Christmas Morning

While I wrapped up the last few things Todd tested out 2 of his presents (his new NBA Jam game and banana chair).
Somehow snagged this picture just right after Santa came.
The kids opening up their stockings. Reese was so surprised by everything - even though she was with me when I bought most of these things.
Reese loves to sing and dance - so now she can do it everywhere. I just love that this little music player uses mp3 files instead of cd's (that would have been such a hassle). We put all of her Taylor Swift (her absolute favorite), Mickey Mouse, Disney Princess, Sesame Street and a few random favorites on there (random ones include: Muse-Uprising, Office theme song, Beyonce-Single Ladies).
Playing in Boston's new pop-up tent - which was a lot bigger than I thought it would be! They love it.
Todd's goodies from his SIL Angela. (We exchange names on Todd's side of the family).
The mayhem afterwords.
Reese and her Christmas loot.
Boston and his.

Our matching Christmas PJ's - don't mind the lack of makeup.

Christmas Eve

Since we've been married we've always gone to Todd's parents house for Christmas Eve and morning (since my family doesn't do anything until later Christmas day). However, this year we decided to stay at our own house this year. That way everyone can sleep in their own beds and we don't have to haul a lot more around. So on Christmas Eve we had Todd's family come up to our house and have a little get together. We had some snacks while we waited for dinner to finish up (soup and turkey), played a few games, read some Christmas stories, and read about the birth of Jesus in the Bible.


Reese biting the head off her snowman cupcake.


While we read from the Bible Reese put the characters on her felt board. She loved doing that (and even made Grandpa re-tell the story a couple more times just so she could put the people and animals on the board again.

Graduation

Saturday the 18th we were in Rexburg bright and early for Todd's Graduation. His class was the first to graduate in the new BYU-Idaho Center. It's a pretty huge building, looks very similar to the inside of the conference center in SLC.
Reese was ready to before it even started. Good thing Grandma and Grandpa were there to help entertain. She colored most of the time. We constantly had some lady in front of us turning around with a scowl every time Reese made a peep. I wanted to smack that lady because Reese really was being good, she just doesn't know how to whisper very well. I was ready to give her a piece of my mind if she said anything and lucky for her she didn't. What do you expect she's 2 (and the kid behind us was 5x louder).
After the first meeting we went to Todd's convocation.

Reese - either really excited Daddy is finally done with school, or that we were finally going to go get some lunch and ice cream.
Playing with Daddy's tassel.
Yeah Todd we're so proud! It's been such a long journey but we are so grateful you stuck it out and finished. It definitely wasn't easy having 2 children along the way, always working full-time, staying up til 2 AM most nights to finish up homework, and moving to a new city, but you did it. We appreciate all the sacrifices you made in order to get it done! We're grateful to the members of Todd's family that were there to support him at his graduation too. We love you.

The night before Graduation...

So December 17th we were all dressed and ready to head out the door. We needed to be in Rexburg by 6:30 for Todd's convocation (just his departments graduation - where he walks and receives his diploma). It's always madness when it comes to getting everyone ready at our house. Then to top it off Boston found somebody's drink on the ground and decided to bathe himself in 7-up. No kidding we had our coats on, Boston in his carrier, and ready to head out the door when Todd at the last second looks at his Graduation ticket and sees that his convocation isn't until the next morning. Blah! I was happy to hear that we didn't have to make a trip to Rexburg that night, but I had just spent the last 2 hours getting everyone ready - all for nothing. So instead, we went out and had dinner together at Mandarin House (Reese's favorite - she LOVES ham fried rice), and used a Christmas gift card to purchase Just Dance 2 for the Wii (thanks Grandma Joan). We enjoyed a nice evening together as a family!

