New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve we went to the Mesa Temple to see the lights with Nonny, Papa, and Lily. It was the last night they were on so it was not crowded. We enjoyed the lights and then after we went home and did some fireworks at home. It was a nice evening but we did not stay up to enjoy the start of the New Year.

Christmas Continued

Christmas Day

Deborah 16 months

Crawling is still the method of moving for this girl. I think the most steps I have seen her take on her own are 2. She is finally getting another tooth on the bottom. This makes 7 teeth total. She likes to say da da and baby most of the time. She likes shoes and will even let me put them on her. She is a climber and loves doing what the older kids do. She needs to walk so she can join more in the fun!

Christmas Eve

Julia 3 years old

Our Julia turned 3 years old. It is crazy how fast time goes. I remember the night she was born and what a special Sunday it was for us. She came faster than expected allowing her to be born one more day further from Christmas. We call her our Christmas baby. Julia is still very independent. She is still our best cuddle bug and loves to be held, hugged or have her hand held. She is the best to tell someone goodbye and won't let you leave without a hug or even a kiss. She is a strong girl and keeps up with the older kids. Her preschool teacher mentioned how well she does even though she is the youngest and some of the kids are already 5. She is very friendly but can become very shy if there are a lot of people around. The picture above reminds me of how independent she is and how she just wants to do things her way. She didn't want to take a bath but then changed her mind and wanted her feet cleaned so went in with her pajamas. She then wanted me to take a picture of her. She is a silly girl!

Julia's 3rd Birthday continued

Julia had a busy day on her birthday. We let her open one gift in the morning. It was a pink dress, her favorite color. We did not do much in the morning except run a quick errand. I did let her pick out a treat for the way home and she chose donuts so we stopped and got some donut holes at Dunkin Donuts. We were all happy with her choice. She then got ready for her last day of Preschool before the Christmas break. She was excited because they were going to be making gingerbread houses and Dean and I were going to come to the little party. We said goodbye to her as she got on the bus and met up with her the last hour of her class time. It was fun watching her with her class and teachers. They sang a couple songs, played "who stole the cookie from the cookie jar", made gingerbread houses, ate cupcakes that we brought to celebrate her birthday, and they sang a song using instruments. She loves it! When Brian got he hid the present she actually asked for (a pink bicycle with a pink helmet) and then she went outside to find it. She was very happy to get it and does really well riding it. We ate the dinner of her request chicken nuggets, and then opened the rest of her gifts. We then sang happy birthday to her and she blew out candles and ate the leftover cupcakes we brought to preschool. It was a fun day and she is was a happy girl!

 What a happy girl!

 She was singing the cookie jar song

They had fun making their houses!

She looks so cute riding her bike!



I painted an old baby doll cradle my mom had that was never used. I then made new bedding for it, the pad, pillow and blanket. It was fun making a even more fun watching her open it!




We put her baby cradle in her room so she can tuck her dolls in bed at night.




Happy Birthday Julia!



Family Pictures

My wonderful friend Kim took pictures of our family. It went fairly well. The boys were the best behaved and Julia was probably the hardest to get to cooperate. You can tell by her hair that it was a struggle tpo get her to stay still for very long. Deborah got a few smiles but also some of her scowls were captured.



This is my favorite!