Christmas

We had an excellent Christmas.  We spent time with both of our families.  We received many amazing gifts for which we are so grateful.  We had fun just being together and relishing in the fact that Jack has these two weeks off.  We ate lots of yummy food.  We talked to Jack's brother Steve on the phone. We gave thanks for the birth of our Savior. 

Here are a few pictures to recap the events.  We didn't take many pictures on Christmas day, we'll have to get some more from my parents.

The three Jacks.

Jackson checking out his new cousin Brad.

Cousins!

Christmas morning. 

Jackson found some stray candy from Hannah's stocking and ate it, wrapper and all.

Ski Utah's facebook page was running a promotion where it would grant ski-related Christmas wishes to three lucky people. I wished for a new coat and some ski passes for my husband and my wish was granted!  Jack was so surprised to receive these on Christmas morning.  Thanks Ski Utah Yeti!

Mister was stoked about his cars.  And about the chocolate.

Merry Christmas to you from us.

Hannah is 3!

Stats:
Height: 38" (69%)
Weight: 32 lbs (64%)

Our little princess turned 3 today.  Over the past year she has filled our lives with princesses and mermaids, tantrums and meltdowns, smiles and laughter, and lots of fun friends.

We've been watching some home videos of her and we can't beleive how much she's learned and grown over the past year.  We are so proud of her.

At three years old Hannah loves princesses.  I think she truely believes that she is one!  She loves to play pretend and constantly makes us pretend food or asks Jack to be her prince so she can play Cinderella.  We often hear her having funny conversations with herself.  She loves learning and knows most of her letters now and she can even write some of them.  She is excellent at making up songs (a trait she inherited from me) and her lyrics always make us laugh.  She is as stubborn and determined as they come.  She is our little organizer, she loves to clean and organize things and can't stand it when her room is messy.  She is a social butterfly and would rather play with her friends than just about anything else. She is extremely picky about her clothing and if it doesn't fit just right, she won't wear it; this also means that she NEVER wears socks and has a hard time finding shoes she likes too. She is loving towards her little brother and is constantly applauding him for the new things he learns.  But it does really make her mad when he gets into her things.

She was SPOILED for her birthday.  When she woke up we opened presents.  Then we went to see my family and eat breakfast and she opened more presents.  That night at the Stringham Christmas Eve party they also had a birthday party for her with MORE presents.  She was excited and grateful for all of the fun new things and she felt really special.  Happy birthday little princess!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

We had a fun night going downtown with my family to "see Christmas."  First we visited Santa.  Hannah wanted nothing to do with him.  Jackson was enthrawled with him and almost fell asleep in his squishy arms.

My dad tried to snap a picture, but the lady yelled at him because they require you to pay $15 for a picture.

This is the high-quality $15 picture my dad paid for.  I don't think Hannah will ever live it down.

Then Jackson really did fall asleep in my mom's not-so-squishy arms on the way to dinner.

We rode the train to the Grand America to see the window displays.

Hannah loved the train.

Then we took the train back to temple square. Hannah loved the nativity and pushed through the crowd to see the baby Jesus. She wondered if Jesus had a cake with candles for his birthday. My mom told her to wave to Him and she said, "no I can't, he's sleeping." We tried to walk around to see the lights but by then the kids were just too tired and cold so Jack and I took the kids home. But overall it was a really fun night!

Hannah refused to pose, but she loved the little pink lights.

I had to get a picture of Hannah's face while she watched the nativity.  She loved it!

We also had the Pascoe family Christmas party this weekend. My grandpa handmade these blocks with the kids' names in them. Hannah was so excited to see her name when she opened them. I know they'll love and keep these special gifts forever.

Jackson 9 Months

My handsome little guy is 9 months today!

