Random Superlatives of 2013

I can't believe we're already here!  2013 was, in my opinion, a great year.  We had some really great things happen this year.  The biggest event in my eyes, of course, was going to Costa Rica.  So I'm going to try really hard and not have 'Costa Rica' be the obvious answer for every single item here!

Favorite new place I ate at: Buca di Beppo.  We had gone to eat at Longhorn Steakhouse (right after they had opened) and it was packed so we went next door to Buca di Beppo.  We've always wanted to eat at Buca but never think to.  It was yummy.  In fact, later when we went to Longhorn, we wished we'd just gone back to Buca.  Irony.

Best new addition to our house: the patio awning we had installed in June.  We were actually able to enjoy our Summer outside this year.  Makes for great parties, too.

Favorite Book read: I've loved Harry Potter (more on that over at my goals) but the ones that surprised me the most were this new-to-me series by Sherrilyn Kenyon called the Chronicles of Nick.  I can't wait for the next one to come out!

Favorite Movie I saw in Theaters: Catching Fire.  Even if S and I still got out to see a lot of movies, I still have a feeling this would be my favorite.  The best books to movies, so far, that I've seen.

Favorite Movie I saw at Home: Warm Bodies.  Loved this movie.

Worst Movie that I thought would be better: Taken 2.  I loved Taken and was really disappointed by this one.

Favorite new crafting tool: Silhouette Cameo.  I haven't actually used it yet.  But I just know it's going to be awesome.

Most time-consuming project: hand-sewing a few dozen stuffed monsters as take home gifts from Boy's birthday party.  I sure hope all of their eyes stayed on.

Most daring new article of clothing/accessory: 4 inch shiny red high heels for my sister-in-law's wedding.  How on earth do women walk in these things longer than 20 minutes at a time?

Favorite new recipe: I cooked a lot of new recipes for dinner, baked a lot of goodies for birthdays and the first thing that comes to mind is the cake-pops I made for Boy's birthday.  Not because they were really super delicious but because I have always been intimidated by cake-pops and was pleasantly surprised by how well they turned out.

Biggest 'oops': Backing out of our driveway, right into S's car (not his truck, thankfully, that would have been worse.)  I even knew it was there but I had mommy-brain and didn't remember until I heard a crunch.

Worst luck: getting sick before each race I was supposed to run, Bean getting sick the night before her Christmas recital, and then getting sick again Christmas Eve.  I hope this isn't a trend.

Favorite date that wasn't in Costa Rica:  Rafting down Provo River for our anniversary.  There is a lot of really cool stuff to do close to home.  Sometimes I think it's easy to forget.  The firefighter banquet was fun, too.

Favorite new song: Glowing by Nikki Williams.  Oh my gosh, I love this song.

Favorite artist that I just became acquainted with: Ellie Goulding (Dead in the Water and This Love Will Be Your Downfall are two of my faves!)

Best App: Heads Up! (Ellen's)

Favorite moment at work: Getting 'dressed up' as cows 15 minutes before Chick-Fil-A closed just so we could get a free meal on cow appreciation day.

Best vacation: Costa Rica.  Duh.

Christmas Morning

I have continued the advent calendar tradition for my kids that my own mom started for me when I was a kid.  I opened a window on a castle each day, revealing a Christmas related picture and then there was a small present for me to open as well.  Instead of the castle, I have a pocket one I made a few years ago but the present calendar is the exact same one I used as a kid.  I still remember being so excited for it to be hung the morning of December 1st and knowing I'd get to open a present each day until Christmas!  

I knew Bean would be totally into it this year.  I wasn't expecting Boy to be into it at all.  I was wrong!  Each morning he would walk over to the calendar and, on the days it was his turn, I would hold him up to point to the one he wanted, after which he would walk over to our spot on the floor and open it.  It took about a week for him to catch on.  I was really excited!  Bean didn't understand opening presents really well until last year.  Maybe it was her excitement this year that was so contagious for Boy.

Anyway, there was a problem with Boy catching on to presents so quickly--he would open any present in sight.  Which meant that up until Christmas morning our tree looked like this:

I really, really love how pretty trees look with presents tucked neatly around them.  But there was no way that I was wrapping presents twice so I had a bare tree this Christmas.

I had to work Christmas Eve but got off early enough to come home and play Santa Claus.  S had the kids open their new pajamas and Christmas book before they went to bed.  Bean was beyond excited when she got a nightgown with Disney princesses on it.  S told me he couldn't wait to see how excited she was when her real presents came!

