Christmas Fun!

Last night for FHE we made our posterboard fireplace while we watched "Stalking Santa." It's a kind of mockumentary with all these Santologists and it follows their search for proof of Santa. Pretty cute. Mostly over the kids' heads, but Ian and I thought it was funny. Older kids would probably love it. Plus, I just found out it's made by NieNie's brother, so there's your connection. I am happy with how our fireplace looks this year too. Weston keeps pretending to burn himself on the fire.
This morning we did our annual Elf Yourself video. The kids thought it was hilarious. Weston picked the country dance.

The Holiday Party

This weekend I had two fun holiday parties! It was the best. Friday night was a girls only "favorite things" party hosted by the lovely Sheena. We got together for some delicious food, good girl talk, and to share some of our favorite things with each other. I brought my two winter favorites to share: my favorite Bath and Body Works hand cream, and, of course, fuzzy socks! I came home with lots of other goodies too including lip gloss, body lotion, more fuzzy socks (apparently I'm not the only one with good taste), cute handmade hair clips, and a bag of dark chocolate truffles!

Saturday night was the Verite Christmas party. We always joke that it's the nicest date we go on all year because it's always at a nice restaurant, we always get dressed up, and we don't have to pay! :) This year was no exception. The party was held at Trio. I had never been there. The food was good. I especially loved the appetizers. I also tried polenta for the first time. I didn't buy a new outfit for this year, but I did debut my new knee high black boots that I bought on Black Friday. They looked awesome. I feel terrible that we forgot to take a full length picture. I guess I will just have to wear the outfit again sometime. I also had fun curling my hair, wearing my above-mentioned new hairclips, and playing an impromptu game of Settler's with friends after the dinner.

Saturday also qualified as a special day because I officially completed my Christmas shopping!!! I got the last thing for Davin, so the kids are completely done, including stockings. Yes, you can be jealous. ;)

It was so nice to be home all day Sunday! I didn't have to rush dinner and then run out the door to a rehearsal. We are having snowy weather right now, which I guess is ok since it's Christmastime. Speaking of which, last night I helped Weston wrap his presents for his brother and for dad. He was mostly just interested in putting the bows on and making a treasure map out of the scraps of wrapping paper.

Finally, I know I mentioned Sheena earlier in this post, but she is not only a great friend who hosts fun parties, but she is also a very talented photographer. She has prints for sale in her etsy shop, and at the moment there is a giveaway! Check it out!

PS-We saw Santa at Sam's Club on Friday. He was kind of lame, and even though Weston noticed (he said "Mom, that Santa's voice was different.") he was still really excited to sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas (a Buzz and Woody and a Little Einstein's rocket). Davin, not so much.

I'm Lovin' It!

This has been such a great week. I have loved getting Christmas up and starting all our advents. We have so many fun ones this year! I am especially loving my new refrigerator magnet countdown (it's a cookie sheet and cookie magnets! How cute is that?!?) courtesy of Gram and Papa Squire.
And my Story of Christmas advent. I love the ornament storybooks with information all about the Holy Land and Jesus' birth that we read each day then hang on the tree.
We also love our Christmas book advent. We have 24 Christmas books. The kids take turns opening one to read each night until Christmas. They love it and so do I. This year the book advent even got it's own special basket!
This week my cousin Tasha was in town with her 3 boys. We got to spend all day Thursday together! We went to the dino playground at the mall, took the kids out to lunch, and then had some nice down time to visit at my house while the boys played together. It was so fun to catch up and be more than blogging buddies. :)

This weekend is going to be one big holiday party! Tonight I am going to my friend, Sheena's, "Favorite Things" party. I'll report on how that goes later, but let's just say I can't wait. I mean who doesn't love girl time+dinner party?

Tomorrow night is Verite's Christmas party, which means today Ian got his bonus. Hooray! We weren't sure if he would get one this year, but I guess since they didn't do any raises this year and business has picked back up they managed to do them.

In other family news. Weston is such a funny little guy. I love him to death! The other night he got on the computer, opened Photobooth, and announced he was taking pictures of himself. He is too smart for his own good. I am a little distressed that we are going to have to put parental controls on the computer for our 3 year old, but apparently he's just his father's son. Here are some of Weston's self-portraits.
In addition to figuring out all kinds of new things on the computer, Weston also seems a little anxious to grow up. He's obsessed with his upcoming 4th birthday. The other night when I tucked him in he said with a sigh, "Mom, every day I wake up and wish it was January 29th." Then yesterday in the car he said "On my birthday I'll be 4, then on my next birthday I'll be 5, then 6, then 7, then 8, then 9, then 10, then 11, then 12! And then can I get a wife?" Um, no. Sorry son. You can get a wife when you get home from going on a mission, but then I explained the fun things about turning 12. Getting the priesthood, becoming a Deacon, getting to go to the temple with the youth, and going into Young Men's. It's not quite as good as getting a wife, but it will have to do.

