Lovin the Holidays!

We have had so much fun this year! Brigham is excited about Christmas and is somewhat getting the idea of "Santa". He made some cookies for him and suggested that Santa would prefer a coke over milk. It has been a joy to watch him get excited and even more fun to try and make this Holiday season exciting for him. On Christmas Eve we went over to Glen and Connies for pizza and games. We also made Humanitarian Kits as a service project (thanks Keri!)and as most of you do we topped off our night with some new jammies (sorry no pictures, I forgot my camera). We had a wonderful Christmas morning at our house, than later in the afternoon we went off to the Grandparents (both sides=). Although I absolutely hate the snow, I do love this time of year. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!



We decided to make our own stockings this year. Brighams was decorated with cars, Mckells with Tinkerbell, I am not sure what Jeremy's was, and I of course decorated mine in rhinestones


Our front steps make a great hill!


Jeremy and Brigham playing outside


Snowflake Scones, before


After


Christmas morning

Christmas fun

Our family has been pretty busy these past few weeks getting the Christmas tree up, keeping Mckell from tearing it down, visiting Santa, Christmas parties and all the other fun things you get to do this time of year. Here are some recent pics.

Scary isn't it?

Waiting to see Santa

Such a long wait!

I couldn't get him to take his glasses off but he wanted a picture with all the Santa's

Fesitval of trees, this was a glass tree. Amazing!

They have really grown to love each other, except when their fighting!

Black Friday Madness

I have actually never been shopping on black Friday until this year. I have never enjoyed crowds and I don't remember wanting something so badly that I had to wake up at 5:00 am to get it. But for some reason this year I decided to go! I looked through the ads and couldn't find anything on our Christmas lists but there were some great deals on clothes! I got up, grabbed some hot chocolate and headed out for a morning of shopping. It was actually quite fun and the stores that I went to weren't that crowded. It was so nice to be out without the kids doing something that I love to do, shopping for clothes! After I got home we decided to take the kids to see Santa! We headed out to the University Mall where Santa arrived by helicopter. When Brigham saw the helicopter he was so excited that he was shaking! As a mom it was wonderful to see him so happy and excited. We had such a good time and to our surprise Brigham didn't even cry when Santa waved to him! Of course after seeing Santa we had to head into the mall to see if we missed any good deals =) We ended our day with a trip to Thanksgiving Point to see the Christmas lights.

Waiting for Santa to arrive!

Just trying to stay warm

Look! There he is!

Arriving in style

Over here Santa!

Thanksgiving Point lights

If you've seen one you've seen them all!

Reindeer or "Reinbeer" as Brigham calls them

Happy First Birthday Mckell!

This year has totally flown by and I can't believe that my baby girl turned one! Wow, where does the time go? Mckell is a doll and we love her so much. It is so fun to watch her grow and see her personality (and attitude). Mckell is VERY girly which is so fun and she can change moods in an instant (which is not so fun!). She knows exactly what she wants and she is very determined. She is absolutely gorgeous and we love her beautiful red hair. Mckell can walk across the room and she loves to give hugs and open mouth kisses. She knows some sign language and she likes to make up her own signs as well. Mckell loves her big brother and they like to laugh A LOT! Thanks to her brother she is a very tough girl and can hold her own in battle. I love being her mom!
Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Mckell in her birthday hat

Yummy cake! Her brother helped her eat it.

She loves her cousins!

For her birthday she got a stroller for her baby doll

We also took her out for ice cream

Just Keepin Occupied

Now that winter is here we have had to entertain ourselves in different ways. The kids got a good laugh when they saw their beautiful hair do's that mom did for them! Most people who know me know that I DO NOT like the winter, but I will say that we have had fun this last week trying to keep ourselves entertained. You've got to be really creative to keep a one year old and a two year old happy!

Brigham actually smiled for this one! I think it's his first time!

Halloween

Happy Halloween everybody! I have to say that this was the best Halloween ever! The weather was perfect, we spent the day with friends and family and the kids both put on (and kept on) their costumes. Brigham even went the whole day with out any accidents. SUCCESS! We started off the day with a party at Jessica L's house. She is amazing and it was fun for us moms to get together and the kids had fun making haunted houses and decorating cookies. Later Jess S and I took the kids to trick or treat street in Provo. It was a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. We ran home, washed the candy out of Mckell's fur and then went to Glen and Connies for pizza and more trick or treating. Brigham had such a good time and we are so proud of our little shy guy for having enough courage this year to say "Trick or Treat".

Brigham is quite fond of "Snow White"

Sorry Jess I had to post it! I wonder how long it will take you to call and make me take it off!

MEXICO

Well I know you have all been anxiously awaiting an update right?! We have been so busy lately playing, vacationing and playing some more, rough life I know! I am so happy and everyday I am grateful that I get to play with these wonderful kids, unfortunately it doesn't always leave time for blogging. I admire all you that keep yours up to date! Being a mom is the best and everyday is filled with a new adventure, Brigham is on his way to being potty trained and Mckell is close to walking- that's big time for us! Here are some pictures from our Mexico trip. Don't worry I won't post all of them! We had a great time and even the LONG LONG drive wasn't so bad.

This picture pretty much sums up our trip! Brigham was perfectly happy just playing in the sand and my little princess Mckell not so much. She didn't enjoy getting dirty like her brother did.

Beautiful isn't it? The water was warm, the weather was perfect.

The Haynie men just couldn't pass up a chance to grow a mustache. They wanted to fit in while in Mexico.

Jeremy and I get a good laugh every time we see this. I am not sure how we stuffed her into that swimsuit. She grows so fast we just can't keep up with her!

Brighams favorite part of the trip was definitely sliding down the sand hill with his cousin Sam, face first of course!

It was bound to happen!

Well I knew eventually it was going to happen, up until this point we considered ourselves very fortunate...Everyone told us that someday our kids would embarrass us and guess what it happened, big time!

Lets start from the beginning. We are at Grandma Haynies funeral. It is such a lovely service filled with beautiful music, and wonderful speakers. Brigham and Mckell are both entertaining themselves and are behaving really well. Life is good right? Then it happened. I looked at Mckell to see what she was playing with. OH MY! She pooped on the bench in the CHAPEL in the middle of Grandma Haynies funeral. Now I am not talking about a little leak, it was as if she was wearing no diaper at all, it was everywhere! She was sick by the way so you can just imagine what we were dealing with. I was so embarrassed that all I could do was laugh and then when I realised that this was real I cried. I didn't know what else to do but cry! We wrapped her up and took her out. Thanks so much Cali for helping me bathe Mckell and for washing out her clothes. Jeremy's family is so nice and they jumped right in to help clean up the mess ( which took many many many wipes and chemicals to clean up) Oh my delicate little flower of a daughter, I LOVE YOU and we will never forget Grandma Haynies funeral.

Winter?

I don't know about you but I am not looking forward to winter! I am holding on to every last minute of summer. I want to know what you do during the winter to keep your kids entertained so we don't go CRAZY! Send me your best ideas please!

Here are some pictures of our hike last weekend and some pics of the kids.

Family Bowling!

Now that Brigham is two it is fun to take him to do things that he hasn't done before. We decided to take him bowling on Saturday night. He loved it! He had an 8 lb ball which is only one pound lighter than mine (I'm a wimp I guess). When his turn would come up he would carry his ball all by himself then he would say "On your mark, get set, go" then he would push the ball and run away. We never could get him to look back and see how many pins he knocked down, he had the most fun just carrying the ball.

Final scores:

Brigham 67

Jeremy 101

Heather 111 yipee!