Christmas Cookie Decorating Party

Last week we had some friends over to decorate sugar cookies.  It was so much fun, and the kids had a blast.  I think we might need to make this a tradition.  Here's Lucas helping me make/taste the cookies.  You can't really tell in this picture but he has flour all over his nose.  He made quite a mess "helping" me.

I really do love making sugar cookies if I have the time for it.

And here are the kids decorating their cookies.  It was late at night and the lighting in all of these pictures is pretty bad.  Oh well.

This outline of the cookie cracks me up.  Lucas put lots of crushed candy cane all over his cookies.

The Gessati's

And Henry...

We didn't get a picture of the Cooper's, but we got some of their kids.  Jane was having fun decorating her cookies.

They also had fun running around and playing.. and seeing how many people they could fit on the slide at once.

We're so cute!

And these last three pictures of Lucas decorating a cookie make me laugh.

He's shaking the sprinkles so fast his hand is a blur.

What a character!

Big Basin Birthday

I had a birthday last week so we decided to do something fun over the weekend.  We drove to San Jose to meet up with my parents and then continued on to Big Basin.  We thought it would be fun to hike around, see the pretty trees, and let Lucas run free.  Unfortunately it was the coldest and rainiest day we've had in a while.  Here's me and Paige all bundled up at the beginning of the hike.

She wasn't a fan of the cold and rain, but she got over it after a while.  Lucas didn't seem to mind it much at all.  He had a fun time climbing all over the huge trees.

There were lots of cool ones to walk through.

This was close to the end of the hike.  Lucas was starting to get cold and we all looked pretty wet and pathetic.

It was a really pretty area.  I was sad the weather wasn't really ideal for the trip, but everyone was a good sport about it.  The drive took quite a while and made Ryan a little car sick, but hopefully I can convince him to do it again next summer so we can explore a bit more.  When we got back to my parent's house we had some yummy hot cocoa and then Ryan and I left the kids with my parents and we went to a teppanyaki place for dinner.  It was yummy and it was nice to have a night to ourselves.  Thanks again mom and dad.

Paige LOVES Lucas

Paige LOVES Lucas!  I know I've said this before, but she really does.  She always smiles so big when she sees him.  Even if she's crying, if he goes over and starts talking to her, she'll usually stop crying and smile at him.  Sometimes Lucas plays with her and gets in her face and I get worried that he's being too rough or she won't like it and I go over and she just has this huge smile on her face.  Like the other day while I was getting ready, he came and started bouncing her in her bouncer and I thought for sure he was doing it too hard, but she loved it.

Lucas likes to pick Paige up and carry her around. I about had a heart attack the first few times he did it, especially the one time he carried her up the stairs when I wasn't watching.  But he's never dropped her and for the most part he does a pretty good job so I've calmed down about it.  And she loves it, she looks like a little rag doll, but she loves it.

The other day I asked Lucas to read to Paige while I did the dishes.  I thought he would sit there and show her a book for 5 seconds and then run off, but he sat there and read her the whole book.  It was so cute.  My favorite part is right at the beginning, Paige looks at Lucas and gets this huge smile on her face.

They are so cute together!  They are best friends right now and I'm loving it while it lasts, cause I'm sure they will drive each other crazy soon enough.

Christmas Time

One of my favorite things about Christmas is decorating the house and putting up the Christmas tree.  I love to play Christmas music while we are decorating and then have hot cocoa and cinnamon rolls while we sit back and admire our work.  Lucas is getting old enough to join in and I think he likes the tradition.

 Checking out the presents.

 We got these candy cane jammies for Lucas last year, and we also got one in a baby size, just in case we had another little one to wear them this year.  They are a little big on her, but they will fit perfectly by Christmas.  I love my little Christmas babies.

And in front of the decorated tree.

I made a bunch of Christmas decorations last year, so I didn't really need to make many this year.  I do need to make another stocking for our newest family member.  But I saw this snowman tutorial and there was a bit of a lonely spot on the mantel so I decided to whip one up.  It didn't turn out nearly as fat as it was supposed to.  Oh well, this will be our weight watchers snowman.

We have an advent calendar and Lucas has been having so much fun counting down the days till Christmas.  We can't wait!

3 Months

Paige is just getting so big! She is starting to grow out of some of her 0-3 month clothes. She's still just the sweetest little angel ever. She's almost sleeping through the night; she goes to bed around 9, and usually wakes up to eat around 5, and then back to bed until 7 or 8. And she's always so smiley when she wakes up. But she's smiley all the time; she's a really happy girl. She has gotten really drooly lately, and likes to chew on, suck on, or lick anything that gets near her mouth. She sticks her tongue out a lot, just like I did when I was a baby.

