Still Missing Papa

She finally noticed the pictures of Papa on the wall...do you think she's maybe just a little excited Papa and Grandma are coming tomorrow?

Moms Group Christmas Party

Last week we had the mom's group christmas party. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures since I wasn't in the best mood. I don't think I'm cut out for this type of thing. The majority of the time I was paranoid about the kids touching stuff or irritated at annoying older kids who were running around like crazy and their parents yelling at them but really not doing anything about it. There was this especially annoying lady who had 4 kids and kept making those awkward/wierd comments and I kept having to remind myself not to judge her since I very well could be that lady in a few years.

Although I was cringing because Mason was laying on the floor I thought it was cute how she was playing with that other little boy.

They both loved the parachute & balls though...

This is what Addie did the majority of the time:

Mason got so excited when she saw Santa at first...then got shy (which is the video below)...and then freaked out when I tried to have her take the bells he was handing out.

The End of the Nap Era

Apparently even though I completely disagree, Mason thinks she is done with naps. She has only been taking about one a week since Thanksgiving...but since I need my alone time (aka really useful time like watching quality tv shows... I mean I couldn't miss Snooki getting hit on Jersey Shore or miss Slade saying he was "passing on the title of the 6th housewife to Simon" on RHOC, right?) and I'm a mean mom and in total denial that she's going to stop taking naps I still put her in her crib and make her stay there for an hour. It was an hour and a half but she soon learned that she can kick the wall she shares with Addie and I'll go in an get her...I think she's relented that she has to be in there for awhile and entertains herself pretty well. I don't know how many times I've said it but I LOVE OUR VIDEO CAMS!!! It is so funny listening to her talk to herself or say her own "prayers". Lately the fun thing to do is to use your sock as a puppet...she's gotten pretty good at that one:

Should we even talk about the hair?

I always teased my mom that I was the neglected child since in all of my toddler pictures my hair is the biggest hot mess you'd ever seen.....but I think Mason tops me... by a long shot.

Annual Gingerbread House Decorating

We continued our tradition of decorating the houses & trains this year... I think its our 7th or 8th year of doing this tradition with the Binghams in Utah but I always did it growing up (we missed you Curt and Terra!).

I wanted to invite a few other people but the thought of having to make more gingerbread almost sent me over the edge :) We had the kids table set up for them to decorate their trains...

the adult table ready to go...

Both of the kids got caught trying to sneak candy or breaking their trains and eating them. They were chomping at the bit to get started.


And the decorating begins...

Addie of course had to taste test everything...

Nothing like a good ole Santa's beard! This girl was a hot mess after decorating. I just let her go to town and then we stuck her in the bath afterwards.

How cute is Ryann??!!

Mason decided to come and help me... After she dumped the green sprinkles we decided to make it "grass" and the red hots she threw on there became our walkway... After the sprinkles started to get everywhere I decided she was done helping. :)

Our finished house :)

We didn't do anything special this year (unlike our pretzel reindeer one year or the santa sleigh we did...or should I say Matt did...can you tell he wasn't that involved this year? ) but by the end of the night I wasn't that into it anymore.

Anna and Jakes house

Boys or Girls?

Laurie suggested it and I think it will be fun to see what the majority of people think these babies will be. I'm going to post a poll at the top right so people can vote for what they think we're having. We'll find out on Wednesday at 2:10 and I'm crazy excited. There is just so much stuff I've been dying to do but it all depends on if its boys or girls....and we'll see if the majority of people are right! :)

Making some Ornaments

They had these ornaments at Joann's that after my coupons were only 25 cents each so I figured the girls would have fun with them. At first they thought it was so funny to see their picture in the Ornament and just kept laughing.

I love that Addie would keep the ornament from sliding around by holding it with her other hand.

Mason doing her "cheese" smile when she the camera.

when I asked Addie to say cheese all I got was "NO!"

Mason's ornament was looking a little much like a voodoo doll for me at first.

Their finished products!

Fun in the Snow

My girls love being outside in the snow. They had so much fun chasing dad around and throwing snow at eachother. Mason was extremely dramatic when we made her come inside. I'm pretty sure they could have spent all day out there.

Just your average wierdo with a 'fro

Mason's hair is getting O.O.C. (out of control for all you non-mariah fans)

To try to help her see I went and got her a hair band but she insisted on wearing them as glasses. She seriously wore them around for almost 2 hours just looking through the little crochet holes. She of course thought she was hilarious.

How cute is this girl?

Happy Birthday Gabe!!!

Gabe had his 2nd birthday last week and we went to his party at the Treehouse Museum. I hadn't been there for awhile and I forgot how much fun the girls' would have. I even spared Angie the embarassment of lysoling everything down and just the girls go to town.

Mason LOVED this little horse. I think she could have sat there the entire party if I didn't make her get down to chase Addie.

