Christmas in Texas 2012

 I always love seeing the 4 story-tall tree in the Galleria shopping center each year. It is stunning!

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Another thing we did to get into the Christmas spirit was make gingerbread man cookies and a gingerbread house. Zach is my sweet little cooking helper in the kitchen! 

The night before trip to Utah, the children were delighted to open a few generous gifts from Corey's internship preceptor. They were so excited, and we could've called it good for toys right then and there!

We had our own little family Christmas the day we left. Corey and I stayed up the night before assembling doll furniture, Zach's new bike, and a cardboard spaceship.

 Superdad!!

 The morning of our Christmas, we watched the church Luke 2 video that shows Mary, Joseph, and Jesus on that sacred night. We also used my porcelain nativity pieces to enact the scene. Then we headed into the living room...

 Zoey loved her doll furniture and immediately picked the baby up, put her in the bed, and said, "Nap."

 I love how Zach is all excited about this Disney book while his new bike is in the background!! He could probably use a little more outdoor, athletic time than he gets.... I prefer reading inside with him.

It was a memorable, sweet day for our family--the first of three Christmases we celebrated this year. Our kids are getting to the really fun ages of loving the lights (which Zoey excitedly called "colorlights"), the gifts, the stories, and all the things that make Christmas special.

December 2012

December was an eventful month for us. Zach spent his birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa on this rocket ship and was not disappointed. He has been saying he wants to be an astronaut when he grows up for some time now, so I thought it would be perfect. The look on his face says it all!

 Zoey randomly grabbed the cooking mitts and was ready to help out in the kitchen!

 We took the kids to Bass Pro Shops to have their picture with Santa. They were both really good with Santa.

 She wanted a Red Rider Beebee gun!

 Zach spent forever racing some remote control cars there.

 Bass Pro even had a free reindeer carousel for the kids. The place is great!

 We got our yearly family pictures. It is really important to me to have a yearly family photo, probably because we have only a couple of photos of my entire family when I was a child. It took forever for the photographer to take the shots, and she only got a few with everyone looking decent. This was the only one I liked of the kids, and it's a little weird, but they kind of look like angels.

 This one turned out great. I adore my dashing husband!! (The print on my dress--not so much! It looked better on the hanger! I am already to the point of asking, "What was I thinking??!!!")

 Again, no fabulous photos of the entire family, but at least we are all looking!!

 Corey spoiled me for my birthday and bought me these beautiful flowers, two boxes of chocolates, a giant chocolate cupcake, and he even made me a precious book!

 This is the first page of the photo book he made for me. It melted my heart that he gave such a heartfelt gift--and it was even delivered before my birthday!!

 "You are more than just a beautiful woman, 

and so much more than just my wife,

You're the mother of these two sweet angels

and they will love you throughout their life."

 We went to the ice sculpture exhibit at the Gaylord Texan Resort. Besides Zach's mega-meltdown over wearing his mittens on the way there, it was a great night. We ate at the Italian restaurant there also, which was delicious. About halfway through, we realized we needed a date on our own. We adore our babies, of course, but it is difficult to enjoy adult company amidst screams for sippy cups and temper tantrums. :) Our kids had been sick on and off (we all went through a bout of the stomach flu for a day the previous week- ugh!!), so once they were all well, a gracious friend watched them while we went to the new Twilight movie.

 Even though we were already wearing our winter clothes, they gave us these huge coats to wear, and we were still super cold in the 9 degree weather! 

 It was a fun and memorable birthday celebration!

Everything was carved out of colored ice. It was astounding! (And quite overpriced, but now checked off our Texas bucket list. ;))

 I rarely take pictures of my sleeping babies, because they are both light sleepers, and I am afraid of waking them. This one was taken at the end of a long nap, and she just looks like a precious angel here. Zoey brings so much peace and sweetness to our home. I thank God every day for sending me both a beautiful boy and beautiful girl to mother. 

 They are my everything.

Funk in There?

So I am not 100% sure about the origins of the term, but I think it dates back to Corey's mission. He had a foreign companion that said one day, in reference to someone's foot odor, ""He has the funk!" From that, Corey started calling the kids' toejam "foot funk," and from that, we have Miss Ladylike Zoey, who is currently obsessed with taking off her shoes and socks in search of any "foot funk" that may be hiding between her little toes! "Funk in there?" is what she repeatedly asks whenever her attention falls to her dainty feet. It cracks me up!

Zachary Turns 4

 It's been four years since we brought this sweet boy home from the hospital. It's been a wild ride so far!

 I came out of my room the other day to find find Zachary had discovered the blue food coloring. Since I left it out, I couldn''t get too mad. It did take about an hour of scrubbing both him and the couch to get the blue out. 

 He has been enamored with Finn McMissile from Cars 2 for over a year now. He asked for a car last year, but I thought it was just because he had recently seen the movie. He has persisted to ask me for a Finn McMissile toy every time we go to the store for the past year, so I finally complied with his request. We themed the cake and party around Cars 2. I made the cake after attending a Relief Society class on how to decorate cakes. Let's just say 2 hours later, with a huge mess of a kitchen and a transfer that looked more like a car wreck than an actual car, I will likely be buying my future cakes! I was grateful for the dim lighting at the party!

