December 26th

We celebrated Christmas on the 26th with my parents, Aunt Amanda, Uncle Nate and Jade. We packed a lot into our day!

The boys started out the morning making some yummy no bake cookies with Grammy

Daddy and Rowan snuck in a quick chess game. I love the pretty tree in the background.

The boys got their first real taste of being out in the snow when they went out to help Grampy shovel for a bit. Rowan and Grampy also made a mini snowman.

When the boys came back inside they got to open their gifts.

Cora loves opening presents! My moms spray painted my sister and my doll cradles from when we were little to give to Cora and Jade this year. They are extra special because they were made by our great uncle.

Soccer guys, Super Mario Bros, a basketball hoop and a Children's Museum membership were some favorite gifts.

The girls loved their new vacuums too.

Jade with one of the gifts we got her.

My doll baby!

After gifts everyone bundled up again for a little sledding. Cora wore my old snowsuit! So cute.

Cora: 15 Months

We'll get back to our Christmas adventures tomorrow but I wanted to do Cora's 15 month post before I forget. 

Sweet Cora is definitely a full blown toddler.

She is full of energy. Cora loves to climb, run and play. She is super outgoing and friendly. Cora can keep up with her brothers and loves to play anything they're playing. She also loves bracelets, purses and her baby dolls.

Cora is adding new words to her vocabulary. She calls us "mommy" and "daddy" now. She also says "Grampy" which seems to be a blanket word for any of her grandparents. Cora puts a few little phrases together like "all done, night night" or "hi, daddy."

Though she's fiery, Cora is the first one to offer a hug to a friend who is upset. If one of her brothers is crying, Cora is there with a hug and a kiss. If I'm stressed or upset, she's right there to sit in my lap and snuggle. I also saw her offer hugs to Jade and Colton while we were visiting Illinois. I love her sensitive side too.

Cora still has 12 teeth in her mouth but now, two of them are chipped. Thanks to a bathtub accident, Cora is now sporting two chipped front teeth. Thankfully there doesn't seem to be any real damage to the teeth.

Coco loves macaroni and cheese, applesauce squeezies, pizza, chicken, milk, eggs, yogurt and anything sweet.

Cora is NOT a good flyer at 15 months. Our flights this Christmas were two of the worst that we've ever been on with one of our kids. We love you dearly, sweet Coco but at this point, a flight attendant career is not in your future. ;)

Sweet, mischievous, loving and stubborn sum you up this month baby girl! We love you to pieces.

Christmas Cont.

We spent the day on 12/23 with Grandpa, Deona, Uncle Randy, Nicole, Nate & Carissa. We even got to spend the night at Grandpa's, which was very exciting for the kids! Before we went to Grandpa's house we stopped at Steak N Shake, Roger's favorite. 

Where's Cora?

My blueish eyed boys

The best part of Steak N Shake.. the shakes!

The boys chose Oreo.

At Grandpa and Deona's house there were lots of fun gifts! The boys loved their crayon white boards, tickets to Out of Africa and the pile of giftcards for dinners out but the most fun at Grandpa's house is the silly stuff that's always in our stockings. Grandpa and Deona fill our stockings with fun dollar store stuff that the kids have a blast playing with. This year the whoopie cushion and the sticky men were the biggest hits.

The boys liked throwing the sticky men up on the ceiling

and then poor Uncle Randy or Nicole would hoist them up to get it down.

Coco couldn't quite figure out what was going on. She stared up at the ceiling even when there wasn't anything there.

Nicole helped Coco stick her man to the glass door instead.

We woke up the next morning, had breakfast and packed up to head back to Grandma's house.

Big smiles from Cora. She loves this purple princess bear from Grandpa & Deona.

After we loaded up we realized that we didn't get a group photo. We unbuckled and ran back in for one. Rowan wasn't too happy about it, can you tell? :)

Thank you Grandpa and Deona for having us over! We loved spending extra time with you guys. 

We're Back!!!

We're back from our cold and snowy Illinois adventure. We had a fun time being with family and celebrating the birth of Jesus five separate times!! Cora didn't do well on the plane and Roger and I are both exhausted from all the packing up and moving to different places that we did within our week. We saw everyone though and had a fabulous time. 

We flew in on the evening of 12/21 and then headed from my parents house to Roger's hometown the next day.


Here are some pictures from our time with Grandma, Uncle Randy & his girlfriend Nicole. We saw her a little bit on the evening of the 22nd and then celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve.

The boys love sleeping and playing in the special room that Grandma made for them. They took turns sleeping in this bed with the slide and the top bunk of the bunk beds.

Playing with toys

Sweet brothers and best friends.

The boys had fun playing Kerplunk for the first time.

Sweet Cruzy in front of Grandma's pretty tree.

My favorites!!! I can't believe how tall Rowan is!

Both sweet boys are trying to hold their sissy in place.

Present time at Grandma's included nerf guns, spirograph, jewelry, a 3D puzzles and a year long membership to Butterfly Wonderland here in Phoenix! The boys can't wait to make our first visit.

We roasted hot dogs in Grandma's new fireplace.

We had our traditional birthday party for Jesus complete with a cake. We also celebrated Nicole's birthday, which is on Christmas day.

Rowan and Grandma snuck in some time doing Spirograph before bedtime.

Thanks for having us, Grandma. We had so much fun.

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas journey to the frozen tundra begins tomorrow! Excited to celebrate God's gift to us with our family and friends. Merry Christmas!!!

Cora Grace

Matching pj's with her bunny... she insisted on something in her hair and even picked it out her self. I just love her silly smile!

