Holidays

Reese likes to bathe in the sink, she'll stay entertained for long periods of time in here.

I am SO beyond lame, I took zero, yes zero! pictures of Christmas and New Years! I keep thinking pictures are going to show up somewhere because that is so unlike me to fail to take any pictures of fun events like these. I could kick myself. So a summary:

Christmas Eve:
- Went to my grandparents' annual German breakfast and gift exchange.
- Annual Messick shepherds' meal.
- Opened PJs: Reese was in LOVE with her Yo Gabba Gabba jammies.
- Spoke to Daniel over video skype; was kind of weird because it was all of the families and no one seemed to want to say anything in front of everyone else maybe, he looked good though and it was fun nonetheless.

Christmas:
- Reese wanted to open everyone's presents. Loved that this year!
- We opened 1/2 the presents, went to Christmas sacrament service, opened the other 1/2 (except Ivan who wanted to nap instead and opened the rest of his presents a few days later).
- Reese woke up at 2 in the morning and stayed a wake for over 2 hours, she was that excited.
- Headed down to Provo for a prime rib dinner with my family and gift exchange.

New Years Eve: 
- Showed up at mom's while Eric finished working at Emily's house. Mom gets tight chested feeling and calls Dad (who is at work), Dad tells me to call 911 and have paramedics come. They come, dad and mom head to the hospital where they find out mom's gallbladder is filled to the brim with stones and the pain is radiating into her chest and shoulders. Surgery follows a couple days later.
- Met up with friends for dinner at Cafe Rio, which was a bad idea considering that we had planned for a lot of food at the party that would follow, and no one was hungry.
- Had our annual friends New Years party, this time at Lindsay Graulings house, the majority of the attendees were our family members (Emily, Jacob, Rachel, Brian, Kristen, and all their kids, David & Nicole,+ Micah and Rachel).
- Played XBOX Kinect, which is so totally fun.
- Missing the countdown like EVERY year but luckily (like every year) having DVR so we could rewind and pause while we filled the glasses with Martinelli's in preparation for the countdown :)

New Years Day:
- Attended Lindsay's sacrament meeting in our jeans, because we weren't originally planning on going to her ward.

Our holidays were FILLED with family, which was SO fantastic! Everyone was in town helping out on Emily's house, and thankfully that time overlapped with all the holidays, so not only did we get to spend a lot of time with my family but also with Eric's side of the family! We feel blessed for such good family, for good health, for the gospel, our Savior Jesus Christ, and for the many blessings we experience constantly!

A Christmas Picture

I was looking through the pics on my other camera and found that I DID take a picture on Christmas. One picture (below) and a video of Reese opening a present. So I'm not quite the loser I thought I was, still bad, but a little better :) Reese in her cute princess dress backwards by our Christmas tree that has be re-decorated multiple times by both my kids (mostly Reese putting ornaments higher when Ivan knocks them to the ground and Ivan pulling the tinsel stuff down.)

Dream

My kids make me seriously happy! Yes, things are a bit crazy around here, but that's what I love about my life. I'm living the life of a wife to a wonderful husband and a mom to 2 youngsters and I don't wish for anything different. This is what I've always wanted. I'm living my dream.

This year I am BEYOND excited for Christmas. It is so fun to see Reese start to grasp ideas. We went to Temple Square last weekend and Reese could see the Christus through the window (the building was locked because it was getting late). She told me what she remembered from last time we visited, "Jesus has spots, they're owies, he died, he's alive, he's wearing his jammies (the robe he has on - haha)". We had a little talk about Christ again and a couple days later I heard her telling my dad, "Jesus died for me, now he's alive."

My thoughts have been turned to the Savior more this holiday season then I feel they have been in past years. I'm grateful for that. I feel my heart growing with love for others, finding love in my heart that I didn't know would or could ever exist.

On a 'worldly' note :)...When I ask Reese what she wants for Christmas from Santa she tells me, "a mermaid toothbrush". I think Reese is going to be really into opening gifts this year. I have butterflies thinking about Christmas morning, I'm so excited for her to have her first "exciting" Christmas morning.

 Ivan's a charmer! He MELTS me with his sweet personality, quick smiles, and the way he instantly starts playing with my hair when I pick him up. These days he looks so much like his daddy I can hardly stand it!!

update

Lately my schedule has been so skewompous (sp??). This is by my own choosing. Eric is working in Orem, so many days of the week I'll go down with him and go to families' houses to hang out, help out, or whatever else. Lots of evenings, especially when Eric gets off late, we end up bunking up at my parents house since it doesn't seem worth driving all the way back to SLC just to go to sleep and head back the next morning. I spend at least 1/2 my time at our house, but since it isn't 95% I feel like I'm so crazy with cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, etc on those days that I don't get around to blogging and such. I probably ought to figure out a better schedule.

I'm excited to be at home today. I'm excited to take the kids to the "fish place" (Living Planet Aquarium), switch out our books and DVDs at the library, and get some Christmas presents wrapped. Ah, I love being a mom!!