Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I am so grateful to have and be able to spend time with family. It is such a treat to be able to fly all the way to Chicago and have the whoole family congregate for the holidays at my parents house. Adam and Lisa from Champagne; Tyler, Brandi, and Grandma from Utah, and us from Seattle!

Lizzie and cousin Allison donned their matching homemade gloves and hats from Grandma to go see the Christmas tree light show. The tree sparkles, glows different colors, and flashes lights all to the tunes of various Christmas songs.

We stopped by "that house" where some random family has decided to entertain the

neighborhood with their elaborate Christmas decorating!

This was a special day for Julie, being her FIRST Christmas! She seems to sense the cheery mood and has been such a good girl. Always happy and smiley!

Santa came early Christmas Eve night due to some jetlag...I mean sleighjag. Lizzie had trouble sleeping that night, though, so Dave brought her downstairs for a little while, carefully covering her eyes as they passed the "Christmas Tree Room" only to have her sneak away a couple minutes later and get a sneak peak of all the presents and balloons. I've never seen her eyes get so wide!

On Christmas Eve we had our annual program where each person participates in some form of entertainment whether it be singing, piano, reading a story, etc. Then, we had the kids act out the nativity story.

All the kids are so little that we had a hard time getting them to participate at all! There was a lot of fussing over having to wear anything on their heads. Lizzie refused to wear any part of her costume and wanted to sit on the couch and she was playing the part of Mary! But the show must go on! Her understudy, Julie, was willing to step in and did a lovely job!

We ate so much good food! Homemade caramel corn, cookies, truffles, cinnamon rolls, and much much more.

We kept the program short due to small attention spans, but Lizzie and Jared both performed by singing a Christmas song!

Then Christmas morning came! It was the usual tornado of presents, kids squealing, fun, chaos, giving, and love.

This was Julie's first Christmas and she's already a pro at tearing open wrapping paper.

Another highlight of Christmas is the tradition of sitting around and staring at the telephone!!

Well, only while Trevor's on his mission in Russia. We called him up, put him on speaker phone and all took turns asking him questions and listening to his stories and adventures about Russian missionary work.

Gingerbread Houses

This year we are spending Christmas in Chicago, but that didn't stop us from celebrating with the Stevens Family too! We had an early Gingerbread House Party!

Kids and adults, alike, constructed delicious candy adorned gingerbread houses!

The cousins had as much fun as they always do, playing together and stuffing themselves with Christmas candy. We joked that it was the adults doing all the building while the kids just took the opportunity to chow down on candy.

After the houses were built we watched Elf! While, Mike and Jessica took the opportnity to deliver some Christmas goodies.

We had a lot of fun. The best part of Christmas is always just being together as a family.

Christmas Ruined?

"Santa Clause is Coming to Town" is our favorite Christmas song right now because Lizzie gets so excited by the words, repeating the title/chorus over and over again.

The other day, we hear a loud CRASH!!! And we run to find Lizzie had pulled over our little mini Christmas tree. She was fine. The tree was fine, too. But, Lizzie was still very distraught, so Dave asks, "What's wrong, honey?" To which she replies, "Daddy, I ruined Christmas!!!"

Christmas Season!

Christmas is fast approaching and the Stevens Family is ready! We may have spent our decorations budget ALL on Halloween, I fear (our house seriously lacking in decorations), but we more than make up for it in spirit and Christmas cheer!

We have been spending time as a family for some Christmas stories, advent calendar countdowns, movies, Spanaway Christmas lights, making Christmas treats and goodies, sitting on Santa's lap, and more! Julie loves to hear stories and read books with her big sis. Lizzie especially likes baking in the kitchen and insists on wearing her little apron just like her mom!

This Christmas season has been especially fun for me, since being called to work with the sweet little children in Primary, at church. We set up a Santa room for the kids at the ward party and I loved seeing how excited the kids get about sitting on Santa's lap! We had fun making these chocolate "scriptures" for another upcoming activity for the kids, too.

