Hooray for the 200th Post!

We hope that you all had a fabulous Christmas! We had a great time and had fun with both families! We were definitely spoiled and our girls have had fun playing with new toys and books. Doug spoiled me and got me a panini press, electric blanket (or so warm) and a

He totally wins. I was so excited! It's the big 6 qt Professional one too. Oh how he loves to spoil his chef! I made him a quilt with pieces of a sweater he gave me when we first started dating and I also compiled the letters we sent back and forth on his mission. It was a great year and we both agreed that next Christmas won't be as big. We're currently waiting to take off for the big reunion in Arizona! We can't wait to see everyone again! Sorry I didn't post any pictures of the big day. I'll be sure to do a picture purge when we get back from the big trip!

A first

Well I guess there's a first for everything. We put Lilly down for a nap a little while ago and she was having a hard time so I kept checking on her to make sure she was okay. I let her cry for a little while and finally went to check on her again and noticed brown stuff all over the crib, her body, and her mouth. Yup you guessed it. She had no diaper on either. We quickly threw her in the tub and stripped her bed. Yuck! Thank goodness she's already on antibiotics. Hopefully she won't get too sick. Sorry I didn't take a picture of this glamorous first. Any of you ever had their kids eat their own poop?

My Twelve Days of Christmas

Some of you may know that I collect "12 Days of Christmas" Books. I do this because I want to be cool like my mom who collects "Night Before Christmas" Books. She has well over 200 of them. What's the count now mom? Anyway, I thought it would be fun to write my own little 12 Days of Christmas sincewe're well into the 12 days. Here goes:

On the...

12th day I got the coolest 12 Days of Christmas package on my door step. Thank you nice person whoever did this for us! We love it! It's so fun to open a new piece of the Nativity ever day. I always wanted this one.

11 days until I get to see my amazing family for a family reunion in warm and sunny AZ!

10 days till Christmas!

9 days of too much sickness in our house! I'm done with the coughing and runny noses.

8 girls (maybe) that I get to party with tomorrow at our Activity Days Christmas Party!

7 siblings that I get to see in 11 days! (I think it's been about 7 years too since we've all been together at one time)

6 days till Brandon and Melissa's Anniversary. Happy Anniversary you two cute cats!

5 days 'till the big Bowl Game. Go cougs!

4 packages to Brazil (I kept finding things I meant to send in each prior package).

3 trips to the post office.

2 days till Stu and Hiromi come and Karen and Lilly get to play!

1 amazing husband who celebrated a birthday today! Happy Birthday Douglas!

Merry Christmas to all!

Baby Brother Update

Sophia clarified this morning that she doesn't want a baby brother. She wants a big brother. Thanks for clearing that up Sophs. I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the offer Erin.I guess we can still take Will since he's a whole 6 weeks older!

In other news, we finally saw the Joseph Smith movie up in Salt Lake and it was fabulous. It wasn't quite what I was expecting and we both loved it!

Another Sophia Funnies

Last night while we were eating dinner Lilly was being silly and so Doug asked Sophia if we should call her Silly. She said , "No. Maybe we should call her 'Lolli-Pop'" and that's exactly what she did. For the rest of the night whenever she said Lilly's name it was always "Lolli-Pop" such as "Come here Lolli-Pop" or "I think Lolli-Pop needs to go to bed." She had us laughing all night.

We heard Frosty the Snowman on the radio while we were driving today and she said, "We did this one in Preschool. It's Frosting the Snowman!" She then went on to sing "Frosting the Snowman..."

She also has been telling us lately that she really wants a brother. She keeps talking about how she can't wait until she has a brother that comes to live in her home and she tells us about all the things she's going to do with her brother. It always comes at random times and then she goes on about how she can't wait to play with her brother and that "she really wants a brother." It usually ends with us telling her that her brother is in heaven and that we'll have one someday. Is she seriously trying to tell me something? I am so not ready for another baby. Have any of you ever had this happen before? At first I just blew it off but she mentions it at least once a week and it's kind of starting to freak me out.

I finally saw it

Stupid blogger. I just typed this whole huge post and then it disappeared. Oh well. Anyway, I finally saw Twilight and I'm sorry to say that I agree with Sarah's review. Thanks again Laura for coming with me (I knew there was no way Doug would go with me and I'm thankful he didn't because I'd never hear the end of it) and for laughing throughout the whole thing with me. I'm sorry but the whole scene in the meadow was a little too much. Definitely one of those where the book is way better than the movie! They did do a good job casting her friends and his family but they were both just painful to watch. He looked so uncomfortable throughout the whole movie. Sorry to dissapoint any of you. I will say that it got better as it went along and here's hoping the next one is better (it's no wonder that they're hiring a new director for the next one).

