The first of three Christmas celebrations

We are headed to Colorado for Christmas this year.  We will be spending Christmas Day up at the cabin with Ty's family, and celebrating an early Christmas with my family.  Tyson and I decided to have Christmas at our house as a family before we left.  It alleviates so much stress of packing presents, worrying about losing tiny important pieces, and overwhelming the kiddos with too much stuff all at once.  After emailing Santa and asking him to come early to deliver the kid's presents we got strait to work.  Our house was decorated the week before Thanks Giving, Christmas songs were playing, and the holiday spirit was in full force.  

Lexi got an advent calendar and had to eat 3-4 chocolates a day so that she would be done with it by Christmas eve.  (she didn't mind). We went to visit Santa THREE times at Disney land.  He was a good Santa.  Probably the best I've ever seen.  Both the kids loved him.  Gauge actually cried when I took him off his lap.  We got an awesome picture.

The weekend we were doing our "Christmas" was perfect.  On Friday night, we surprised the kids.  We got them ready for bed as usual and then had lexi find a golden ticket under her pillow for the "ford-edge express" (thank you pintrest, and chelsea stewarts!).  She was so excited.  We packed popcorn and hot chocolate then headed out.  We went to the live acting out of the nativity in Brea.  It was so awesome.  They even had a camel!  I don't know who just has a pet camel hanging around in their backyard on Southern California, but they found one.  Lexi was thrilled.  Then we got more hot chocolate and cookies and headed out to look at the most lit up neighborhood I've ever seen.  It took about an hour to see all the awesome decorations in this neighborhood.  The kids loved it and so did I.  There is something so magical, beautiful and spectacular about looking at Christmas lights.  It is one of my VERY favorite things.

The next day we baked goodies and delivered them to our friends, made sugar cookies for Santa, and had a fancy Christmas Eve Dinner (too bad everything turned out just ok, not spectacular, at least the kids didn't notive).  We let the kids open up their one present (pjs, every year), after we sand some christmas carols.  That night I told Lexi the story of baby Jesus birth while I was putting her to sleep.  It took her 3 hours to fall asleep.  Meanwhile, "Santa" was downstairs building her tramp.  

Lexi's note to santa

one last peek at the presents before bedtime

the loot

she was disappointed when she came down stairs, until I pointed out her note...

I didn't get any pictues on the trampoline, but the kids loved it!! They played on it for hours. (one of the perks of CA, play outside, all year long!)  

Gauge did not get opening presents AT ALL.

lexi was a pro.

funny little face

Gauge loved what his sister picked out for him before he even got it opened.

The kids got spoiled!  I can't wait for our next Christmas Celebration.  Colorado.... here we come!!

Almost One

I cannot believe it.  He is two months shy of his first birthday.  Where has the time gone?  Is it just me or is the time going faster and faster?  

Gauge learned to walk at about 9 1/2 months.  He is doing more and more walking and less and less crawling.  He still lacks a lot of confidence in walking, but I noticed that when he is trying to be a "big kid"  he'll walk.  (the other day at chick-fil-a he walked into the play area like he owned the place)  

so funny to see such a tiny guy walking around

He also started to wave more.  He is getting a sense of humor.  He likes to press his face against the glass while I'm in the shower and then he'll laugh and laugh.  He also likes to put his binki in peoples mouth.  He thinks that is hilarious.  He loves to be right in the action, all the time.  He's sleeping much better now (hooray!!!!!!!).  He is so sweet.  He is giving lots of hugs and kisses now.  He enjoys playing in toilets, unrolling ENTIRE rolls of toilet paper in a matter of seconds, climbing the stairs and being outside.  He will just sit by the back door and bang on it and cry until I let him out.  As soon as he gets out, he heads strait to the hose.  Even though it's turned off he still manages to get drenched.  every. single. time.  He eats just about anything.  His favorites are yogurt, ice cream, cookies, and anything left over on his sister's plate. 

This girl is hilarious.  She comes up with the most outrageous  yet believable, stories ever (must get it from her uncle dallin).  She can also make up awesome songs.  Gauge loves being around her.  He is always tackling her, trying to take her toys, and trying to get his big sisters attention.  

they both love to play this guitar, (thanks uncle Zachy!!)

our favorite "napping/early morning" spot.  They cuddle there while I shower and get ready.

Gauge is so smart, so strong, and so good.  I am truly blessed to have such sweet children.  I love being their mother and spending every day together.  

Gaugey Boy's Ninth Month

I can absolutely not believe Gauge is 3/4 of a year old!  Crazy!!  He is such a fun little guy.  At 9 months he has started giving high fives, clapping his hands, climbing the stairs like a champ (up, not down), eating table food, and standing on his own for seconds at a time. He can also say mama, dada, yaya, and baba. He is so close to walking.  He can open any cabinet or any drawer and he thoroughly enjoys emptying the cabinet of everything in it.  I don't enjoy his new pass time.  It means I get to spend twice as much time picking up messes.  But he has such a cute personality and face, I guess we'll keep him.

(such a happy dude)

(this took a total of about 2 minutes while I switched laundry loads)

(lexi comes in and goes, "Whoa!  Gaugey boy, you are naughty.  That is a big mess.")

(on a side note lexi is super helpful these days.  She does her own dishes, folds her laundry and puts it away!  I love this girl :) )

Backyard Adventures

Lexi has wanted to go camping FOREVER!  I finally decided we would just set up a tent in our back yard and we could camp out.  Getting the tent up Friday afternoon was a fun little adventure in itself, but lexi and I got it up and got to play in it for about two hours before daddy came home.

