'Tis the Season

I've had a lot of thoughts this Christmas season. While it can be a bit stressful, I have to say that I'm really enjoying myself. Last Christmas was hard, because it was our first Christmas without Emily. The year before that was awful-it was when Emily was in the hospital right before Christmas. The actual Christmas was wonderful; we were so glad we were able to go home. But leading up to it was beyond stressful. So I'm enjoying the non-stress, relativily speaking, of the season.
It's kind of crazy-this is our 7th Christmas of having children, but the first Christmas of having one who really understands and participates in what's going on. And I love it! I loved it with Emily. We would sing songs, I would read her a Christmas book every night, etc. Our favorite was listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir together. The Christmas First Presidency Devotional just makes me miss Emily so much.
But Lily has a different level of interaction. It's just so fun to try to teach her about Santa Claus, and baby Jesus, and Jingle Bells, and the Christmas stories. Each night she wants me to sing to her "Baby Jesus." (Away in a Manger) I've tried telling her the Christmas story, so now she wants to hear about Baby Jesus on a trip! So I'll tell her Mary and Joseph had to go on a trip far away and there were no houses for them to stay in. Sometimes she'll add "To the beach!" (Since we went on a trip to the beach) and I have to tell her "No, not to the beach!"
We've had fun painting some presents, and she loves seeing Christmas trees. She loves the book Christmas Orange, about the little girl in the orphanage who doesn't get an orange for Christmas, so the other kids share. It's just really fun that she understands so much of it. Lance rolls all over the place. He's trying to eat the tree.

Lance is a pretty big fella. When I carry him in the baby bjornn in the grocery store I get comments that he's about as big as me. After seeing this picture I can see what they're talking about!

Lance loves his bouncer, and Lily tries to sit on it. They're pretty funny. She loves to make him laugh. And when he wakes up she'll say, "Hi buddy; Hi happy. " Or "Hi handsome." It's so fun to hear her say it like we do.

Last Friday we took the kids up to the temple to see it at night. It was only Lily's 2nd time to the temple, and she loved it. She especially loved putting her hands in the top of this fountain! She tends to think lots of buildings and castles are temples, so I try to tell her that it needs an Angel Moroni on it to be a temple. I know that there are a few that don't have Angel Moroni's, but I figure we can learn that later!

On Saturday we ran in the 4th annual City Manager's 5K run. Robby pushes the kids every year in the stroller while I run it, and this year I won! I was pretty excited-it's only the 2nd race I've ever won-I never did in high school. My time was 21:09, around a 6:48 mile pace. I think pushing the kids in the stroller several times a week really helped me be in shape-its so much easier to run not pushing them! Lily was really cute; the rest of the weekend she kept saying "Mommy won a race-Yeah!" and then would clap. They had waited for me at a part on the race and cheered me on. Afterwards we went to the zoo, and on the choo-choo train, which Lily was even MORE excited about.

For Christmas we bought Lily a swingset, which Robby put together over the weekend. Lily loves it-this was after church on Sunday. The dress was one of Emily's though it hardly fit around Emily's little pot belly!

Isn't he handsome? I'm so baised.

We're at the Beach-The Ocean! I want to Watch the Game!

That's what Lily kept saying this weekend-"I'm at the beach-the ocean. We're on our trip. I want to watch the game." We went to a BYU basketball tournament down at South Padre Island for Thanksgiving. We really had a great time. We did Thanksgiving Wednesday and then packed up our leftovers Thursday morning and drove 5 hours down to South Padre. Our condo was really nice and was right on the beach-we had beautiful views and you could hear the ocean. Lily had been talking about going on our trip to the beach all week, and was so excited to get there and play on the beach. They both did good in the car and were happy the whole trip. For the most part. And they both slept through the night each night. Much more successful than camping! Lily seeing the ocean for the first time.

It was warm but pretty windy on Thursday when we got there.

Lily loved playing with her dad in the waves.

Lance's reaction to the water. I know-he's so excited! Lily was afraid of it when we went to Hawaii when she was about Lance's age. He just didn't care.

On Friday we went to this little conservation dolphin place that had fish exhibits. Lily LOVED seeing all the fishies!

