My Favorite Christmas Tradition

Every year since I was 7 years old I have made my mom a homemade gift. Most years it is some sort of doll, but on the years I have run out of new doll ideas I make something else. It is getting harder and harder to think of new ideas. And harder and harder to top the year before. I have so much fun making it. The hardest part is thinking of the idea. This year I made my mom an apron with little children on it that represent each one of her grandchildren. I love to see the look on her face. That is the best part of the whole thing.

New Photos

I had my children's pictures taken recently and I am finally posting them. My friend Skye Johansen took them. She has so much talent. It was really hard to narrow them down so beware of all the photos ahead. Reid is 6, Clara is 3, and Alvin was 7 months.

Reid's Christmas Program

Reid had his school Christmas Program this week. It was so cute. Reid actually sang all the songs. I had mentioned before that my kids will never sing in these type of programs, but maybe it is just a stage they go through, because Reid was singing and participating in all the actions. I was loving it. Here he is singing jingle bells(I love how he keeps dropping his bells).

Santa Alvin

Alvin is 8 1/2 months old now. He was giving me so many faces during this photo shoot so I had to post them all. Enjoy!
"Ho, Ho, Ho!"

Bachelor

My friend/client Stacia is on the Bachelor that starts in Jan. 2009. I have been doing her hair since she was in high school, so we have become such good friends. Her 2 children are my children's same ages and they take gymnastics together once a week. I can't wait to see her on the show. Isn't she beautiful? and doesn't she have cute hair?:)

Trim for the Christmas tree

I came upstairs the other day and saw Clara with scissors in hand and pine needles all over the ground(fake pine needles that is). I said "Clara, what are you doing?" She said "Giving the Christmas tree a haircut.":) Maybe someday she will be just like her mommy. She loves cutting things. I am lucky it was the Christmas tree and not her own hair. (My worst nightmare) Notice Clara's pj's. The wrong shirt with the wrong pants. This is another thing about Clara. She changes her clothes about 10 times a day. This was probably the 3rd pair of pj's she put on that day. I hid her clothes so she can't get to them, but I left her pj's so now she keeps changing her pj's. I hate her to put all the clothes on because then I have to wash about 3 outfits a day. Clara is also very messy, so her clothes are filthy by the end of each day. So far Clara is my most mischievous child. She is very creative so she finds all kinds of ways so get into things. Reid is always yelling things to me like "Mommy Clara is coloring on the wall/furniture/computer/books/toys." or Clara is always playing with water. Most days I have to change her clothes because they are soaking wet. Although, because she is so creative, she is a fun playmate because she thinks of fun things to do. I once heard Reid say "Clara, you go find something to do and I will follow you because you always find fun things to play." Some funny phrases Clara always says are "Oh Great!" She says this when something bad happens to her or we ask her to do something she doesn't want to. "Hello Gorgeous"(often she says this to Reid's friends.) And whether she is talking about something she did yesterday, a year ago, or a month ago, it was last week. She is like "Remember last week I wore diapers?" When it was really a year ago. Lately she is always singing "Frosty the snowman, it's a jolly holiday" (I assume she got the "jolly holiday" from Mary Poppins.

Parent day at Clara's preschool. Santa came, but Clara is so scared of Santa so she was very brave to stand by him for the picture.

She was even braver sitting on his lap, but she wouldn't make eye contact or say a word. Let's hope Santa will still know what to bring her for Christmas:)

Ward Christmas party

Dec. 6th was our ward christmas party. Here is David holding both kids during the program. I told him I needed a brake. I have been holding Alvin so much lately because he is teething and sooooo fussy. David is happy to do it. Most of the time he will just take the baby from me without me asking him. He is always there to help when he is around. When he is out of town I realize how much he helps out and how much I appreciate him. At least there's one good thing about him traveling for work. Just trying to think positively:) I feel so lucky to have him as my husband.
Here is Reid as the wise man. If you can even see him. He loved being on stage. And he was so glad that he didn't have a purple wise man outfit like his friend:)

Santa's Arrival

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the mall parking lot to watch Santa arrive in a helicoptor. The kids were in heaven. All my kids still believe in Santa, but lately Reid keeps asking questions like "Mommy, can Santa's reindeer really fly?" I say "Yes Reid." Then he says "How?" I say "They are magic." He says "There is no such thing as magic reindeer." It makes me sad that he is figuring it all out. He still keeps wanting to go to the mall to sit on Santa's lap, because he keeps remembering things he forgot to tell Santa he wants. He must still believe.Here are the kids as we waited for Santa.
Alvin is 8 months old now. This week his top gums in front are so swollen and he has been miserable(and so have I) He has been very fussy. I can't wait till his teeth come through.

Here comes Santa. I kept taking pictures of the helicopter coming, but I should have taken pictures of the children's faces. You can imagine how excited they were.

He walked all around to see the whole crowd.

Here they are in the Mall telling Santa what they want for Christmas. At least Reid told. Clara is pretty scared of Santa. I have no idea what to get for Reid, because he tells Santa something different everytime. We keep going back to sit on his lap.