Merry Christmas

We had a fun Christmas Day! We finally learned or looked up how to use our timer on the camera we have owned for 4 years. It was fun actually getting us in one picture together! Dean was excited this year since he understands a little more about Christmas. This picture is the first one we took until we decided to find our camera manual and look up the timer setting. It is cute because Julia is smiling!

Julia did not care about opening anything but enjoyed playing with whatever was on the ground.

I love Dean's look as he is opening his gift.

Brian is reading a message from the Christmas book Nonny and Papa sent.

The kids opened new pajamas on Christmas Eve. We went to my parents home for breakfast after opening our gifts at home. The kids played with cousins at the park in the afternoon as we ate dinner with some of the Gaisford's. It was a relaxing day with great weather, delicious food, and family.

Christmas Eve

We went to the Stock's home for Christmas Eve. We ate yummy food, the kids played, the adults socialized, and then we had the kids act out the nativity scene. My Dad read from the Bible and the kids got to pick there own part since there were so many of them. Noah was a shepherd and Dean opted out this year. Julia just sat and watch as well. We sang Christmas songs after and each child had a bell to jingle to each song.Couldn't resist taking a picture of this cutie!
Brian and his funny faces! The kids are waiting to get their fun gift from cousin Nicole.

Julia with Aunt Rachael

Christmas Pictures

My sister Christin and niece Summer helped take some pictures of our family for some Christmas cards.

Gingerbread Houses

A few days before Christmas my sisters and I got the kids together to make gingerbread houses. They all had fun and this year Dean made one as well. He really liked loading candy on his and did not eat as much as I thought he would. Noah went with a more simply design.Dean, Summer, Noah, Grandma, Joshua, Christin, Taylor, Kate, Rachael, and Jacob

Julia was not interested in the houses so she just played

Santa Picture

Every year Brian likes to get the kids picture with Santa. I was not looking forward to going to the mall and waiting in line. I luckily found Santa at the VF factory outlet, so we checked when he was there and today was the day. No lines, it was wonderful! Dean had tried to see Santa earlier in the month and did not want to get near him. Since Noah was there it helped Dean get over his fear and he sat on his lap. Julia on the other hand cried the whole time. Gotta love it!

We decided to go shopping after and got a few remarks that our little baby boy was so cute! I know she is wearing brown (which is a girl color just as much as a boy color), but as you can see in the picture she has the word love in girly letters. She also wasn't wearing her headband. One guy said "you are a big fellow aren't you". I did not even correct him. I guess it is something to laugh about. One of these days she will have long locks and hopefully she won't get mistaken for a boy!

Julia's 1 year STATs

All went well at the doctor. She is a little behind in her motor skills since she just started crawling and can't pull herself up yet but no worries a lot of babies don't walk until they are 15 months.
Ht: 30 1/4 inches 85 percentile
Wt: 24 lbs 85 percentile
The doctor told me "People think she is chubby but her weight matches her height in percentile, so she is proportionate." So I guess as long as she is tall she can be as chubby as she wants. We love her chubs!

Julia's 1 year Pictures

I took Julia to Target today to get her pictures taken. I know I am biased but they turned out cute! She sure is pretty!

Julia's 1st Birthday

It is Julia's birthday today and the year has gone by so fast! She is such a joy to have in our home and we are so grateful to have her sweet spirit with us. Celebrating her birth during the Christmas Holiday makes it extra special for our family. She has been doing so much this past month. Crawling is her major milestone. She has finally ventured out and will go from room to room downstairs. It is more work for us but so fun to watch. She really likes to stand but we have to get her in that position. She can pull herself up to her knees but no quite to her feet yet. I feel it will happen soon. She has started to take steps if we hold her hands. She likes to giggle and scream. I think she likes hearing her voice. She likes to repeat actions and sounds. She also likes to clap a lot. She still takes 2 naps and will go to bed around 6:30 pm and gets up around 7 am. She likes drinking regular milk which makes me happy!

We had a little celebration for her and tried to get her to eat a cupcake but she only ate the frosting.

Dean helped her blow out the candle before she could grab the flame.

She did her best at opening her gifts but tried to eat them instead.

More Crawling for Julia

It is fun to watch Julia crawl! She looks so cute!

Temple Lights

We went and saw the temple lights tonight. Noah was very excited to go and Dean joined in with the excitement. Noah found the tree that he helped plant with the Primary about 2 years ago.

We tried to get a family picture which is a little hard with all the people there. This was the best we could get. Dean was trying to take his shirt off (I already have been talking about modesty with him at 2 1/2, not sure if it is working) and Julia got the flash in her eyes.
I know Julia does not look very happy in this picture but it is right before we left and she was getting tired. She kept wiggling her legs and feet most of the night which she does when she is excited.

Mornings

This is a typical weekday morning. The kids get up, daddy gets ready for work while we eat, if daddy has time to play he does, and then the kids play.
I love scenes like this! Kids happily playing!

Dean's Nap

Dean has been taking naps in our bedroom. We let him watch a show very quietly and then he usually falls asleep (about 4 times a week). This is how I found him one day. The funny thing is I had checked on him earlier and he was in a vertical position in the middle of the bed. Crazy how he can move around like that in his sleep!

Dean is Happy

Dean has an ear infection for the first time. He is a normal kid and does not like to take medicine. Every time I ask him how he is doing he says "I am happy, I'm not sick". He says this because he thinks he won't have to take the medicine if he is happy. I tell him that he may be happy but his ear isn't.

Sink Bath

Daddy was with the kids one morning while mommy was away and both kids got the fun of taking a bath in the sink.

Julia Crawled

We can finally say that Julia has crawled! She has done it a couple of times today. The first time when we were visiting my parents this afternoon. It was exciting to see but now I know my world will change along with hers! She is 11 1/2 months today so it is about time she decided to move!

Bring in the Snow

Noah and Dean went to Bashas' grocery store with Brian and they had some snow in the parking lot (a truck brought it from the northern part of the state). Fun for them!

No more bottle Julia

I took away Julia's bottle this week and it went great! I was going to wait until she was 1 but I couldn't wait 2 more weeks. I was ready to get rid of them. She did not seem to mind and drinks her formula out of the sippy cup just fine. She was only used to drinking water out of them. She actually did better than Dean (he was easy as well but did have one slightly tough night going to bed). I was a little surprised because she has pretty much used a bottle most of her life, even when I was breast feeding I usually pumped. I hope she likes regular milk because I am ready to get rid of the formula.