Can you see the pure enjoyment in her face?

Addie thought this candy stick was the coolest thing ever, especially since she unwrapped it.

I think the music section was the biggest hit and I had to count to 3 to get them to go to another area.

A little scary stare down as she was getting her vibe on.

Gabe while everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him! :) His little sister looks SOOO much like him its crazy. I miss seeing him more often!

The cupcakes were a hit... Mason had blue ALL OVER.

love it!

The girls had SO much fun. I really would take them there more often if it wasn't winter. None of us got the swine flu or regular flu vaccines so I'm kind of neurotic lately about where we go.

Stroller Derby

The girls love to play their little "stroller derby" game with Dad. It started out as innocent as running around with strollers and slowly turned into bumber cars with the strollers.

Addie ended up taking a ride at the end :)

In-N-Out

One of the things I miss most about home is the places to eat....especially places that are quick. Like Beach Hut Deli (I've actually been craving this for the past two weeks) and in-n-out. Chipotle finally moved out to Utah and now the In-N-Out is open...YEAH!!! We drove down to Ikea the Monday before Thanksgiving so you know I had to wait in line to get me some "Vege w/cheese" and fries! The drive thru line was SUPER long but it actually only took 25 minutes to get our food. I had been prepping myself all morning for this food so I wouldn't get sick. It was the first meal I had eaten in three days and it was DELICIOUS! Can you tell I was just a little excited to eat and took a few bites before I remembered to take a picture! :)

Mason of course loved the fries.

and poor Addie missed out. She zonked while we were in the drive-thru line.

The year we almost went without a Christmas Tree

My poor family had to go without hors'dourves this year because the thought of the smell of them made me dry heave...but we still put on some christmas music and got to decorating our tree.

Here Addie is smiling proudly at the ornament she laid on the tree.

Next, of course, according to Mason it was "mason's turn"

Just admiring our tree...they both love it. Today Mason told her therapist to kiss the tree and when Linda wouldn't Mason kissed it herself and said, "I love you tree".

Matt had this fun idea that he wanted Mason to put the star on the tree...Mason was NOT happy about it. I think she broke her dad's heart.

It took her awhile to recooperate on the stairs.

Now this would seem to be the face of a little angel, right? WRONG! This girl can be such an antagonizer and right after Mason had calmed down she went and stole an ornament out of her hands...

...and broke the basket off (which by the way, this was like the 37th ornament that broke that night)....

...which of course sent Mason OVER the edge again.

But this didn't stop Addie from having fun!

...but about 30 seconds later...

...Our tree fell down. Luckily Matt was spiderman and leaped in front of Addie to catch it. A few broken ornaments and a half gallon of spilled water later I think we all were in a bad mood.

Don't you love the evil look Matt is giving me, wondering if I'm seriously taking a picture right now? You would think he would know that it was a total blogworthy moment. Plus otherwise I would have missed out on Mason's plumber crack. :)

The girls' realized Dad was seriously distraught and tried to cheer him up. I think Matt sat like that for a good 10 minutes.

The girls had their own fun helping clean up the water...don't you love that Matt still hasn't moved?

....

...or moved.

This tree proved to be a source of contention for the next two days as we redecorated it and it fell two more times. I might have told Matt to throw the ****ing thing out the door because I didn't want a tree this year.

But we ended up putting in anchors and screws and tieing the tree to the wall...can we say White Trash? I figured it was better that than to end up divorced. :)

Being Lazy

I really wish I had more energy... I got pretty sick of the whole apron thing because I felt like all I was ever doing was sewing and it was the same thing over and over again. I didn't think about how that would get old...and how I only get excited for new projects (like the felt playhouse that is coming along and I LOVE IT!)... plus the fact of feeling like my kids weren't coming first. Anyways I stopped listing stuff on etsy and stopped returning the lady's phone calls from the boutique and just put everything in the closet....

I wish I was a little bit smarter and listed the aprons I had on etsy last month while people were starting to shop for Christmas... I didn't think about it until a few days ago and only listed 3 aprons...less than 48 hours later two of them have already sold.

I really should list more, but like the title I'm a little lazy these days and the thought of having to truck my two kids to the post office in this snow is LESS than appealing.

For Papa

Addie is obsessed with her Papa. The day after my parents left Addie went to the door asking to go "bye-bye" and saying papa's name. (Sorry grandma, i'm sure if she could say your name she'd be screaming it too :)

Then she started getting the phone asking to call Papa...she would get her pretend phone and walk around saying Papa's name like she was having a conversation with him.

Then she saw a picture of him the other day after I posted on the blog and she started crying screaming Papa's name...but now when I'm on the computer she'll ask to get up and then ask to see Papa. I didn't get the video started in time apparently so you only catch the tail end of her saying "papa" in her pathetic little scream.

Barnyard Birthday Bash confirmed!

