She can't be 2 already...

Princess, Princess, Princess. What more can I say. She loves everything princess. So today she wore her princess velour jogging suit with her "Birthday Girl" crown and clip on earrings (that she didn't take off all day) and her socks that have "bling" on them, I crocheted shiny crystal beads on pink socks for her. It is funny so see how girly her personality is, but she can still play cars and trains with Wes and have fun with him. It was a pretty uneventful day. We have been singing Happy Birthday to her since yesterday and she sings along and changes the name to somebody elses every time, then at the end of the song she blows like she is blowing out the candles. One of these times she will understand it is her birthday. I started to make a princess cake for her, with a barbie in the middle of it, we will see how that turns out. She opened her presents when she saw them after her nap. She got a princess barbie, a princess piano/keyboard, and a princess costume to go with her princess shoes from Santa. She was so excited to have presents. She saw them wrapped on the table and kept saying, "I open presents!" over and over until I said it was OK. I will post more pictures later of her cake, most likely won't be for a couple of days. It seems like last year she was in the hospital with RSV, but that was when she was 4 weeks old. Time flies. She is so much fun. We love having a little girl.

Merry Christmas!

This year Wes was so excited for Christmas! He made sure he was in bed by about 8:30pm. He wanted to go to bed at 7pm, but I wouldn't let him. Christmas Eve was pretty mellow around here. We stayed at the house and cleaned-up for Santa. We helped a neighbor out who was in a bind, that was nice. The kids played and watched Polar Express and drank hot chocolate. By the time I was done helping our neighbors, it was too late to start dinner, so Dave went to McDonald's and grabbed some hamburgers for us. And the kids went right to sleep! And then Dave and I went to work! He had to go to Riverton in a snow storm to get the last present while I wrapped what few gifts the kids got to open.

Santa gave the kids a couple of nice things and some things to confuse all of us! We had Christmas music blarring in the background in the morning so Wes and Brooke wouldn't hear what was going on in the other room.

Brooke got Princess shoes that she LOVES.

Dave and I gave Wes a guitar. Santa gave him a solar system for his ceiling that rotates around a sun and the moon is on his wall. It's pretty cool.

Then Santa gave Brooke a dog bone, Wes a pooper scooper, me a leash, and Dave a dog bowl. But no dog! What? He must have misunderstood what Wes asked for. Maybe next year.

So we went into the kitchen to start making breakfast and there she was, a boxer named "Roxy" for the family.

Wes and Brooke were excited to see a real live puppy in our house.

Brooke kept kissing her. Gross. I am trying my hardest to be a dog person. It isn't working.

She likes to sleep on our laps and all her skin smooshes onto her face!

Wes tells her all the time that he loves her. They had a great Christmas afterall.

Chia Shaggy

About 3 years ago Dave's parents gave all of us Chia pets for Christmas. We got Chia Shaggy. Wes was really into Scooby-Doo at the time! We are finally coming around...

We let the seeds and the clay Shaggy head soak for 24 hours and now Wes is putting the seeds on his head to grow as the hair.

The seeds are planted! We will keep you posted as they begin to grow. They say it takes about 2 weeks to have hair. So far it has been a few days, everyday you have to add water to the hole on the top of the head (the water seeps out the chin and base) all the seeds some how slide down the head and shaggy is going to have a hairy back! Oh well.

Happy Birthday Dave!

Sorry Dave, at least I waited until the very end of the day! Dave is the complete opposite as I am when it comes to birthdays, maybe it has to do with being a twin, I don't know. It is your special day and should last as long and drawn out as possible. For Dave you shouldn't even mention it! But now that we have kids, they love it, so let's let them, right?!

Yesterday Dave told Wes that he only wanted homemade gifts. So Wes went up to his room and found a present for him and made him a tag and then went to the basement and found a gift bag to wrap it in. He was so excited to give it to him.

This morning we let Dave sleep in until 11am, and then brought him breakfast in bed, a big plate of french toast and scrambled eggs. Wes was excited to give him his gift. It was a big plastic green beetle. The card was a blank piece of computer paper that said "To:Dave From:Wes" The beetle was in the bottom of this big gift bag with a piece of tissue paper on top. It was really sweet. Dave wasn't sure what to do with it. Wes gave it to him so he could put it in his police car so he could think of Wes. We all sang to him and then he went back to sleep until noon (how would that be?).

