Message From Santa

Jack received an extra special message from Santa this year! Click on the link to see what Santa had to say, it's pretty cool!!

http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/ef80861f46b0347a531f16cf2eaf1a6f

We wish you a Merry Christmas!!

We went caroling with some people from church at the Hannah House at University Hospital. It took us two hours to sing to every patient that wanted us to. Every time we would leave a patient and go to the next, we would sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Jack knows this song because of Mickey's Christmas movie and he would sing along every time. This video isn't the best but I LOVE how he says "Merry Christmas!" at the end. He was saying that to everyone he could find. It was so cute. He would say, "Mom, I'm going to go tell her Merry Christmas" as he ran off to talk to the nurse. We had a good time and felt good about lifting people's spirits that were there. A lot of patients cried and everyone thanked us for coming to sing to them. My heart went out to those people who will have to be in the hospital for Christmas. I hope they have family that will come and visit them. We told Jack that we were going to the hospital to sing Christmas songs to the people there so they would feel better. Hopefully he felt good about doing it too. :)

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Santa!!

Isn't he a cute Santa?

Santa came to our ward party this year! Jack was excited to see him, but showed little to no emotion when we actually went in. His mouth was full of candy cane and I think that might of had something to do with it. It's a huge step up from last year, where he was crying the whole time. I think last year's Santa was a little scary looking. This Santa is much cuter and looks much nicer. :) Here's a little video clip from it...

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Denise is back!

We've been lucky enough to have Denise come back for some more dental work and a quick visit. Jack has been totally spoiled with all of these visitors we've had over the past couple of months. We have had some one here or been out of town almost every day since Anderson was born. Jack LOVES having other people to entertain him besides just his mom and dad.

We went out to Kirtland to see the nativity exhibit and drove around to look at Christmas lights. When Denise was here last January, she taught Jack how to play "I Spy". He still plays it every day in the car and it's especially fun with Christmas lights. He's always in the back yelling, "Oh! I spy some more Christmas lights way high over there!"

And the highlight of the weekend (at least for me and Denise) was when we went to see WICKED.... AGAIN! Oh man, I cannot get enough of this show. I have seen it 3 times now and would go again in a heart beat. Denise had never seen it and when she asked if I would want to go again, I didn't even think twice about it. I love everything about it and I am so glad she wanted to go and see it!! Thanks for giving me an excuse to see it again Denise!!

Come back soon!

Ugly Sweater Party

Wow.... and to think that someone actually wore these for real!!

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving the Jensen's came to see us. We haven't seen them since March so it was well over due! We had a super yummy Thanksgiving meal with them and Ryan and Kara. I did the turkey and apple pie, Kara made AMAZING homemade stuffing, rolls, and pumpkin pie, and Denisse made delicious sweet potatoes. Everything in the dinner was delicious!!! We ate until we had eaten way too much...but isn't that how Thanksgiving is supposed to be? :)

Brielle and Braden LOVED Anderson. They were so good with him and just wanted to hold and love him the whole time. (I stole these pictures from Denisse's blog)

On Friday, we were lucky enough to have an amazing babysitter (thank you Kara and Ryan!!!) which allowed us to go out to dinner and see Wicked!! This is the second time Justin and I have seen it and it was just as good if not better than the first time. It was so nice to enjoy a night out with no kiddos! We were all trying to remember the last time that happened, when we went on a real date. Justin and I couldn't even think of the last time. It was so fun. We ate at Brio (one of our favorite restaurants) and LOVED the food and of course, the company.

Wicked.... SO GOOD!!!!

On Saturday, we all went out to Kirtland to see the nativity exhibit. Denisse was watching Brielle and Jack and Jack says to her, "Close your eyes... One, two, three... Surprise!!" I'm not sure what the surprise was, but she said it was super cute.

All of the kids got along so well! It makes it much more enjoyable when you can just let them play and you aren't worried about who is fighting with who. They had a blast together. Are they cute or what? I love Brielle's sass. :)

Thanks for all of the pictures Denisse! And thank you guys so much for coming out to see us. We are so thankful to still be just a short drive away.

Jack the stinker :)

The other day I asked Jack to put his socks away in his drawer. He picked them up, looked at me, and threw them down the stairs while still looking at me. I took away his Wolf (favorite stuffed animal) that he was holding and told him that he could have him back after he did what I asked. So he went and got the socks and put them away. A few minutes later I was in the bathroom getting ready and Jack came to the door and said... and I quote...

"Mom, don't take my Wolfy away. If you do that again, you will go to time out and get hot sauce. When I tell you not to do something, that means you listen!"

I guess now I know that he really does listen when I am getting mad at him! After he left I could not help but laugh. Those are the exact words that have come out of my mouth a number of times (minus the wolfy part) when he is in trouble. What a little stinker!!

