The Barbie dollhouse has a new family member…

Justin Bieber!!!

As you can see, Ken is overtly jealous of the new heart-throb and all of the attention he’s stealing from the girls.

Singing JB was Kate’s Christmas present from Cole. Lately, Kate repeatedly asks, “Mom, why doesn’t Justin Beaver come to see me at my house?”

So sad. While a doll doesn’t quite solve our problem here, we hope it will at least help. After all, pushing JB’s belly button to hear, “Baby, baby, baby, ohhh!” can be rather soothing.

***We had a great Christmas! My mom threw a rockin’ Christmas Eve party at her place. Kate and Cole got to again participate in another nativity. Kate upgraded her role to Mary and was a beautiful one!

While she was pleased to get to hold her baby brother, she was THRILLED to FINALLY be “married” to her favorite boy cousin, Hayden, who was playing the part of Joseph. Before the performance she informed him, “Hayden, you are going to be my wife!” Luckily, Kate’s unpolished vocabulary confused him and Hayden went through with his role as planned.

During the adult gift exchange, Grandma Nelson acquired our gift, The Farting Fanny Bank. She rolled her eyes and turned beet-red upon opening it, but the moment was truly priceless.

The next morning, Kate woke us saying, “Come on! Let’s go open my presents! Let’s go open my presents!”

Downstairs we found evidence that Santa had come:

Kate had a grand time opening both her and Cole’s gifts, and even some of Mom’s and Dad’s. Gifts that iced Kate’s cake this year were her pink pig pillow pet, her vanity, and her walking Fur Real dog.

Later Christmas night, we went to Dave’s parents to have dinner and open gifts. Kate and her cousins looked especially cute in their new robes.

Here’s to 362 more days till next Christmas!

Tis the Season…

For admiring drive-thru light displays with a little one at the wheel:

For spinning your own pink cotton candy:

For sticky fingers and gingerbread houses:

For beautiful snow angels and making them too:

For building, accessorizing, and naming a snowman “Frosty” (she’s a creative one, folks):

For being proud of a job well done:

For marathons of Christmas movies, late-night wrapping, Christmas Countdowns, delivering gifts, visiting great-grandmas, breakfasts and dinners out with friends, Skippy (our elf) and so much more.

Sugar Babies

My least favorite activity…getting the kids’ pictures taken. This is why it happens once a year, if we’re lucky. The session always goes worse than you anticipate, but luckily the pictures don’t always show it.

Here are our sweetie pies:

Dancing queen

...this pose belongs in a J.Crew catalogue

I think I’m one lucky mom

One of my favorites

Cole pulled Kate’s hair; not on purpose. I think. She was offended.

Angel baby

Working on his six pack

Picture a Stable In Grandma’s Basement

Grandma Sandra and Grandpa Reese had us all over on Sunday for this year’s nativity. Cole had the starring role as Baby Jesus...

...he was happy about it.

Is anyone else reminded of the phrase, “Oh, Come Let Us Adore Him?”

And, of course, Kate was the most beautiful angel there. But don’t tell the other angels that…or their parents.

Such A Blessing

And by blessing, I mean in more ways than one.  Look at our little treasure…

I’m not sure what I did to deserve this sweet baby.  He is the most even-tempered, easy-going, happy and beautiful little angel that I could have NEVER imagined in a hundred years.

Today was Cole’s blessing day.  I think the Cole Man must have known it was his big day.  He was happy to be there and was looking sharp in his suit!  Dave gave a perfect blessing! I will forever be grateful that I was smart enough to marry Dave, not just for my sake, but for our kids’. It’s nice to have him leading and teaching through his good example.

And, being that Cole is getting a little shout out post, here are some more pics for your viewing pleasure and mine:

We tried out Cole in his new Bumbo.  Oh, heavens.  Do they make these things purely for the parents’ gratification?  Seriously, he looked so edible in his little seat.

I laughed when I stood up and realized just how tiny he is to be sitting up like a big person.

And I liked this last pic…only because this is an image that I see on a daily basis.  Love those dark blue eyes gazing back at me! He is truly from Heaven.

Have Yourself A Disney Little Christmas

 

I know nobody’s surprised, but we took another trip to DLand for the holidays.  Just the 4 of us.  Being Cole’s first visit, we figured we should introduce him while Disneyland is at its best; Christmas time.  Who doesn’t love a giant tree, lights, garlands, wreaths, fireworks, parades, a sparkly castle, and fresh-falling snow?  Certainly not us.

We stayed at Disney’s Grand Californian. It was closest and we figured it might be best with a 6 week old.  Yep. And now we’re ruined.  We’ll never want to stay anywhere else. Among a million other perks that place had to offer, each night Old St. Nick graced our hotel lobby.  We paid him a visit, and even got a photo for Christmas cards (but we’ll not spoil it on the blog).

Kate especially loved having a bunk bed all to herself, and I think Cole liked his complimentary pack n play.

 

Kate had one goal: to fill the autograph book.

 

She did a pretty good job, just shy of 2 signatures (but to be fair, some characters couldn’t sign because of ginormous, nonfunctioning digits (Sully) or the lack of (Lightning McQueen).

Cole was a dream.  He watched the insides of his eyelids for most of the trip. I swear this boy doesn’t cry unless his basic needs aren’t being met, which of course NEVER happens being the stellar parents that we are:)

 

This is him on his very first ride, The Jungle Cruise:Mmm…he has kissy lips.

On Sunday we got to visit the rest of L.A. and Pasadena. We will forever do this, and I can already see our kids HATING us because of it.

Visiting our ward and other favorite spots is always bittersweet for me.  I love the nostalgia of seeing our old world and life, but it sometimes feels like someone put a dagger through my heart visiting it again.

Speaking of worlds, here are two of mine at our favorite Old Town restaurant, Café Santorini. Best Mediterranean food hands down.

The weather cooperated for all of the trip, except for the night we watched the new World of Color fountain show.  We got all bundled, put on some rain coats, and it was actually a fabulous, uncrowded night…kind of romantical being out in the rain too.

I have a lot of moments where I’ll stop and tell myself “Remember This Moment.”  I had a lot of those on this trip (Kate squeezing me during the firework show; Kate dying to talk to Crush, the turtle, and still yelling out loud to him, even when he wouldn’t call on her; watching Dave run with Kate all around the park and pointing out every detail of every ride to her).  I love those moments.  So glad I have Dave to make those for me. If Cole and Kate fully understood who was in charge of our vacations, they’d be ever-so-thankful for their daddy too.  He is always the one to think up, schedule, and plan all of our fun trips; so glad to have another great one to add to the list.