So very blessed

I am watching Daniel play with all his new toys and Lydia is down playing on her play mat looking and hitting all her new toys! They are both in new outfits from Christmas and they are so very cute! :o) I love these two little ones SO much! As every day passes faster and faster, though, I am realizing that if we don't enjoy the time we have right now we'll be looking back and wondering what happened!

Our Christmas was amazing! We had a very packed full week, but we had lots of fun at the same time so that was good! Thursday night we went over to my sister, Amanda's, house and met her, my niece Vienna, and my other sister, Lelia, over there to make and decorate Christmas sugar cookies and then drive around looking at Christmas lights - a yearly tradition for our family! Daniel and Vienna had a lot of fun cutting out the cookies using the cookie cutters, which Daniel kept saying over and over - "cookie cutter, cookie cutter, cookie cutter". He didn't fully understand what to do at first until we showed him a few times and then he would take a cutter and make cookies all over the dough, even cutting Vienna's cookies in half! Oops! Poor Vienna is not used to having younger kids around, so we had to assure her that he was not doing that to try to make her mad, and she was a good sport and just made some other ones after we rolled out the dough again! Us adults enjoyed holding Lydia, visiting, helping with the cookie making, and drinking sparkling cider. It was a fun break in the middle of a busy week getting all of our Christmas gifts finished and wrapped! After we tasted and iced many of the cookies we all loaded up in our van and drove around for almost an hour looking at some of the super cool lights around GJ! That was a lot of fun, and the big house with the lights that go with music on the radio was our very favorite like always!

Friday morning Scott's parents and brothers came over around 10 with a delicious breakfast! We started the day out eating biscuits, gravy, an egg casserole, cinnamon rolls, and drinking orange juice around the table! After we finished breakfast and cleaned up some dishes we finally dove into the gifts (I'm thinking that whole eating breakfast thing first might be something to change next year though... I think opening gifts first sounds much better!). Lydia was about to go down for her nap so she (or mainly me) opened most of her gifts before she fell asleep and then the rest of us spent the next hour or so opening up everything! We all got some awesome gifts! Scott got tool stuff, new tool cabinet things, and a "Dad's Workshop" sign for his garage; Daniel got a desk/easel with a little chair, clothes, a book, some car hooks for his bedroom, a thing to measure his height to go in his bedroom, PJs, a super cool track thing for cars to go down, a dump truck to screw together and apart, lots of tools, and a new workbench built by Scott; Lydia got lots of cute clothes, a very cute mobile to go on her crib, books, toys, a bow holder we made her, a little ABC box to store hidden treasures in, and I'm sure a few other things I forgot; and I got a Kohl's gift card for clothes (SO exciting!), a Barnes and Noble gift card for Nook books, a book, the Scotty McCreery CD, and an IHome Dock Station!

We spent the next few hours during Daniel's nap just hanging out and enjoying our gifts and Scott, Bryan, and I played a pretty sweet game of darts with Scott and I taking turns holding Lydia. We had an amazing dinner of homemade Mexican food made by Scott's mom, and cheesecake for dessert! Yumm, yumm! After dinner we just hung out until I left to go to a friend's birthday get-together til 11! It was lots of fun... we had pedi's at the mall which was awesome - I hadn't had a pedi since my wedding! Then we went to Il Bistro downtown and had dessert and hung out talking! Great girl time!

Saturday morning after the kids were up and breakfast was eaten we opened our stockings and the kids opened their Christmas PJs, since it was Christmas Eve morning! Everyone loved their stocking gifts and after we opened them Scott and I packed everything up and got ready to head down to Delta! We got down there by noon and spent the afternoon hanging out and visiting with my family and my Uncle Tommy (Mom's brother) and cousins! All the guys played a fun game of paintball over all the up and down snowy terrain of my parents' land while we girls and Daniel watched from inside the warm house! That night we had chili for dinner and then once the kids were in bed many of us went hot-tubbing which was fun.

Sunday was Christmas and we had a wonderful day! Not everyone in my family had the best day ever, though, because the stomach flu made it's round Christmas Eve and three or four of my family who was down there were up many times that night throwing up and not feeling well at all! :o( We were good, though, other than Daniel who threw up a few times on Christmas. Poor guy. We had cinnamon rolls and egg bake for breakfast and once everyone was ready we opened stockings and then began the long, all-day process of opening gifts. We had so many gifts and since we only open one at a time (which is definitely the way to do it), we didn't end up finishing because of all the breaks for eating and stuff until like 3 in the afternoon! It was a lot of fun, though, and yet again we all got lots of cool things! I can't remember everything right now, but I know Scott got a lot more tools and stuff for his wood-working, a pocket knife, and the game Quelf; Daniel got tons of cute clothes, toys, ABC magnets, a rug for his room that has roads on it to play with his cars, and one of Dad's awesome "Taylor toys"; Lydia got so many cute clothes, also, a snail toy with a mirror that she loves, a butterfly hook for clothes in her room, the ABC magnets also, and other cute stuff; and I got a Cricut machine (YAY!), a Red Mango gift card, the base of the new size of Miche bag (SO excited to get a shell for it for my birthday!), a picture frame for our living room, and another gift card for whatever I want - I need to think about that... :o) So many great things! For our lunch/dinner we had ham, smoked briscit (Scott had made that all day on Friday), potato casserole, corn casserole, and spice cake and dump cake for dessert. It was delicious! We had a wonderful day with family and Monday we just hung out in the morning and headed home right after lunch!

