Everyday

TJ and I were talking the other day about how some of the best photos come from everyday life.  You get to capture their personality a little better than a posed portrait.  I am always good at taking pictures when we are doing something for the first time, but sometimes I am not so good at taking pictures of just everyday life.  I am trying to be better about capturing what we do all the time.  I love to watch my children grow, and photos help me look back and remember the milestones as well as just life and what they are interested in at the time!  So here are some things we have been up to.  Nothing big but a lot of laughs were had and memories were made!

 

 I have mentioned before that Logan got Woody and Buzz for Christmas and Lily got Jessy.  I found it adorable that they were playing with their dolls while watching Toy Story 2.  They act out Toy Story all the time with their dolls!  My favorite is when Logan makes Buzz fly!  I should also record that Logan calls Woody one of three things.  He is either, "Buzz," or "Buddy", or "Buzzy".  And Buzz is always Buzz.

 Lily really enjoys cooking and baking!  She was beyond excited to get her Easy bake oven from Logan for Christmas.  This is Lily making red velvet cupcakes.  She was so proud of herself!  She even shared with us!

 There is A LOT of dancing in our house.  Lily and now Logan love to dance.  Whenever the music comes on, these two start to dance.  If Lily is not dancing, Logan will drag or push her into the living room all the while saying, "Dance.  Dance."  They especially love to dance with their dad!

 Lily always requests to be dipped when Daddy dances with her!

 And sometimes dancing turns into tackling!  The kids LOVE to tackle with their dad!

 Double dipping!  They are completely happy while they dance with their dad!  Sometimes I am privileged to get an invite too!

One of my favorites!  Lily was doing a ballet recital for me!  I hope she always has a love for music and dance like she does now!
I love watching my children grow!  I love everyday life!  I love my family and I enjoy each moment I get to spend making memories with them!

New Years

We had a GREAT New Years!  On New Years Eve we had some friends that TJ works with come and have dinner and play games with us.  We had our traditional sea food feast of snow crab, grilled jumbo shrimp, and this year we added salmon!  We also had a lot of yummy treats!  After we celebrated the New Year with the kids by blowing party blowers, we put them to bed and played games!  We missed the actual countdown because we were having so much fun playing games!  We did however remember to put out our shoe for the New Years Fairy to visit!  So after midnight came and went, we checked our shoes and sure enough they were filled with fun treats!  Our friends were extra surprised to find their shoes filled as well.  If you are ever at our house on New Years Eve, the New Years Fairy will graciously leave a treat for you too!  We are looking forward to 2013!

In the morning the kids found that their boots were full of yummy fruit snacks and new Disney movies!  Lily got Incredibles and Logan got Bugs Life.  

 

 After breakfast on New Years day, we headed to the movies to watch Wreck It Ralph.  We have been wanting to go for a while now, and so we finally made it!  We took the kids to the Movie Tavern, a movie theater/restaurant.  It is pretty fun to go and watch a show while we eat!  The kids thought it was pretty cool!  They liked the show too!

Happy New Years to all our family and friends!  Here is to a great 2013! 

Our Christmas Celebrations!

The Sunday before Christmas, December 23, we had a special breakfast.  While breakfast was cooking, the kids got to color their new place mats.  They thought that was pretty fun!  Then we got all dressed up for Church.  I always love going to the Christmas program at Church.  The program was amazing!   

 Christmas Eve we started off the fun with breakfast at IHOP!  The kids ate like champs!  After breakfast, we thought we would stop off at Walmart to pick up two ingredients we had forgotten.  As soon as I got inside the store and found item number one, the manager got on the speaker and told everyone to leave due to an emergency!  Luckily the emergency was only a gas leak.  So we were off to store number two and had success!  The rest of the day the kids played, I got ready for Christmas meals and then we went to our good friends, the Torres family, for Christmas Eve dinner!

 Lily's hot chocolate was bigger than her head!  And she drank most of it!

 When we got home from the Torres house, we opened Christmas PJ's.  Logan had fallen asleep on the way home and had no motivation to wake up and open his! 

 Lily and TJ tracked Santa to make sure he was on his way!  Lily was so excited that she could see where Santa was and she even got to see Rudolph's red nose shining! 

 Santa made it to our house!  The kids got spoiled for sure! 

 Lily got a doll house for her huge barbie collection!  Santa's elves (TJ's Dad, Mom, Tiff and Cassie) worked hard and made an amazing Barbie house!  She sure loves playing with her new house!  She also got special furniture made by Grandpa Warner.  I also gave Lily my old barbie furniture to put in her kitchen!  She has been eying my furniture ever since my mom and dad brought them to Colorado! 

 Lily was very excited to see that Santa had visited! 

 Logan was completely satisfied with his stocking stuffer, a cars bath loofa, and his basketball hoop that we had a hard time getting him to open is other presents! 

 We were able to SKYPE Grandma and Grandpa Gray while the kids saw what Santa brought!  They had to show them EVERYTHING they got!  It was fun to have them see the kids on Christmas morning.

 Showing off his Buzz and Woody toothpaste!

Santa left our family a BIG BOX.  This present sat at our house for three weeks with no idea for who it was for.  On Christmas morning it had our whole family's name on it.  We let Lily open it and we found out that we get to go to Disneyland in February!  We are all really excited about this special gift! 

 Opening my old barbie toys!  She was pretty excited about them!  And that she was old enough to finally get to play with them!

 The kids spoiled me with some cookbooks that I have wanted for a while now and a hand mixer that I am so excited about!

 Lily bought Daddy a new game! 

 Daddy got the kids Jessie and Woody from Toy Story.  They carry around those dolls everywhere!

 Lily gave Logan Buzz Lightyear!

 And Logan gave Lily an Easy Bake oven!

 We gave the kids new bikes for Christmas.  They have been playing on them every day since.  They practice riding them around the TV room.  By Spring they should be pros! 

 After presents we had the Torres family over for Christmas breakfast.  We had our traditional Crepes and Omelets.  Logan of course had to kick back when his was done!

 After breakfast was over we visited for a while with our friends and then they headed home.  Once they left, we were able to SKYPE with Grandma and Grandpa Warner.  The kids had to show them everything they got and ask what Grandpa and Grandma Warner got.  It sounds like everyone made the Nice list this year!

As we celebrated Christmas this year, we tried really hard to focus on what Christmas is all about!  We focused on our Savior Jesus Christ and his birth.  We talked about how it is because of Jesus Christ that we have all that we do.  We tried to teach our children that we should be as our Savior and that that is why we give gifts.  It was great to focus so much on our Savior!  I pray that as we start a new year we will keep our focus on Jesus Christ and being his disciples!  

We had a great Christmas!  We are very blessed!  We have amazing family and friends that love us!  We have a great job and enough for our needs!  We have an amazing Ward family!  We have the Gospel!  We live close to a Temple!  Our Savior lives and loves us!  We have the Atonement to cleanse us from our sins.  We have the Priesthood in our home!  The blessings go on and on!  We truly are so blessed!