Is It Naptime Yet

Lilah with our naturally dyed eggs
~

Eden with our naturally dyed eggs
~

Our eggs. Jon hollowed an egg out and dyed it will green tea the week before.
~

Easter baskets.
~

Easter morning.
~

~

~

Easter egg hunt at our house.

~

~

~

Girls showing love.

~

The skirt I made Lilah. (I wanted them really long since everything you find for girls barely touches their knees now.)

~

Hunting eggs at Grandma Harvey’s house

~

~

~

I just loved the look on Lilah’s face

~

Happy girls at the end of a long Easter day.

When I was at Old Navy with Lilah I saw these shirts and I had to buy them for the girls. Lilah choose “Daddy’s Pot Of Gold” and Eden got “Mom’s Lucky Charm.” They’re both in 5 T since they didn’t have them in girl sizes, but luckily Lilah can still wear it… kinda.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
~

Lilah was not wanting to take pictures.
~

Eden is looking older as she lets her hair grow out.
~

The girls being goofy….Lilah was happy to take this picture.

After modeling the shirts we ate lunch at Subway then went to the Springs Preserve. It was a beautiful day and we mostly stayed in the Origin Area, where they have animals, a sand box, stuff to build with and this giant granite slab that rotates on another rock because of water. The girls spent a lot of time on the rock just hopping on and off and spinning.

Spinning around
~

Enjoying the beautiful day.

For dinner we had a green salad, asparagus, and fish. For desert I made a Thin Mint milkshake and added green food coloring for fun.

Um, can you look a little happier please?

~

No smiles…I guess this one of you eating the milkshake will have to do.

We had a fun St Patrick’s Day and hope you did too.

The girls and I had a girls New Years Eve with Sam and Britta. I gave some details previously, but here are some pictures.

The girls waiting in the tub to hold Squeaks, Britta’s new hamster. Since he had been with them only a week, we took this precaution in case he got out of tiny hands and tried to make a run for it.
~

Lilah enjoyed holding him, Eden just watched.
~

Britta thought he was pretty silly.
~

Here we are with some hats we made for celebrating the New Year.
~

Three little birds….
~

…. Wait, they’re just three silly girls!
~

Sam and me.

Hanging out with Sam and Britta was a fun way to ring on the New Year and the girls and I had lots of fun.

Most are self explanatory….. and I’m being a lazy narrator.

Here is a short little look into our Christmas Eve celebrations.

We were with my family for the reading of the Saviors birth in the scriptures. Lilah and Eden lead one of the songs  and then afterwards is was present time!

Waiting to get started.
~

Andrea with a sleepy Z, though I think it was just that particular moment.

~

Lilah and Eden leading the music for Silent Night. Eden would just sing that carol around the house and I absolutely loved it.

~

Lilah got a cool puppy from Carolyn and Derek, she named him Jack.
~

Eden and her dress-up from Carolyn and Derek.
~

The girls and me in our pajamas. The girls picked mine out.
~

Jon with the girls and Jack.
~

Jon asleep in the couch. I think this makes for the third year he’s done this.

Luckily he fell asleep on one cushion so I was able to work around him.

~

Our stockings.

~

Our tree and presents.
~

I have to take one with just the lights….it makes me think of my childhood.

To come….Christmas Day.

Forgive the length of the post, this is my detailed version of Christmas and pictures should be up soon.

Jonathan took two weeks off this year, so we had not only the week between Christmas and the New Year off, but the week before Christmas off. For his first day of vacation, or Monday the 21st, We spent part of the day at Valley of Fire. He wanted to visit the book section at the Moapa Tribal place, or where you buy fireworks, and figured we could go on some hikes out there too. We hiked to Mouses Tank and saw Atlatl rock. We also stopped by the Visitors Center and bought a few things. We showed the girls these cheese dusted larva and salt and vinegar crickets and Lilah now wants to have chocolate covered crickets. I’m sure if she ever has any it will not be because of me.  We came home in time to relax a little and get ready to go feed the homeless with Carolyn’s work that night.