Aside from all that, Sophia has been hillarious the past couple of days. Our awesome babysitter gave her a bunch of Littlest Pet Shops a while ago and she loves them. Whenever Lilly even looks at them she says "No Lilly! Mom put her to bed! She can't get these". She always tells me to put Lilly to bed whenever she's getting into something Sophia doesn't want her to get.

Yesterday we spent the day at my mom's finishing up some Christmas sewing and I gave the girls some crackers to eat. Sophia came upstairs and said "Lilly is making the biggest mess in her mouth!" She then squinted her eyes while shaking her head iand said, "I'm just like, what in the whole world Lilly! You're making the biggest mess!" She has also been saying "Yikes!" a lot which totally cracks me up. What a funny girl!

Sick Sunday

So here's what a Sunday is like in our house when the kids are sick.
8:30- Wake up and realize Doug has PEC in 1/2 hour.
9:00-Doug barely makes it to PEC and comes home around 10:30
11:00-Joanna goes to choir and comes home at 12:00
12:00-Doug passes Joanna on sidewalk at heads to pres. meeting and stays at church for sacrament meeting at 12:30
1:35-Joanna high-fives Doug while passing Doug on sidewalk and heads to teach primary.
2:45-Doug and Joanna high-five again while passing so that Doug can get back to church to teach Young Men
3:30-Doug and Joanna high-five for a thrid time while passing so that Joanna can get back to the church for a meeting with Primary Presidency at 3:45 (it was originally scheduled for 12:00 but she completely spaced it and Doug was already at the church at that time).
4:00-Doug and Joanna high-five for the fourth and final time as he heads out the door for a temple recommend interview.
4:30-Joanna waits for Doug to get home so that they can eat dinner (love fast Sundays!), bathe kids, watch the Christmas Devotional, put kids to bed, go to Stake Choir, come home and go to bed (and maybe talk to each other for more than 5 minutes today)!

Whew what a day of rest!

Anyway, here's some pictures from the day after Lilly's birthday:

Here's her and Sophia by the fun IKEA igloo/tent!

Last night was crazy as well. We had a family party in Cedar Hills and our ward party at the exact same time. Doug had to be at our ward party and so I took the girls to the family party. Here's a fun chocolate peppermint pie I took as well. The chocolate Christmas trees were fun to make.
Since I couldn't go to the ward party I had Doug take pictures. It was intense and looked like a lot of fun. The theme was "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" and they themed the whole thing around Nauvoo in 1843. Each auxillary was in charge of a different "part" of Nauvoo. Doug and the YM were in charge of the stick pull and he said it was a lot of fun. This was The Mansion House where they served stew, rolls, and gingerbread cake. Notice the real pine garlands running down the tables.
This was the masonry shop complete with a "fire" behind that big gray thing. It looked cool when the lights were off. They had these tiles with vinyl letter sayings that said "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" that people could make. They were cool.

This was the sign to the post office where you could write letters to the missionaries.

They had signs like this all over that made a little time-line of events. Doug thinks there were probably about 500 of these signs.

This was the red brick store. They were accepting canned food donations at this station.

They also had a tin shop where kids could make punched tin ornaments, and a fabulous library put on by the Young Women.

Here's a bonus picture of Sophia having a blast in an early Christmas present. Some friends in our ward were getting rid of this and so they gave it to us. They had lost the charger and so it didn't work. I got one at Wal-mart (best $30 I've ever spent) and now it's a great ride. It really goes pretty fast and I'm sure she needs a license for to drive it. Her and her friend Abby had a great time riding it around last week.

Happy Birthday to the Bean!

We had such a fun time celebrating Lilly's birthday today! We woke up and cleaned the house and then took Sophia to preschool and then took Lilly Kandid Kandids for the yearly free 8 x 10. We got a copy of the first picture and I thought the other ones turned out cute as well.