That was our weekend! It was awesome! :o) I will try to write again soon but for now I need to go read to sleepy little boy and then it's his nap-time! :o) Lydia just went down for her nap, too, so maybe I can get some things done! Yay!

I miss blogging...

Scott and Daniel are in town picking up some dinner for us to have tonight and I am here hanging out with Lydia in our house that definitely needs to be cleaned up! It seems like the days have gone by so fast and I haven't been able to slow them down to enjoy them more! I loved our Christmas and the past few weeks, but it's sad at the same time that they are already past and our little Lydia's first Christmas is over! Definitely makes me realize how fast time passes and how much I need to enjoy the moments I have. I think tonight since we are actually home and no one is coming over maybe I can make the time and sit down to update this blog... Sometimes I forget how relaxing and stress-relieving it is to me to sit down and journal or blog, which is just about the same thing for me. I need to make the time for it more often because I think it helps me think through the days and remember how blessed we are and how much we have to be thankful for! But for now my boys just got home so I need to go get dinner ready! Hoping tonight will be a fun time hanging out just our little family! Then tonight Scott and I are watching the new Harry Potter movie finally... maybe if I can concentrate on both blogging and the movie I can type and watch it at the same time! :o)

A few pics...

Just because I haven't put new pics on here in awhile, here are some of the kids... 3 month old Lydia and a cute one of Daniel because he is ALWAYS a cutie! :o)

Busy Days = Short Post

It has been such a long time since I wrote anything on here which is so sad I know! I want to really catch up with everything we've been up to and I wanted to tell all about our trip to Kansas and Texas last month, but I know that sometimes moms just can't do it all! :o( I have been having a wonderful Christmas season, though, but I can hardly believe it's only a week and two days until Christmas already! AND, only a week until we celebrate with Scott's side of the family! Goodness! How does it seem to come faster each year?! We haven't done too many Christmas activities and fun stuff like I really wanted, but we have been working lots on several Christmas gifts which I will tell about and post pics after Christmas. :o) I had really wanted to do some Christmas activities with Daniel, and now that I'm almost caught up with all my gift making, maybe I can figure out some things to do next week. Thursday night we are joining my sisters and niece, Vienna, to make Christmas cookies, decorate them (which Daniel should love if he doesn't just eat them all), and then go drive and look at lights! AND, tomorrow night the plan is to go downtown and watch Fruita's little Parade of Lights before dinner with Scott's family. It has been an amazing few weeks, though, and each night as I've been staying up late working on stuff and Scott has been working on wood-work projects in the garage, I'm reminded again and again how amazing our life is and how much God has blessed us! :o) I know there are so many of our friends and family who are going through tough times right now, but even through it all I'm reminded how much God loves and cares for us all! I don't know how I could make it through some days without that reminder... Being a mom is so enjoyable but it is also one of the most difficult things I've ever done!

Well, I would stay up later and write more but this morning was the first time in over 6 weeks that Lydia woke me up before the sun came up so I should head to bed just in case she does that again... :o/ Plus we have another busy day tomorrow... our last full day off to work on stuff before all our Christmases next week! I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season, also, and I promise I will write more as soon as I can!

Lydia Grace - 3 months and 3 days old!

Dear Lydia,

Hello my dear little one! You are napping right now as your brother is running around playing with his toys! Mommy has been very busy working on Christmas gifts lately, but I wanted to sit down and write you a little letter letting you know everything you have been busy doing this past month! First of all, you are getting so big! We were not able to get you in for your 2 month appointment, so it won't be until next month for your 4 month that we'll be able to see exactly how much you weigh and how tall you've gotten, but everyone can tell that it is a lot! You are such a big girl and so in love with your life!

You are full of smiles ALL the time, and in the past month you have really began to love to play! You will spend a good thirty minutes to an hour several times a day on your activity mat hitting your toys, grabbing and moving them around, laughing, "talking", and smiling at your Mr. Octopus toy, your bug rattle toy, and the baby in the mirror! Mommy loves bringing scrapbook stuff down on the floor by you, and as you play, I have fun scrapping all of your cute pictures! Your big brother, Daniel, loves to help with whatever he can and keeps you very entertained by making sure you always have plenty of toys around you to play with! And, even though sometimes he will accidently kick you or drop something on your head, you still love him and at least you don't seem to remember for long! Hopefully he will learn soon that he has to be a bit more gentle with you!

You began laughing a few weeks ago and we love to hear you giggle and laugh at us! This morning I was kissing you over and over and over and each time I did, you would laugh really big! You were too cute! :o) I love you SOOO much, little girl!

You love to sleep, which is quite the blessing! For your three naps during the day, you usually sleep in your swing, but you'll also sleep fine while being held, or you love lying down on Mommy and Daddy's comfy bed! Since you still haven't rolled over yet, we are able to put you on that with pillows all around, but enjoy it while you can because I'm thinking you might be rolling over really soon! Ever since you turned 2 months you have been sleeping a good 10 to 12 hours a night, which is absolutely amazing!

Lydia, you had such a wonderful month! We took our long road trip to Kansas and Texas to see your extended family and you had a great time meeting your great-grandparents and lots of great aunts, uncles, and cousins! You did amazing in the car, and even though we were in so many new places you still slept great and seemed as happy as can be being with our little family! :o) We also had Thanksgiving, which we celebrated with both your daddy's family and your mommy's. That was a lot of fun and even though you really wished you could have had some of the yummy food, you still had fun watching everyone and being held and talked to. You LOVE the Christmas tree and all the lights in our home. You try to reach out and touch all the lights and especially like them when it's night and we turn off the rest of the lights in the house.

We love you so much!

~Mommy