Brooke has been singing to him all day. It is the sweetest thing to hear her sing Happy Birthday. When Dave got up, I had to take Wes to school and I ended up staying there pretty much all afternoon helping in his class. So Dave spent his birthday watching princess movies with Brooke on his lap before going to work. What a great dad!

I hope his birthday wasn't too disappointing. I know the kids loved it and were excited for it. Happy birthday, I love you.

Uncle Jim

Dear Evil B.I.L.,

Thank you for making my kids laugh whenever you are in town. Thanks for all the "underpants" comments and chasing Brooke around and making her giggle last time you were here. Thanks for opening our eyes to your hidden dance talents. We found this website with you on it and I attached it here for all to see. http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1407459609 We had no idea you could get your groove on. Thanks for all of your political incites. Thanks for bringing Sheri into our lives. Thanks for being you. We look forward to seeing you guys again soon.

Love, Amy & Ahh Wes

Is Everyone Ready for Christmas?

So I thought that if I made those chains for the kids I might look at them too so I would know how many days I had left to get ready for Christmas. That totally is not the case. There is so much left to do. Dave and I did find a family gift today that hopefully everyone will like. You never know with these things. We may look back and think that was a bad idea! I'll let you know. Any ideas for neighborhood gifts this year? I am stuck.

Local Polar Express

Once again our friends at Stringtown, USA (link is on the right side) had another fun train ride for our family and friends! We went last night with Aunt Shirley and Becky's families and then tonight we went again with some of my friends; Jamey and her daughter Emma Lee and her nephew Bridger and my friend Katie and her family. Everyone always has so much fun. These people are extremely nice to do all of this for anyone who wants to come and ride.

Here is the train and the conductor with Wes and Bridger. They loved it. The conductor let Wes, Bridger, Emmie, and Brooke all sound the horn! It made these kids day, especially after just riding it.

Wes, Brooke and I are waiting for the Conductor to say, "All aboard!" (Katie's family is sitting behind us.) We had the whole train to ourselves, which was fun! There was another family that didn't show up for their time slot, so we got to spread out. That made it nice too.

Look at Brooke, this was her first time that I didn't hold her on my lap. She just sat there, totally perfect and still, well most of the time. It goes Brooke, Me, Emma Lee, Wes, Jamey and Bridger.

Both nights and last weekend when Wes saw Santa, he told him that he wants a puppy. This may be a sad sad Christmas. Anyway, he was happy to get a candy cane and bell last night and again tonight! Lucky kid...

I asked Brooke if she wanted to sit on Santa's lap and she marched right up and sat on his lap! It was the cutest thing. Although they thought she was a boy because of the snowsuit. But that is ok, I can see why.

The first part of the train ride was our way to the North Pole. We saw snowmen and trains and Santa Claus. Part way through we stop and get off to see Santa. After all the kids sat on his lap he talked about the candy cane and how it is shaped like the letter "J" for Jesus and also like the Shepard's staff, and that the red is for the blood of Christ and white is for purity and we need to be obedient. We sang some Christmas songs and went back outside and got back on the train. For the rest of the train ride we traveled through Christ's life. Which is what Christmas is all about, the birth of our Savior. Thanks Stingtown, USA! What a fun ride! We always enjoy your rides.

Wesley's Gingerbread House

Wes has been wanting to make this gingerbread house for weeks now and today has finally come. Oh the excitement! Can you feel it?! It took us a few hours to decorate it. Along the way we ate way too much candy. More than we should have, but it was a lot of fun. He is sure proud of his gingerbread house. He wants me to tell everyone that I talk to on the phone about it. So if you happen to see him or talk to him, please tell him that you saw the picture of it. He would be so happy.

Playing in the Snow

Today was Brooke's first time playing in the snow. We put her in Wes's old snowsuit from when he was her age (she isn't 2 yet and at that time, he was wearing a 4T), she was swimming in it!

All ready to go outside. Brooke's glove's don't match and one of them goes all the way up to her armpit if you put it on all the way. Poor girl.

She is so happy to be outside with "Wessie" and not inside watching him from the window. The only problem is she can't walk very well in the large snowsuit and all the snow that goes just below her knees!

She took a step trying to get to Wes at the swings and fell. I thought I would see what happens if she tried to get up by herself. Here are some of her faces she made!

