New haircut!

 This little girl got her first big-girl haircut.  It was getting past the point of Mommy's abilities.  She was quite thrilled with the result.  Maniacally so.

All About the Girl

Blah.  January is just so blah.  I feel bad for my children whose mother is too cold to take them outside to play in the dirty snow.  Or to want to go to the store.  And who probably lets them watch too much tv.

This little stinker does things that make me smile all the time.  I wanted to document them so that I always remember what she was like at two.

She adores these mini princess coloring pages.  She sorts them, takes turns with each crayon scribbling on each page, carries them around, distributes them to people then grabs them back before you can get attached.  She loves them.

I mentioned she was being difficult about naps, and one day she went down to the basement to play princesses and I noticed it had gotten very quiet.  Suspiciously, I crept down to find her fast asleep.

Nothing on the counter is sacred anymore.  She has figured out that if she just pushes a kitchen chair around the kitchen, she can reach anything.  Including some Oreos that were left out apparently.

Debating whether to be honest and show me.  "Maybe if I show her with a cute face she won't be mad?"

Feeling sheepish...

Angry I moved the chair and put the Oreos away.

We have gone through too many post-it notes in this house.  I can't keep them in the drawer that I'm used to keeping them in because she just finds them and scribbles on every single one.  Such sophisticated little scribbles though.

I love this picture for two reasons.  One, she is wearing her nightgown which she has dubbed her "'Punzel dress" (Rapunzel dress) and she is so openly thrilled with watching the Ariel in her music box twirl as it plays "Under the Sea".

It's so fun to have a girl who is utterly, completely, hopelessly ALL GIRL!

Christmas Morning

 Christmas morning was great.  Probably the most magical with kids so far.  We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with the Johnson side, going to see Monsters, Inc. in 3D (Sammi's favorite movie) and then went to get our traditional Chinese food...but it was by reservation only this year!  Never fear, though, we wouldn't let that dampen our Christmas Eve.  Dang it, not even that stupid Christmas Shoes song could ruin our evening.  We popped over to Robintino's and had some lovely Italian food instead.

Then we went to my parents' house and exchanged sibling gifts.  And I was extremely cuted out because the kids had picked out sibling gifts for each other at the dollar store.  It was hilarious to see what they picked.  Emerson selected a princess jump rope for Sammi, and she selected a plastic racing cockroach for him.  I would've loved to see her mental process on that one.  Then we came home, opened new Christmas pajamas, read from the scriptures, read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and got these cuties to bed.  After all, Santa was on his way!

We have never had a Christmas morning of our own on actual Christmas day, and we were pretty excited about it.  I think staying up with Ben after the kids were in bed, getting everything ready while watching a Christmas movie, is one of my favorite new memories.  Poor Santa spent a lot of time assembling Sammi's dollhouse, or so I heard.  The kids slept in, and we actually had to wake E up because we couldn't keep Sammi contained any longer.

So excited!  They were concerned that they had coal waiting for them in their stockings.

No coal to be found, but lots of egg nog taffy.  (Yuck.) Ben likes it though, and so does E, so there has been some Daddy tax and trading between the kids.

Transformers!

He hearts them.

How did Santa know that the Cowboy needed new boots!?

Santa finally brought E a Lego train of his very own.  He has been eyeing this one at the store and at his friend Isaac's house in Ohio.

This girl was thrilled and has disappeared for hours at a time to her room to play.

 Now, I'm not writing this to brag or to have you judge me for what my kids got for Christmas, but I wish I remembered everything I got when I was a kid, so I am writing a few favorites here for future reference.

Sammi:
-Dollhouse
-Mini Book of Mormon with cute cover
-Princess movies
-Ariel shoes
-Ariel music box
-Minnie Mouse dress up doll
-Pinkalicious books
-Princess Barbies (from Grandma & Grandpa J)
-Princess Bouncing Ball (from Uncle Scott & Aunt Ashley)
-Ariel blanket, personalized (from Sorenson cousins)
-Coloring books and stickers (from Grandpa Tom & Grandma Dixy)

Emerson:
-Transformers
-Mini Book of Mormon (When he opened his he said, "Oh! Now I can read about a Child of God in my head all by myself!")
-Cowboy boots
-Lego Train
-Pirate books
-Lego Hospital (from Grandma & Grandpa J)
-Bucky the Pirate Ship (from Grandma & Grandpa J)
-Lego Pirate Ship Game (from Uncle Scott & Aunt Ashley)
-Lightning McQueen blanket, personalized (from Sorenson cousins)
-Batman action figure (from Grandpa Tom & Grandma Dixy)

Ben and I also had a great Christmas.  We both agreed that this was the most magical Christmas so far.  It's so fun to have kids just the perfect age to enjoy everything with very few expectations.

After opening presents at our own house, my parents and sisters drove down to see the kids' loot and joined us for Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls and ham and egg cups (from Our Best Bites...so dang good.)  Then they headed home and we visited the Christensen side and exchanged gifts with them.  We managed to catch all the married kids for at least a few minutes before rushing around to our respective in-laws' houses.  After visiting the Christensens, we headed to the Johnsons' house to be there for Uncle Brad's phonecall from Milwaukee.  We were really excited to talk to him, and it's hard to believe he only has like 8 months left of his mission!  He was extremely freaked out by how well Sammi talks.

After the phonecall, we had a lovely dinner of Honeybaked ham, and finished out the evening with Italian sodas and red velvet cupcakes.  Then we headed home to enjoy Christmas night and get the kids to bed after an exhausting but magical day.

Krinkrus

 Here is my picture dump of everything leading up to Christmas.  There is something so magical about having these little kids in our home.  I feel like I've been missing the magic of Christmas I experienced as a child, and I don't think anything can really bring that back except watching your own kids experience it.

Daddy made Emerson's dreams come true when he surprised him with a Christmas train that goes around the tree a few weeks before Christmas.  He said, "I've been waiting my whole life for one of these!"  4 1/2 years is a really long time to wait.  P.S. Doesn't Sammi look like her Dad with her cheesy smile?

For our annual homemade gifts with the Christensen side, I painted this picture of a stallion (as a joke) for Ben's brother, Joe.  We have an inside joke about stallions, so it would make more sense if you were in the know.

And Ben painted this picture of Cassadee Pope, winner of The Voice for our brother-in-law Troy, because he is not-so-secretly in love with her.

Opening our Christmas pajamas!

E is extremely pleased with his Jake pajamas and train stocking.

These elephant jammies kill me.  She was mighty pleased with her Ariel stocking.

I want to squeeze those piggies!

Proof that they like each other

Elf on the Shelf

 We jumped on the bandwagon with everyone else this year, and were privileged enough to have our very own elf come visit us and keep an eye on the kids this Christmas season.  We were supposed to pick a name for our own personal elf, and when I put it to the kids, they picked....Josh.  Josh the Elf.  I tried to encourage them in the direction of Jingle, Buddy, Snickers, anything a little more elf-ish, but no.  He will forever and always be known as Josh the Elf.  I like it.

It was a little creepy though when we would be out in public and I would have to remind the kids to behave, "or else Josh will see".  Or something to that effect.  People were probably thinking that Josh was my abusive boyfriend or something.  Nope, instead it's just our creepy elf who watches us and reports all our activities to the Russian government....er....Santa.

No, but seriously, the elf was a really fun thing for our kids.  They looked forward to finding Josh and all the silly things he was doing in the morning.  It was a highlight of our holiday.  Here are a few of our favorites:

You'd better believe that I milked the fact that he could report bad behavior to Santa.  My children have never been so sincere in their apologies.