Tuesday the girls and I had a party with some of the mom’s and kids from the old mommy group and with a few new ones. The girls had tons of fun decorating gingerbread men and seeing old friends that are now in a different ward due to the split two years ago. Then that afternoon we went to Carolyn’s work party and they were able to see Santa. Lilah told him she wanted this cuddle cat and Eden told him she wanted dress-up.

Wednesday, I’m not sure what we did this day. It seems to me that we saw people, but my tired mind is not letting me remember anything. I think we went shopping this day. We had the girls go pick out gifts for each other and I had Jon help the girls pick out pajamas for me. He was mostly there to help them pick the right size, I think they may have wanted to buy me an XXL, but the pajamas I received were all them.

Thursday, Christmas Eve, Lilah and I went to Jon’s parents house to help decorate their tree. Eden had a slight fever the night before and got sick on the morning of the 24th. Luckily, it didn’t last and her stomach was feeling better by that evening when we went to my parents for Christmas Eve. Andrea, Brien, and Zarina we were in town so we were thrilled to see them. This was also the night to see Derek, Carolyn’s husband, because he works late he could only visit one family a night for the holidays. The girls got to open two gifts because they had to open their pajamas, but they also had to open the present Carolyn and Derek bought them since Derek would not be there the next night.

Christmas Day the girls got up earlier than normal, around 7:30 am, and we had them wait behind a curtain we had put up the night before. This tradition came from Jon’s family. His mother told us they started putting the curtain up to divide the dinning room from the living room, when they lived in a one room apartment in LA and the children’s sleeping area was in the dinning room. Incidentally it carried over that they put a curtain in a doorway to separate the children from whatever room the tree was in and they had to wait for their parents to let them go past.

We enjoyed a wonderful morning opening presents and eating yummy cinnamon rolls. Since we purchased the Wii and Wii Fit board, the girls got just a few small things. Piggy banks they got to decorate, UNO, Bob Books, dresses, a gift from Santa, and what they got each other. Jon surprised me with Batman The Dark Knight, which was a surprise because we had agreed not to get it, so I told Andrea to get it for us since they had our family this year.  We then visited Jon’s parents and family for lunch and later we headed over to my parents house for dinner with the family.

I don’t remember what we did Friday, probably played the Wii a lot, but on Saturday we saw The Princess and the Frog with Andrea, Brien, Zarina, and Carolyn. We had tried to go all week long, but car repairs, sick children and actual holidays got in the way so Saturday we finally were able to see it together. I think all the children and adults thoroughly enjoyed it and we will definitely be purchasing it once on DVD.

Well I’ve figured out how to use GIMP, or the image editor in Linux. I can’t make videos, but I can actually edit and post pictures finally! I might be playing catch-up over the next little while as I find time avoiding dishes, which is what I’m doing right now.

Here’s the link to my written overview of Halloween and here are just a few photos of the fun we had. I’m really disappointed because I did not get a  picture of Lilah’s side of the pumpkin. I really loved how it turned out, but in the craziness of getting out the door I must have forgotten. 🙁

Eating doughnuts off a string at Carolyn’s work party.

~

Gutting the pumpkin.

~

Lilah loved the feel of the goo.

~

The girls in their costumes (Glinda and a fairy) and Eden’s side of the pumpkin.

~

With their cousin Zarina, the cutest ghost ever. ( Mine were going for scary last year.)

We got a Wii for Christmas. It’s been lots of fun and I am now a Wii widow…at least until the novelty of it runs outs. I would like to play, but the lure of dishes, laundry and the fact that someone else is usually playing makes it a little more difficult. It has been fun and I’m so happy we got the Wii Fit. I’m also lucky because Carolyn and Derek now think of us and what our girls might like when they buy games so we’ll get to borrow and try some out without purchasing them ourselves, unless we really like them, then we’ll buy them. (Sigh to all that comes with a game console, though it is lots of fun.)

We have had a wonderful Christmas and I hope yours was merry and bright. I now need to do dishes and think of something to do for my church lesson tomorrow since we ran out of lessons. So fun.

Christmas is almost here….Are you ready?