This cuboard at the condo kept Lily very entertained.

At the BYU basketball game. We were on the 4th row, and were on TV! Lance was on the most-he was short enough sitting on Robby's lap to get in a few shots. The kids did NOT like the cheering. I had to move up with them through quite a bit of it. And then it went into double overtime! It was killing me! But it was a fun game, and we won, so that was the most important thing.

Lance at the beach on Saturday. He's so fun!

Lily and Robby on Saturday. She's wearing my shirt because it was kind of breezy outside.

We went to a restaurant to watch the BYU-Utah football game. Lily is mimicking Robby. I took her down to the beach during half time and most of the 3rd quarter, but they both did really good sitting there for so long.

Lance at his 2nd BYU game. We won by one point-it was a great game. And so fun to see them so close.
This morning before we left. We sure had a good time. And of course the best weather was the day we left.

Bonding with Emily

Lily had quite the bonding day with Emily today. She's wearing Emily's outfit that we took family pictures in when Lily was a baby, and that Emily wore on her first day to Pre-K. Then when her friend came over she wanted to play with Emily's wheelchair, so they took turns giving each other rides. Then tonight she's wearing Emily's princess pajamas and is sleeping in Emily's bed. She's never slept in there before, but wanted to tonight, so we're letting her. We'll see how it goes! It's been 2 years since Emily got sick in November, so kind of tough. It's not as hard as last year, though, so that's good. Just tender memories.

This was the other night. We were trying to get pictures of the 2 of them. Not super successful.

Lance looks like me, to me, in my baby pictures. My kids never look like me!

Last week when we were at the zoo, I think.

Lily has quite the little personality. She can now recongize the letters L and P, that we've done in "school." She can even find them on the keyboard and other places. But then she thinks that every thing else starts with P or L. We're talking about fire this week and when I ask her what fire starts with she says "P!" She is getting better about saying prayers, and when we pray for family she always wants to pray for Aunt Kapy. (Aunt Kathie). It's pretty cute. For naps and bedtime we have to read The Napping House, Choo-Choo (The Little Engine that Could) and scipers (The scriptures). And then sing I Love to See the Temple and I am a Child of God.

Lance slept through the night last night! 9 hours in his crib! He's gone 7 before, which I count as sleeping through the night-he'll wake up around 5:00 and eat and go back to bed. But last night he went from 10:30-7:30! He goes down between 8:00-8:30 every night and then I usually will feed him again before I go to bed. 2 weeks ago I let him cry it out when I put him to bed. He needed to learn to sleep in his own crib-before that he was only sleeping in his carseat. He cried for 2 hours the first night, but the next night went right down, and now takes naps and sleeps at night in his crib just fine. Yeah! And then I also let him cry it out last week when he woke up at 3:00 AM. He was doing it every night, and I wouldn't even feed him, I'd just put him in his swing. So I made him cry it out without putting him in his swing. He cried 50 minutes the first night, 30 the 2nd, but since then has done pretty well. Now watch, tonight he'll be up at 3:00. Oh well! I think that's about it. Hopefully the sleeping continues-I felt like a new woman today!

The Tortoise and the Hare

We had a really good time for Halloween this year. It was the first year we've had a child able to really participate and understand what's going on, and it was really fun. Lily was a bit shy seeing everyone in her costumes, but had a good time. I found this turtle costume at a consignment shop back in August and thought it was too cute to pass up. Since I had this turtle costume for Lance, Robby had the brilliant idea of being the Hare, as in "The Tortoise and the Hare." I laughed and laughed when he told me of his idea. And so he made these ears out of cardboard and painted them white and put them on a headband, and then bought the sweatband and made himself a race bib. Lily and I are Snow White and the wicked queen. That is a raisin superglued onto my nose, in case you are wondering. Don't worry, it comes off with nail polish remover! My mom made Lily's dress for Christmas for dress up.

Here's the queen and Snow White.

Snow White eating her apple!

Notice the tail-a garbage bag with batting in it.

The Tortoise and the Hare.

Robby from the back.

Lily won a cupcake on the cake walk.

Robby passed out the candy and I took Lily around.

Lily was pretty good at saying "trick or treat" and Tank u! (Thank you, while signing it)

At home, all done!

