Christmas Fun

Just a warning--->This post is going to be all over the place and long because there is so much I want to talk about.

I haven't posted since before Christmas so I wanted to back up a little and cover the past couple of weeks. I was a little sad because we weren't going to be around either of our families for Christmas, but this turned out to be one of the best Christmases I've had. We are still trying to figure out how we are going to celebrate Christmas as our kids get older but there are a few traditions that we started this year.

I wanted to decorate our tree themed and pretty but Jarrell had something different in mind. He wanted all the ornaments on ourtree to have meaning and purpose.

We decided that we would get picture ornaments and each year put pictures of each of the kids at Christmas and one of us. I was a little hesitant at first, but after I saw the picture of Moses from last year compared to this year, I was sold. We also decided that we will always open our Christmas presents on Christmas night, so that we can spend Christmas day focusing on the true meaning of Christmas and spending quality time together as a family. (This may have to change if we decide to throw a little Santa in the mix) We were excited to get Moses a big boy bed and he LOVED IT.

It was so fun celebrating Emery's first Christmas and being together as our own little family. Moses was extremely helpful in "teaching" Emery how to open her presents. Here is a picture of them in front of our tree. *Side note- I HATE fake trees but this year I was conned into buying one, so don't

judge our sad looking tree.

Emery opened her first present and was really excited about her tea set. (Much to Jarrell's dismay Moses enjoys this present as much, if not more, than Emery)

On Christmas Day we decided to take a family trip to the San Diego Zoo and we had such a blast. Moses loves animals and it is so fun to listen to him imitate them. The highlights of the trip were the Sea Lion Show, the Elephants, the chimp that tried to attack Moses through the glass, and Jarrell trying to take pictures of Emery that looked like she was eating theanimals.

The pictures directly below are examples of Jarrell trying to make Emery look like she was eating the camel. First Emery slowly approaches the camel looking all innocent, then out of nowhere she eats off his head :)

Moses hanging out with the "dirty" elephants

Brother and Sister Photo Op (you can tell Moses was less the thrilled about this)

The week after Christmas our nanny Kelly was gone, so Jarrell and I rotated working from home and at the office, which made for quite the hectic week, but we survived. There was a snow storm in the middle of the week, so it was fun to take the kids outside to play in it. It was nice to stay at home and do fun activities with the kids and it really made me miss being a stay at home mom (especially when Irealized how fast Emery is growing up, look at her stand up)

Moses showing off his cooking decorating skills

My little pink marshmellow

Run Run As Fast As You Can...

I have never really been a fan of the Holiday Season because of all the craziness involved. I appreciate the meaning behind Christmas, but it has been lost by most. With all that being said, this Christmas has been different. I think it is because we have kids.

Yesterday a co-worker had Trader Joe's Really Big GingerBread Man Kits in her office. As soon as I saw them, I knew that I wanted to do one with Moses, not matter the cost. Earlier today I went to TJ's and much to my surprise they were only 99 cents each! I also picked up a Sugar Cookie Workshop kit for 99 cents too. It includes the cookie mix, two packages of frosting, four packages of decorations, and three cookie cutters. The best part is all the ingredients are natural including the dyes in the decorations (they are made of beets and spinach). I left an extremely happy customer :)

Here are some pictures of the fun we had:

The happy 7 Month Old Princess

They are both excited for the decorating

Our work in progress...

Moses loving his new friend

All Done

Our lovely Ginger People

Frosting Toes

This has been the craziest week ever! Tonight we went to Christmas party #3 for the week and have two more to go. Highlights for the week are below:

#1- Taking Moses and Emery to Disneyland. It was so beautifully decorated and snow fell on Main Street and Moses

was so excited. It even smelled like Gingerbread after it melted :) Also, our friend April was here from Michigan and it was so good to be able to spend time with her and Carly at the happiest place on earth!

#2-Emery is now mobile! She isn't crawling yet but she is scooting around like crazy. I can't believe she will be 7 months old in a couple of days.

#3-Frosting sugar cookies with Moses and Liz. Moses went crazy with the frosting and sprinkles. He didn't taste it until the end and then it was over. He was eating spoonfuls of frosting and somehow got it all over his feet, so then he was eating it off his toes.

#4-Christmas shopping for Jarrell and the kids. We got Moses a Toy Story toddler bed and I am so excited to see his little face light up when he sees it.

#5-Moses dancing/playing the drums to Rock Band. We were at Christmas Party and Moses was so happy dancing and playing the drums. It may have been the cutest thing I have ever seen him do.

#6- (This one hasn't actually happened yet, but I

am super excited for it and will post pictures) Moses and Emery are going to be in their first little Christmas play at church tomorrow. Moses is going to be a sheep and Emery is baby Jesus. (She is the youngest in the church)

With Christmas just around the corner, I can't help but reflect on all the wonderful things that

are in my life and be thankful and humbled.

I am so thankful that God sent His Son to

redeem the world.