First she just kind of pouted, and stuck her bottom lip out for a second. But then I think it got cold. She made a couple of dramatic noises, like little girls do.

Then she got on her knees and looked at me like "What do I do? I am confused. Help me Mom!" But I just took more pictures and that made her ever more mad.

Wes was having fun getting on the swings and twisting around laughing and telling me to take his picture. Then I looked back at Brooke and she was letting "Wessie" have it! All she was saying was..........

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.........." and that was all! I had to laugh for just a quick second and then I helped her up and gave her a hug and fixed her "glub" so no snow would make her wrist cold. And once again she was happy. It took her a second to try and walk again.

Wes likes to make snow angels. He tried to show Brooke how it is done properly.

When he is finished, he always puts a halo on the top! Can you see it up there?

Here is Brooke's attempt at the snow angel.

Beautiful snow angel isn't it.

This Should Get You in the Holiday Spirit! (Or at least a chuckle)

My brother John made one of these with his kids in it and sent it to his wife Trachelle and Brooke wanted to watch it over and over, so I decided to make one for our family. I hope you get as big of a kick out of it as Brooklyn and I did! It cracks me up more and more each time I watch it! Maybe because they put Dave on a more femine body and me on a more masculine body. Oh well.

Happy Holidays!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1199416676

It's the FINAL Countdown....

Wes came into my room this morning worried that the snow was going to melt while he was at school today and he also needed to know how many more days until Christmas, so I got up and made two chains. One for Wes and one for Brooke. You can't see what it says, but the top link says "Santa Comes" in red and each link says "1 day until", "2 days until" and on and on in green and red (in a pattern of colors of course because that is what Wes is learning in school). Yep, we have a "kid tree"! All the delicate ornaments are on the top and the kid friendly ones are on the bottom! What do you think?!

Snow Princess with Shiny Black Shoes

Before church Sunday Brooke had on a red dress with white fuzzy trim around the wrists and collar and her shiny black shoes. But her black shoes are one size too small, so at the last minute we changed them to her shoes that fit. She wasn't so happy with our decision, so when we got home, she didn't even let me finish changing her into her play clothes before she got her shiny shoes back on and started to prance around again!

She went into the front room where the Christmas tree is and found the snow globe of the Macy's Day Parade and was so enthralled with it, I had to take some pictures. She is still only in her onsie, white tights and shiny black shoes. I couldn't pick which pictures to post, so I did most of them! They are in the order that I took them, so you can see at the end, she started to get silly with it and was doing some yoga poses around it and then sat on it and was very pleased with herself! I just let her do her thing and I tried to stay out of her way and just take her picture.

Becky's Baby Shower

Saturday was Becky's Baby Shower. It was alot of fun. She is having a girl, if you couldn't guess by all the pink going on! We had the diaper game that Geneal introduced us to, always a big hit! And had a yummy dinner and opened presents, Aunt Shirley won the Bingo game for the present game, way to go!! It is getting closer and closer to January 5th! You can do it...


Becky's PINK gifts! If she is like me, it took me a couple of days to get used to all the PINK!!!


Aunt Shirley and Aunt Sally, I thought Mom would like to see her sisters!!!


The diaper game, looking and smelling those nasty diapers. What could those chunky things be? Krackel bars? Twix, Hersheys Dark, what? Melted and smashed and gooey, gross!

"Pretty Rylie-Roo" (Cousin)

Wes & Brooke's cousin, Rylie, had a dance recital at the Festival of Trees this week that we went to watch her dance at. She is 3 1/2 and was the very best in her class! She was so "ex-scited"! She went right onto the stage and somehow ended up a couple feet in front of all the other kids! She wanted to be the one who was noticed and in the spotlight. Brooke loved every single dance and yelled and clapped at the end of each one. I kinda thought she would like it. (Wes liked it too.)





There were decorated Christmas trees that were donated that you could buy and the procedes go to the Primary Children's Hospital. They also have gingerbread houses, although someone did the Lavell Edwards Stadium and the BYU-17/UofU-10 game that we just won last weekend! Dave liked that one, so I took a picture of it. It was a fun game.

Silly Haired Girl

Brooklyn always wakes up with the best hair! She had the silliest hair this morning, it was sticking straight up. She wouldn't sit up for me to take her picture, although her hair looked exactly the same laying down and sitting up!