 Zoey reached over and stuck a fork right in the cake before Zach could even blow out the candle!

 What a great shot my friend, Jen, took!

 He was ecstatic about the gifts from his preschool and Primary friends.

 The party was held in the "Life Center" of one of the big churches out here. It is pretty common for churches here to have a big play place like this. I think many of them do not have children in the worship services, so they do this for a nursery. Also, many of them have preschools. It is really a nice service to the community.

 They have an XBOX Kinect, which Zach adores, and which I will keep from my house as long as I possibly can. They really are a lot of fun, but I have enough trouble getting him to turn off a lame cartoon. He kicks and screams whenever we leave the XBOX at the church, and I seriously don't need that addiction of his in my life. 

 I got some mustaches for the Finn McMissile theme, but the kids really couldn't stand to wear them for more than 5 seconds, so I tossed that idea.

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 These are two of our best friends that Zach and Zoey play with frequently. Cruise and Laynie's mom watches my kids while I work. They are exactly the same ages and play together so sweet. 

And the sun went down on another of Zach's birthdays. I am sure they will seem to fly by now. It is already breaking my heart that he is growing up, and not quite so snuggly sweet and babyish anymore. :( He is still at the sweet and spicy stage. Daylight savings has really taken a toll on my poor boy, who is still occasionally waking up 20-40 minutes earlier than he used to. I attribute his recent barrage of crazy outbursts and fits, pounding the bedroom door while in time out, etc. to lack of sleep from DST 2 weeks ago. We may move to Hawaii or Arizona just to fee ourselves of the DST shackle!! 

At the same time, he can be very tender. The other day, he found out his friend was sick, and he immediately said, "Let's say a prayer for him, so Heavenly Father will make him better," after which he knelt down and reverently prayed for his friend. It was sweet, because we have struggled to get him to be reverent during prayer, and to volunteer to pray.

He and Zoey play more and more together. I love to hear the two of them laughing together and chasing one another around. They are both pretty partial to their dad. I guess they just get bored being home with me all day. I always wonder exactly why they seem to run to him over me. I think he must secretly be sneaking them M&Ms behind my back, while I'm the mean one making them brush their teeth! Really, I wonder what those moms do that say their children are Mama's boys or girls, because Daddy holds they keys to these kids' hearts, as much as I try to woo them!!

 Honestly, I feel so blessed to be the mother of this sweet, special boy. I hope to spend many, many more birthdays with this little angel of mine.

Randoms

 Zoey likes to play in Corey's school books. Just catching up on a little Physiotherapy!

 My beautiful babies!!

 Cookie teeth. :) CHEESE!!!

 I love that Corey gets down on the floor and plays with them. I need to be better about that. 

 She likes to climb into things, like this toy box in our living room. And she adores my phone. She knows how to do a lot on it. She has sent texts, plays music, turns on Angry Birds, and messes up all my app icons on a regular basis. :)

Zach's underwear are pretty exciting to her!

 So. Zoey is allergic to mosquito bites. This is one bite on her forehead, and she swelled up like a Star Trek Klingon!! 

See the resemblance? Poor baby!!

 It was really bad for a day or two, but finally went back down to normal. She had several bites on her legs over the summer, with similar results. It was a big worry because of the West Nile Virus scare we have had here in Dallas. Once, she also got a bad fever for a few days. The two may or may not have been related, but she recovered, thankfully. I really have tried to keep us all covered with repellent.

 My beautiful girl! 

 Nana got her this vest last year, and I am in love with it! Especially paired with her boots!

 Zach still loves the swings.

 And climbing into the tiny toy box with his sister. They have pretty much annihilated it!

 Sweet little angels!

 She finally started feeding herself cereal. She usually finishes 1/4-1/3 of the bowl, then dumps it on her tray. : / At least she's trying! She's only gained a pound or two in the past 6 months, despite my trying to force feed her.

I adore this precious boy with the perfect curl on his forehead. He hasn't taken a nap in months, but today I convinced him to snuggle with me on my bed. He jumped around for 10 minutes first, but once I got him to hold still, he was out within a couple of minutes and slept 1.5 hours. Daylight savings has been a nightmare for him. He goes to bed an hour later, but has still been arising an hour early every day this week. He totally needed this nap! 

We had one day this week that everything just seemed to go perfectly. I was blessed with patience, and the children were blessed to be sweet and obedient. I hope I will always remember the fleece-covered snuggles and smiles and tickles and laughs we shared as I put them to bed. It was a simple but sweet day and I hope to cherish it when the going gets tougher, as it often does!

I am so grateful to be able to mother these darling angels. Nothing in my life even comes close to the sacred blessing of being a wife and mother. There is such trust placed in me, and though I feel that I often fall short, and would like to have more patience and understanding, I wouldn't want to do anything else with my time.