Lastly, I wasn't able to post the video of Davin entertaining us all after our Thanksgiving dinner, but today I got it to post. He's such a cute, funny little man right now. I just can't get mad at him about anything because he's so darn adorable!

Vérité Christmas Game

At work we have been working on a game. Its kind of for fun, and kind of to show our clients the type of work we could do for them. Its a fun little game and surprisingly addicting (make sure you check out the how to play page). I actually didn't work too much on this. Most of my contributions have come during "meetings" around the pool table as well as some "beta testing" (somebody's gotta try it out). Hope everyone is having a good Christmas Season.

Thanksgiving '09

We had an absolutely wonderful long Thanksgiving weekend. My parents flew in Thanksgiving morning while I baked my second pie of all time. It didn't turn out quite as pretty as my first pie, but tasted yummy. I also brought a green bean casserole to the big dinner. We went up to my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Terry's house in Ogden for Thanksgiving dinner. It was such a delicious dinner. The kids were well behaved and I hardly saw Weston the whole time because he was playing with cousins (love it!). I got to see some of my cousins from out of state and we just had a great time visiting and playing games. Davin provided some good post-turkey entertainment by just being himself. We stayed as long as Davin lasted and really enjoyed our Thanksgiving Day.

I did some early Black Friday shopping by myself. It was pretty successful. I got almost all the stuff I wanted. After my first 2 early stops I went and had breakfast with Mom at the hotel and then she went with me to the other stores. Later in the morning we packed up the kids and we all went to Thanksgiving Point to visit the Dinosaur Museum. The kids love it and Dad had never been. He really enjoyed it, even though we rushed him through with the 3 year old attention span. After the museum we all had lunch at the Thanksgiving Point Deli. Mmm. That's all I have to say about that.
The kids were supposed to come home and nap, but alas, they had other plans. Instead we headed over to my parent's hotel to swim. The hotel they stayed in had a little water park inside complete with kids play structure and adult water slide. It was really fun. It took a little while for us to coax Weston onto the kids slide, but once he did it he was hooked. We were all pretty tired, so after our swim we got dry and warm and went out for pizza.

Saturday was my big concert at the Tabernacle. It was also the big game (BYU v. Utah). I had to be at the Tabernacle by 2pm for rehearsal followed by 5:30pm and 7:30pm performances. We kept tabs on the game from our cell phones though and I was bummed that I missed it. It may have been worse for Ian though, who got to see most of it, but missed the big overtime finish. He must really love me. In case you hadn't heard BYU won! Go Cougars!
My concerts went very well. It was really cool to sing in the Tabernacle. I was so glad that so much of my family were able to come hear me sing too. I really appreciated the support and I hope they all had a good time.

After the last concert we looked at some of the Christmas lights on Temple Square. We ran into my Aunt Amy and her family from Las Vegas! They were in town for Thanksgiving too. It was fun to see them.

Sunday Mom and I were supposed to sing a duet in Sacrament Meeting, but I woke up without any voice at all. I drank mint tea with lots of honey and sucked on cough drops all through the first 2 hours of church. Right before Sacrament we snuck off to see if I could sing at all. It was rough. We switched our parts around a little so I didn't have to sing alone as much and decided to go ahead and sing it. I am actually still slightly embarrassed that anyone thinks that's really how I normally sound. Mom sounded beautiful though.

Sunday was such a nice day! We seriously did nothing. We relaxed. I took a nap. We watched "The Prince of Egypt." We had a nice dinner together and played some games. I loved it. Hooray for being home Sunday nights again!

Monday Ian had to go back to work. Boo. We missed him. I worked on getting the house decorated for Christmas. It was fun. Mom helped me. I did a garland with a big fun bow on it on top of the desk. It really helps make the den feel more festive. Usually it's the least decorated room. Ian decided to come home early to take my parents to the airport. Since this week is going to be pretty busy we decided to go get our Christmas tree last night too. It really worked out good since we were able to leave a little earlier and not be up all night decorating the tree.

Davin was so cute running around all bundled up looking at the trees. We found a good one and got it home and lit while the kids watched Frosty. Davin thinks the lights are the coolest thing ever. He's just so adorable right now. Weston got to stay up a little later and help put on some ornaments, but this year I got to do the tree with fewer ornaments and with the colors I wanted. I did mostly red, gold, and silver. I made the pretty bows too. I love how it turned out. It officially looks and smells like Christmas in my house now.
This morning Weston said "Mom, I'm kind of sad that Grandma and Grandpa aren't here anymore." Me too. We had such a nice time with them and both the boys just loved having Grandma and Grandpa to play with and to read to them.
I am looking forward to all the fun things planned for December and for the weeks ahead to celebrate Christmas.

