something new

Saturday night, I did something I've never done before.

I went to a movie BY MYSELF. You know, like the weirdies do. I worked at a movie theater for a few years in high school  and a couple summers after that in collage. I've seen the sorts of lone movie goers that are out there. So I've always been afraid to do it- I've always thought it was weird. And well, it is.

BUT.

I'm so glad I did it! I was dying to see les miserables. I've read the book and am in love with the story. It's just beautiful. And epic. And heart-wrenching.
So I've been bugging Josh about how I HAD to go see it.
And Saturday he was like, "you should just go after the kids are in bed". Uh, good one Josh... that would be sooooo weird. I'm not THAT desperate.
Then, after the kids were in bed, he told me again that I should go. Then I thought about sitting in the theater watching that powerful, beautiful story. And I went. And it was really fun. This mama doesn't get a ton of alone time, (what mama does?) and I was relishing it.

I would totally do it again, for a movie I REALLY wanted to see. (Although I would still hope I didn't see anyone I knew.)

So worth it.

Go do something you've been too scared to do. 

grandparent weekend and Christmas day

The weekend before Christmas my wonderful parents came to visit. They are the nicest, funnest people you'll ever meet. I love how they love me, love each other, and especially how they love those kiddies of mine. We had a blast with them.

Highlights included swimming in their hotel pool (white trash style for me...oh yeah...), and an early Christmas gift extravaganza.

'

This was actually Morgan (and Pearl's) very first time in a real pool! Morgan had only been in kiddie pools before. He took a few minutes to warm up to it, then was loving it. 

On to the grandparent gift extravaganza.

The boy was in heaven. That red and yellow car is his dream come true. As soon as grandpa put the body of the car on the ground, Morgan grabbed the steering wheel and jumped in. He knew right where the steering wheel went. Waiting for grandpa to put it all together was probably the hardest thing he's ever had to do in his life. As you can see, it is now used for a variety of activities, including reading and eating snacks. 

There were other car toys involved as well and Morgan was pretty much going nuts. Little did he know it was only the beginning...

Pearl was also a lucky lady, though she didn't quite know what was going on. She got a darling new outfit. That always makes a mama happy!

Ok, fast forward to Christmas Eve night. 

Here's the set up. Oh yeah. 

Ok, now it's Christmas morning. 

Morgan woke up grumpy... Here he is actually looking at the awesome stuff in the room for the first time...

I love how he's just realizing all the coolness going on in the room.

Needless to say, it was a fun day. 

I know there wasn't much of Pearl in here... we got her some teething cookies and yogurt in her stocking, and Uncle Eric got her an awesome toy. And... that's about it. She was a happy camper though. She mainly enjoys watching Morgan's antics.

Ha, sorry... but I just had to include that first one. Of course when she finally flashes a great smile she spits up big time. Classic. And gross... I have no sense of whats appropriate anymore, sorry. 

Anyways I love my family and I love Christmas and what it's really all about.

Thanks to everyone who made ours so great. You know who you are!

We hope you had a lovely one too. 

feelin' the festive

This year, towards the beginning of the Christmas season, I was having a little bit of a hard time feeling the excitement and anticipation that usually comes with this time of year.

 I think I was just a feeling a little burnt out. Can I just put out there that having two kids is like... twice as crazy as having one? Not that having one isn't work- it IS!- but I think I was STILL getting used to getting in the swing of things with both kiddies. I'm probably just slow.
(It's gotten a lot better.)
I was also feeling a lot of pressure about this Christmas because Morgan knows more of what's going on and this Christmas had the potential to be a huge, epically fun deal for him. And it was all on me! Which is a fun thing- to be able to plan, and think about what he would like the most- but for some reason I was getting a little overwhelmed.
I also wanted to sew some gifts for my family and the order just seemed so tall.

Josh was so cute and was really excited about Christmas so he really helped me get in a festive mood. We listened to Christmas music A LOT, which really helped. Especially the ones about Christ. ("O Holy Night" is my absolute favorite, in case you were wondering.) We also budgeted for a few Christmas decorations- and that really helped too. That hubs of mine is always trying to find ways to make life better for me. Oh, that man. I love him. He's cute too. Just saying.

We also set aside a whole day to go out do fun Christmasy things. It was a couple Saturdays ago and the plan was to go see some reindeer (at Thanksgiving Point), go to the new mall in Salt Lake to see Santa, eat there, go to temple square, and then drive through the "festival of lights" in Spanish Fork.

Soooo the day came and it was basically a blizzard outside. We made it to the reindeer but decided that the drive to Salt Lake was a little too risky.

(the snow doesn't look bad at all in these pictures but it was getting foggy and was supposed to snow a lot more...)

It all worked out though- we went to a mall closer by, ate at an awesome local burger joint, and went to the festival of lights. It was great to get out and do some festive things and be able to experience Morgan's excitement and teach him about everything he sees. 

We had talked up Santa a lot and have been reading Christmas books but he was just not ready to meet the man... 

Poor kid. 

Feeling of festiveness hit full force in the following couple of weeks and I was able to get everything done I wanted AND sit back and enjoy the season. Success!

boogers.

And lots of them lately.

I'm so sick of the sicknesses up in here! Yuck. The worst is the coughing. Josh and I are both hacking up our lungs lately. Morgan has had cold symptoms for a couple weeks now, and he had a couple days last week of a high fever. I took him in and found out he had an ear infection. He is doing SO much better after a few days of antibiotics. Now he is a happy wild little boy instead of a grumpy wild little boy and that makes things so much more fun.

The day after I took Morgan to the doctor I got to thinking Pearl's symptoms seemed a lot like Morgans so I got worried she had an ear infection and took her in the next day. They probably think I'm a hypochondriac. For my kids. Luckily they're really nice there and I really like the doctor. Turns out Pearl has croup, which she has actually had before. We basically just have to run a humidifier and work on getting all those boogies out of her cute little nose.

Both kiddies are doing a lot better now, which makes me happy. I was the last one to get the cold though and mines at its worst right now. I've got the sore throat thing going on and totally sound like a man right now.

I don't think I've blogged yet about how crazy Morgan has been about sleeping this past month. Luckily he is doing SO much better now- but he was sure being ridiculous about naps and bedtime before. Naps were always worse. It was taking him about two hours everyday to fall asleeep... oy. He would just mess with eeeeverything in his room then fall asleep in a corner. Or in a dresser drawer. Or his the bottom of his shelf where his laundry basket should be. After employing many, many methods to end the madness I found it best not to go in there at all. I just resisted the urge, no matter how crazy things sounded in there and waited for him to fall asleep wherever. I then went in and moved my cute sleeping boy to his bed. He's doing way, way, better now! Hallelujah.

mallows, mirrors, and more.

I've been trying to take more video. They are so much fun to look back on- I took some of Morgan as a little baby, but I wish I had take more. So I've been doing pretty good with miss Pearly. I have various ones of her just laying there and I love them.

Here's some recent ones.

I came in the kitchen to find this scene. I thought it was hilarious how Morgan was stuffing his face with the marshmallows. It's hard to be stern with this guy sometimes... he's so friggin cute.

Here's the lady enjoying seeing herself.

And here's Morgan the night we put up the tree. I wish I would have recorded when he first saw it with the light off. He was so amazed;- "Lights! Yellow lights!" It was so cute.