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Merry Christmas!

Christmas Flashback

I came across this picture and had to share it. Micah was a little over 2 months old on his first Christmas and made a pretty cute Santa if I do say so myself! That seems like a lifetime ago! I am getting very excited for Christmas this year as I think both Micah and Hailey will really enjoy it. We've already watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Frosty the Snowman about a million times! Both the kids love driving around and looking at Christmas lights and Micah points out Santa Claus everywhere we go! Now if I could just get all my projects done...

Feeling GRATEFUL...

For this little one!

We had an extremely scary close call with Hailey this week when her very tall, heavy dresser fell on top of her. Long story short...after an ambulance ride and several hours at Primary Children's Hospital Hailey is doing miraculously well. It is nothing short of a miracle that there are no marks or scratches on her body. We are grateful for all the prayers and what must have been Hailey's guardian angel!

Halloween 2009

Hailey and Micah were too excited to go trick-or-treating so posing for pictures was not a priority to them. Little did they know their mother wanted some cute pictures! They were hilarious though. They could not stand waiting to finally get candy! After every house Micah had to announce what kind of candy he got. We had lots of fun and were grateful to spend Halloween with family!

5 years of Halloween

Inspired by a high school friend of mine, Eliza (she has one of my favorite blogs!), I thought I'd do a little recap of the past 5 Halloweens! Boy how things have changed!!! (awaiting Halloween 2009)

Halloween 2004

Look how young we look! And no bags under my eyes!

Halloween 2005

Pumpkin Micah (2 weeks old)

Halloween 2006

Ride 'em cowboy!

Halloween 2007

Roar! Dino Micah

Halloween 2008

Prince Micah and

Princess Hailey

Micah turns 4!

I can't believe my baby is old enough to be 4...but it's official! Yesterday was Micah's birthday and we had a big day of celebration! First, Micah had a friend party which of course was a Spiderman theme (Micah's newest obsession!). With six little boys running around it was a bit crazy but LOTS of fun! Then that night we had most of Eric's family over for dinner, cake, ice cream and last, but not least, presents! Let's just say that this kid did not go wanting! He's so excited about all his new toys to play with! It's hard to imagine life without our precious Micah and feel so blessed to be the parents of this little guy! It seems like just yesterday he was surprising us by coming 9 days early, during my baby shower and making us miss the BYU game that night! (However, he was kind enough to come in the afternoon so we could at least watch the game on TV! This kid came out of the womb a Cougar fan!) He is constantly making us laugh and it's so fun to watch him continue to learn new things and his imagination grow!

Newest favorite Micah sayings...

-(Me) "Micah, was is your favorite thing to do at school?"

(Micah) "The art room."

(Me) "What do you do in the art room?"

(Micah) "Color and snip, snip, snip!"

(We don't have any little kid scissors so I never let Micah cut with scissors so he thinks its the coolest thing every that he can use scissors at school!)

-"But I'm not feeling very well." (He uses this whenever he's trying to get out of something!)

-"Mom, Hailey hurt me! Come talk to her!"

-"...does that sound good to you?" (Added on to anything he wants to do or is asking for!)

Micah loves superheros and always is wanting me to tie blankets around him for a cape. Now he has one of his very own! Batman on one side and Incredibles on the other!

Yes, I finally gave in to the nerf gun!

Micah was very adamant about having a "band cake"! Although I don't have a very steady hand so the guitar strings are crooked...

Bye Bye Bottle and Binky!

