Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

This year Madeline moved up from the nursery at church into the Primary classes for the children. She was so excited. Weeks before the new year she would tell me she was done with nursery and wanted to be a Sunbeam (that's what the 3 year old class is called). There is a Primary song called Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam and it suddenly became her new favorite song. Finally the week arrived and she got to go to Primary! I was serving in the Primary at the time, so it was fun for me to be able to watch her with all of her friends trying to sit still and participate. The first week was a little rough for some of them, but I'm sure they have improved. That was the only week I served in there with Madeline, because I was called as the Relief Society President the next week. {For those not familiar with the LDS Church, the Relief Society is the women's organization.} Anyway, she loves being a Sunbeam! Her favorite part is singing time, which is no shock to me because she loves to sing and dance. She has, however, reverted back to her old favorite song, which is I am a Child of God.

New Years Eve

We rang in the New Year with our good friends, the Cottrells. Our Bishop's family was also there, and we played games and ate lots of good food. Isn't that what celebrations are really about anyway? Madeline lasted until almost 2 am, and even Amelia was awake for the ball dropping.

Here are the guys being ridiculous. I was trying to take a picture and they would not pose, so all I have is this mid-laugh shot. That's what they get.
The Cottrells have two terrific young men who love to play with Madeline. They are always trying to get her to give them high-fives at church, and she plays the shy card. I love watching them play with her, though, they are so nice.

This is Melinda and me. Happy 2010!

Christmas Day has come and gone...

...but I will still post some pictures.

In our family it is a tradition that the stockings are handmade by grandma. I think Amelia's turned out so cute!

Don't you love the glow of a Christmas tree? It brings such warmth and peace and happiness to me. It might be my favorite part of Christmas decorations.

As you can see, Amelia was stoked to have a stocking she could fit into full of goodies just for her.

Her main present was some stacking cups that you can also fit together to make balls. It's pretty fun, and so far Madeline has really enjoyed them. :) She also got a portable changing pad (that I am enjoying) and some equally practical things. Oh, and some clothes. What can I say? She is too young to care.

Madeline is super into arts and crafts. Her Christmas list was: nail polish, lipstick (chapstick), paint, tape, and glue. (She got it all. She must have been on the nice list.) About a week before Christmas she decided what she really wanted was "a big thing" or "a big board" also known as an easel. I love this one because it is height adjustable. Madeline is a tall girl, so I think that feature will come in handy. That roll of paper at the top? Gone. I have decided I am not buying more. I hate waste, and it just wasn't get used the way it should. Maybe I'll rethink that when she is older.

See the Santa hat Joe is wearing? It came with a Christmas dress sized 3-6 months! Seriously. I hate it when hats come with outfits, they never fit.

Most of Madeline's gifts were artsy things, but she also got some Mega Bloks and a couple of games - ABC Bingo and Memory.

Joe got a circular saw, some clothes, and Guitar Hero. I got a blender, some new cooling racks, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, new earrings, and a bunch of other things. I got spoiled. All in all, a successful Christmas!

Gingerbread House {aka Eating Candy}

Since Joe is really a kid at heart, this year he got to help Madeline decorate her gingerbread house. Madeline was so excited to build her house, and she asked me just about every 5 minutes for 2 days until we finally did it.

The thing is, she really just wanted the candy. It's a good thing we just bought a kit from the store, and the house itself was even pre-assembled, so we didn't care. I know, that is a total cop-out, but I am not trying to enter any contests for the best gingerbread house or anything, I just want my kid to have a good time. And, in my defense, I didn't realize the house was pre-assembled when I bought it (Although I admit I was excited when I did realize it - have you ever tried to get those roof pieces to stay on? Annoying.).

So this first picture pretty much epitomizes what went on. Joe put frosting on the house, Madeline ate some candy, put a few pieces on the house, ate some more candy. Fun!


The finished product! I actually think it turned out really cute. For about a day. Then there were little spots where the candy was missing. Hmm... wonder where it went....

Ho! Ho! Ho!

While we were in Washington, we had the pleasure of being visited by Santa and Mrs. Claus (aka Joe's uncle and aunt). They made a special early trip just for us! We love it when Santa comes to visit because he always brings a small gift for everyone and we get to take some fun pictures on his lap. They may not be the real Santa and Mrs. Claus, but they sure look great playing the part and he is so jolly and she is so sweet you'd think they were the real deal.

I think we need to work on the smiles a little bit....

Even Daddies and Mommies get presents!

Santa also came to our church Christmas party, and I got a little better shot of the two girls with him, but really, isn't the first Santa a little (okay, a lot) more convincing?

