day-after-Valentines Cookies

Nothing says Valentines Day like sugar cookies, agreed? Well we at least got ours made the day after Valentines Day - good enough, right? What a fun thing for James though - he helped so much and loved it! I think that holidays are such great times for family traditions, and this is such a fun one :) Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day with lots of LOVE.

"I made cookies, Mommy!!"

More Dirk.

So, I realized that I have more pictures of Dirk that I never put up, and I thought I would share. Actually, I have quite a few photos from recent activities (Thanksgiving, putting up our Christmas tree, etc.) that I just have not gotten around to editing and posting. Not to mention that I have wanted to finally put up some pictures of our cute apartment (we've only lived here 4 months, it's still kinda new, right?). Maybe I'll get around to it sometime!

As Christmas approaches I am so excited to be in our own place, have our cute Christmas tree and decorations up, and experience Christmas right along with James, who is now old enough to appreciate it more. But also as Christmas approaches, I am feeling like there is not enough time to get everything done that I want/need to!! So many projects to do (for example, I just bought a whole bunch of fabric to make homemade Christmas stockings....), people to get together with (fun!), things on my to-do list to cross off, not to mention a ward choir Christmas program to prepare for (only a couple more rehearsals, and I am still trying to get this conducting/cuing/cutting off thing down ;))! Craziness.

And yet, here I sit, blogging and posting pictures of our snowman. Oh well. I really should go outside and take some current pictures - Dirk is looking a little malnourished/skinny, but he is still there. He also has been a handy landmark to help people to find our apartment for choir practice and other things this week. We love Dirk.

Enjoy the pictures, and good luck getting all your Christmas things done!

I love this time of year...

I just love the holidays, and am so excited to have a toddler at Christmastime! This week we got out our box of Christmas decorations and it was so much fun, because we never got to get them out last year. We are so excited to get a Christmas tree (but have no idea how the ornaments are ever going to stay on there...), and are so grateful to have a beautiful place of our own to live and for all our many blessings. Bring out the twinkle lights and the hot cocoa....here comes Christmas!! :)

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween, we decided to be characters from our favorite movies. James went as the little boy from The Polar Express! He looked adorable in his blue bathrobe and slippers, and he carried a bell and a golden Polar Express ticket.


Here he is with his Daddy at Jonathan's work party - we didn't wear our real costumes to his work party, just because we figured most people would probably not get it. But, we did dress up - I wore a witch's hat and Jonathan went for this 70's look. He was actually quite a big hit.


For our real costumes on Halloween, Jonathan and I went as Howard Bannister and Judy Maxwell from the movie What's Up, Doc?. If you haven't seen this movie, you've got to. It was really fun to dress up like this, since we can quote almost the entire movie. My family recognized who we were right away (which is always good) and got a big kick out of it. I think Jonathan pulled off the nerdy music professor look very well. He even carried a tuning fork in his pocket and a bag full of rocks. We got matching plaid bags at Walmart, and we found Jonathan's sweet suit and my awesome hat at DI.

Happy Halloween! I hope it was a great one for everyone. Go check out the Halloween Carnival that my cousin's wife is hosting on her blog. There is even a prize for the winning costume, so head on over there and participate!

This kind of weather...

...makes me want to go hooky-bobbing!

Hooky-bobbing is simple: grab a rope and some sleds/inner tubes, tie them to the back of a truck, hop on, have someone drive the truck around in the snow.

Thinking of this makes me so happy because:

1) SNOW is involved, and who else loved the snow today??!
2) Reminds me of Christmas (less than two months, folks!)
3) I get to hear my grown-up brothers-in-law screaming like girls
4) Seeing Benjamin riding on an inner tube looking like a powdered donut
5) It's always fun when you see sleds flipping upside-down and flying through the air
6) It makes me miss my in-laws, and I can't wait to go home for Thanksgiving! Hope we have snow then!

And, if you just need a visual....here it is :) Hope you enjoy!

happy AUTUMN!

I was just sitting here and realized that tomorrow is the first day of autumn! This is happy for many reasons, like:

1) I really don't like summer all that much. It is just too hot and sunny for me. I much prefer cooler weather, and I much prefer cloudy days to sunny days.

2) There is something comfy-cozy about autumn and winter that I just LOVE. I can't wait to build a fire in our fireplace and drink hot cocoa!

3) Autumn/winter clothes are cuter than summer clothes - I just love a cute sweater.

4) This is when all the HOLIDAYS begin! I love the holidays. In our little family, fall/winter is holiday central (when you include birthdays and other such events in the holiday category). It all started last week with Jonathan's birthday. For me, General Conference has always been like a holiday - I love it so much! That is in a couple of weeks. Then comes my birthday in mid-October, Halloween, of course (which we LOVE - see here, here, here and here), Thanksgiving (can't wait to go to Oregon and eat tons of pie!), then James' 2nd birthday at the beginning of December, our 4th anniversary on the 20th of December, then Christmas and New Years of course. Now that is a lot of celebrating. I can't wait! :)

Happy Autumn, everybody!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fun Fourth of July hanging out with my family - we had a yummy barbeque and had lots of fun playing outside and playing the Wii. James had a wonderful time and especially enjoyed laying on the deck with Grandpa and looking up at the trees and chatting about life.

what's Easter without bubbles?

Our Easter Sunday

We not only had a wonderful Easter Sunday, but have had such a fun weekend with my family. My cute sister Liz is leaving this Wednesday to serve a mission for our church in the Washington Seattle Mission. Since she has moved home from Provo last week we have been spending lots of time with her and with the rest of the family.

Today was Liz's farewell and she gave such an amazing talk about the Savior and the Atonement. I really look up to her! She is going to be an amazing missionary. Josh also spoke in church and did a great job - I've got amazing siblings! My parents fed dinner to over 80 people afterwards, and it was just a really great day. Benjamin came up from Provo and spent the day with us and my family, too (he just fits right in with my fam!).

Here are some pictures of the day and the weekend (looks like the Easter bunny came to our house!)