She wasn't the only one excited--S and I hauled up all of the presents late that night, made sure there was evidence that Santa had been there, and watched midnight mass.  We finally decided we'd better head to bed ourselves.

I woke up fairly early to get ready for the day but it quickly became evident that my family was sleeping in that morning.  I didn't care too much.  I hate rushing around on holidays anyway, so I made myself some oatmeal and got some reading done.  It was actually a really nice morning!

A little after 9 S finally woke up so we decided it was time to get the kids up too.  We usually have to pry Bean out of bed.  And after what happened last year (Bean being so afraid that Santa was still there that she refused to come downstairs,) we weren't sure what kind of reaction to expect this year.  I'm happy to announce that Bean is officially over her fear of Santa Claus.  Who couldn't love someone that brings you lots and lots of toys?!

Bean's first reaction walking into the room was 'Mom, Santa filled my stocking!!'

We showed her the missing treat, wrappers (Santa sure is messy,) and his magic key to get inside our house.

And then it was present time.  I think Bean was a little overwhelmed.

Boy was excited too!

Boy didn't play by the 'play with the box' rule.  He knew there was a toy inside this box and he was not satisfied with us keeping it in the box for the time being.

Bean's ultimate present: 8 pack of princess dolls.  My goodness.  They are all best friends now.

Santa was really great to me this year too!  Last month we were walking around Macy's and I showed S this enamel cast-iron dutch oven and strongly hinted that I would love one.  I wasn't sure he'd take me seriously but Christmas morning guess what was under the tree?

I can already smell the pot roast cooking...

Also, S denies this, but I swear he looked at my wish list(s) on Amazon and on my phone because every single thing that I got was something from my list.  If it's just coincidence then it's official: we've been married long enough for S to read my mind.

We went to my parents for breakfast and S's parents for lunch.  I had started getting sick the day before and, while I felt pretty good that morning, I really started feeling lousy as the day progressed.  By that night I was done for (and have been, unfortunately, every day since.)  But I am glad that I felt relatively good Christmas morning because it was probably the best one that we've had so far with the kiddos.  

Merry Week of Christmas!

I don't know how many of you had to watch the First Presidency's Devotional earlier this month, but I was so drawn to Sis. Wixom's talk (you can read it here.)  It was exactly what I needed to hear!  Sometimes I find myself getting so frustrated with my children and caught up in the day to day.  If you are a parent of small children you probably feel the same way too!  It is especially easy to have this happen during a busy Christmas season.  Sister Wixom said, "We miss something if we don't see Christmas through a child's eyes."  I've really taken this to heart this year.  Christmas is exciting!!  I still remember nervously pacing in the hallway early in the morning until I was given the go-ahead to run out into our living room and see what Santa had left me!  I've found myself feeling that same nervous, anxious excitement this year too!

The best Christmas memories I've had thus far this year are driving around with the kiddos to see the lights, watching Christmas shows on Netflix, eating warm Julekage--right out of the oven, watching Boy discover the excitement of opening up his and Bean's Advent presents every morning (even if Boy is still more interested in the paper than the present itself!)  I have truly felt the Spirit of Christmas this year, and I hope that you have as well!

'Tis the Season!

Whenever Thanksgiving falls at the very end of November, I feel cheated out of a week of Christmas.  But maybe it's a good thing because when I'm crunched for time I tend to buckle down and get stuff done.  Most of the time.  From my last post you know we got our tree the day after Thanksgiving, but it stood undecorated in the corner of our living room for almost a week.  Bean asked us every morning if it was the day we could put the ornaments and lights on the tree.  She was ecstatic when we finally told her yes!

In some weird ways I was more nervous about Boy and the tree this year than I was the first year we had a tree and a cat.  I don't remember being that nervous with Bean either :)  But Boy has done really well to leave things alone when we ask him to, for the most part.

Boy was strictly fascinated with decorating the tree.

I think this is when my nervousness began!

We went to Festival of Trees a few days later than we normally do and it was much more crowded than we are used to, but we still seemed enjoyed ourselves.  In fact, the kiddos didn't cause one problem the entire time we were there!  Bean asked if I would take her picture in front of the Hello Kitty tree...and then another tree...and then another tree.  Seriously, I have almost 100 pictures of Bean in front of a tree on my phone.  Don't worry, I narrowed it down for the blog :)

No guesses as to why she wanted her picture taken with this tree.  Little girl doesn't know yet that her Christmas morning is actually going to look a lot like this picture!