These chocolate scriptures were sitting on our table and the other day Lizzie came up to me with chocolate all over her hands and face saying, "It was an accident, Mama!" "Where did you get chocolate?" I replied. So she led me to the table where the "accident" happened and pointed to a pile of wrappers under the table, where she been hiding and accidentally stuffing her face with Hershey Nuggets.

Matching Misty

When Lizzie wears this dress she will show and tell all who will listen, "Look at my dress! I so pretty!" Yes you are, Lizzie. You are so pretty in your Christmas dress!

She was even more excited when she saw that her cat, Misty, was wearing a matching dress!

Lizzie and her kitty were looking so cute that I had to get some quick pictures of them. She quickly grew tired of sitting and posing, but continued anyways!Its always worth it for a sweet jelly bean reward in the end!

Rice Everywhere!!

Lizzie is my little shadow. Whenever and wherever I am going, she is too. The other day as I was holding Julie in my arms, I noticed her drifting off to sleep. Just in time for nap time! So I'm wanting to go slip her into her crib for a nice nap, but I KNOW that Lizzie is going to be following close at my heels. And Lizzie's favorite thing to do lately is scream really loud around baby Julie just to get a rise out of her (and me usually). So I explain to Lizzie that I really need her to stay downstairs while I put her sister to bed. I assure her that i will be right back very soon! Liz responds with an excited "OK!" Then, to my amazement she actually does stay downstairs! (This is a VERY rare moment that she is ok with not being within my immediate vicinity, even for a minute. I often hear her desperately screaming, "Wait for me Momma!" if she feels I am heading upstairs too quickly for her pace.) So I'm quietly slipping Julie into her bed upstairs while thinking, "I'm so proud of Lizzie for listening!" A total of 2 minutes passes from the moment I leave Lizzie, run upstairs, lay Julie in bed, run downstairs, to the next moment where I catch her THROWING handfuls of rice as fast as she can into the hallway. She looks at me, looks at the rice on the floor, and then jumps onto her stomach and starts flailing her arms and legs saying, "Look Momma! I swimmin in the watey!!(aka:water)"

My reaction: Not happy and about to discipline harshly, but the swimming act is so amusing it disarms me. I am now seeing this situation in a more humorous light and what the heck...

the mess is already made so we might as well have a little fun with a whole lot of rice on the floor! So we did some more swimming...backstroke, breaststroke, the butterfly... that was the first (and hopefully last) time I have ever gone swimming in pool of rice.

Baby Lucy

Mary had her baby! Cute little Lucy is here! She is such a precious little baby and it was so fun to visit her.

Took a couple pics of the lil sweetie but I think this photoshoot will have to be continued at a later time! It was pretty crazy trying to get pics while taking care of 2 crying babies and 2 toddlers running around! We'll put that thought on hold til a day the husbands are around...

Thanksgiving

Here are a couple pictures from Thanksgiving! A lot of the family was out of town so Jamie, Jason, Mike, the kids, and the Clarks all got together for some turkey eating!

We had a great time and went to see the "Tangled" Rapunzel movie afterwards.

There are so many blessings to be thankful for... a wonderful husband and two fun little turkeys...to name a few!

Snow!!!

The snow came early and surprised us all! Lizzie was very excited to run around in the snow and help build a snowman!

Eventually a snow ball fight ensued...and then there was a lot of running and chasing!

The snow was absolutely perfect for building a snowman! There was no grass showing when we stepped outside, but as we rolled the snow into balls it stuck so well that it seemed to lift every last flake of snow in those areas! Five minutes later we had an amazing snowman! Then five min after that Liz was ready to go inside!

Julie opted to stay inside where its warm so Dave and I rotated watching her and playing with Liz.

4 Month Old Julie

Julie is 4 months old! She's a petite little girl in the 25th percentile for height and weight. It looks like she's going to keep her bright blue eyes like her big sis and insanely long eyelashes to match! She has the cutest little smile and makes what I call her "cartoon eyes". Its very similar to the Puss in Boots (from Shrek) look.

