The Big Day

The morning finally arrived!  Here is the train Ethan found at Target a few weeks before Christmas and never stopped talking about.

 He wasn't spoiled at all...

 Ethan got two track sets from the Misty Island Adventure Thomas story.  Grandma got him the "shake shake" bridge he'd been dieing for.  And Mike got him a cool logging station.

 Lego Thomas from Nana.

 Bow bottom was totally an accident.

 Of course Santa brought the Logging Locos which are three trains from Misty Island.  Their names are Bash, Dash, and Ferdinand.  He opened three trains in a row.

 Of course the opening paused to play with these trains.  And then it was time for 10:00 church.  I'll admit I wasn't too excited about stopping Christmas morning to get ready for church, but I'm glad we did.  We quickly got dressed and headed off to the church.
As I walked into church I saw Miracle 11, my friend Samantha!  She was one of my young women in Mississippi and she just happened to be in our ward on Christmas!  I got to meet her husband and she got to meet my kids!  That was reason enough to be happy I went to church!

Our meeting on Christmas was a musical Sacrament meeting with all three wards in our building combined.  Mike and I were both playing in it.  I was nervous about my flute part because it was really high and kind of difficult rhythms and I don't practice as much as I should.  This may sound silly, but in one of our first choir songs Miracle 11 happened: there was a high note I have never hit in my life that I always skipped in choir practice, but I was actually able to easily sing it!  After hitting that note, I wasn't nervous about playing my flute anymore because I thought the Spirit must be helping the performers.  When I got to my flute part, it went very well.  Then on the last verse of the song, the conductor turned around and had the entire congregation sing with the choir!  I didn't know that would happen so I played as loudly as I could and apparently I was heard even over ALL those people!  Miracle 12! :)  Sitting in church I was wishing we had church every Christmas day.  It felt right to be there for an hour singing about Christ and not just lounging in my pajamas in a sugary haze.  I'm so grateful for the Spirit that was there as we celebrated Christ's birth!

Back at home we kept going with the presents.  Ethan got several movies from Nana and Papa and as he opened each one he said, "Is it a train?  Let me check."

 My sister made a book about being a super hero for Ethan and made "Super duper super shiny super hero capes" for the boys.  It was really hard to get a picture of Ethan before he would disappear around a corner.  Can you tell he likes it?  Miracle 13: Lisa happened to call my mom right as Ethan and I were reading the book, so she got to hear all of his squeals and excitement as he ran around.

 Mike got him this cute Thomas set from Costco.  I had contemplated it a few times and didn't get it, but Ethan loves it more than I would have imagined.  Mike was right on; it has a fold out "map" and 12 little trains, so perfect for Ethan.

My Dad sent a bubble machine and bubbles, big hit!  

 I hosted my first Christmas dinner!  Nothing too fancy, but somehow I got it all finished, and at about the same time, and without Benton crying too much because he was hungry!  Miracle 14!

 I didn't get to make pies like I wanted, but cookies, hot chocolate, and candy made for a great dessert.

 Miracle 15: Benton held the rattle Grandma got for him!  His first time holding a toy!  I can't find the picture, but he also got a light up Mozart cube from Grandpa Joe.  He LOVES it.  It is now my go to "pacifier" when I need him to be happy for a few more minutes before feeding him.

 Ethan got this at Thanksgiving, but I couldn't leave it out of the Christmas post.  My sister in law Lauren hand made gifts this year, and they were so creative and fun!  She made Ethan this car mat.  There are cars that go in each pocket and then he can wrap it up and take it with him and have a road to drive on!  He really loves the numbers.  She and Joe also picked up a Thomas the train lunch box with Thomas Pez dispensers in it!  He'd never seen Pez before, so it was quite the treat!  He calls them his "dispenser candy".  As I've pictured before, Lauren made Benton a really cute giraffe.  It's been a great baby toy, long and skinny, so easy for him to hold onto/hug.

 Miracle 16: I got so many gifts I wanted, but hadn't even asked for!  Mike got me an awesome backpack for my iPad.  Jil somehow guessed I wanted new slippers that have soles and can double as shoes.  She also got us a new can opener (ours was terrible), and this cool gadget that is a small flashlight with a bunch of different screwdriver tips.  Now I don't have to go get into Mike's tools in the shed every time I need a screwdriver, which seems almost daily.

Miracle 17: My mom got me several pieces of clothing, and they all fit!  I don't even have that good of luck picking sizes.  I had new outfits to wear to church for the next 3 or 4 weeks!  Here is the dress she got me:

 

I've been wanting to get birthstone jewelry, and last year I decided I wanted stackable rings.  It didn't happen getting custom rings last year, but this year I found a website that has customizable birthstone stacking rings, so I ordered this for my Christmas present:

 

The orange stone is for me, red for Mike, opal for Ethan, and blue for Benton (the boys' rings have their names engraved on the inside).

Christmas night we watched 17 Miracles (not why I talked about "Christmas Miracles", but why I stretched it to 17).  It's a movie about the pioneers that came across the country in handcarts.  The message I got from it was even though being obedient meant that they had to go through really really hard things, maybe things that didn't seem fair when they were doing what they were asked, the Lord's hand was still in their lives.  It's good to remember that when we are called to go through hard things that, if we look, we will find "miracles" and the hand of the Lord in our lives.

The next morning Nana and Papa went back to Missouri.  We sure wish they still lived in Phoenix!

Farewell Christmas!

