Sunday Best

The girls in their new Christmas dresses, I might have given up on getting Charlie to wear anything else than his suit.  We'll have to settle for a Christmas tie I think.  Kenya was giving me some attitude and didn't want to smile.  By the time I got her to Leila was done standing still.  I love that she's playing with her dress though.  When I put it on her she said "pretty!"  and started twirling around.  Last year Kenya was full on crying in the picture so this is a step up. :) Love these little cuties.

Ice Skating

There is a little ice skating rink at Station Park that we took the kids too with the Nixon's.  They had so much fun!  We didn't head over until 7:00 on a school night so it cleared out pretty quick and by 8:00 we had the rink to ourselves.  We had to drag the kids off the rink.  Kenya said she wanted to live there she loved it so much. Mark ended up taking them to the rec center that weekend too because they kept begging to go ice skating again.  

Leila and I just watched but she loved when Mark would hold her and skate around with her.  She ran around with Luke, they were so cute together.

The Grinch

We love The Grinch around here.  I love the original movie which I watched all the time as a kid, my kids enjoy the new version, (I think Jim Carrey is a little over the top in it) and we love the book too.  We made green grinch cookies this night and since it was getting late and they had already seen both movies this season, I read the book to them after we made the cookies.  The girls loved helping of course.  The next day at school The Grinch came to a little assembly they had and that night we went to a free performance (kind of terrible I might add) of The Grinch at the school.  The Grinch's costume was really good, that was about it but the kids still liked it.

December Fun

December is flying by as usual.  The weather has been so mild, at the first of the month we took the kids over to Station Park on a whim to see Santa.  It was so nice we barely needed jackets (Charlie of course didn't wear his at all), the line for Santa flew by and we enjoyed the holiday fountain show, the playground, the outdoor fireplaces and were back home in an hour.  We've loved having Station Park so close and convenient.

For the record, Leila wouldn't even sit on Santa's lap, she was so scared and clinging to me.  :(  Maybe next year.  Kenya asked for a cinderella coach and Charlie asked for Madden 13.

 They were all in red this day.

Michael has been fun this year to have back at our house.  He doesn't get into much, just usually moves from place to place to keep an eye on the kids.  One night Charlie wrote him a note to see if he liked the Utes.  Michael said "yes, go Utes!"  and next to the note was a snow angel made out of flour.  He also wrote "sorry, I thought that was snow."  The kids thought that was pretty funny.  Charlie's been writing him notes occaisonally ever since and Kenya's been drawing him pictures to take back to the North Pole.

 Some iphone pics...

 I can't even go to the bathroom without this one breaking down the door yelling "mommy, what doing?!"

Thank goodness for play centers at malls...she is not a good shopper.

 Leila loves to color and paint...on anything.

 I found her like this one day after Kenya had left for school, back pack on trying to open the door and saying "Where's Kenya?"

She climbs into our bed most mornings and plays on our phones or ipads.  She gives good snuggles too.

We got our gingerbread houses made too the other day with cousins.

 The girls and I happened to be all dressed in coral one day (I think I do this subconsciously sometimes)  We went to the library and over to the park for a little bit after, it was late November and still nice outside.

Leila got her "pretties" done later,  her favorite thing.

Sunday Evening

 Our kids get a little restless sometimes by the time Sunday evening rolls around.  We usually stay entertained by watching a movie together or making cookies or playing games.  I think we did all of the above this night and it came with it's sibling fights and sore losers but it ended with smiles and dog piles. :) Love this little family of mine.

 The loser of Jenga had to  do pushups , we were showing Leila how to do them.

I just think it's so cute when Leila comes out in a hand towel wrapped around her like mom.  This time Kenya and Leila came out of my tub together wrapped liked this.

Potty Trained!

I decided it was time to get this little one potty trained.  My sister and I decided to take it on together one weekend, I read a book about potty training in three days and it had some good tips in there, I decided I'd try her method and was ready to stay home all weekend.  We started Friday out with putting panties on and getting the potty seat out.  She drank lots of juice, watched lots of show while I worked on the computer right next to her.  This method suggests just asking her if her panties are dry and telling her to tell me when she needs to go potty, instead of just putting her on the potty every 20 minutes or so.  We had about 3 accidents that morning and a lot of false alarms before she finally got it in the potty for the first time around lunch time.  Yay!  She says "Mommy, I went potty, I went yellow!" or "I went brown!"  It's a pretty cute way of describing it.  By Saturday she had a couple accidents, Sunday one, and after that she has pretty much been potty trained.  She has an accident here or there, usually it's just if she can't get her pants down in time, but she is pretty reliable with it and goes all on her own.  Such a relief!  A few months of no diapers will be great.

 I love those little buns in panties.

There was a lot of talking and sitting on the potty those first couple days.

Charlie's Baptism

     Charlie has been so excited to get baptized.  He had his baptismal interview at our tithing settlement a few days before and did a great job with the Bishop.  Bishop Wilkes asked him the questions again when we went in to show us how he answered them, I must say I was impressed!  He is listening to what we teach him and his primary teachers (he has fantastic teachers by the way.)  He just seems to have grown up so much this year and we are so proud of him.  He has been begging for a suit for a couple years now, almost every Sunday it was a fight of what he was going to wear.  Now that he has his suit that's what he wears every week.  I guess it's better than fighting him to actually wear a suit.  He just wants to be like his dad. :)

     His baptism was at 10:00 am so I literally spent all day Friday preparing for it.  Cooking, cleaning, getting his gifts, getting food and everything ready.  But come Saturday morning I didn't have to worry too much about it which was nice.  The program went well, Kenya sang "Love At Home" with Mark's mom for the musical number.  They sang a verse in Samoan and a verse in English.  It was definitely the highlight of the program for me.  I think she's got a talent there that I need to help her develop (meaning put her in lessons or give her more singing opportunities since I can't sing.)  She sang so well, didn't clam up when she got to the pulpit.  In fact she started singing the song all on her own before Selena was standing by her, no piano playing either!  Mark and I were on the front row saying "Kenya, not yet!"  It got a good chuckle out of the crowd.  The song definitely brought the spirit and was extra special singing it in Samoan too.

     I love going to baptisms.  I love how present the Holy Ghost is, I love feeling the spirit so strongly and being reminded of my baptism and the covenants I made with Heavenly Father.  I am so grateful for this gospel and grateful for Charlie.  He bore his testimony on Sunday, which isn't new for him, but this one was very thought out and had a little more meaning.  He also fasted for part of the day with Mark and didn't complain once.  I am so proud of him.  

Mark helped him tie his tie this day but by Sunday he decided he needed to learn on his own and that he did!  He got some new scriptures, a tie, and a journal with entries from me and Mark to him. 

The bishop gave him a journal too so we decided we would use that one as a book that everyone could write their testimony or a thought for Charlie in.  I'm so glad we did, it will be a great treasure for him.

I really wish I could've recorded them singing in the chapel but I had them do it again at home, not quite the same but it will do. 

Jared decided to shave his beard into a mustache.  We couldn't resist getting a picture when he fell asleep.  He looks like he stepped out of the 70's, a different person so we were calling him uncle Jerry.

Such a great day.  A big thank you to everyone who helped with the food and came to support Charlie.