Fashion Diva

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December Wrap-up

It sure has been hard for us to keep up with our blog during December. Too much fun stuff going on. We apologize to our friends and family that you didn't get Christmas cards from us this year. Hopefully we'll be able send them out early next year so we don't run out of time again.

So, here's our December wrap-up blog.
We'll skip right to the chase, and talk about Christmas Morning. In past years, we've always been at Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas morning. While it's always fun to enjoy the festivities with family, this year we decided it was time to make some memories of Christmas at our house. Ethan woke up half way through the night claiming he had a bad dream. Kyle comforted him until Ethan said he wasn't scared anymore. As Kyle was heading back to bed, Ethan asked if it was time to open presents yet. Thankfully, when Kyle said it was still too early, Ethan went back to bed. We ended up having to wake the kids up on Christmas morning in order to get some presents opened before 9:00 church.

Kyle made this darling doll highchair for Brooklyn. He had a fun time building it too.

The dollhouse has been a really big hit with both kids. Ethan likes to pretend it is Andy's house from Toy Story. "Andy" is in his room playing with Buzz, Woody, and Jessie (Legos).

One of Ethan's favorite gifts was this Lego Toy Story 3 train. He talked about it ever since Toy Story 3 came out a year and a half ago. We were excited to finally make this wish come true for him. It even came with Lego versions of Buzz, Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, Rex, and even Evil Dr. Porkchop. He's been in heaven.

Jen made these aprons for the kids.

December was full of Christmas parties and family get-togethers. At the Smith's party, we played a game where we had to open a present with a fork and knife while wearing mittens (there were other rules too, but we'll spare the details).

After the game was finished, Uncle Mikey was kind enough to share the prize with Ethan.

This December, we made a lot of chocolates to give to neighbors and family. Coconut, apricot nut, lemon, mint, cherry nut, cherry chocolate nut, and macadamia-nut caramels. We certainly ate more than our share. Yummy!

On January 2, we met up with Jen's mission trainer, Sister Cheng, who had travelled with her family from Hong Kong for a vacation. This was the first time in nearly nine years since they've seen each other. It was fun catching up and meeting her husband and son.

We had lunch together, and after hearing that the son and husband had never seen snow, we took a spontaneous trip to Park City on a quest to find some snow. Her 5-year-old boy loved the snow so much that he asked his mom if he could take some home. Here are some pictures from the Olympic Park.

Santa vs. The Dentist

Santa Claus showed up at our ward Christmas party yesterday, and both of the kids were excited to sit on his lap. Brooklyn just sat there looking sweet, and didn't say a word.
Ethan was excited to talk to the big guy, and asked for his own set of (Disney) Cars Lego's.

Their experience with Santa was in stark contrast to their experience at the dentist the day before. Ethan got upset because he wanted Brooklyn to go first (so he could play with the dentist's train set in the lobby for just a little bit longer). Brooklyn was doing fine until half-way through the check-up, when she starting getting upset and ended up sobbing uncontrollably. It wasn't until after we got home that we were able to figure out what she was so upset about - she didn't want to get new teeth. We recalled that Brooklyn started getting upset after the dental hygienist observed that Brooklyn had such pretty, new, white teeth. Brooklyn must have thought she was going to be getting a new set of teeth.
So, now we know that the dentist is scarier than Santa Claus.

Jen and Brooklyn went to a friend's house earlier this week to make gingerbread houses (thanks, Kate). They turned out cute. When Ethan saw them after he got home from school, he decided they would make good houses for his Lego people, and shoved one in the front door, taking a few icicles out in the process.

Brooklyn put candy on her own graham cracker house. Surprisingly, most of it is still there!

Brooklyn has been doing really well with her potty training, and hasn't had an accident in weeks. When she's doing #1, she'll often get things rolling by chanting, "Come out, come out, wherever you are, pee pee."

Getting ready for Christmas

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving up in Logan last weekend. We were even able to spend time with both sides of the family and eat two Thanksgiving dinners. One of the highlights for the kids was meeting Grandpa Morrey's new colt, which Brooklyn has name "Baby Bullseye." The adult horse's name is already Bullseye. Brooklyn rode the horse for close to an hour, and cried when it was time to get off. Ethan was excited to dress up as Woody, but never did muster up the courage to ride the horse while we were there (although he has in the past).