First Snow

This winter in the North Country has been quite unusual. Last year we were Trick-or-Treating in snow, and this year we barely had any for Christmas. The past couple of days it has finally started dumping snow, but for some reason this year I don't mind it at all. In fact, I kind of love it. This year I am finding it more magical and beautiful, and I am reminding myself that being in the Army means I will probably not have a white Christmas every year.

Today is a good day for this post too, because my cousin's wife, Jana, just posted some incredible pictures of their snowflakes down in Tennessee. Have you ever really inspected snowflakes? I am completely enthralled by them. Lucky for me it was snowing here today, so after I read her post and was convinced that I had never really seen real snowflakes like that, I got to go outside and check. Sure enough, on my black coat I could make out all those perfect, magnificent snowflakes as they fell to the earth. I love it when God's creations leave me in such awe.

Anyway, the real reason for this post is to celebrate the first snow fall of the season! The very first snowfall didn't amount to much, so we just took a minute to throw a few snowballs while we were out.The next snowfall was a little more substantial - enough to put on the snow gear and go play. Madeline loves the snow, and she particularly loves to eat the snow. She also loves making snow angels, which I was surprised she remembered from last year. Last year we mostly did snowmen, but this year all she wanted was snow angels.

Thanksgiving

The past 2 years one of my very good friends, Katrina, has come from Boston to spend Thanksgiving with us. We love having her come, and this year Madeline thought that she was her friend, not mine, so she tried to monopolize every moment with dress-up dolls and art galleries. Katrina was a good sport about that - I just hope she had as much fun being here as we had having her!

We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with a couple of other families, followed with perusing the Black Friday ads and a rousing game of Apples to Apples. It was a nice low-key Thanksgiving, and this year we were thankful that Joe was home with us for a second holiday season in a row! (And, lucky for us, he will be here next year too! I think we are getting spoiled.)

Apparently I need to get one of those fancy cameras and learn how to take great photos, because then maybe I would remember to "capture the memories" more. As it is, I usually forget and then snap a few right before it is time to go.

Such is the case here. Katrina and I got up at some insane hour (I don't remember - 4 am?) to go try to score a good deal at Best Buy on a laptop. Of course they were sold out and we came home feeling like we would have been better off under some warm covers. So here are the pictures of us after having rolled out of bed to scoot off into the very chilly morning, and the girls who were not in the mood for picture-taking. I love this first picture because Madeline's face is priceless, and Amelia thinks she is starving to death but Joe is behind the camera saying, "Just one more! Just one more!" repeatedly. We'll just say it's a good "lifestyle" shot.

Visit to Washington!

Now that it has been, ahem..., almost 3 months since I have updated my blog, I figured I better get on that. Especially since I referenced it in my Christmas card and now all the people who visited my blog probably think I was lying and I don't really post on here. Sooo, I am jumping back on the wagon and vowing to post every day (or maybe every other day) until I get caught up. Starting with....

Our trip to Washington!

We went back to Washington in November to visit family, and it was especially fun for Joe because he had not been back for over 2 and a half years. Needless to say, we did a ton of running around as usual to fit in all kinds of family and friends.

The biggest reason we made the trip was because my grandma was going to the temple for the first time! She joined the church while I was staying with her when Joe was deployed, and I was honored to be her escort through the temple. It was fabulous, and she was lucky enough to even have a couple missionaries who had taught her attend the session as well. My grandma is so dear to me and I love being able to share this part of my life with her, as I know how my life has been blessed and the joy I have experienced since joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Thanks to Joe's mom for hanging out at the temple with Amelia so I could go in!



Joe's mom hosted a huge Thanksgiving dinner for all of Joe's extended family while we were there. I think about 75 people showed up, and it was terrific to be able to visit with so many people we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. We decided to do Amelia's baby blessing while we were there so that Joe's family could participate. Being able to have Amelia's father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, as well as uncles and great-uncles share in giving that blessing made the experience that much more meaningful.



We decided we better get all kinds of pictures of the girls with their grandparents and great-grandparents since we aren't sure when we will get to see them again.

The girls with Joe's maternal grandparents.

The girls with Joe's mom.

Joe with his parents.

Joe with his grandparents.

Amelia with Joe's dad.

Amelia with grandma and cousin Aiden.

The girls with my parents.

Madeline had tons of fun with my brothers kids, Ethan and Gavin, and she even spent the night there, but we all forgot to take any pictures until right before we left. Of course the kids weren't feeling very cooperative, so this is the best I got.

We had such a great time, and were able to see so many people, it made me miss Washington. But we do love it out here in New York too, so I guess for now we will just settle for visiting whenever we can.