Stats:
Height: 29" (65%)
Weight: 20.2 lbs (41%)
Head: 18.5" (89%)

He is such a sweetheart.
He always greets us with a toothy smile. 
He just started saying his first word which is, "uh oh!" when he drops something.
He still loves to eat and gets upset if you are eating and don't share.
He is very independent and doesn't demand attention.
He loves to explore and gets into everything.  Last month he tried to climb up Hannah's nightstand and pulled it over on top of himself.  Luckily he was not hurt, we were both just really scared. 
We think he looks like a linebacker with his broad shoulders and no neck.
He adores his sister and goes and pounds on her door and cries when she is taking a nap.
He loves to clap his hands and pound on things to make noise.
He has a deep voice (for a baby) and often "talks" in a growling voice.
He loves dogs and tries to get their tails.
He loves the bath and "asks" to take one many times a day by going in the bathroom and standing up at the bath and yelling.
He has 8 teeth and uses them often to bite our toes and legs.
He is so calm and just goes with the flow.  Recently he has had to get an inhaler because he's had a hard time breathing due to a really bad cold.  I thought he'd freak out when I put the mask over his face, but instead he just laughs and smiles.

We just love our little guy.  He melts our hearts and makes us happy.

Hannah's Birthday Party

To culminate Hannah's year-long obsession with mermaids, we threw her an "Under the Sea" birthday party with her friends.  Most of the kids couldn't make it because of illness, but five little girls had a blast!

The invitation.

First they made mermaid crowns and then played mermaid games.

We ate pizza and then brought out the cake.

I made this cake for Hannah.

I was going for something like this:

But it was much harder than I thought and it turned out pretty terrible:

To Hannah it may as well have been the most incredible cake in the world.  She was speechless when she saw it which made the whole day worthwhile.

We also had a fish pond and a mermaid pinata:

Hannah's friends are so sweet, I just love them.  Hannah adored the gifts they gave her.  Everyone was so polite and sweet the whole time. 

Honestly this party was exhausting, but they had so much fun and I'm glad we did it.  Thanks to my sister Ashlyn who came to help out, my friend Camie who gave our little sicky Jackson a much needed nap during the party and Jack who gave up a chance to go skiing to be there.  We love you little peanut!

The kids took home a little bucket and shovel filled with treats.

Dance Recital

At the end of Hannah's last dance class, the kids performed a little dance for their parents.  They did a great job and Hannah looked so cute.

Too busy with cookies to take a picture.

Jackson likes going to dance because he gets to climb on the heaters.

Breathe

Two sick kids enjoying frosting.

Jack just finished is surgery rotation, which is probably the most difficult rotation in medical school.  Now on to the best part of still being a student: a two week Christmas break!

Jack and I both agree that 2010 was the most difficult year of our lives (not saying much, I know, since we don't have hard lives), but the intensity of his schooling and training was grueling for all of us.  He still has some difficult rotations ahead of him, but looking forward I think the last year-and-a-half of medical school will go by very quickly. 

For the past six weeks Jack has often worked 100+ hours per week and has only had 4 days off.  He really enjoyed doing surgery though so it wasn't as miserable as it could have been.  It seems like the kids and I have been sick for the entirety of the past six weeks.  The kids and I have had runny noses and coughs, the stomach flu twice(!), Hannah had a UTI, Jackson got an ear infection and his cold got so bad that he had to get an inhaler to help him breathe.  Yucky!  Jack is the only one who did not get sick, probably because he was never home to catch our germs!

Being stuck inside, we have watched WAY too many movies lately and we're all getting cabin fever.  So we are looking forward to a healthy and fun Christmas break. 

Hannah has found creative ways to entertain herself and Jackson.  Here she says they were having a "nap-over."  Jackson loves playing with his sis.  

Welcome

Since Jack and I are both the oldest children we were naturally the first in our families to be married and then the first to have children.  That means that until today we had no nieces or nephews and our kids had no cousins.  So we are beyond excited to welcome Bradley Stone Stringham to our family.

He was born on December 16 at 11:11am (after Cynthia labored for over 2 days!) weighing 7 lbs 8 oz and measuring 19.5" long.  He has black hair and the cutest little face.  I got to hold him tonight and I can't believe how much I love him and he's not even mine!  Congrats Thom and Cynthia!