Kyle and I managed to have one last birthday celebration before my free meal coupon expired. We had a lovely lunch at Benihana with Brooklyn while Ethan was at school. I recommend the Mango shrimp. I encouraged Kyle to order the lunch boat which included a couple of things he hadn't tried before: sashimi (raw fish) and edamame (soy beans). I also recommend that you sign up on their website for their birthday club. The free meal is up to $30 value. Brooklyn wasn't so excited about getting her picture taken.

We got our tree up early this week. It was fun to have the kids help decorate it and show their excitement for Christmas. It seems to get more fun and magical for them each year. We finally got some stockings up too. I've been planning on making some for the last few years but never could find fabric I was crazy about so I just went to Hobby Lobby and bought the stockings. Oh well, for the price I couldn't make them so fancy.

Three Million, One Hundred Fifty-Five Thousand, Six Hundred Ninety-Two Minutes

This Friday we celebrated six wonderful years together. We had a nice date going to the Salt Lake Temple and doing sealings. We did the work for one of Jen's ancestors, which was neat. Then we had a lovely dinner at The Garden restaurant, overlooking the temple. We ended our romantic escapade by going to Best Buy to demo a potential Christmas present.
Ethan is really good at making the most out a bad situation. The other day, he lost the privilege of playing with his Lego's. He was pretty upset at not being able to play with them, until, being the innovative boy that he is, he asked to print off these Toy Story Lego pictures from the Lego website and cut them out. He spent the rest of the afternoon playing with his homemade toys.

Birthday Girl

Brooklyn turned 3 on Saturday! She was so excited to have a Sleeping Beauty Cake (she sometimes calls her the Owie Princess because she gets an owie on her finger in the movie).
We've been asking her for months what she wanted for her birthday, and the usual response was "a Princess cake."

Brooklyn had a really fun birthday. She had a special birthday breakfast of Belgian waffles, opened her presents, played with them, watched Sleeping Beauty with Dad, went to the toy store and picked out new doll stroller, ate dinner at Pei Wei, and came home for cake and ice cream. She also gave us a very special present in return - she FINALLY pooped in the potty for the very first time (she's been out of diapers for going on three weeks, so this was a big deal)!

We gave her a Rapunzel toddler doll, and Grandma Taylor gave her a Little Mermaid that swims in the bathtub. Immediately after opening it, she had to have a bath to test it out.

Ethan was just about as excited as she was to get the new dolls. She was really nice about sharing her new toys with him.

Throughout the day, we'd say "Happy Birthday, Brooklyn!" She'd reply "Happy Birthday!" (similar to saying Happy Halloween, or Merry Christmas).

Happy Birthday sweetie. We love you!

Meet the newest member of our household

Yesterday morning, we woke up with four inches of snow on the ground. The kids were dying to get out and make the year's first snowman. Ethan decided that his name would be Snowball Snowflake. Jen did not approve of the corncob pipe, but Kyle liked it.
Last Wednesday was Jen's 30th birthday. She got a nice food processor a few months early so she could use it for canning salsa. She wasn't really expecting anything else, but Kyle surprised her with a dozen roses, an appointment for a 90-minute massage, and dinner out. He also made a delicious carrot cake from scratch (we continue our tradition of using binary candles). Thanks to Kate for watching the kids (especially since Brooklyn pooped in her underwear twice--she is doing very well with her potty training except for # 2's).

On Halloween, the kids were so excited to go Trick-Or-Treating that they wouldn't hold still for their pre-Trick-or-Treat picture. This is the best one we got. After changing his mind several times - from Spider-man to Toy Soldier to Lightning McQueen to Word Girl - Ethan finally decided he'd be Woody. So we dug out his vest from a few years ago and Jen sewed him a belt and holster (or "pocket," as he used to call it). Brooklyn was excited to be Ariel. It was such a nice night and both kids had a lot of fun going door to door.