Being Grateful

Having an attitude of gratitude is one of the things I am not wonderful at . . . yet. I am working on it. There are so many things to be grateful for, even when not so great things happen.

Yesterday my fabulous cousin, Kim, took our family pictures. Just as we left the house to meet up with Kim, I discovered my car had a completely flat tire. I am grateful that Jules was here and we were able to just swap the carseats and get on our way. I am thankful that we have roadside assistance that came and towed my car to Les Schwab. I am not as thankful that every time any mechanic looks at my car they find about $250 worth of work to do on it. Sigh. But I'm working on finding the positive in even that.

Here's the sneak preview of our family pictures! You'll just have to wait for your (practically free) Christmas cards to see the final pick. If you want to get on my Christmas card list, but I don't have your address, please leave it in a comment.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Look How Far We've Come

Yesterday seemed like a pretty ordinary Sunday. I was up early and out the door to a meeting. I scrambled to get the kids and myself ready for church on time. We made it. We made it all the way through the 3 hour block with minimal crying and lots of toys and snacks. Typical. This Sunday was special though. It was 6 years ago that Ian and I got married in the Los Angeles Temple. We didn't do anything remarkable to celebrate. We didn't get each other gifts. But as I thought about our life together I couldn't help but count my blessings. 'Tis the season for that anyway, so here's what I came up with.

It was amazing that I met Ian when I did. I was not looking for a boyfriend, much less a fiance, but that's what I found the summer of 2003. Our first picture. We weren't even really dating yet.
We got engaged at the end of the summer and were sealed in the temple on November 22, 2003. It was a gorgeous California day. I loved my princess dress and my new husband.
We honeymooned then headed back to BYU to finish school. We made wonderful friends and enjoyed married life. Here we are on our 1 year anniversary at Bear Lake, UT. It was freezing and we had to do a project for a class during our weekend away, but it was still lovely.
In our second year of marriage we locked up our apartment and spent a summer in New York. That was such a fun time. About 2 weeks after getting there we found out I was pregnant. It was perfect timing.
We both graduated from the Y in December. In January Weston debuted a little early and we became a full-fledged family.
(Christmas right before Weston was born)
January 29, 2006-Weston's birthday.
The next year of our marriage was the toughest yet. I had a hard time adjusting to motherhood and our marriage had a difficult time adjusting to our new roles and balancing everything out, but we worked through it. Ian had his grown up job and I was spending most of my time with our sweet baby and the rest working at a job I loved. Life was good.

We bought our first house and a few months after moving in found out we were expecting baby #2. Almost exactly one year after moving into our house our family of 3 became a family of 4.
Davin is such a wonderful addition. The adjustment from one kid to two was much smoother than I anticipated. Things have really been great. We have such a blessed life. Sure, we have problems just like anyone else, but you know what, we love each other, we love our kids, and we love our Savior. Things always seem to just work out for the best. Ian has been working hard at Verite for almost 4 years now. He is such a good provider. He loves to be home with us though and is a wonderful father and husband. I'm thankful every day for him. I am thankful for our romance, our marriage, and our life together. I look forward to eternity together, and I'm sure that then we will really know the meaning of "look how far we've come."
We did actually get to go out on a date this weekend. We doubled with our friends, Tara and Justin, and went out to dinner and to see New Moon. I was very impressed with the movie. I really enjoyed it. It moved along better, the effects were better, and the script was better. I don't know if I can say the acting was all that much better, but overall a better movie than the first one. Go see it!

One of our favorite columnists, Eric D. Snider, did a rejected New Moon screenplay follow to his rejected Twilight screenplay. Pretty amusing. Check it out HERE.
My favorite Eric D. Snider lines:
BELLA: Edward! Stop! Put your shirt back on!
EDWARD: You don't want people to know I'm a vampire?
BELLA: No, it's just that after spending so much time with Jacob I'm embarrassed for you.
Seriously, Jacob was ripped and when Edward took off his shirt my friend Tara leaned over to me and said "Why couldn't they use the same trainer for him as they did for Jacob?" It was funny.

Yesterday evening my women's choir did our recording session for our CD. It was a much less intense process than when I recorded Simple Gifts (a CD) with the Southern California Children's Chorus, but still a long 3 hours. When I got home Jules and Ashlee were here! I'm glad they made it here safely because we got about 3-4 inches of snow yesterday evening/night. It was fun to visit, but we stayed up way too late. I will have to get myself to bed early tonight so we can play again tomorrow! I am so excited this week for Thanksgiving, to see my family, for our family photo shoot, and for my concert.

What are you excited for this week?

PS-Check THIS out to get you in the Thanksgiving spirit!
PPS-Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen? Apparently running errands wore the little man out. I sure love him.