Birthday Girl

Our little Goosey Girl turned two today. It's so weird how it seems like she can't already be two years old, yet it seems like she has been a part of our family for so much longer than just two years.

We didn't really do anything big for her birthday. My dad and his wife came up after church and spent the afternoon with us. They brought Max and Emily their Valentines day books (a tradition that we love) and gave Emily a bag full of bath toys for her birthday. Both Emily and Max had a hard time waiting until bath time to use the tub toys.

Jeff made Emily a yummy homemade chocolate cake and she looked so happy when everyone sang her "Happy Birthday".

Emily got a place mat bag with an E on it, a little playhouse with a little hand painted family, and some dress up shoes for her birthday. She loves things she can carry around, so she was in heaven wearing her play shoes and carrying her new toys around all evening.

We just love our little Emily so much and can't imagine our family without her. Happy Birthday, big two year old girl!!

Max, after putting a ruler next to my leg: "Mom, you're about 18 kids tall."

Max: "Mom, will you push me down the stairs so I can go really fast?"

Those soft, squishy cheeks and dark brown eyes just make my heart melt all day long!

Christmas! (and only one month late.)

We usually spend Christmas Eve with my family, but ended up doing our own thing this year since Max spent all of Christmas Eve throwing up. I felt so bad that he was sick on Christmas Eve, especially since he has been so excited this year, telling me "Merry Christmas, Mommy!" at random times and talking about Santa Claus coming. Luckily, he stopped throwing up that night and was able to eat dinner with us and enjoy some Christmas Eve fun. I made pajamas for the family that we all opened Christmas Eve. We read about the birth of Jesus and sang some Christmas songs and then Max and Emily danced around the living room to Christmas music, which has been a favorite evening activity all month.

Santa brought the kids dress up clothes for Christmas this year. (I think he might have gone a little overboard!) They got dresses, lots of super heros, and a bunch of animals, not to mention purses, necklaces, wands, wings, swords, all kids of hats, etc. They don't really play with the dress up clothes yet, but are constantly playing with all the accessories.

Max also got a doctor kit and some playdough, while Emily got a doll stroller and a cabbage patch baby I got at the DI, along with a diaper bag, blanket, and two outfits that I made to go with her. The stroller was actually the hot item Christmas morning and caused a few fights. Who knew?

Since Max was feeling better we headed up to my sister's to spend the rest of the day with my family. We spent the night there and headed over to Tremonton the next day to see Jeff's family. Since Jeff's parent's left on their mission in November we decided to set aside the 26th for Jeff's family so it wouldn't conflict with other Christmas plans. It was so fun to spend the whole day hanging out and playing games and rock band.

It turned out to be such a nice Christmas, after Max felt better. I have to admit a shed a few tears when we decided we couldn't spend Christmas Eve with my family, but it ended up being so nice to stay home with just our little family that we ended up being glad at how things had worked out.

Updates and Excuses

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I have to admit that I've been letting a lot of things slide the last month, and blogging was definitely one of them.

First off a few updates. No, our internet has not been down for the last two months, although it isn't technically fixed either. It works good, if a little slow, most of the time. The problem is our equipment needs to be replaced, but it's on top of our very steep, snow covered roof. We didn't feel it was worth our internet tech guys life to get it fixed since it usually works. Hopefully they will be able to get it back up to speed in March when the weather starts to warm up a bit.

Also, Max was able to take off his boot the Monday before Christmas. We have another appointment this week to check and see if his leg is healed all the way and have only had to put him back in his boot a few times since Christmas. (Technically we were supposed to be weaning him off of his boot for the last month, but I guess I took some parental liberties and sped up the process. It was just so nice having him in regular clothes and shoes.)