Santa

Early in the week of Christmas we went over to Bass Pro to see Santa.  We tried to get there early enough to miss the rush, but still had to wait like an hour and a half.  I thought Ethan would enjoy all of their games, but he wasn't too interested.  He did like the "snowball fight" area where he got to throw stuffed snow balls at other kids.  Then he saw their toy train and loved that.  On the way out he finally showed interest in the carousel, so we took a ride.  His response to Santa was like his response to characters at Disneyland.  When we called him over for his turn he was jumping up and down in excitement.  He was SO happy to see Santa, even though it meant leaving the train (Miracle 9)!  Unfortunately this Santa wasn't terribly chatty, so I felt like it was kind of a disappointment, at least for me.  :)  We did have Ethan tell Santa what he wanted (Logging Locos: Bash, Dash, and Ferdinand).  The train park we went to later in the week had a Santa you could pay to see on the train.  I think next year it would be worth the money to skip the line and see Santa on a train!  

 The photographer elves weren't paying attention once Santa took Benton and I wasn't assertive enough getting their attention, but luckily Jil snapped this picture.  I'm not very good at editing, so if Lisa has any better luck with it, I'll repost it.  But Miracle 10, two kids happy with Santa!.

Christmas Eve

 Mike's family, like many others, has a tradition of acting out the nativity scene.  I wanted to continue that, but our family is a little small, so we invited a few friends over to help us out.  We made it a potluck breakfast on Christmas Eve, which I think was a perfect way to start the weekend.  Thank you to my friends and to my mother-in-law Jil for the great food and for making this happen!

Christmas Miracle #3: Ethan actually participated as Joseph.  He didn't want to when it came to start, but a little bribery with the chocolate bear I was going to put in his stocking, and he was on board!  Benton was going to be Jesus, but woke up and wanted to eat right as we were starting, so his understudy, Bryson, who is about 3 weeks younger, stood in.

That afternoon, the girls went off to see Breaking Dawn.  We were running late, but Christmas Miracle 4: the movie was having technical difficulties, so it hadn't started. Miracle 5: we were still greeted at the door with a free movie pass for each of us.  Miracle 6: the movie started right after we sat down. Miracle 7: Benton went to sleep and slept all the way through his first movie in a theatre.

"The night before Christmas" Nana, Papa, and Grandma stayed with us so they could share in the first Christmas morning actually spent in this house.  (If I were as creative as Lisa, this whole post would have been in "Twas the Night Before Christmas" format.)  Ethan slept in our room.  We put his old toddler mattress on the floor, but he didn't stay there long.  Mike and I both assumed the other one let Ethan into bed, so we didn't kick him out. (He wasn't fully asleep for this picture, so he is reacting to the flash).

 

Christmas Miracle #8: Ethan slept in until 7:30am!  He sleeps longer with us.

Here We Go!

It's about time I post about Christmas, don't you think?  I've finally compiled all of our pictures off of the phones and cameras, so I'm ready to go.  This will come in daily installments, so prepare yourself for several days of pictures!

One more "Christmas Sweet" that didn't make it in another post.

 The week leading up to Christmas was filled with Christmas activities and "Christmas Miracles".  Leslie, you'll have to help me remember why, but I have this memory of us laughing and saying "It's a Christmas miracle!" like it was an inside joke as we decorated the Campbell House one year.

On the 23rd we went to the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park.  Train playground:

I had heard that they decorate for Christmas, so we drove up, but I had no idea what an event it is!  We got there at about 4:45, played on the playground, and then road the train.  As we were getting off the train we heard people saying that they were starting to line up for the holiday train.  Turns out they have a big light display and different engine for holiday train rides.  People wait for HOURS to go on this train ride!  So, at 5pm I hopped in line for the holiday train ride, which was supposed to start at 6:30pm. 

 Christmas Miracle #1: We got on the first holiday train ride (and the line wrapped all over the park and out to the parking lot).

 

Miracle #2: The model train museum that Ethan LOVES closed at 4:30, right before we got there, but as we were on our second train ride, we saw that it had opened!  He was SOOO excited.  He can, and does, spend hours watching these trains go.

There's a track hanging from the ceiling.

 

 Next up, Christmas Eve...

Book Vocabulary

I was just out in the garage and Ethan walked out with his Mickey stuffed animal and said, "'What are you doing?' Mickey called."
Sent from my BlackBerry, please excuse any brevity or typos.

Because you can't get enough of this cute face either, right?

4 Months

There are Christmas posts on the way, but they will have to wait until I have time to get pictures off of all 4-5 of the cameras/devices we used this holiday season.

In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of our sweet 4 month old!  We LOVE this age, but how is it already here, and how can I make it stay?

SO smiley and social!

 Benton spends a lot of time rolling to his side, but hasn't made the complete flip yet.  He is not close to sleeping through the night, but has been doing much better the last few nights (only up once or twice in 11 hours).  He grabs and holds toys and puts them in his mouth.  He thinks Ethan is fascinating!

 He is not the lie or sit still kind of baby.  He wants to be moving and looking around seeing everything that is going on.

 Benton has been eying and grabbing at our food for quite awhile, so I was excited to see what he would think of rice cereal.  We got lots of grimaces.

 But he ate it, and opened his mouth for more.

Specific

Ethan says "thank you" a lot, but not in a vague or trite way. For example, here he said "thank you, thank you for making my snake a long bed to sleep in."

Train Logic, Courtesy of Ethan

Most of us see Benton has drool or spit up dripping out of his mouth.

Ethan sees "Benton is leaking oil!"

After a long conversation about good choices = happy fun things and bad choices = unhappy things, I say, "ok, let's make good choices and go do fun things!"

Ethan says, "Let's go buy trains!"

And of course there are all the times that we "can't puff anymore" or "go around the bend" etc.  Oh the influence Thomas has had on our family!

Tummy Time

I actually thought to have Benton do tummy time. What a cutie!