I’m mostly ready. I just have gifts to wrap, in which I’m not completely happy with what I got Lilah, but I think she’ll still enjoy it. I’m very excited for this Christmas.

I love Christmas music and so do my girls. They’ll replay whatever CD is in the player, which is Faith Hill, and then they sing to it and create “plays” to each song. It’s a good thing I really like the Faith Hill CD, or I think I would have gone crazy. They always hit play when my hands were messy with truffle making.

Speaking of truffles,  I mostly sold large bags of popcorn for $5 a bag, but I did sell some truffles, though my mom put in the largest order and I will say I’m giving her a large discount because if I wasn’t selling them and she had asked me to make them, I would have done it for free.  I’m happy I was able to make a nice dent and repay some of the money I’ve spent for Sew Lacey. I have a lot of material and after the Holidays I hope to get some motivation back and begin sewing some more. I made a really cute nursing cover and matching burp clothes for a friend recently and am thinking of adding that to my list of items.

I’m so happy for Christmas and can hardly wait for the new year!

Also, the committee met and interviewed a friend’s husband for the play next year and loved him. I’m so excited to work with him and hopefully be in the play.  Once it’s official, as in the board meets and approves him and the play, I’ll give more information. For now I just can’t wait till 2010.

Sorry this post was so scattered. I just wanted to jot down some thoughts while the truffle center warmed up so I could make them. I had it in the fridge too long and now it’s too hard to shape.

My friend Anna recently did a posts on Christmas memories and I made a little comment because she asked us to comment on our favorite Christmas memories. Here’s my comment:

My favorite has always been sneaking out to see the tree at night after Santa had come and eating one or two treats from my stocking. I loved sitting and looking at the lit tree with all the lights out.

I may actually not put the child’s gate up this year and maybe my girls will enjoy this too, though in some ways they are so good it might take a year or two.

So this year I’m going to relinquish some power and not put up the child’s gate. Jon doesn’t like them sneaking and poking around, so he’s thinking of maybe putting up a curtain, so they can peak out the curtain, but hopefully not go past it. This is a tradition his family has and as a child he never actually went past the curtain, just peeked. I find this somewhat amazing, but I think my girls would take after him since they do have a tendency to really respect what we ask them to do.

Taking Anna’s lead I want to share some of my favorite Christmas memories.:

Staying up late waiting for Santa to come.

Exchanging gifts with my siblings.

My dad driving us around to go look at Christmas lights so Mom could wrap presents. I think of my Dad whenever we look at lights with my girls. Their enthusiasm reminds me of my own.

Picking out Christmas tree’s with my dad each year. I always went with him and got the last say. I don’t know if he taught me well or just made it feel like I picked the perfect one each year. Every once-in-a-while another sister got to come along, which I didn’t like too much, but I still got the last say.

Making decorated sugar cookies for my friends.

Our Christmas Tree Angel. My parents have the perfect angel for their tree, just simple, not extravagant with big wings. I wish I could find one just like it.

Our house on Base decorated with lights and a manger scene.

Silent Night, and not knowing if my sister’s catholic boyfriend knew the song. I can  be a bit air-heady at times.

The one Christmas I didn’t wake up in the middle of the night and had gotten a new bike.

Turning out all the lights and watching the Christmas tree glimmer with it’s lights on.

One year my dad set up the camera to record for 2 or so seconds every 10 or so seconds and we watched as we peeked in the presents and our bodies appeared at different places in the room.

Wrapping presents that my dad bought my mom.

5 years or so of plain red and green wrapping paper my dad had gotten somewhere. We wrapped the new computer in it the first year and it lasted f.o.r.e.v.e.r. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was still some hanging around or if my mom just tossed it.

My dad being able to return things, but us having to keep things we didn’t like unless they didn’t fit or were broken.

Peeking around for where the Christmas gifts were hid.

Unwrapping gifts once in a while and re-wrapping them.

Learning mom’s secret code on how to tell what gift belonged to who since it had no name tag. Lets just say each of our names start with different letters and D was for Dad, since our names both start with L.

What are some of your favorite Christmas memories?