmas jingle bell.  I think this is one experience the kids won't forget!

5 month Ellie

 

Our Ellie is 5 months old now!  Some fun facts about Ellie:

She loves to take baths and enjoys standing and jumping with assistance. She loves fabric, she likes to feel and taste fabric.  She is still very easily startled, its kinda funny how jumpy she is. She loves her mama, and sometimes that's all that will do.  She is always entertained by the chaos of Luke and Clara.  Clara likes to sing to Ellie, and Ellie seems to enjoy that.  She doesn't seem to want to roll over any time soon, but she doesn't like to lay down, she prefers to be held or help with standing on her own.  She is a cat napper and does not sleep through the night.  She is one happy little girl in the mornings.

Thanksgiving 2015

We traveled to Idaho for Thanksgiving this year and were able to spend time with both families.  Idaho was unseasonably cold this year, and we have acclimated to Utah, so we were definitely freezing! 

During our stay we were able to get both families together and officially bless our Ellie!  Even though she is 4.5 months old, we wanted to wait so that most of our family could attend!

Ellie is old enough now to know how she wants to be held, so laying back with a bunch of men holding her in awkward ways was not something she liked.  She pretty much screamed through the whole blessing.

 

The important part was that she was able to be blessed by her dad, Gilbert and had both grandfathers present.  The most prevalent thing Gilbert blessed her with was love.  He blessed her with the ability to feel the love from her Father in Heaven and feel the love from her family.  Ellie truly is a special blessing to our family, and is completely spoiled in love.

 

Ellie is also completely spoiled in attention from Luke and Clara.  Sometimes I'm pretty sure she'd rather be left alone, but most of the time she just watches these two with awe.

 

 Ellie has also been a trooper.  We've been hammered with sickness this season, and Ellie has maintained health which we are thankful for.  

Sweet Ellie Thanksgiving Day 2015

Ellie 4 months

 

Our Ellie is now 4 months old.  The time has flown by too quickly.  She is absolutely spoiled with attention from everyone including Luke and Clara.  She loves to jump, and wants to move.  She loves tummy time and will no doubt figure out crawling in the next month or two.  We figured out that she absolutely hates violin music.  She sticks out her lip with the saddest face and will not stop crying until she can no longer hear violin music.  She's easily startled so we wonder if she's got super sensitive ears.  She's figuring out toys and just finding her hands.  It's wonderful to watch her learn and grow.  So far she's keeping her hair from birth and its turning auburn in color.  She's slowly learning to giggle, although it takes a lot to get her to giggle.  She's most happy in the morning, and wakes up one happy camper.  She hates to be swaddled, and is super ticklish.  She wants to see what's going on in the world.  Clara and Luke provide endless entertainment.  

Halloween decor

 

Our goal is to be the coolest house on the block to go trick or treating to.  This year, I think we may have accomplished that.  However, plans for improvement are already in the works for next year.   This year we made our garage a haunted garage.  We had black lights, streamers and haunted music.  It was awesome!

 

 The kids thouroughly enjoyed Halloween this year.  What's not to love about a sugar over load and being able to dress up in costumes.  Luke got to participate in a costume parade at school, and Clara had her own Halloween party at preschool.  They are in the prime age to enjoys these holidays.

Luke and Clara are some of the best gifts I have ever been given.  Their personalities are unique and all their own.  They feed off of each other, and I'm grateful for their intelligence.  Lately we've been having a lot of conversations that simply explain the meanings or workings of a lot of every day things.  We have intelligent conversations, and it's something new to me.  They ask questions that denote they are actually digesting their world and giving things great thought.  We still have our tantrum and chaotic moments, but for the most part, these kids are simply blessings in our family.

 

Halloween party

 

We had our Ward Halloween Carnival, which gave the kids one extra opportunity to dress up in costumes.  Halloween is just plain fun.  Almost better than Christmas because there is a lot less stress and no pressure.  Just fun costumes and candy!

 

A Laser Tag Birthday

For Luke's birthday party this year, we decided to do laser tag.  After looking at lots of options, we found a company that comes to you and hosts a game in your own backyard for you.  This was the option we chose.  So Luke invited 8 friends and the anticipation was killer.

 

We told each kid to wear black, just to make it more fun.  The laser tag company had camo tents as obstacles to hide behind.  The laser guns were great because they essentially looked like Nerf guns only with lasers and sensors on them.  What kid doesn't love running around with a gun!

 

We got to play laser tag for 60 minutes.  Running around for 60 minutes is a hard thing to do.  They facilitated different types of games like free for all or blue against gold.   In the end, they played a game of everyone against the birthday boy and his dad.  That was fun too.

 We had uncle Sterling come too.  We had one big gun that the adults traded off with.  Each game was about 5 minutes, and one game was enough to wear you out.

Clara was the only girl at the party and she can keep right up with those boys.

It was a super fun party and super easy entertainment!

3 Months...almost

This little girl is growing up too fast.  We are in love with her chubby cheeks and she's got some adorable neck rolls that are to die for.

 

Some things we are proud of:  She finally giggled.  It's the sound you hear from your baby and just melt over.  Seriously, baby giggles are the cutest thing ever.

So far, she giggles the most for Luke.  She is absolutely enamored with Luke.

 

 

Another super cute thing about Ellie is that she is very easily startled.  You'd think she'd be used to loud noises with crazy Luke and Clara around, but she gets startled quite a bit.  It's kinda funny, but it usually scares her when she's startled so she cries sometimes.

 

 

Ellie also seems to be super ticklish.  She can't stand it.  She squirms around if you get her sides tickled.  

 

 

 

September Happeneings

 

We love to go to the swimming pool.  Our local indoor pool at the rec center is loads of fun and perfect for little kids.  We spend hours there at least once a week.  Luke and Clara especially love it, and Ellie is coming to love the water too.

 

 

Heading to the swimming pool means our kids are becoming better swimmers all the time.  Plus there's lots of laughing and goofing off for great family fun.

 

 

 

Luke has been begging for a long time to put some colors in his hair.  I guess since he's a hair dresser's son, he should be able to do something fun.  So we finally bleached the front so he could have blonde spikey hair.  He's funny about his hair, he determines the length and frequency of hair cuts.  Some days he doesn't even care if his hair is combed, and others he thinks his hair is too long.  Such a silly boy about his hair.

 

 

Clara finally got to start a preschool that is just for her.  It's so hard to be younger than Luke for her.  She can do everything Luke can do, and she wants to keep up with him in every aspect.  It was really hard for her when Luke got to start kindergarten this year and she didn't.  Her preschool started a few weeks after kindergarten so those few weeks were rough.

 

 

Clara is very smart too.  She probably could go straight to kindergarten and she would be just fine.  Preschool is more something fun and social for her, and an opportunity to do something that is just for her.  I love that she dresses herself every day.  Her sense of style isn't always spot on, but it's just Clara's personality shining through.  One of my favorite things she has said so far about preschool was when it was the first show and tell day.  She picked one of her "my little pony's" to show and a Dora doll.  I asked her how show and tell went.  She said she introduced her pony as "this is Rainbow dash, and she's a pony."  Then she introduced her dora doll like this "this is Dora, she's a human."  The things this little girl thinks of.  She's smart and funny, and simply adorable.