December recap

December came and went, and seriously...where did it go? Besides it already being the busiest month of the year, we had family in town to see, a party to plan, and Christmas to be had. We survived and are finally going to tell about it. And in no particular order.

The leaves all finally fell off the neighbors tree. Hey, who needs a rake when you can use the blower?!

My brother Shan's family was in the live nativity out at Tuacahn so the boys and I braved the freezing cold and went to watch. I love doing that every year, it's one of the things that helps us remember the important part of Christmas.

Ok, so I didn't get any pictures of them in the show with my camera, but the boys thought this part was super cool.

Noah was a wise man in our ward Christmas party Nativity. For about 10 seconds Cutler was a sheep.

We celebrated my Grandma Carter's 80th birthday for our family Christmas party. It's always so much fun to see all of our family.

Lexie figured out she could crawl under the tree to the back corner where nobody could get to her. It was one of her favorite places to go.

Another attempt at kids' pictures. We actually did get a pretty cute one. Just imagine...10 kids...7 years old and younger...10:00 in the morning...40 degrees...outside. It took coming back in the afternoon to finally get something.

And we had a baby shower for Melanie. Here are all the little girls together. Hallie 15 months, Reese 13 months, Lexie 11 months.

one year old

Our little sweetheart is ONE year old. Man, time flies. Prepare yourself for a picture overload...I just thought she was so cute.

First, we took her pictures in Sherie's dress. She wore it, her girls all wore it, and now the granddaughters have all worn it when they turned one. Lexie is very lucky gramma Sherie shared this with her.

Second...the birthday party!!

We transformed the house into a Winter One-derland. It was oh so cute, and wintery.

We got her this chair and she just climbed right up into it and thought it was the greatest thing ever. She still loves it so that's a good thing!

Opening presents

The Cake. Thank you gramma Sherie and aunt Stefanie.

This is about as much as she 'dove' into it.

the yummy cupcakes. Thanks again to aunt Stef.

Stats:

Weight: 17 lbs. 1 oz.  2%

Height: 29 inches  43%

*She is getting 2 more teeth right now. The next top ones.

*Loving the bink more and more.

*Not sleeping so well right now, but I'm convinced it's the teeth.

*Started throwing up in the night on Christmas Eve. Continued one or two times a day for the next 2 days.

*Will only walk if she's holding your fingers with both hands.

*Has to be rocked to sleep.

*Says mama, dada, and be (for bear)

*She absolutely loves a soft bear, dog, or baby. And has to have one to love as soon as she gets out of bed.

*Still very serious.

*And starting to throw tantrums if she gets mad enough.

*She's a total momma's girl. But loves her dad so much she gets shy when he comes around her.

*Loves to play with a phone.
*She's the cuddliest little girl ever...and we all love to take advantage of it.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Sunday

Video from Santa

My friend Jessica had this on her blog, so I went to it and it was so awesome!! Go here to make a video for your child from Santa. It's so cute. I haven't shown my kids yet(they're already in bed) but I'm sure they will totally love it.

Underwear and no shoes!

Typical Santa picture. I love it!

Sorry, but ya get the stories too. #1 - For weeks now the kids have been telling us what they want for Christmas, and it's always the same things. Well for some reason we finally get to tell Santa what's on 'the list' and Cutler goes from a rhino clown car(4-wheeler rhino. the clowns drive them in the rodeo...whatever), to a green t-rex and underwear. I have NO idea where the underwear came from...but it's funny. Noah wants a r/c truck & r/c helicopter, and battleship. Lexie wants all things 'girly'. We only have boy toys at our house.

#2 - I decided to take the kids to get their picture during the day right after Noah got home from school, thinking the line wouldn't be very long. Lexie wouldn't keep one of her shoes on, she's figured out the velcro and loves to play with it. Anyway, I took the shoe off to make sure I didn't lose it. So we walk all the way through the dang forever long festival and get to Santa. They tell me I have to have a number and the wait is 30-40 minutes. I didn't know how I was going to entertain the kids for that long, so I debated just coming back later. As I'm debating, I realize Lexie has lost her other shoe. Holy crap!(as Cutler would say - which I'm pretty sure he did) So Janet takes Cutler and walks all the way back through to try and find it. While they're gone, the photographer tells me I can get my pictures because nobody else was waiting. Wull...Now I don't have all my kids!! Twice, they tell me. Finally, they come back, no shoe. Sad. So Lexie got her picture with no shoes . On our way back out, I just had to keep looking for it. That was the first time she had even worn them. I kept looking under the tables, and behind into the booths thinking someone had kicked it, not knowing. It finally hit me to look up on things, and as we came around a corner, it was sitting on a table. HALLELUJAH! 

This happened at the Jubilee of Trees, too. We looked and looked and finally found it on an easel. Someone had put it up there for us to find, thankfully!