"Daddy's been bad, Santa's gonna bring him coal!"

Actually, Daddy wasn't bad, Cooper just wanted to assert that when you ARE bad Santa DOES bring you coal. In all actuality Santa didn't bring anyone coal this year, guess we've all been good! As you can see, we all got new Jammies:

Jesse's big present was a membership to Anytime Fitness so he can work out (yes that's right) anytime! My big present was a guitar! I've wanted some sort of instrument to have in the house so I can noodle around and make some sort of music.... Hooray! What shall I learn first? Stairway to Heaven? Maybe some Jimmy Hendrix? I'll be playing like a fiend in no time I'm sure! Merry Christmas everyone!

Those kids.....

Almost every day when Jesse comes home from work I have to fill him in on the funny things the kids have said or done.... they replenish the list daily :)

• The other day Leila squats down by a dead bug in the hallway and says "ewww... BUG!" after a long pause while she looks the bug over carefully she says "Kake up bug! Kake up!" (Wake up bug, wake up!)
• Leila pointed up to the tree and said "da Stah! Da Stah!" (The star! The star!) Cooper said, "Leila, don't you mean donde esta?"
• Cooper was chasing Leila on his trike, she runs into my room, flings herself onto my lap and exclaims, "Momma, Momma! I scare! I scare!" (I think she has a flare for the dramatic)
• We went to our ward dinner at the stake center instead of at our normal church building and as we sat in the gym eating dinner, Cooper looks around and says "Momma, which kind of church is this?"
• As we were getting dressed for the Nativity Cooper looks up at the lady helping us and says, "Are you a MEMBER of the CHURCH?", luckily, she was.
  

MY Christmas

I know that the actual DAY isn't until Friday. But my Christmas was last night, when, for our ward Christmas party our little family was in the live nativity. Jesse was Joseph, I played Mary, Marshall played a gigantic baby Jesus, Leila was an angel, and Cooper was the best little shepherd those baby goats have ever seen. I think Marshall has some fans, these little angels were completely in love with him!

Family Pictures 2009

My Friend Donalee started her own photography business called Simply Snapshots, she did a great job and got some cute faces :)

Leila Belle turns 2!

We started the day by singing to Leila as we opened her door. She looked at us like we were crazy people. You gotta love Cooper, he goes along with any cooky plot I cook up and enjoys it. We ran errands while Cooper was at preschool and I almost lost her in Khol's. As I was frantically running around trying to find her (while simultaneously "shushing" a fussy Marshall) she was having the time of her little life in the jewelry section and by the time I found her she had selected her purchases and slung them over her shoulder like a purse.
She had her favorite "fwech wise" and "ka-tup" (french fries and ketchup) for lunch at the burger place and for dinner her other favorite "Pi-da!" (pizza) for dinner.

I thought the princess cake would be a fabulous idea and didn't count on her freaking out because her barbie was in a cake without her dress on... sheesh... I'll have to take that into account next time. She got used to the idea and had no problem eating the barbie's dress. She got some fabulous presents including: Sleeping Beauty DVD, a Princess Ballerina (from Annie), A Princess Fairy wand (from Elyza), Clothes and a glow-worm baby (from Ben & Tasha), a princess purse (from Nikki & Sam), a fairy tutu (from Candice & Flint), a tote bag with all the essential girly things (from Grandma Monique), and a princess Mirror from Grandma Wendy.Happy Birthdy Pih-dess... Momma Dadda Love you!

I like my birthdays every one!

Each brings a special joy to me... but I can't wait until I'm 25, for then my car insurance will go down :) Ha ha.... just kidding (but seriously... )
I thought I was just keeping it low key until I made a sum total at the end of the day and man! I did not do too bad! Jesse surprised me with a wheat grinder (It had been beautifully wrapped and sitting in our closet for 3 weeks just staring down at me, my best guess was that it was Rosetta stone, a computer program for learning Spanish) so now I can make wheat bread with freshly ground wheat (it's the healthiest way to go!). My Mother in law, Monique, brought me balloons and flowers (It just doesn't seem like a valid birthday without balloons!). We went shopping for some new clothes, ate lunch at Fish Rock Grill at the Ledges, and Annie gave me a whole new compact of Mary Kay makeup (wahoo!), 2 new lip colors, a new set of makeup brushes, and a Mary Kay travel bag for makeup. My mom had done some investigating and found out that I really needed a lemon juicer (I have been doing it by hand up until now) and found me a really nice one that strains out all the pulp. When I got home from all the festivities I found that my friend Kelsi left me a box of chocolates and some lavender scented soap and lotion... ah... nothing like chocolate on your birthday! I really can't think of anything that could have made the day better, I LOVE days like that. So now I'm 25 and I don't feel much different, but every so often I think "Whoa, wait, I'm 25? What the? When did THAT happen?"

I have all these cute pictures of the kids on my camera and I NEED to share them (or else why even take them?) This one is of Cooper using his cow as a cape because Leila was using the superman one. They both ran around in their "capes" being super.
Here is Marshall and his mad face when he wouldn't go to sleep one night.
And here is Cooper with Annie and Dave's new puppy (which is now Becca and Alan's new puppy).

Remind me again what kind of stuff that guy says.

if you want to know what kind of stuff that guy says click here.Enough of that, here's the pictures from the veteran's day parade in Washington:
They just came for the candy

Marshall borrowed Grandma Wendy's visor, it kept the sun out of his eyes so he could enjoy the parade like a normal human.