So last week was a bit crazy. Between Micah getting a mysterious high fever for a few days (he NEVER runs fevers) and taking my car in for unexpected expensive car repairs (you don't realize how spoiled you are until you have to go down to 1 car for a few days!) we decided to take away Hailey's bottle and binky...binki...binkie. (How do you spell that anyway?!) If it was going to be a bad week we might as well get it all out at once! I wasn't too stressed about the binky yet but I did want to take it away from her sooner than we did Micah...that was miserable! Hailey has never been too attached to it and only liked it when sleeping so I hoped that it wouldn't be too difficult. And I was right! She only asked for it once and other than that she has done marvelous without it! The bottle was another story. Not only did it take us 5 months just to get her to drink milk instead of formula she absolutely refused to drink milk from a sippy cup. I tried flavoring it different ways, I tried different cups, I tried EVERYTHING I could think of and she would take one sip and then throw the cup at me. I also realized that the bottle was a security blanket for me too. When Hailey would be cranky and I needed to get something done I'd just give her a bottle and she'd be happy. And who wants to keep a 1 year old from being happy? But considering the fact that she will be 20 months old in a few days and I hate it when toddlers, obviously too old for bottles, are walking around with them I decided we better get started. With Hailey's stubbornness it might take until kindergarten. So we resorted to tough love and would not give her anything in a sippy cup but milk and packed the bottles away. When it comes to difficult toddlers Hailey takes the cake. She held strong and would not even touch her cups. So I tried being sneaky and putting milk in cups she couldn't see through and told her it was water. She was NOT fooled. The days were filled with nothing but crying and whining for water. She didn't care about the bottle she just wanted something else in her cup. I started to get worried when she was no longer having wet diapers. Not to mention days of crying tends to get on ones nerves. I was about to give in and eat my words about toddlers with bottles when on Thursday she took her first sip of milk without saying "Yuck! Don't like it!" By the end of the day she drank a full cup a milk! Yeah! She still isn't drinking a lot but she does more and more each day. So I think it's official...no bottle + no binky = no more baby. Now I'm kinda sad. Not about the bottle or binky but that my baby is growing up! But I guess she still wears diapers so the baby part lingers a little bit!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Yup, yesterday was the big 26 for me! And how cute was I as a baby? Maybe I'm a bit biased but I have to say that's a pretty good hospital picture!! Downhill from there though... So the day was pretty good for being the mother of 2 toddlers that don't realize it would be nice for their mom to sleep in on her birthday and the fact that I still had to do laundry and dishes! But my sweet sisters came over and brought me lunch and Eric and I went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner (I'm still full it was so yummy!). So all in all it was a pretty great day!! However, I miss the days of friend birthday parties and toys for presents and having my mom take care of me! Even if I am 26 I am still a kid at heart!

Bowling

We took the kids bowling today. It was pretty fun! Even if Micah didn't knock any down he cheered! I did learn I am MUCH better at Wii bowling though!!!

Hailey could actually pick up the balls that were half her weight! Oh boy that girl is strong!

This is the pose Micah did when I asked him to smile!

California!

We had a wonderful time on vacation with Eric's family in Newport Beach! We had LOTS of beach fun and of course we had to make a trip to Disneyland while we were so close! The kids loved it and Micah has asked every day since we've been back if we can go again. I have tons of pictures but I will try to limit them!!

Buzz Lightyear ride...Micah's favorite!

The carrousel...Hailey's favorite ride! We did it several times!

Keith (soon to be new brother-in-law!), Lindsey, Hailey and Eric entering Disneyland!

We also went to the Fun Zone and played arcade games. Micah couldn't get enough!

Both the kids LOVED the ferris wheel...just not taking pictures!

Stephanie and Abbey

Getting buried in the sand!

Who needs the ocean when you have a bucket to play in?

Micah and Kylie

Building sandcastles with Kylie and Grandpa!

Micah's first day of PRESCHOOL!

Today was Micah's very first day of preschool. He actually was suppose to start last week but we were in California (pictures to come later) so he started today instead. He has been talking about it for months and was so excited! We had him earn his own money to buy a backpack and he picked out a Spiderman one and wears it all the time. He walked right in and didn't even turn around to wave goodbye to me! I almost cried!! My little boy is growing up...it's very exciting and strange all at the same time! And have you ever seen such a cute preschooler?

Missing Monday

I came across this picture and had 2 thoughts (in no particular order!): #1 I wish I still looked like that! Oh, to be 19 again! #2 I miss my sister Emily! Let me give a little background...Emily and I are the 2 youngest and are 4 1/2 years apart. Most of the time growing up that was a problem. I thought she was the cooler older sister and wanted to do everything with her and I was the very much younger, dorky little sister she was trying to ignore! Not to say that it was always bad. When I was an awkward 12 year old with no friends she would let me come hang out with her and her friends. However, in my opinion, we never really got along until I moved away to college. She took me all over Provo to look at countless apartments until I found the one I wanted. She was always calling me to hang out and I would stop by her office all the time to go to lunch or just say hi. Not to mention she's the best person to quote movies with! We really became good friends. And I am missing her now because her husband joined the Air Force so they are living in Texas while he's doing some training. And even more because she is growing my newest little niece in her belly and I'm missing all of it! What is so great about Texas anyway? So...today is Missing Emily Monday.

Family resemblance?

I've always been fascinated with genetics and why some people have cookie-cutter children, why some seem to have clones of themselves and why others barely have any family resemblance. I think I am one that has children that don't look much alike and don't necessarily look like their parents either. Not that there aren't similarities...and Micah's personality couldn't be more like Eric's...but over all I think we seem to "mix things up" enough that are children are a pretty good blend with their own unique looks. However, I did want to compare pictures of all of us at about 18 months, give or take.