Journaling Rebirth

There has been a huge change in how I document our lives since the invention of the iphone.  The iphone was invented a few years ago but I just got one for Christmas.  I thought I would never replace my camera with my camera phone but it has slowly taken over and with that, our journal/blog as suffered.  I have a new resolution to keep my camera handy and do more journaling.  I am obsessed with my sweet, sweet babies!  They make me laugh till I cry, they melt my heart, they brighten my day and their laughter soothes my soul.  They are at the perfect ages right at this moment.  I told them tonight as they were getting ready for bed that I wanted to put them in a jar to preserve them at this stage forever!

James is talking so much and there is nothing cuter in the world!  In addition to Mama and Dada he says Ali, please, thank you, yes, no and a lot of other things that are a little hard to make right now.  This guy HAS TO dance!  He has the cutest dance moves and loves to sing.  He knows the actions to all the songs we sing and does them every time.  He loves to be wherever Ali is but also loves to be on his own and explore and discover.

Ali is a sweetheart and we are amazed every day at how smart she is.  She can say any word and will pick up on words we use and then use them in her own sentences with the correct meaning.  She loves to randomly throw out phrases out like, "7 o'clock" and "16 dollars".  It makes me giggle.  She loves to have tea parties and picnics.  

The kids do things all day that I just adore and I am going to do better about documenting them.

One thing that we are trying to focus more on in our house is music.  Music is so important and we are enjoying exposing our kids to new instruments and look forward to lessons in the near future.

 My parents helped us get a piano.  It has been such a dream of mine to get a piano and I can't believe we actually have a piano at our house.  Thank you Dad and Mom!

 It brings joy to everyone!

We potty trained for 1 afternoon.... and then I decided to try again this summer.

 We have the dandelions under control now, but they made for some really fun afternoons when they were around.

 The kids LOVE to do art.  James is in the paint yourself stage.

 These photos are from Mother's Day.  Everyone was sick so it was a very different weekend than I had envisioned.  I had so many things planned for ME for Mother's Day- outings that I could do alone to "reward" myself for being a mom.  Ali got sick Friday, James got sick Saturday and I ended up spending the weekend at home, snuggling my precious sweeties all weekend.  It turned out way better than the weekend I had planned.  I felt bad that they were sick, but the whole time I was holding them I thought, "This is what being a mom is all about and I LOVE everything about it."  I'm so grateful I got to spend the weekend doing what is truly important and it has changed my ideas about Mother's Day for the future.

 I love these little people with my whole being and I am eternally grateful that we get to be their parents.  They are special gifts from heaven and we tell them that every day.

(Poor James was so, so sick on Sunday but he was a champ and made it through a little of church and then went home and crashed for the rest of the day.  Hence the shorts and flip flops.  Sweet boy had such a bad fever.)

Easter 2013

 We began our Easter festivities with a neighborhood egg hunt.  The large city park by our house was the perfect place for the event!  They had an area roped off for children 3 and under.
Here's Ali and James, scoping out the scene.

 It has been the most beautiful weekend and we were so grateful for the awesome weather.

 Ali's game face!

Action shot!  Check out that form!

 Holding up her basket to show us her eggs.

What's in my basket?

More importantly, what's in your basket?

 That evening we retreated to our favorite location- the mountains, our natural habitat.

We feasted on Gogurts and hot dogs.  

 Daddy at the "grill".

 James' sweet smile!

 Loving life on God's beautiful creation!

 "Look, it's an elephant!"  I love her creative mind!

 We climbed every rock we saw!

 Part detective, part geologist.

 A discovery... It was an ant!

 The photo below was taken by Ali.  Very artsy! 

 Easter morning we had a delicious, quick breakfast before church.  There's not much food on the plates.  I think it was coming out of the oven right then.

 The kids got dressed in their Easter attire and then looked for their Easter basket which the Easter bunny hid in the pantry.