Kids don't care about your mental health

They really don't. I learned this at a parenting class on Sunday. They'll drive you out of your mind just to get a piece of cake. They don't care if you're ripping your hair out and running down the street stark raving mad... as long as they get thier cake. This makes perfect sense to one who has children or has been around them for very long. I snapped these pictures this morning as they sieged my bed (a common practice), they really are not so bad once they stop pinching my eyelids.

'cept for this one... gotta watch out for this guy.

I traded Mexico for the four seasons... it worked out.

Wednesday morning we woke up excited for our departure to Mexico city for 3 days to attend the wedding of a former missionary companion of Jesse's. As I was throwing in last minute things and putting our passports into my meticulously labeled folder Jesse, watching me, said "Don't we need a passport for Marshall?"
Ugh. No! There's no way! Do we?
We frantically called Dave (our advisor on all things flight and travel related, and, incidentally the one who kindly procured our buddy passes for us) and the airline and both confirmed our dread. A baby, no matter what age, does require a passport to leave or enter the country. Now we had a problem. The shuttle was to leave in a half hour. My first instinct was to just take Jesse to the shuttle and pity myself for the next few days for missing out on our vacation due to my own oversight (the martyr, of course).
Jesse, the wiser of the two of us, knew that neither of us would have a very good weekend if he just left then and there. He called Dave and asked if he could refund the tickets and book a flight for the next day. He then instructed me to book a hotel in Vegas (any one I thought looked good) and we dropped the kids off as scheduled at my mom's. I was sad as we drove to Vegas, knowing that it would only be for one night and then I'd have to cope for 3 days alone without him. But as we checked into our hotel (the Four Seasons) and caught a glimpse of our spacious room, I knew I was completely spoiled and it would be worth the 3 days alone! I find that I really like the sound of "Mr. & Mrs. Callahan" as we were called by the hotel staff. I also like this crib they put in our our room, complete with diapers, wipes and baby soap (and complimentary teddy bear, which he loves to shove in his mouth). I also loved that they turned down our bed at night, and we came home from dinner to dimmed lights and soft music playing.... and slippers next to the bed. I probably don't even have to say that the whole thing was completely relaxing and luxurious. That was the richest I have ever felt and I thoroughly loved it! The pool wasn't bad either. Perfect tempurature, lovely gardens.
I suppose I could go on like this forever, but I just want to hold on to this kind of an experience... it doesn't come around that often. To Mexico: I will visit you at some point. To Four Seasons: I will never forget you :). To Jesse: Thanks for spending time with just me (and Marshall) and thanks for not getting the swine flu in Mexico.

My favorite things about Marshall

1. The intimate little conversations we have when our faces are 3 inches apart and he has his little chubby hands pulled up clasping each other under his chin. It usually goes like this:
Me: Agooooo
Him: Agoooo
Me: OOOOO
Him: OOOO
We find out so much about each other this way.

2. How when he's upset and crying he has enormous tears that slide down his chubby cheeks and no matter what the problem is, the look on his face says that you've betrayed him to the bitter core.

3. How I can calm him down by brushing my cheek against his cheek and cooing at him.

4. How he puts himself to sleep :)

5. How he gets so excited when he's "talking" that he sticks out his neck like a little turtle and his upper lip gets pointy.

6. How he head bangs my uh.. self when he's really hungry and can't wait to eat.

7. How when he wants something in front of him he just glares at it and clasps his hands very tight and the more he wants it the harder he glares and the tighter he clasps his hands.

8. How after he's done nursing he pops off, looks up at me and coos with milk dripping down his chin.

And we got a flat tire...

Everyone who knows absolutely anything knows that we love camping. We even took Cooper out when he was 3 weeks old! Well, these last few times we haven't been able to get things right. Last weekend we went up to cedar mt. with the Callahans and it rained... pretty much a lot. We did have fun, thanks to aunt Yvonne taking care of us in the cabin, and our tent and sleepingbags kept us warm and dry... but the kids didn't have as much fun because any playing led to them being cold and wet. Sorry kids. Maybe next time.You can never really tell what this guy's thinking... he has perma-grumpy face, but every so often he breaks out a huge, uncontrollable smile (complete with chubby dimples).


We weathered the storm pretty good under our umbrella :)

Fast forward to this weekend when we went to North Timp Point (on the Grand Canyon) with the Syphus and this is the order of catastrophe:
-I get sick, but we pack up and leave anyway
-outside of Fredonia Cooper gets sick
-We stop in Kanab at the ER and for $100 they tell us he has the flu
(we probably should have just gone home at this point, but we had the breakfast for the next day so.... )
-we have to stop so many times to adjust and re-adjust the 3 kids crammed in our car that we don't get there till dark.
-In the morning we find our rear driver-side tire is completely flat. (though we did have a nice spare!)
-Leila fell on a log and scraped her beautiful lips and got them all bloody and swollen
-We had to cut out one whole day and night from our trip we've been waiting MONTHS for! Ugh! That's the worst!

Whatever. I think the camping gods must be mad at us for having too much fun on other camping trips, or as my mom says: "sounds like you're having a syphus camping trip!", since the dawn of time apparently Syphuses have been cursed with forgotten items and flat tires. We always seem to have fun though because none of us can wait to do it again!See how Logan is reaching out for little Marshall? So Cute!

The boys had a horseshoe tournement with a bag of double stuff's as the prize, that got Jesse in :)

Annie's New House, and Marshall's Chubby-ness

Annie and Dave closed on their house and at last it it theirs! To celebrate we started painting :)

Annie was a very meticulous home-owner :)
At our friday park/cafe rio weekend starting celebration Marshall showed off his chub to all the ladies :)

All the ladies meaning Leila.