Julie's little muscles are getting stronger and she loves to stand. She will stand and hold her own weight for a good 2-3 min. as long as she has a hand to hold for balance. She's attempting locomotion by rolling from side to side and spinning her body in circles. She'll even slowly scoot on her back by raising her legs high and slamming them down hard, over and over again.
She's been testing out her little vocal cords lately, too. Cooing, laughing, raspberry noises, etc. Her favorite things to do are sit on her Mama's lap, be carried around in a Bjorn, and laying on her mat with all the toys dangling above. She's very good at spotting fun objects, grabbing them, batting at them, and stuffing them into her mouth.

Julie has such a sweet, mellow attitude. She's very quick to smile and laugh. Although, she's just barely starting to be leary of strangers at times. She's a great sleeper still- down by 7 every night like clock work and usually up around 8 or 9. Her big smiles in the morning are my favorite. She always wakes up in such a cheery mood!

2 Years Old

Jamie took some adorable 2 year old portraits of Lizzie and here is a little sneak peak...there are more pics to come soon.

I hope I always remember the little details about my little 2 year old Lizzie.. hopefully this will help:
There is never a dull moment when you live with a two year old. Especially a two year old with personality plus! This past year Liz's imagination has come into full bloom. Lenny, Meow, Misty, Purry, and Hoot are continual and ever present friends that talk, play, eat, have tea parties, laugh, dance, jump, and need diaper changes. I think Liz has categorized her little sister in with these animals as well. Julie gets played with in much the same way.. Since Julie is as silent as her animal friends, Lizzie includes her in the narration of emotions, needs, and even the pretend meals.

Lizzie is still a complete and total Daddy's girl. She tells me many times throughout the day, "Daddy at work! Daddy come home soon! I love daddy so much!" Its a favorite activity for all of us to go visit Daddy for lunch!

We've discovered this past year that Lizzie recieved a strong dose of mom and dad's indepent, stubborn-at-times genes. Even as an infant I described Liz as opinionated and now that she's two she's working on asserting those opinions!

Despite her many opinions and wants, she is very polite for a toddler! She uses please and thank you's all on her own, spontaneosly throughout the day. So many people and strangers comment to me on how polite she is.

Liz, you are so much fun to have around- we love you!

Favorite Activities: Coloring, Play-doh, Elefun, card games (memory), everything outdoors, going to the park, visiting family, reading, going to the movies, playing with her kitchen, and playing with stuffed animals.

Favorite Color: Yellow (Its been her favorite color since she was 12 months old)

Favorite Words/Phrases: Doo ba doo ba doo ba doo ba DAH!! doo ba DAH! and Peeeyah! (Ok so this is Dave and I's favorite things she says...family joke and made up words that have carried on since she was about 12 months)

Favorite Animal: Cats (including Lions)

Favorite Foods: Raisins, all fruit, french cut green beans, Go-gurt, and hotdogs (she thinks bratworst and other sausages are "hotdogs")

Favorite Candy: Jelly Beans and M&Ms

Favorite Song: The Beatles-- Come Together

Favorite Book: All David Shannon books like "Too Many Toys" and "Good Boy Fergus!" (We had to put away the ones about naughty David though because she was getting bad ideas!)

Favorite Movie: Beauty and the Beast

Toddler Academia: You've known your alphabet, numbers, and colors since you were 14 months old! At this point you enjoy learning to spell, recognizing written words, two letter phonics (ch, sh, etc), and reverse recognition and matching games. You're very good at answering questions like "Can you think of a "T" word?"

Nicknames for her sister: "Julie Jewels" and "The Giant One" (See below for explanation)

Funny Toddler Thoughts: I was unaware that tiny and giant were a part of Lizzie's vocabulary until the other day. I was saying how big Julie was getting and she said, "Baby Julie is a giant one!" Then I said, "If baby Julie's the giant one, what does that make you?" So she thought a minute and said, " A tiny one!" (She is still trying to work through her wanting to be a baby issue! She certainly seems to wish baby Julie would surpass her in size and age!) Lizzie has been calling her "The Giant One" ever since.