Mark your calendars for July 17th at 11:00!!! Don't go out of town or you'll miss our fun Barnyard Birthday Bash for the girls!!! I know it seems ridiculous but even more so now that we're having twins and don't really know when they are coming or if there will be complications I'm getting everything planned and booked asap. I confirmed today that we'll have two ponys for rides and a petting zoo!! I'm so excited!!!!

Christmas Traditions

I really wish I had been more on top of things because I would have loved to do one of these advent calendars for December... bummer. I love the fabric cones (but definitely in cuter fabric)...

...but I'm pretty sure I'm going to do this glitter tree that was on Martha. They just took those metal containers and glittered the lid, put magnets on the back and then framed out a sheet of metal. I LOVE it and definitely will be making it for next year.

This year we started our new tradition that I stole from my cousin. I wrapped up 24 Christmas books and put them in a basket. Mason had fun playing with her new "horn" after I was done wrapping them all up.

Here is our fun basket of books that are kept way up high during the day :)

For this year the girls settled on the chocolate advent calendars (which what kid doesn't remember those growing up and loved them too!)... Addie LOVES getting the chocolate and Mason LOVES finding the next number. Yesterday she finally understood and found the 4 all by herself.

Then while they are eating their chocolate they pick out a "present" and we unwrap it and they sit on my lap and we read the book.

This was the first night we did it and the whole time I read the book to Addie she just laughed and laughed. So I had Matt read it again so I could get a few pictures... apparently "Snow Bugs" is just as hilarious the second through fourth time they are read.

Like SLAP YOUR KNEE hilarious. :)

We also get a little white trash and plug in the lighted reindeer inside while we read. The girls love petting it. I have video of Mason talking to the deer that I'll have to post later.

Addie read the book again to herself and still cracked up. I love this girls energy.

Kenna's Baptism

Friday we stayed at Lloyd and Jess' and then the next morning went to Kenna's baptism. I can't believe she is 8 years old!!!

Christian and Tytan before everything got started.

All the fam that was there.

Kenna with Papa and Grandma

Kenna with her cousins. The two older cousins with Mckenna are twins too (and Becky told me to never plan on sleeping again :)

It wouldn't be a picture if Mason wasn't crying...what is the deal with that? But I love Addie's sheepish little grin. She was just grapping her coat and smiling like she was hot stuff. I love that girl!

Lloyd got a little outcasted by Christian but this is all the boys that took part that day. :)

Laughing at something (I can't remember now...another reason why I need to not wait so long to post) while we were heading out. Everyone headed over to Danny and Janice's to eat some food but I wasn't feeling so great so Matt, me and the girls headed back to Lloyd and Jess' to catch some naps.

Why is this girl so stinking cute!

Cutting our Pathetic little Tree

On Friday we headed down by Strawberry Reservoir to cut our Christmas tree. Mason wasn't a huge fan of having her snow suit on....

...until she realized that meant she got to play in the snow. This girl had a BLAST.

I love the little snowballs she would make!

Doesn't Kenna look so excited?

Addie was a little doped up from the dramamine I gave her so she spent most of the time with Papa.

Couldn't resist... :)

Looking at trees to see if they were the right ones...

This is the tree we ended up getting before we cut it down... it was Brooke and Christians find :)

We were losing daylight and the lady at the lodge said you definitely didn't want to be in the forest after dark...after seeing the "bear country" signs I wanted to get the heck out of there. Matt and a few others kept heading up to try to find a tree...we couldn't find anything :(

So we ended up just cutting down the other tree. I figured its the tradition to get a crappy charlie brown tree.....

...so even better is HALF of a crappy charlie brown tree :)

everyone laughing it up! :)

We headed closer to Heber to stop and have our traditional chili and cornbread.

Mason just bummed bites off of everyone, but I was so happy/shocked she even tried the chili.

I think we're going to do our Hors'Dourves/egg nog and decorate the tree on Saturday. Matt said he wanted to make sure (I think he is hoping) that the tree didn't die since we forgot to water it on friday night.

Thanksgiving '09

So I'm horrible and didn't take hardly any pictures on Thanksgiving. It kind of didn't seem like Thanksgiving this year and my tooth was killing me. My parents headed down to Payson around noon and we just chilled and I made the girls a skirt and some scarfs until we headed to Matt's parents at 6.

This is the only picture I got...Mason making herself comfortable on Uncle Miles.

We did have a ton to be grateful for this year, especially after watching Oprah yesterday... I think I cried the entire way through it just so grateful that my daughters will be able to grow up in this country....not to mention the fact that I never realized the maternal mortality rate worldwide. Its scary to think that every minute a woman dies from pregnancy related causes and I think they said in one part of Africa one in 20 die. I've been googling a little too much about identical twins and getting more paranoid but I am so grateful to live in a country that has the technology and access to medicine that we have.