Our Christmas Trip

For Christmas this year we were able to spend it at my sister Erin's house in Idaho. My parents also came and my sister Megan from Texas. We were missing my sister Tory who was at her in-laws but we were happy that she also came to Erin's the day before we left. I love this time of year, the gift giving/receiving is great, but the most wonderful part is that we get to spend time together as a families. I love my family so much and I cherish the time I get to spend with them. We were sad not to spend time with DJ's family but we will travel to see them soon enough!!
MJ seemed to have enjoyed her first Christmas, we have discovered that she absolutely loves stuffed animals. My sister Erin gave her a stuffed bear for Christmas, when she first laid eyes on it she acted as if she couldn't contain her excitement, she wiggled her arms and legs so much and even today we can place it in front of her and she will have a conversation with it!! Christmas is such a joy with children!

A family tradition of acting out the manger scene on Christmas Eve.

A fun train from Nana and Grandaddy.

MJ with Brooke, her only girl cousin. She loves Brooke!!

Cute pic on Sunday morning.

Our Anniversary!!

Sunday was mine and DJ's 2nd Anniversary. And as you all might remember from my previous post, I was planning our anniversary this year. Well I planned to celebrate it on Monday rather than Sunday. What was funny was that on Sunday I had totally forgotten that it was our anniversary, I only remembered after DJ reminded me after Church!! Reason being is that Sundays are usually crazy for me but this last one was exceptionally so!! It started with Ward Council at 7:30, from there went to choir practice, then played my flute with the choir in Sacrament Meeting, during Sunday School fed MJ and put her to sleep, and in Young Women's taught part of the lesson!! DJ always is sweet to remember important dates and such and I am the one to sometimes forget!! Well on Monday DJ got off of work at 11 o'clock so we were able to spend most of the day together. We went to the Melting Pot for dinner and then we watched the newly released Narnia at home. We had always wanted to go to the Melting Pot, but we knew how expensive it was and could never talk ourselves into spending that much. Our anniversary was a good excuse! It was definitely a unique dining experience and the food was great. DJ and I now want to save up to buy the stuff to do fondue on our own!! The Narnia movies are some of our favorites, but of course we didn't make it through the movie without snoozing off due to DJ's crazy work schedule and MJ's crazy sleep habits!! But these 2 years have been some of the best of my life!! I love DJ so much and can't imagine my life without him. He takes such good care of me and is constantly showing me how much he loves me. I am so grateful to be living my life beside such a great man.


This pic was taken on the Oregon coast right after DJ proposed to me!!

Look Ma!! Look what I can make!!

So my new hobby is making headbands for little MJ! There are a couple of things that motivated me to start this hobby. First of all, head bands are pretty cute on babies, so I wanted some for my baby. However, I became disappointed in my search for baby headbands - first of all they are dang expensive (sometimes up to $20 a band!!) and second of all the bow/flower usually overtakes their head due to its size! So this week on the Today program they showed how to make adult headbands. So I modified their idea and KAZAAM - baby headbands!! So, yeah they're probably not the same quality as bought ones, but they are good enough for me!! If anyone is interested in making these headbands for their little one, let me know!! Its a fun hobby, and cheap too!!

Sleep anyone??

Okay, so all of you will first look at this pic of little MJ and think "Oh what a cute picture of her sleeping!!" Well, here is the story - For the past 2 weeks now you could say that we have been struggling a bit with MJ and her new sleep habits. During the night she wakes up about every half hour to every hour! I am not exaggerating on this one!! One would say that its not too bad because usually I just have to go in and put her binky back in her mouth. But after I always have a difficult time going back to sleep. So... right as I find myself asleep again she is up again!!! I can't figure out why this is happening!! Then, during the day she takes wonderful 2-3 hour naps that go without her waking up!! This pic was taken just this morning when she fell asleep on her play mat for her first uninterrupted nap of the day! I hope that this is a phase that she will grow out of soon, not only for my sanity's sake but for her too. I worry that she isn't getting the sleep she needs and I worry something is wrong, that there is something that I could be doing differently to help her. To all of you out there, do you have any advice to a new worried mother who is a bit sleep deprived???

New Christmas Tradition

Our family started a new family tradition this year, being our first Christmas with a child. Each child in our family will receive a new Christmas ornament each Christmas season to place on the tree. The ornament will represent what they did/accomplished that year. So with MJ's first Christmas we bought her her 1st ornament!! We had her place it on our tree (well, with a bit of help from mom)!!

Early Christmas Fun!!!

DJ's mom Kathy paid us a visit this past week!! She came all the way from the Dominican Republic to celebrate Amanda's college graduation. We were able to spend just a little bit of time with her, we wished she could have stayed longer!!


Kathy gave MJ her Christmas present early. It was a book called GALLOP. And boy is this book awesome, I am not sure how it works but the images of the book move as you turn the pages. Pretty neat!! Thanks Grandma!


And speaking of early Christmas presents my parents sent us an early Christmas present which was another addition to our manger scene. This year we got the three wisemen. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

4 Months!!!

Our little MJ is now a little over 4 months old!!! We love her so much and oh how she has changed our lives! We can't believe how much she has grown over these months. Most recently she has been eating rice cereal and has been loving it!! And just today she let out some good hearty laughs!! The trick to get her to do that was to kiss her multiple times on the cheek, who knew!! She also is now falling asleep by her self in her crib, for both nap and at nighttime. Thank you MJ for being such a joy in our lives!!

Here she is after eating some of that yummy rice cereal!!

"Babies make

days shorter
nights longer
homes happier
and love stronger"

(That is a quote that was given to MJ by her Nana Sibbett that is on a quilt block that is hanging in her room. Thanks Nana!!!)

Gooble, gobble!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with my family up in Boise!! We had everyone there except for Megan and she was greatly missed. It was a time for firsts for our family, MJ's first Thanksgiving, first long car trip and stay at someone else's house. We think that she handled it all rather well!! It was also the first time we had a 29 lb turkey!! Holy Cow, I mean Holy Turkey!!!


We couldn't let MJ go with out tasting some of the flavors of Thanksgiving. She obviously loved the cookie salad.