Merry Christmas!

I was going to post about all our recent activities...Las Vegas Bowl (it was freezing and we lost), Disneyland (it rained all morning and was cold the rest of the day, but still a blast! I can't believe we got mom and loren to actually come with us), Christmas (...so many presents...so much food...so much fun)...but my mom's computer is so dang slow! I can't handle how long it takes to upload, so here's some family pics of all of us until I get back to the real world with a decent internet connection. I hope everyone is having a great Christmas season!

And Claira laughed for the first time today. Well, she's really been working towards it, but I'd say today is the first "real" laugh. I was kissing her cheeks and she just couldn't help herself. So cute.

Snooooow!

Caption on Pacen's thoughts: Hey mom, I'm gonna get you! This is so fun! She's gonna get so cold! (Mom kicks snow ball.) It's cold! Whaaaa! I'm cold! Why did you do that!?!?!? You're the mom, you're not supposed to do mean things to me!!!!!

REally, I just couldn't help myself.

We also learned....

This..plus this....

equals this:

We had a fun day in the snow. But I hate the getting ready part, and the aftermath.

Christmas Speak

While acting out the Nativity story with our little Fisher Price Nativity (thanks, Grammy!):

I was saying something about how Joseph and Mary had to have the baby Jesus in a manger where animals live...Camry said, "And then Mary has to hide because Darth Vader is coming to fight her." She's having a little story confusion!
Then later in the story when we were talking about the wise men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus, Camry says, "I want to give Jesus a present." Oh yeah, Camry, what would you give him? "I want to give him a princess seatbelt." We all know that every baby needs a car seat!
That Camry has a mind of her own.

Do you see it?!?!

Don't you think that Pacen and Claira look alike??? These pictures popped into my head last night when I was up with Claira.

Who knows. I'll probably put up a post in a month comparing pictures of her and Camry.

Look at the big....

3 MONTH OLD!!!

She thinks she's so big!

Look at her look at Pacen. Love those eyes.

Pacen took both these pictures and is quite proud to share his accomplishment.

And I just thought these were cute pictures of the kids. Camry was being "sick".

Crazy Camry

This is what you get when you let Camry dress herself. Yep, that's a dress AND a skirt.

And shoes on the wrong feet.

First Ever...

Family photo shoot! My friend's sister, Rashelle, asked if I'd take some pictures of them for their Christmas card, and so I did, and I was so nervous. I debated about posting them, but then i thought I'd get some constructive criticism. I have a lot to learn. So, tell me what you think. I know I need to be a better editor, but I'm just learning! It was way fun despite freezing cold temperatures and freezing kids.

Yeah!!!

Just got the new free actions from The Pioneer Woman! I just now wished I had more time in the day to play with them!

Christmas at Temple Square

Our friends, Christ and Tiff and their baby, Dempsey, invited us to go see the lights at Temple Square with them on Saturday. What we didn't know is that the rest of Utah had the same idea. There were people everywhere! We think because there was a BYU vs. Utah State basketball game at Energy Solutions, and so they all just hopped across the street while they were down. So crowded, but tons of fun. It wasn't really as cold as it could have been, so I'll take crowded over cold any day.

We rode down on trax...tracks...I'm not sure how they spell it. The kids liked the train. We liked it once we found it...Than kept saying....This is not going to be any faster. It's not about making good time, it's about the fun, right?!?!?!?

Camry and Pacen had fun when we found some free space to play tag on. Pacen wanted to take a picture by the water, but Camry just wanted to sit by it. Smart girl. I could just imagine her falling over and being soaking wet. What a fun ride that would have been.

Thanks guys for a fun time!

Proud of the Pacen Boy

Most of you know I was pretty nervous about putting Pacen into preschool. I was so not worried about academics, but more about the social-ness of it all. He's just not very outgoing in situations that he's not comfortable in and I think I was just scared because he's so sweet and I just didn't want his little ego to be crushed...you know...the moment that will inevitably come in every child's life where they have the realization that the world doesn't revolve around them. Anyway, I was so worried, but as the months have gone by Pacen has really grown--both socially and academically. We saw first socially when he told me about Blake. Poor Blake wore a Ute hat to school and Pacen came home and told me in this astonished voice about how someone would actually wear a Ute hat, but then he said, "But Miss Melva said that we can be friends." Yes, Pacen, even Ute fans can be friends.

And on Monday when I picked him up, Miss Melva and I were talking and she said that for the first time, Pacen cut out his paper all by himself, and he was one of the first ones to finish his '8' paper. She just told me how amazed he is at his growth so far and how he just has a love for learning. And he really does. It's funny because at the beginning of the year, he couldn't write any of the letters and she'd write his name in a highlighter, and he'd trace it, and now he can almost write his name by himself. I'm trying to help teach the concept that letters have to go in a certain order to spell words, but that one isn't quite sinking in.

It's really fun to see your child learning. He would never even draw a picture of anything until just recently. It would all be scribbling, but now it's like a light went on and now he can draw 'people' or what looks like them and it's just a lot of fun. Oh the little joys in life! Who knew being a mom had such thrills?!?!? I don't know why I was so worried about him going. I still don't want people to be mean to him, but some people just aren't nice and we all have to learn about that sometime. At least he can come home and I can love his face off. That's what mom's are for, right?!??!

Thankgiving

We just got back from our speedy trip to the ville--it went by so quickly! While I was getting everything packed, Claira hit a milestone--she reached up to touch & grab her toy! Quite the accomplishment. She's barely starting to be entertained with toys, so that'll be fun.

While in Oroville, we ate at La Comida twice (a hancock family favorite that is now in Oroville, so we don't have to go to Chico as often...yea), Charlie's once, and I practically ate my weight in turkey & stuffing. So I pretty much ate the entire time I was there.

We also played a lot of cards.

We went to the school a few times. Isn't Scotty cute? He drives me nuts, but I love him.

Olive.

Zach showed us his awesome CHP uniform...guns and batons and all. I'm terrified of guns. Terrified. He was holding it not loaded and I just about couldn't handle it. He showed us some of his moves. I love how girly Than looks.

Besides seeing family, a definite highlight was the baptism of Becca's friend, Kyle. I loved feeling the Holy Ghost testify to me that I have a Savior that loves me and that there is a plan of happiness for me and my family and being reminded of my baptism. It's just so great to see someone make this choice and be so happy.