Tonight we had some family and friends over (thanks again everyone for making the trek down!!!!) for cake and ice cream. We had a great time! Unfortunately all the pictures we took turned our blurry (our LCD screen broke so we can't see the pictures we take - hint, hint, Santa, mommy would like new camera for Christmas) and so we can't see the shots we took. Apparently if you leave the camera on the counter while you cook dinner and it's within range of the cooking spray and the lens gets covered in the stuff, your pictures will turn out blurry. Luckily I got this shot of the cake before the cooking spray incident. My amazing friend Nancy is amazing with caker decorating and so I asked her to make a cake for Lilly. I was sooooooo happy with how it turned out. You're amazing Nancy! After I saw the cake she made for another friend I was pretty much convinced that she needed to make one for Lilly. Thanks again Nance! (I can't saw it enough). Anyway, I did get some pics of the loot but since they turned out blurry they're not here. I think I may take more pictures of her by balloons and wrapping paper tomorrow and just pretend like they were from today. Anyway, she got some books, warm jammies, a cool igloo tent from IKEA, a cute shirt that says, "Smile if you think I'm cute" (I think we'll be getting plenty of smiles) and some wooden blocks. Thanks again everyone for helping to make it a fabulous day!

P.S. Here's video of the birthday song. It's a little blurry as well but you can get the jist.

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Sophisticated pallets

So tonight for dinner we had this:

It's chickey curry pizza with bananas and it was surprisingly tasty. Doug had it on his mission and has been craving it ever since. I finally decided to give it a try and it really was pretty good. I'll pass the recipe along if anyone is interested. I also made a tomato and cheese pizza for our girls. We sat down to eat and Sophia insisted that she have the yellow pizza. Lilly prefered it as well. I was surprised but pleased at the same time. Way to try new foods kiddos!

P-Town Light show

I just took Lilly and Sophia to see the rockin' light show we discovered a few blocks away. I got some pretty good video but it's better in person. It's crazy because you just turn your radio to 99.9 and the lights go along with the music.

It's pretty good. It definitely made our cute little house look pretty dismal. Here's a few pics from the last week. For FHE we made our own Jaredite barges with things that we build our foundation on. I thought they turned out pretty good.We also had a fabulous Thanksgiving. Lilly enjoyed the Sweet Potatoes. We were able to celebrate Lilly's birthday with the Wilkins'. Brian and Katie gave her this baby and she immediately fell in love with it. I couldn't believe that she immediately figured out how to feed the baby it's bottle. This little girl never ceases to amaze me.

After a fun morning shopping at IKEA and Cabella's for Black Friday we headed down to Wales with some good friends in our ward. The girls had a great time wearing each other out. We had a lot of fun and it was relaxing and nice to get away!

You Don't Know me but I'm Famous...

Okay so I really should be doing a post dedicated to my sweet husband on this day where we are celebrating 5 years of wedding bliss. If you want to read a post like that, go here. Instead, I've decided to write about a fun thing I did last week. If you want to read more about that, go here. That's right, my cooking has made me famous. I haven't seen the print version yet but they took plenty of pictures of me cooking last week so if you're bored and have a copy of the Daily Herald lying around, check it out. The rolls truly are delicious. Thanks again mom and grandma for the fabulous recipe!

Accomplishments

We had a great weekend and a great week last week. Our first big accomplishment is that Sophia has finally decided she can go potty in the potty. She did so great last week and today is her first day in Dora panties. We've been telling her it hurts Dora if she goes potty on her so here's hoping for no accidents. We are so proud of her and can't believe how fast she's growing up. Her little friend Will asks her if she still wears diapers everytime he sees her and so we figured it was time so that she wouldn't have to face any more embarassment or to continue to dissapoint Will. Another accomplishment we experienced this week is that Doug made a 5 pound burger. After hearing about this big burger on the Rachel Ray show he decided he had to go for something big. We made this for the big dissapointing football game this season. It was really fun.

Finally, we made these cutest turkey's at Activity Days last week. It was so fun! The girls did a great job. We hope you all have a great Turkey Day and have fun eating lots of food!P.S. Happy Anniversary tomorrow Dougie! I love you!

Projects!

Okay, so as usual, I've taken on way too much and this Christmas is no exception. I've been working on many projects and have finally got a few of them completed (most of the way). The first is family stockings. I've always wanted family stockings and thanks to Martha, Erin, and felt, I found these cute patters and have decided to make them. So far I only have Sophia and Doug's completed. I thought they turned out pretty cute. The pinecones were a pain to make and Martha's website definitely does not provide good or clear instructions.
I also decided this year to make Sophia a quiet book. Don't ask me why. It took way longer than I thought and it was a total pain. Some of the pages turned out okay and I think she'll like it. When all was said and done though, I should have just forked out the $30 bucks and bought the cute one I saw at Quilted Bear. Lissa, I know you said you wanted one for Josh but it really was more of a pain than I thought and Liza said she has a bunch she's willing to send you.

