Pre-Christmas Activities

We started out the Christmas season by attending Emma's school choir concert. It was crowded, but she did a wonderful job and she looked beautiful in her Christmas dress.

After we solved the tummy trouble issues, Kaitlin started smiling for us. It was like a night and day difference for her. One week she was crying all the time and the next week she would lay and look around and coo and smile for us for hours at a time. She has adorable dimples just like daddy and Anya. She has been such a joy to have and hold. She loves to just lay and look around and she loves to snuggle. It is the best of both worlds.

Our next Christmas venture was getting a Christmas tree. Since it was our first Christmas at home together, we decided to get a real Christmas tree. It smelled so good all month and it lasted us until New Year's (barely) for our New Years party. It seemed a little backwards that we went Christmas tree shopping in short sleeves and sandals. I was all for pretending it was cold and bundling up, but Mike isn't one for false pretenses so we went as is. Emma "held down" the tree in the back of the van on the ride home and she was very excited to sit without seats or seat belts. (It was daddy's idea to let her do that. He is such a softy for his girls.) We decorated the tree the next day. Yes, we already put the presents under it. I know what you're thinking, but you know that you love seeing presents under the tree just as much now as you did when you were a little kid.

Still in shorts. . .
A fun tradition we have carried on that we did when I was a kid is marking the ornaments. Any ornament that is special or for a certain person has a small number written on it and I have a list that I have written the number and the significance of that ornament that we keep in the ornament box. Emma loved pulling out ornaments from years past and hearing about who gave them to her or where they came from. Daddy helped Anya with her ornaments.


And she was a big ham like always.
It's a good thing that someone in our family is tall or our tree would only be half decorated.
A couple of years ago, Mike's dad got everyone a ton of jingle bell people ornaments. Mike put ours right next to each other, so I turned them so they can steal kisses when no one is looking. Man I love that guy!

All I want for Christmas . . .

Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters . . . (name that Christmas movie!)
Being the oldest, Emma got to put the star on the tree this year.
The finished product . . .
One big, happy(most of the time) family.

Kaitlin's Blessing

We blessed Kaitlin over Thanksgiving weekend since Scotty was in town. She was blessed by her dad. Her two uncles Tony and Scotty, were in the circle as well as family friends John Crockett and Devon Rodgers.
The blessing was very sweet and short. Mike's strongest impression while giving the blessing was that this is going to be a very tough world for these kids and if they are going to make it through it, they are going to have to stay close to God.


Tony, Kristi, Sabrina, Kaitlin, Mike, Laura, Anya, Scotty
Sam, Dallin, Eli, Emma

My Little Girls

Things are finally settling down here at our house. Kaitlin had some tummy issues that gave her a lot of discomfort which equated to a lot of crying over the last month. After seeing the doctor on almost a weekly basis, we figured out that she is sensitive to dairy. So easy fix, no dairy for mommy (yeah, easy my foot, what is Christmas without chocolate and cookies?) and it turns out that Kaitlin is a very calm and sweet little girl. We have felt so blessed to be able to see her sweet side. Here are a few precious moments I caught on camera.



I wanted to include some shots of some of Kaitlin's firsts.

First real bath.

First visit to church. Does anyone else notice her crazy hair. I just don't know what to do with hair with curl. I am in uncharted waters here.
Doesn't this shot just capture the essence of Emma? Energy anyone?She was expressing to me how much she loved the pumpkin pie that Aunt Kristi made for Thanksgiving. And where Emma goes, Anya will follow. Here's Anya expressing her enthusiasm just like big sister.

So Very Blessed

We are so blessed with a wonderful, loving, supportive family. We've been extra blessed that we have gotten to see a lot of our family over the last two months who have visited for holidays, to see Kaitlin, and for fun! Here is the line up (it's in chronological order of who came when):

Grandma West - Grandma came to take care of Kaitlin and I after she was born. We were lucky that we were able to celebrate Halloween and Mike's birthday together with her. We were very grateful that she came to help when she was busy getting ready to move into a new house and was working on fixing it up. Thank you mom and thank you Larry for sharing her.

Grandma Chipman - We are so blessed that Grandma Chipman came to help. She was so patient with baby Kaitlin who had started to develop collic when she was here. It seriously put a cramp in her cooking style, but our meals were delicious none the less. We were lucky that she cooked for Mike's birthday and mine too! Thank you, thank you many times over.
The Kings. I can't believe I didn't get a picture with Kristi and Kaitlin! I really thought I did. It must have been because that night was so crazy. We love living so close to the Kings and always look forward to getting together with them! I am also indebted to Tony who cooked the salmon (big yuck!) for me on Mike's birthday.
Grandpa Chipman - Grandpa Chipman's visit was a nice surprise! He came for a few days on business and we loved playing games and goofing off with Grandpa. We hope that we will get to see a lot more of him as he comes to Phoenix more often for his job!
Great Grandma Cheek - I was so honored that Grandma Cheek came to visit. The drive was long and she was only able to stay a few hours, which made our time even more precious. Her wonderful friends came down with her and we had such a relaxing afternoon eating and visiting. Now that I'm a little less pregnant, we will have to return the favor and go visit her!
The West Family - It was so much fun to see the West's! I have three kids and I am struggling, I don't know how Sunni does it! She is such an inspiration. We usually only get to see our West cousins once or twice a year, so it was a lot of fun to spend a couple of hours with them when they came to visit. The girls (and Bryson) played while Sunni and I chatted. We loved seeing them!
Uncle James & Melanie - James gets the award for easiest visitor to have! Having he and Melanie here was so nice. Melanie and the girls played so well together and James was a huge help with Kaitlin. He was so patient with her incessant crying and it was so nice to sit down and relax and play games together.
Uncle Scotty - I loved having Scotty come to visit! I miss him tons and maybe some day we will convince him to move to Arizona with us! The girls loved playing with him and goofing around. I loved going black Friday shopping with him! It was so much fun! He even cooked us dinner while he was here. We are so excited that he chose to come see us and hope that we can see him again soon!

Halloween

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, we didn't do the traditional trick or treating. We went to Emma's school party and to our ward party and it was plenty fun. On Halloween we did what we should always focus on and celebrated Mike's birthday with my mom, his mom, and the Kings. It was a busy, but fun weekend. Here are my cuties.

Anya was Strawberry Shortcake
Emma was Superwoman. I realized how much she is growing up, that she didn't want to be a princess or fairy or some other cute little girl person. Sniff, sniff, my little girl isn't so little any more. I will concede that it fits her personality . Even her gymnastics coach calls her "mighty mini." And she looks awfully cute in that costume
Doughnut race at the ward party. I don't know who won because I was feeding Kaitlin for a good majority of the time.
After eating during most of the party, this is how Kaitlin spent the rest of the night.
This year Mike hit the big 3-0! For the next couple of years, I can constantly harass him that at least I am still in my twenties! For Mike's Birthday we had a lot of fun hanging out and attempting to play games. Tony made his famous white chocolate cheesecake with raspberry sauce. There were so many candles that it took a group effort to light them all.
It's amazing that the fire didn't melt the cake. ; )
Happy birthday to my husband who is soooo old. ; )