Christmas +

I hope everyone had a happy Christmas. Ours was wonderful. Here are a few pictures of Christmas morning and some other stuff too.
I thought Grace was so funny to have put up her feet while playing with her play-doh she got from a neighbor for Christmas.
Here is Christmas morning. Grace got this scooter which she loves. Lucas loves it too but its still a bit big for him.
Grace also got some new underpants with Lightning McQueen on them so she wanted to hang them from her scooter handle.
Ummm....I have learned my lesson to pull the plug on the tub as soon as we leave the bathroom. I came back to do it after getting the kids all dried off and dressed this morning and found someone who wasn't quite ready to get out....
This is kind of an old picture of Grace. They were reindeer at school one day a couple weeks ago and she was showing Daddy her antlers. I just thought the picture captured such a funny face.

3:1

Things I love:
1. Pierce Brosnan
2. Colin Firth
3. ABBA

Things I don't love:
1. Mamma Mia!

Three things I love in one place...I thought it would be great! This movie made me glad that I never spent the money to see the show in Vegas. I guess you can't have it all.

Tiny Dancer

Last night was Grace's dance recital. She did way better than I ever expected that she would! I am so proud of her for doing as well as she did. She was in the Mom and Tots class last year so she has come a long way in her dancing skills. The dancers get to watch the first show so here she is before it with all the other girls from her class.
This next picture is between the first and second show. They go backstage and 2 moms entertain the class in between their time on the stage. She got one of those sticky hand things and she didn't put it down all night...except when she was forced to go out on stage again. She didn't dance in the second show. I think she was tired of it by then because after the first show she said, "All done dancing. Go Home." I had to try to explain that she was going to do her dance again but it obviously didn't click.
Here is a clip of her first dance. She is on the left. It's not great video because my camera couldn't zoom any closer. I also wish I could blame the bad filming on someone else, but it was me. I forgot to watch through the camera at first so sorry if you get motion sickness watching the clip! Our camcorder got a much better recording but I still have no idea how to get those clips onto my computer, nor do I know if I even have the right cable to do it. One day I'll explore that possibility...one day.

Okay, I just watched this clip and so 1. Sorry you have to listen to my stupid "chuckle" throughout (it's about 2 1/2 minutes). 2. The camera really shakes...sorry!

So polite

Luke woke up from his nap about 30 minutes ago. I gave him a granola bar and turned on his favorite Baby Einstein so I could finish folding some laundry in peace. He came down the hall into his room where I was folding and handed me his granola bar to have the rest of the packaging taken off of it so he could finish eating. I handed the unwrapped bar to him with a "here you go" and he quickly turned and headed down the hall. The next thing I heard was "Thank you!" being yelled back down the hall to me. It sounds more like "Tink-oo" when he says it. I think that "here you go" has become as much of a trigger for remembering manners as "What do you say?" to my kids. I just thought it was so funny that he remembered that he had forgotten to say thanks and so did it from the other end of the house.

Visiting Santa

Last night we visited Santa at our ward Christmas party. Grace seriously ran right up and jumped on his lap. She even smiled for the camera! She didn't understand that she was supposed to tell him something she wanted for Christmas but she had lots of fun talking to him.
Lucas wanted nothing to do with the strange bearded man and was reluctant to even take his treat from him.
This picture was about 5 minutes after the one on his lap. There were no other kids coming to see Santa so Grace took advantage and monopolized all his attention. She showed him the candy cane and danced and jumped around in front of him for the rest of the 15 minutes he had left before leaving.
I started taping her when she was jingling the bells on his belt but the video here is even funnier, I think anyway.

I wish I had had my camera with me still when Santa had to go. She was CRYING!!! She had lost her best friend ever! She even tried to follow him out of the building but I had held her long enough that his trail was cold!
She just woke up so I guess it's time for breakfast and off to church in an hour where I'm sure she will be searching for her friend Santa the whole time. I guess she's just going to have to be satisfied with her friend Teagan, the witch.

a little different than last time...

Okay. I've been tagged by Jo to name 7 random things about myself...last time it was only 6 and they were to be "quirky" things so I consider this a different tag.

Here's how to play:
1. Link your tagger (Jolinn) and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here I go....

1. I cut my own hair. I used to color it too but I got too lazy to do that anymore. Besides, my friend, Sexy Amanda (as she is identified at our house) does a much better job than I ever did on myself. (She also checks my haircut to make sure I got it right.)

2. I love getting mail. Email is great, but nothing beats a good old hand-written letter. And packages? Who doesn't like getting a package?

3. I enjoy assembling things and I'm actually pretty good at it. It's kind of like putting a puzzle together (which I also enjoy doing). I'm most proud that I assembled (and installed 2 of the 3 alone) the ceiling fans we put in our house this summer. My dad helped me do the one in the living room and then I did the other 2 by myself. Basically anything in this house that "required assembly", I've put together. I love it.

4. When telling a story, I tend to divert from the main point to put in a lot of little details I feel clarify what I'm saying. My stories end up much longer than they need to be sometimes.

5. I love the smell of yellow cake. I just baked one for our ward party tomorrow and my house smells so good! I really love eating yellow cake mix too. I make apple crisp sometimes just for the yellow cake on top. Yum!

6. Poor spelling and grammar drives me crazy.

7. Sometimes I stay up late just to be by myself for a little while. I usually regret it in the morning.

I am going to tag: Anna J., Abbie W., Jamie C., Stacy E., Rachel D. and Rachel E.