Christmas Morning

"Christmas Morning" was perfect. A few presents, lots of Jesus and loads of family time. I was a little bit nervous that the boys (Rowan especially) would be disappointed with only two gifts but they proved me wrong! Since I was only buying them two things I was super deliberate about my purchases, buying only things I new they would LOVE. Of course, the little car, water bottle and books in their stocking were big hits too. 

The bath towels weren't technically a Christmas gift but I threw them under the tree anyway.

Lego Helicopter

Bubble Guppies Leap Pad game

Sis got a vanity table and toy hairdryer/hair accessories

Daddy's girl

Big boy scooter

Mario Kart was a hit!!! 

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, a fun pizza lunch, played with all the new toys and Roger and I even snuck out for a date in the evening. It was a perfect time celebrating the birth of Jesus as a family.

Twas the Night Before Christmas.....

Our Christmas traditions may not be typical but they are special and unique for our family. The kids love the magic of "Christmas morning" even though it doesn't actually happen on the 25th. We have the same Christmas jammies, present opening, special breakfast, family time celebrating the birth of Jesus and playing with new gifts. We are excited to celebrate tomorrow and then look forward to five family Christmas celebrations in Illinois! :)

Coco: 14.5 months

Cora loves to color. I don't remember her brothers sitting for so long with paper and crayons at 14 months. This video isn't anything super exciting but this is just very Cora. This is how she spends many moments in her days and I love it and want to remember it.

She's getting so big.

This is me and Cora both at 14/15 months old. See the resemblance? :)

Quick Coco Pic

We love our girl time on Wednesdays while both boys are at school! 

Here Comes Santa Claus!!

I kind of love the kids' photo with Santa this year. Everyone is happy and smiling! Cruz is slowly getting over his fear of costumed people. I noticed this when he saw Chucky at Chuck E Cheese a couple of weeks ago and then again at Disneyland. Cruz by no means wanted to go up to the characters but he didn't cry, which is improvement. Santa was no big deal as long as he could sit next to him. :)

This Christmas season is flying by too quickly! Cruz, Cora and I have the tree on, candles burning and Christmas music playing today. Its chilly outside so I'm happy to be inside playing with the littles and getting Christmas tasks accomplished!

Disneyland!

Our mini vacation was wonderful!

We were blessed with short lines... I think the longest we waited for anything was about 20 minutes and that was only a few times. We only split up one time when Roger and Rowan went to ride Space Mountain for Rowan's first time. I took the C's to ride Small World again and also to go on the Carousel

We ate fun food (Rainforest Cafe and Cheesecake factory), swam in the heated pool (in the 40 degree weather), bundled up, laughed, fought a little bit (of course) and had a super fabulous time. Disneyland was definitely worth visiting at Christmas time! We made memories that no one will forget... and if they do, we have fifty some pictures to look back on. :) 

Favorites:

Rowan: Space Mountain, Small World, Toon Town and swimming in the hotel pool

Cruz: Toon Roller Coaster, Toon Town, Small World and swimming.

Cora: The slide at Goofy's Playhouse and the Carousel

The videos are kind of distorted because I forgot to turn them from portrait to landscape. :)

Grammy & Grampy

I never posted a picture from Mom & Dad's visit a couple of weeks ago! Time is just flying. So thankful for these two. Dad (and Rog) watched the kids all day on Saturday so Mom and I could shop, go out to eat, and just hang out. So grateful for that special time with my mom. Of course, the kids were thrilled about having some Grammy & Grampy time too.

As a part of our "fewer things, more family memories" Christmas mantra this year, we are headed to Disneyland! Rog and I have always wanted to visit Disneyland all decked out for Christmas. The magic of Disney plus the magic of Christmas?? Sounds amazing! :) 

We are leaving this afternoon with three of our favorite people.

This was a super fun surprise to pull off! Sorry this is sideways! :)

Christmas Program

The boys had their Christmas play at church tonight. Rowan was a puppy dog and Joseph. He was so excited and honored to be able to have that special part. Cruz was the most adorable little mouse. Cora was a beautiful little terror. She wore a pretty, sparkly dress and ran around like she owned the place. Unfortunately, Roger spent the majority of the program out in the lobby with her. We joked that we should have gotten a baby-sitter but unfortunately, all of our baby-sitters are from church and were helping with the program. :)

CHEESE!

Rowan the Dog and Cruz the Mouse. Aren't they the cutest things you've ever seen? I just love how Cruzy is reaching up to put his arm around Rowan. 

I love how all the kids, Cruz included, are watching Rowan & Lucy. Rowan was kind of disappointed that he didn't get to carry baby Jesus.

As a little side note, I've seen a change in Cruz since he got his glasses. This may coincide with the fact that he's extra well rested since we've been off of activities all week but he just seems happier, more easy going and tiny bit more independent. 

I'm disappointed that my camera ran out of recording space and I only got this short clip of Joseph and Mary walking in. I'm hoping Lucy's (Mary) mom got a better video.

Here are the boys in their parts as barn animals. They end up near the front of the pack. Just in case you're curious, the girl narrating is their beloved baby-sitter Taylor. :)

Tomorrow is back to school, sports and the long list of things to do before Christmas! Have a great week!

O' Christmas Tree

The first gift of the season- ornaments for the tree.

Cora now says "cheese!"

This was after sweet Coco had sharply been told that she is not to touch the tree. She's been surprisingly obedient since. 

Rowan: "Book Ornament" because he learned to read this year.

Cruz: "Soccer" for his first year playing a sport.

Cora: "Stocking" Grammy made this from one of Cora's outfits from this year.

Each year we've been married, Roger's mom has gotten us pieces for this Nativity. The first year we got the stable, Mary, Joseph and Jesus and then she's gotten us a few more pieces each year. The boys had fun helping me set it up this year.