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.

Things That Amuse Me

This December has been a little rough.  We have had a lot of fun things going on, but quite a few of those things are not kid-friendly.  Those that know me well know that asking people to watch my kids is a huge stress for me.  I HATE inconveniencing people, and I HATE needing things.  But sometimes it can't be helped.  We have had a lot of residency recruiting dinners and lunches that kids aren't invited to, a residency Christmas party that was a blast (but still no kids invited), and it seems like a million other things where I have to find a babysitter.  Our residency program really is kid friendly, and I totally understand it not being appropriate to have a million kids at dinner and lunch when you are trying to take time to answer applicants' questions (and there would be a million kids because there are 41 kids and counting in our residency), but it all just came at once and caused tremendous stress.  Add that to the fact that I don't know a ton of people in the ward because I am the Primary pianist, and I don't want to creep out the parents of the young women who have no clue who I am, and also that my husband is gone quite often, and it is bound to cause some stress.

So in light of all that, we have been trying to do things at home that include the kids.  Whether it is having dinner at the hospital with Daddy, doing gingerbread houses, finding that silly Elf on the Shelf (ours is named Josh...more on that later), having lots of movie nights, reading Christmas books, doing FHE by ourselves, playing princesses and robots, or going to the dang grocery store again, it has been fun.  My kids amuse me, and of course I think they are the greatest thing ever, most of the time.

I love when they wake up in the morning and greet each other very sweetly like they genuinely missed each other.
E: "Hi Sam! Did you have a goooood sleep?  Oh Mom, Sam's so cute!"  (While patting her back and giving her a hug)
S: "Yeah." (While rubbing her sleepy eyes and trying not to smile)

I like that Sammi calls her pigtails "piggybanks".

When she asks for a show, she calls it a "DV-DV"

Emerson made up his own goofy dance, which looks like goose-stepping, and he named it "The Up-Frog".  He does it whenever he is pleased with something while saying, "Do the Uuuuup-Frog".

Sammi's constant chatter makes me smile.  She talks an awful lot, and uses words like "aggravated".  Her favorite things right now is to come grab my hand and say, "I want a snack.  Will you open the pantry?"

The kids have figured out that if they move the kitchen chairs and bathroom stools (as in stepping stool) around, there is almost nothing they can't reach on the counters.  It does make me smile a little when I go upstairs for a second, and come back down to see a kitchen chair pushed up to the counter, and Sammi guiltily/happily eating a cookie on the floor.  Emerson is less penitent about his sneakiness, and usually proudly exclaims, "We are snitch-a-roos!"  I am a little sad that no treat is sacred anymore though.

The kids keep telling our elf that they are dying for a remote-control train and princess barbies.  I'll let you decipher which child wants which present.  I will have you know that I have mercilessly milked the whole you'd-better-behave-or-I-am-telling-the-elf-to-tell-Santa-he-doesn't-need-to-bring-you-presents thing.  When I was a kid, we would just hurl the word "SANTA!" at one another if someone wasn't sharing.  After Christmas, I may have to invent something else to instill fear in my children.  (Just kidding...but would Easter Bunny minions be so bad?)

December

 We haven't been up to much lately.  Just a lot of staying inside and trying not to go crazy.  We have been doing fun Christmasy things with the kids, but I neglected to take pictures of them all.  So...here we are decorating the tree (in our standard Sunday afternoon clothes).  Emerson always has to wear his undershirt "With NO shirt on top!" and his comfy pants, and Sammi wears her comfy pink pants as well.  Silly kids.

 This is one of the days the kids were dying to play outside before it snowed and got too cold.  It was still pretty dang cold, but bearable.  They were being buddies, so I thought it would be a good time to document that.  It's less fun to document when they are pinching each other and trying to send each other to time-out.

We are getting excited for Christmas in a week!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

 After a fabulous Thanksgiving, at which my mom prepared a most perfect meal, we jumped right into the holiday spirit and took the kids to Temple Square and City Creek.  We rode Trax there, which gave Emerson the biggest, loudest thrill of his life.  And we were all glad to finally get there after he asked at each lurch of the train if this was our station.  "Nope!  Just 13 more stops, E!"  It was a pretty eventful ride, especially when the schizophrenic guy sat right behind Ben.

We were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa J join us.  It was the perfect night to go because the weather wasn't so cold that the snot froze in our noses, like pretty much every other time I've been to Temple Square.  Temple Square is always sub-zero, and Hogle Zoo is always hotter than the Sahara.  Yay Utah weather!

Can I just say that I heart City Creek?  It was the first time I've been and it was a lot of fun.  Poor Gateway.  I feel a little bit bad for it now.  The Deseret Book flagship store was pretty cool with its train factory display.  Guess who we had to drag kicking and screaming away from that?

Then we finished off the night with dinner at Corner Bakery.  The perfect ending to a perfect night.

Grandpa and E looking at the ZCMI candy windows

Dad and the Gril with her wavy-hand disease

"Smile!  Come on, look at the camera and smile!  Be happy, dang it!" -Mom

Ah......fer cute

Admiring the train window

Sammi and E in front of "the castle where Mom and Dad got married" as Sammi likes to say

Fall

 We have a crazy amount of trees in our yard.  The kids had a blast jumping in them and spreading them back out on the grass while Ben tried to rake them up.

 There is a head attached to that helmet...

 Mid-jump! Yes!

 Why yes, we always make our kids wear helmets when they play in the leaves.

Sammi is such a copycat

Love these kids!