And here's a video of me tickling her, for proof of her giggling and all around cuteness.  

Christmas Chocolate Giveaway

I follow this blog called Simply So Good, and she is doing her annual Christmas chocolate giveaway.  They look so delicious, I really hope I win this time!  You should head over and enter too, but you have to promise to share with me if you win.  :)  I have more posts I'm working on, but I just had to share this while the giveaway is still going on.

Thanksgiving Trip - Lights at Temple Square

Thanksgiving day was actually really nice and laid back.  I think we were all starting to feel a little better, and the kids let us sleep in which was nice.  Ryan's mom did an amazing job on dinner - it was delicious!  We got to sit and visit with almost all of Ryan's family. (We missed you Jeni and Jason!) The only bad part was that I completely forgot to take pictures of any of it.  The table looked so pretty and all the food looked so good and I didn't get a single picture.  Sad!  This is the only picture we took.

Oh well, next time I will be better.  The day after Thanksgiving we went to see the lights at Temple Square.  It was beautiful as always.  It wasn't too cold, but since we aren't used to the cold anymore, we got a little chilly.  Lucas's coat is from 3 years ago, but it still fits him well enough.  Here's the whole family, Paige is that tiny little spot of purple and pink between me and Lucas.

Pretty lights...

Lucas kept sticking his tongue out.

Paige stayed bundled up and asleep in her stroller almost the entire time, but she woke up towards the end and I pulled her out for a quick picture.

Afterwards we went to dinner and had yummy ice cream for dessert.  It was a really fun night.

Thanksgiving Trip - Family Pictures

While we were in Utah we decided to take our family pictures.  I'm not really sure why I thought this was a good idea, but I did.  And once I decide we're going to do something, there's no stopping me.  Pretty much nothing worked out.  We were all sick and getting a late start and it just didn't look like it was going to happen, but I had gone through all the trouble to pack our clothes for family pictures, and we were going to take those pictures dang-it!

What started out as a nice morning, turned into a super windy and cold day.  We brought a blanket to sit on in case we wanted to be on the grass, but ended up using it to keep warm while we set up the camera.

 My hair looked like this in almost every shot, and some random dude got in the background of this one.  At one point there was a kid that decided he wanted to throw rocks off the bridge and we had to ask him to wait for a bit so we could finish taking pictures.

And then I got my water bottle out so I could try to tame my hair that had been blown super staticy by the wind, but forgot to screw the lid back on and the wind blew it over and water got everywhere.

 And then some how the planets aligned and we got one, and only one, good picture.  It was a Thanksgiving miracle.

And then the next day, since I hadn't really learned my lesson, I decided it would be fun to take more pictures.  Except this time we did them inside, and it actually wasn't nearly as awful.  I saw this idea for Christmas pictures on Pinterest and I really wanted to try it.  They turned out so cute.

Thanksgiving Trip - Playing with Cousins

On Sunday morning, me and Lucas went and played with toys by the fire.  Lucas loves having a fire in the fireplace so it was fun for him to be able to turn it on whenever he wanted.

We played with blocks.

And then practiced our jumping skills. I love this picture.

On Monday, we went to the dinosaur museum with Ava, Penelope, and Rose.  Lucas was a little terrified that the dinosaurs would come to life and start chasing him, like they do on Night at the Museum, but he calmed down after a while.  

 Playing at the sand and water table.  I'm not sure why the best activities always have to be the messiest.

 Another messy activity, digging for dinosaur bones.

 Later that night we went to this sporting good store called Scheels.  It was just built in Draper this year and it's actually pretty amazing.  It's huge and has pretty much anything you could need that is sports and outdoor related.  And it has a huge Ferris wheel inside.  I had Dash and Lucas with me in my chair.  They were a little scared, but we had a good time.

 And here's Ryan posing with his favorite animal of all time, a Grizzly Bear.  We may make this our Christmas card picture.  :)

 On Tuesday, Lucas, Paige, and I all got colds.  I think over half the family got sick at one point during the week.  It put a damper on things and we didn't get to do nearly as much as we had hoped since we spent a lot of time over the next few days taking turns sleeping and taking care of sick babies.  We did venture over to Mike and Jessica's house to let the kids play, though.

 Lucas was in heaven having new toys and kids to play with all the time.

 Here's all the cousins that were there for Thanksgiving, except for Rose who really was not feeling well enough to get her picture taken.

 We had pizza for dinner, and it was seriously the biggest pizza I have ever seen.  This picture does not do it justice. It fed three families and there was still pizza left over.

Stay tuned for the rest of the trip, there will be at least one, maybe two more installments.