Finally, here's what I did with the Christmas vinyl I got from that warehouse sale. The board turned out a little darker than I'd expected and so I had to outline the smaller words. I think it still turned out okay.

Traffic School Online?

So our car recently decided that it was a waste of time to keep track of how fast we go and it's also stopped recording our mileage. Apparently once you get above 180,000 it just stops counting. Anyway, we do love our car and want to treat it well so we decided to look into getting it fixed. It was going to cost about $200 which is not much but we recently put that much into it fixing something else so we decided to just let it go and have it stay at 20 MPH regardless of the actual speed we're going. Anyway, we knew this would catch up to us eventually and sure enough, it caught me going 43 last week in a residential zone. The nice officer only wrote me for 9 over even when I explained that according to my speedometer I was only going 20 MPH. Too bad he didn't by that one. Anyway, he gave me the option to go to traffic school and I just learned that it's online. Isn't that convinient? Not really. It's still 3 hours long and they have a timer that keeps track of your time so you have to use up the whole 3 hours. I've currently completed only 11 min and 16 sec while writing this blog. Wish me luck!

Awesome Bargains and a Busy Weekend!

Wow what a weekend! On Saturday I went to this awesome warehouse scrapbook sale and found some pretty good deals. I got this frame for $5. I was pretty excited. Another girl had one that was black and had a mirror in the middle but of course this was the only thing left. In case you can't tell how big it is, the picture opening is 10"x10". I love it. I got another smaller metal frame that's burgundy that had the glass broken so they gave it to me for $1. It was awesome.
I also got a couple vinyl sayings. They were each about $2-$3 a piece. This "Enjoy!" one was meant for the kitchen but I thought it looked cute above these pictures.I also got this one for the girls' room. In case you can't see it, it says "I see the moon and the moon sees me, God bless the moon and God bless me." I thought it was cute. I also got a Christmas one that says "Christmas, It's the most wonderful time of the year". It was $3 and retailed for $30. I'd say that's a good deal.
After a fun day of shopping I headed to the detention center to prep for the annual Etiquette dinner. We planned for about 150 again this year. I made these yummy pork chops for the entree. Everything turned out pretty good. My cute dad sent me these gorgeous flowers for helping.
I also got to take home one of these awesome centerpieces. Jodi Porter in my parent's stake is amazing and always does amazing things with flowers. I thought these were really cool. She said she got them at Taipan in case you're interested.
In other news, Sunday was a big day because Doug got called to be the Young Men President. He just can't seem to get away from that calling. He has the same counselors as the last president. I'm still going to teach primary but a different class and as far as I know I'll still do Activity Days.

Finally, here's a random video of my stair climber I took a few weeks ago. She has since taken a tumble down the last few steps and refuses to climb them again. Silly girl.

The end of Halloween

We had a great Halloween Day. The day before Sophia had a little costume parade at her preschool. All the kids were so cute. Here's my zombies after preschool with a few of Sophia's fun new treats.
Halloween day we went to Doug's work where we wore our 2nd costumes of the holiday. My friend Miki and her husband did this and I thought it was hilarious so I copied her. Thanks again Miki! Lilly was still a bag of Money and you can't really see Doug's "Prize Patrol" name tag but he represented!We then went to the good 'ole trunk or treat where Lilly enjoyed some yummy chocolate
and then came home and watched Halloween and Halloween H2O. Both pretty stupid and intense movies.

Saturday while Doug was at the PowWow at BYU Sophia and I raked up our leaves. Our pile had looked like this for awhile so we decided it was time to rake them up. Sophia then had a fun time spreading them out again before I had a chance to get them all to the garden (it only took about 10 wheelbarrow loads and I can't believe I wasn't faster!)Today we woke up to snow and had a great time playing in it! Sophia was dying to get out there and I caught her playing in it with no pants or shoes on and made her at least put her snowsuit and some glovies on. We built this snowman and I kept asking her what we should make the eyes, nose, mouth, etc. out of and she kept saying "snow!" so that's what we did. She was so excited to make the snowman and 30 seconds later it looked like this. I'm so glad I worked so hard to build it for her. Yes that's her cute little bum ramming the snowman with her bicycle. We also had a fun time catching snowflakes in our mouths and I've been trying to explain to her all day that just because it snowed it doesn't mean it's Christmas (despite the radio stations trying to do some convincing as well with all the Christmas music they're playing!) I finally convinced her to come back in and she was literally out there again within 30 seconds. At least she put shoes on this time...