Imperfectly Perfect

I want to start this post out by saying I am not perfect and I don't need to be (This probably doesn't shock most of you). I am mainly stating that fact for myself, because it is something that I struggle to accept. There have been a lot of things that have happened in my life that have caused me to think maybe if I was better at blank then blank wouldn't have happened. I am starting to realize that this way of thinking is an illusion, a lie that has caused me to be over controlling, anxious, judgmental, angry, fearful, and to have a lot of stress.

My friend Jill (and her family) pick words every New Year to be their word of the year. I really like the concept of this so I myself have decided to adopt a word this year, which is going to be GRACE. I desire the following four outcomes for this word:

*To learn how to better accept the grace given to me through the sacrifice of Jesus

*To learn how to extend MYSELF grace when I make mistakes

*To learn how to freely give grace to others for their mistakes and shortcomings

*To accept the fact that I am imperfect, but that I am imperfectly perfect and that there is beauty and strength in that

Don't Blink

Life seems to be flying by lately! I can't believe we are almost a week into December. Tomorrow Jarrell and I are leaving for a Staff Retreat and I am so nervous to leave the babies for three days and two nights :( This will be the first time that they have been away from Jarrell and I overnight, let alone two nights. In honor of this occasion, I am going to give a quick update of the babies.

* I feel like Emery is growing and changing by the day. She is almost 19 lbs. and is 28 inches tall. She is still off the charts for weight and height

*She popped through her first tooth a couple of days ago and number two is almost through. She was waking up screaming for several nights in a row and Jarrell and I nearly lost our minds due to exhaustion and frustration. Now that the one tooth is through, she seems to be doing better.

*This girl loves to eat! Her favorite thing right now are Mum-Mums

*She still adores Moses and their favorite activities to do together are jumping on the bed and riding Moses' cars. (Don't mind the bruise on Moses' head, he head-butted Jarrell)

*So far he has pooped three times and peed twice in the potty. Hopefully we can

continue to make progress

*Moses has quite the vocabulary and never ceases to amaze me at the things that he knows. Last week he dropped a box of toy cars on his toy and it tore off all the skin. He was so upset and I was comforting him when he looked up at me and said in the saddest little voice, "My poor toe." I almost died laughing.

*Moses still loves to read. He knows all of his

books by heart and recites words to them now.

*He is ridiculously obsessed with Toy Story. The first thing he says in the morning is, "Woo Woo" and he has to watch it everyday. (Luckily we can switch between 1,2, and 3)

*He played in the snow for the first time in a couple of weeks ago and he loved it, until his hands got cold.

"I Pooped"

A week ago Moses woke up crying after his nap, which is perfectly normal. As I got closer to the door I realized something wasn't right. All I could hear was,"Pooped! Pooped!" I opened the door to see Moses with his diaper off and his pajamas off one leg. He was holding his hands in the air, as I got closer I could see they were covered in poop. I asked him where he put his diaper and he took me to the corner and showed me where he stashed it. I took him into the bathroom to clean him up but realized he probably hadn't finished pooping, so I stuck him on the toilet. After a little pushing, he pooped in the toilet for the first time. I was super excited, but because of the lead up I thought it was more of an accident then anything.

Yesterday I was sitting in the living room and I heard Moses yelling my name. As I started walking through the house I found him in the bathroom with his pants down. He was pointing to the potty and wanted up. I lifted him on to the toilet and a couple seconds later he pooped in the potty! We celebrated by giving him a chocolate chip cookie.

The little bugger is so smart. This morning I found him on the potty. After sitting there for awhile, and not going potty, he got up and said, "Cookie." We explained to him that he only got at treat if he went pee or poop on the potty, so hopefully he will continue to do so with some work.

Missing my Family

Last night was the first night that I ever stayed away from my babies. It was so wonderful to actually sit down and enjoy a meal from start to finish and to sleep through the entire night. With that being said, I miss my family, so I thought that I would update everyone on the babies.

Moses is now twenty-one months old and is still a ball full of energy. It never ceases to amaze me at how quickly he picks up on things. Recently, he stuck the right key in the door and unlocked it. We thought that he did it by accident, but he continued to do it over and over again. He still loves his sister immensely and regularly refers to her as Mimi instead of baby. Moses has transitioned fully from a crib into a toddler bed and it makes me so sad sometimes because he really isn't a baby anymore. He absolutely adores Cars (especially Lightning McQueen), Nemo (which he refers to as fishies), and Toy Story

which he refers to Woody as Woo-Woo). A couple of days after Halloween we were at Target and they had left over costumes on sale and as we walked by Moses yelled "Melmo." We ended up purchasing him an Elmo costume that is near impossible to get him to take off.

Emery will be six months old in a week. She is such a content baby and smiles most of the time. She has pretty much mastered sitting up. Em is teething really bad right now though and she doesn't seem to handle it as well as Moses did.

Emery loves playing in her jumperoo and loves it

when you sing to her.