 I love these little bunnies!

 They loved these big balloons!

 They both looked so adorable!  They are the sweetest little people I have ever known!

You always have to have a crying picture, right?

 We had a very happy Easter and the best part was when we asked Ali what we were celebrating and she said, "Jesus!"  That's a proud mommy moment right there!  We did celebrate Jesus.  For weeks leading up to Easter we looked at pictures of Jesus, we read stories and color pictures about the true meaning of Easter.  They had fun hunting for eggs and looking through their baskets and loved hearing the Easter story over and over.  Both of the talks in church today were very powerful and I felt the spirit so strongly as they spoke of the sacrifice that the Savior made in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross.  I know that Jesus Christ suffered for all of our sins and that we have the opportunity to be made clean.  I also know that after three days, he was raised from the dead and made it possible for each of us to be resurrected.  Or as Ali says, "Everybody has a body!  Mommy has a body, Daddy has a body, Ali has a body, Jamesy has a body!"  My favorite part of the Easter story is when Mary comes to the tomb and the angel says, "He is not here: for he is risen." Matthew 26:6  I can hardly say that scripture without choking up.  I'm grateful for this season when we can focus on the miracle of the resurrection and atonement.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I'm sure there are some people who still have their Christmas trees up so it's probably not too late to blog about our Christmas festivities.  It was so magical and wonderful!  I loved everything about celebrating Christmas as a family!  We did it all and had so much fun being together!

Growing up, we always did gingerbread houses.  And I'm not talking the gingerbread houses made out of graham crackers.  My mom made the dough, cut the shapes out of paper templates, baked the parts of the house, made the icing and then we all decorated one big beautiful gingerbread house.  This year she and my dad made the parts of the gingerbread houses and mailed them to us so we could make our own.  Ali loved decorating her house!!

Mom also sent us Mikulas cookies.

You're really supposed to wait till the new year to eat them (for good luck), but we couldn't help ourselves.  We're hoping to have good luck anyway.

Here are Ali's pieces all decorated and ready to assemble.

 We went on plenty of walks when the sun was out.

We played in the snow and tried to walk in our chunky snow boots.

I love Ali's face in these next pictures!  She is such a light in our lives.

 Jimmy had a fun idea that we should have Czech food on Christmas Eve.  I was so excited since a) I LOVE Czech food and b) I want my kids to know about their Czech heritage.  I decided to make the Czech national dish (and my favorite) Vepro-Knedlo-Zelo.  I was actually pretty nervous about it and searched for weeks before to find the perfect recipes.

The dinner turned out great.  I'm sure if I compared it to the real thing it might not taste exactly authentic, but for those of us who haven't been there for a few years, it tasted pretty good.

 After dinner, Jimmy read the nativity story and the kids colored a picture of the manger scene.

Then they decorated cookies for Santa.

Who is this Santa guy anyway and why are we saving him the cookies?  James didn't see any reason in that and decided to eat one.  I love his little expression in this picture!

Ali was totally into it and helped pour Santa some milk too.

The kids got in their new jammies and went to bed... with vision of sugarplums dancing in their heads, no doubt.

Christmas morning came and we were all so excited!

The kids opened their presents with squeals each time they saw what was inside.

They play together so well and loved their new kitchen.

James even got a turn with the new stroller.

After naps we had our traditional Christmas dinner of Turkey and mashed potatoes.

Jimmy cut the turkey (which we tried cooking in the crock pot and it totally worked and was delicious!!) and we had a wonderful dinner.

I could not have asked for a more perfect Christmas!  I loved hearing Ali talking about Jesus and Mary and Joseph and teaching my children about the true meaning of Christmas.  I hope to focus on it even more next year.  I will remember each moment that we spent together and all the happy times.  We are eternally grateful for the birth of our Savior and the irreplaceable role he plays in our lives.  I'm already so excited for Christmas 2013.  Only 11 more months!!