This one was my favorite tree.  I Loved the whole retro-inspired setup!  And the colors!  Teal and red is now my new favorite color pairing for Christmas!

The next day we had our first real snow-day of the year.  The snow and blowing wind made it nearly impossible to go anywhere so we just hunkered down for the day.  S built a fire in our wood stove, I retreated to my craft cave, Boy slept, and S and Bean went outside for some sledding and snow-fort building.  It's the last real storm we had but there is still a ton of snow leftover from it.

I love how this is the first year that Bean really remembers our Christmas traditions.  She was very excited to go build gingerbread houses with Grandma J. again this year.  She was a little put out at first that she was still doing a small one while Grandma and Mommy were doing bigger ones.  I told her if she asked very nicely that Grandma might bake her a bigger one for next year, too.  I wasn't sure at first if this was a good idea but Bean totally took over building her house all by herself.

The kid definitely had artistic flair!

We are 10 days away from Christmas and more than half of those days will be filled with more fun Christmas-y things to do.  I love this time of year!

November

At the beginning of the month I celebrated my 32nd birthday.  I have now officially reached the age where birthdays are just another number.  But the day itself was very nice.  S bought me flowers and took the kids while I went into my craft cave.

That night was the traditional birthday dinner and flowery pink cake for dessert.  Yum.

Early in November we got our first real good snowstorm of the year and I promised Bean that we could go out after lunch.  She loved it.

Boy did not.

Bean had a Thanksgiving party at preschool.  They definitely know how to throw a party.  I told her that they would probably be having a Christmas party at school by the end of the month and she was so excited that she was going to be able to have more treats.  Welcome to the best part of school, Bean.

I had my last Thanksgiving meal at work (hopefully ever.)  For being cafeteria food, it was pretty good.  And I ate pretty much all of it so that I was genuinely stuffed by the time it was time for our family Thanksgiving dinner.  Oops.

The extent of my Black Friday shopping was an online purchase (a Silhouette die-cutting machine.  I am very excited) and going out in the morning to buy our Christmas Tree.  The weather was perfect.  I would have taken more pictures but my phone stopped working.

The last day of the month was perhaps the best.  Aunt B and W got married!  W has been staying with us up until the wedding and it's been fun to have him around.  Our house is going to seem a little empty now, but I am so happy for these two.  They are excellent people!

Boy wasn't feeling good so I dropped him off at my mom's early in the evening.  Bean, however, was more than willing to stay and party.  She learned that evening just how excellent of dancers her parents are.  (Who cares if I am the only person who thinks 'the Carlton' is still a trendy dance...)

Back to Halloween...

Our Halloween wasn't especially spectacular this year but I think the kids still had fun.  Sometimes it's good to be reminded that you don't need to have a Martha Stewart holiday in order for it to seem like one to the kids.

The farm where Bean goes to preschool had a big festival one Saturday.  It happened to be a Saturday that S was working, so I loaded up the kiddos and went to brave the crowds.  I say crowds lightly.  It was packed.  Right away Bean found Ariel.  Remember how Bean is totally a Disney princess kid right now?  Needless to say she was ecstatic!  She talked about it for days.

There was also a maze and a petting zoo.  Bean had received a punch card since she is a student there but all of the lines for the paid activities were ridiculously long so we used her punch card to buy some produce at the farmer's market instead.  I know; I am such an exciting mom.

That same evening was our town's Halloween party so once again I packed up the two kiddos and off we went.  There were a lot of people at this event too, but luckily it felt a little more organized.  Plus the majority of it was indoors.  Bean played a bunch of games and received fistfuls of candy.  Just like a Halloween party should be!

Bean picked out her Halloween costume herself again this year.  With her current obsession of princesses you would think she would have been a Disney princess for Halloween, but no.  Bean picked out her costume last August at which time she was currently obsessed with Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  So Bean dressed up as Captain Hook and Boy dressed up as Smee.  I thought she would change her mind but that is one thing I love/drives me crazy about Bean is that once she puts her mind up to something, it rarely changes.

Bean had dance and alpha-betters story-time on Halloween so I got the kiddos dressed up first thing in the morning.  I had envisioned a cute picture of the two of them on our porch with our pumpkins, but the sun was too bright...

 ...so we moved inside but then Bean's hat kept falling off...

...and then Boy just plain got tired of having his on.

But you get the idea.

I had to work this Halloween which was okay.  S always takes the kids trick-or-treating so the only thing I missed out on that evening was handing out candy.  At work we might all be adults but that doesn't mean we don't still dress up!