Christmas Ornaments

A fun new thing we started this year for Christmas is the Christopher Pop-In-Kins story. Link It's an Elf of the Shelf type of Story - Every morning (or at least when mom or dad remember) Christopher is hiding in a new spot. He's there as a special helper to Santa. He'll tell Santa Christmas Eve if the kids at that house have been good or bad. Reese enjoys looking for him each morning, and knows not to touch him or he'll lose his magic. We've tried using this little Elf to influence her behavior but it doesn't really work. We'll tell her "Christopher is watching you right now and he's going to tell Santa you're not listening to your Mommy." Does her behavior change - not really. It's still fun to have him in our house.
Every year the kids get a new Christmas ornament. We found this cute little sock monkey for Boston. I couldn't really find any 'Baby's First Christmas' ornaments that I liked - I think a lot of them are kind of cheasy and I'm kind of picky. Boston just giggles every pick him up to look at it. And yes, it has been a pain having a 10 month old around a Christmas tree. The lights, bells, and berry branches are constantly being ripped off. Our tree is looking more and more sad, day by day. The other day the light strand in the middle of the tree stopped working so we have this big un-lit hole. The top of our tree is holding up though.
Reese picked her ornament out this year. It's hanging on her very own tree in her room. She has pink lights, candy and snowman ornaments on her tree this year. She loves it! I wish her Hello Kitty ornament wasn't glass, but oh well it's survived thus far.

Just a couple pics...

So Boston's been walking for a week or two now. He crawls most of the time, since it's faster by far, but he is walking.
Lately, he constantly has his tongue out too.
Reese modeling her Christmas shirt (probably should have taken the picture when she didn't have bed head).
Our cute boy eating some lunch.
Making gingerbread houses. Boston loved snacking on the M&M's minis. He kept trying to peek his little eyes up over the edge of the table to see what was going on.

I really haven't taken any pictures this past month. There should be plenty coming up these next few weeks. This weekend is Todd's graduation, then Christmas and Reese's Birthday.

My Little Bro

My little brother is currently in GA at boot camp. Found this pic -- look at him working so hard! (He's in the middle on the bottom row)

Haven't been up to much...

Well we haven't been up to much... last weekend I took some wedding pictures for a friend. It was my first time doing something like that and I don't think they turned out too bad. I also designed their wedding announcement but that was last month.


Congrats again Jen and Keith.
I gave Boston his first haircut. Which was also my first haircut. Todd had to hold him down while I used the clippers on him - apparently 9 month olds don't like to sit still when there is a buzzing sound all over their head. I just trimmed his little mohawk with some scissors. It's not perfect but at least he doesn't look so wild now.

Trunk Or Treating

Saturday we went down to Downey for the Trunk-or-Treat. We also invited my mom up (who brought my niece and nephew). My mom's ward doesn't do a trunk-or-treat anymore and we wanted to make sure she saw Reese in her costume (that my mom mostly made). We thought the TOT started at 6:30 and at about 5:58 we found out it started at 6:00. You know these things last 20-30 minutes at the most - especially since it was pretty cold. So we quickly got the kids ready and loaded up in the car. So Reese's hair never got done all "princess like" - oh well. Her hair was all pretty when we went to our ward party so that will just have to do. Above: Mason, Brooklynn, Reese and the 2 grandmas.
Idiot me forgot Reese's coat and her dress doesn't isn't the warmest thing in the world. She is wearing leggings and a shirt underneath - good thing we were only there 25 minutes.
Dad, Boston, and Reese hitting up all the cars. Reese is a really slow trunk or treater... Mason and Brook kept having to stop and wait for her. It didn't help that at one of the cars a guy had a bucket that had hand inside that grabbed you when you reach in for candy - Reese was pretty hesitant at every bucket after that.
On the way home with all of her loot. She probably only likes 15% of the candy she got (she doesn't like chocolate) - so it's nice I won't have to worry about her getting on too big of a sugar high and getting sick.
Todd just toted Boston along. Next year he'll be able to trunk or treat. After the trunk or treat all of us went to Flags West for some dinner. It was a pretty fun night.