(Lexi is quite the up-in-coming photographer)

(and tent builder)

(safety first is our motto, hence the helmet)

(such a cute little face)

(brother is such a good sport!)

(mmm, s'mores!!)

We made tinfoil dinners, roasted marshmallows, and told stories around the campfire.  It was all fun and games until it was time to go to sleep.  Lexi was a little hesitant about sleeping in the tent, but being the "fun" parents we are, we forced her into the double sleeping bag between us and to sleep we went.  At about 10, I felt a nice warm sensation running down my legs and back.  Yep, you guessed it.  Ty peed the sleeping bag.  Just kidding,  Lexi did and we all had to go inside and shower before climbing into our real beds.

Trick or Treats

I think Lexi has chosen her favorite holiday.  This year all I heard about everyday was "trick or treats this," and "trick or treats that."  Lexi was OBSESSED with what people were going to be for halloween and all of the trick or treats she would get.  She asked EVERY person she talked to (not an exaggeration  she even asked the poor produce guy at Ralphs) what they would be for halloween.  This year, she was a kitty cat, Gauge was a mouse, I was pocahontas, and Tyson was Hercules.

We kicked off Halloween festivities at the ward party.  I've been to my fair share of "trunk-or-treats" but this one was over the top.  There was a chili cook-off, bump-in-jump, tons of carnival games, and a stellar row of trunks full of treats.  Lexi loved seeing her friends, winning prizes, and getting "SOO MUCH CANDY."

you can't see his tail in this pictures, but while he crawled, it stuck up right.  It was pretty stinkin' adorable.

Lexi was catching some big fish!  She informed me "Silly goose, its not fish, it CANDY!!  I LOVE CANDY!!!"  Don't we all?  What I don't love is the 5 day sugar high that comes with an unlimited amount of candy.  Fun. Fun. Fun.

 Our poor little Kitten lost her tail.

This was the best picture of the both of them. 

Halloween day was an exciting and eventful at this Williams' house. I don't know where she got it from, but on hallow's eve, lexi informed me that "a cute little witch will come to my house and leave me tricks or treats to find when I wake up.  I so excited!  She bring me good tricks or treats."  (candy is now called tricks or treats at our house )  I was like shoot!  Ive never heard of the "Santa" of halloween?  Where did she hear about this?  But I figured, it sounded like a kind of fun tradition to start, so this little witch went out and bought some "tricks or treats" for my little kitty cat.  She woke up with squeals of delight.  "The witch came at my house!!! I love my tricks or treats!!"

I worked hard on a spooky breakfast for her and Tyson to enjoy.  Pumpkin shaped pumpkin pancakes with m&ms for the eyes, nose, and smile, and a skull and crossbone (two sunny side up eggs with one egg white, all fried together with hot sauce mouth and nose served over two strips of bacon).  

Then it was onto painting.

 This girl loves to paint.

I helped with the eyelashes.  That little pumpkin was Gauge's.  It has his perfect little feet prints.

Gauge rode in the stroller all over the neighborhood.  No "tricks or treats" for this kid.

We invited some friends to come raid our neighborhood   Halloween is probably the only advantage of living in houses so close together... mass amounts of candy in short amounts of time.

They were very polite with their please and thank yous this year.  A great improvement over lexi's "more" from last year.

This pumpkin was real.  It was so huge. 

Three cute girls!

awe (don't mind the hand in the view.

Finally seeing Fall

We got to go to Colorado on a last minute visit to surprise my dad for his birthday.  It was sooooo good to be home!! As always, Lexi had a blast with her uncles.  We didn't have a car for the week, but I didn't mind.  It was fun spending so much time with my mom.  Gauge was obsessed with her two dogs.  He would stand at the glass door looking out, laughing, smiling, and banging on the door.  He kept licking the door to try and lick the dog.  Pretty gross.  While in Colorado, Gauge also said mama and dada for the first time :)

We went on a "field trip" to the dinosaur museum in Fruita. 

We did "western Wednesday".  Me and my brother dressed up like cowboys :)  

 Lexi was a little frightened of the dinosaurs, but had a good time in the water table.  So did Gauge. After about an hour, I dragged both soaking wet kiddos away.

We were able to sneak away to the cabin for a four-day weekend.  It was SO nice to finally spend some time as a family.  Tyson's been working a lot lately and it was great to be able to enjoy time together.

Before we headed to Steamboat, we made a necessary stop at cabela's.  We were looking at getting Lexi a pink crickut and made the mistake of telling her that before hand.  She went in with a one track mind...."buy me pink gun that shoots bullets so I can shoot things at cabin."  Her arm was too short to reach the trigger so we decided to wait until next year.  We carried her out kicking and screaming, "but I want to shoot things!!!!!!"  Good times.

Everyone had fun.  Lexi and Gauge both loved being outdoors and enjoying to crisp mountain air.

This look of excitement sums up pretty much the whole weekend.  

Four-wheeling was a major highlight.  It's all we heard all weekend.

When we got back from the cabin, we headed strait to the pumpkin patch for family home evening.  The little uncles were SOOO excited to take lexi and gauge to get some pumpkins.

Gauge loves his Grandma so much!

This is why i never want to leave colorado.  Pure bliss.

"Imma ride this thing!"

The "barrel train"  looks funner then it actually it.  It is uncomfortable and bumpy, but gauge and lex had a ball.

The giant trough full of corn was a huge hit, until he started eating the corn.

Lexi and grandma attempting the hay maze.  

Until next time Colorado.