2 months

Our little Anderson is 2 months old today. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by. We have adjusted fairly well (at least I think so) to having two kids. The biggest adjustment has been the sleep deprivation. Either Jack slept longer at night or I completely forgot how tired you really get. There have been nights where I am up just crying, and feeding Anderson hoping to get a longer stretch than an hour or two. Last night he was kind enough to give me a 5 hour stretch which was heaven! Hopefully this is the start of more sleep because I have never needed it more. Besides the no sleeping, I feel like it was only 2 or 3 weeks ago that I was in the hospital having him. Anderson is the sweetest little baby and very easy going. He smiles a lot and is now starting to coo, which Justin and I LOVE! There is nothing sweeter than a little baby smiling at you and making the cutest little sounds. So far we think he looks a little bit like Jack but definitely has his own look. They have the same exact mouth and chin but different eyes, nose and ears. And of course, his hair makes him look so different from Jack. (He's starting to rub a bald spot on the back...so sad!!) I am anxious to see how he looks as he gets a little older. He had his 2 month check up today. Here are the stats...

Height: 23.5 inches - 51 percentile

Weight: 11 lbs 6 oz. - 24 percentile

Head: 39.5 cm - 22 percentile

This is Jack and Anderson at 2 months...what do you think?

O Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree a little early this year...I just couldn't wait any longer!! I got all new ornaments this year so I was extra excited. :) I just love having my tree all lit up in our house.

Jack was super excited to help put the ornaments on the tree. He loved it!

For some reason Jack looks extra cute to me in this picture. I think it's his chunky cheeks and his cute little hands trying really hard to get that ornament to stay on the tree. We are staying here for Christmas and I am excited to see Jack on Christmas morning. He can't wait for Santa to bring him presents. As long as we don't get sick, like last year, then it will be so fun to see him be so excited! I can't wait. He's old enough this year that I can threaten him that Santa won't bring him anything if he isn't good or doesn't eat his dinner. He gets pretty worried, and I hope it doesn't wear off before Christmas actually comes. We are running out of threats that actually work for him! Sad, huh?

How can that cute little face be so naughty?

This is where Anderson likes to sit and enjoy the tree. I think he likes to look at the lights.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am ecstatic for the holidays to actually begin!! I love this time of year.

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Random Cuteness

I was looking my camera and found some recent pictures that I have been wanting to put on here. They aren't from anything special, but I thought they were cute enough to make the blog. :)

Anderson is going to be 8 weeks on Friday!! I cannot believe how fast the time has flown. He is just so cute and sweet and we are loving every second of it... minus night time. That's another story. I came into the family room one day and he was just sitting there hanging out next to Justin. I love how the binkey still takes up half his face!

The other day Jack was hanging out with Anderson on our bed and he asked me if I would take some pictures of them. I actually managed to get one with both of them smiling!!

He loves Anderson so much and is really protective of him. I think it's cute. On Sunday one of my friends was holding him and he went over to her and said, "Can you give my brother back to my mom now?" He gets a little nervous when other people hold Anderson.

Big smiles!

Giving little brother some love...

I don't know what we ever did without these two! It seems like they take up all of our time now and I can't figure out what we ever did all day before we had kids. Sleep maybe?

Last Minute Trip

We found a cheap ticket to Seattle and I jumped on the chance to go see my family at the last minute with the boys. It was so fun...except for the fact that Justin didn't get to come and I had to fly by myself with the kiddos. It was nice to just be there for fun, and not have anything specific that we had to be to. We spent some time out at Scott and Kelli's. Here is my mom and dad trying out some left over Halloween costumes. My family is a bunch of nerds!!

Anderson is just starting to smile and react to people. Tanner was making him smile forever with his big eyes! Tanner thought it was pretty funny.

Having fun at Scott and Kelli's in the racquetball court.

Tanner loves to take care of Anderson. :)

CUTIE!!

Jack and Mom watching "Up!" at Scott and Kelli's.

Jack and Grandma Gorrell.

It's always fun to see all of our grandparents while we are home. I am surprised that Jack can keep most of them straight, we have so many!

We celebrated Stephanie's birthday at a fun new restaurant while we were there. It was fun to see her again so soon. Happy Birthday Steph!

I am loving this little cutie! He did really good on the airplane...he slept the whole time!

I had so much fun with Scott and Kelli! I didn't get to see them very much when I was home for the wedding so it was really fun to be able to hang out and be silly. This night at Angie's we watched You-Tube videos FOREVER and ate way too many doughnuts! We were laughing so hard. Everything from the world's fattest kid to people trying to eat a spoonful of cinnamon. It looked really fun! You should try and eat a spoonful sometime and see what happens. :)

I always enjoy staying at Angie's house and staying up until 3am every night! When you only have a few days together there is no time for sleeping! :)

It was fun to get to see everyone since we won't be going home for any of the holidays. This year we are staying in Cleveland and having our own Christmas. I am so excited to start our own traditions and watch Jack come down Christmas morning to our own tree. Every year I put up my Christmas tree and then leave and we never get to enjoy it. This year we have plenty of time to enjoy it...especially since I put it up today! Hee hee...gotta love it!