A Night to Remember, and Never Repeat!

So Robby and I decided it would be fun to try taking our kids camping. We've never been camping in Texas, and have only been 3 times since we've been married-twice before kids and once last summer in Washington with Robby's family. We got out our tent, but decided (I decided) that it was too small for the 4 of us. So we borrowed a friend's. But Lily enjoyed playing with the tent in the yard. Robby got home from work yesterday and we finished getting ready to go. Robby and I were both wearing hats, so Lily wanted to wear one, too. We went a state park not too far away.

They have tent pads at each campsite to set up your tent-different from Washington where you just find a spot you like within your campsite. Lily is saying "tent!"

Once the tent was set up Robby got the fire going. We had made tinfoil dinners, but hadn't precooked the meat. Next time we will do that. We did at least pre-cook the vegetables. Amazingly, the meat got done, even my chicken. We had forgot the salt and pepper, so the food didn't really taste like much, but it was filling at least! Lily is eating grahm crackers. Yum! We had neighbors next to us playing their radio, which was slightly annoying, but they turned it off not too late, and that's not nearly as annoying as we turned out to be!

Then of course we roasted marshmellows for smores. Lily enjoyed it, but she had more fun eating the marshmellows and chocolate separately.

She seriously just shoved them in there. We tried to get her to say chubby bunny. No luck!

So this picture was just before the you-know-what hit the fan. We had an airmattress for Robby and I, Lance slept in his carseat (he still sleeps in it at home, so he was fine), and we had a pack n' play for Lily. Which she did NOT want to sleep in. She was right next to us, but kept screaming and crying. Which at home is fine. Camping with a bunch of people all around you, not so fine. But whenever we put her next to us, she thought it was a great game, and would scream and laugh and bug Lance. So then we'd put her in the pack n play. And she'd cry. So we'd get her out. And she'd laugh and laugh, showing NO signs of sleep. So at 11:30 I decided to take her out to the van and strap her in her carseat, and then once she was aleep bring her back to the tent. She fell asleep really fast, but then back in the tent woke up and started crying, as soon as I'd laid back down. By now it's midnight. So I told Robby we had two options-he could sleep in the van with Lily, or we could pack up and go home. I couldn't sleep out there because I knew Lance would be up at 3:00 AM. Which he was. On the nose. So Robby took his book and pillow, and carried Lily out to the van. Luckily it was a full moon. Or not luckily. Maybe that was the problem. I had cracked the windows a bit, but it was pretty humid outside, so Robby tried turning on the car to crack the windows more. The problem was, he had locked the car with the remote key, instead of from the van door. So when he tried to start the van, the van thought it was being stolen, and the alarm went off. And went off. And went off. At 12:30 AM. In a silent campground. I came running out of the tent with no shoes, and was yelling at Robby for the keys, but he couldn't remember in his panic what he did with them. He ended up opening the engine and unplugging the battery to get the honking to stop. So I'm pretty sure we were REALLY hated. I didn't know if I should laugh or cry! We thought about just packing up and going home then, but we didn't know if we'd be able to get the horn to go off when Robby put the battery back. So we stayed. Lance and I in the tent, Robby and Lily in the van. I got about 5 hours of sleep, Robby about 2. It started to rain at 7:00 AM, so I got up then and started taking down camp. Luckily it didn't rain much. This picture pretty much captures Lily.

And this picture captures Lance! Guess who got more sleep last night!

Right when we took this picture there was a huge burst of thunder and lightning which terrified Lily. Lance was fine with it, though.

It took us a bit, and the car alarm did go off again when Robby put the battery back, but he figured out to push the unlock button on the remote and it stopped. We got out of there before anyone could come "visit" us. And got bagels back in town. You know those neighbors you pray you won't end up next to? That was us!
Lily really wanted to go down to the river, so we stopped by for a few minutes on our way out.

My hero! He was so good. We will NOT be camping any time soon-not until Lily is sleeping in her own bed. She has never been a cuddler, or been able to sleep with Robby and I, and last night proved it once again!

On a totally different note, my dad comes home from Afghansitan tomorrow! He will probably go back, but hopefully not for awhile. He's done at 1TV.