Learning and Growing

I am at awe when I think of my kids these days. They are both learning and growing so much right now. They are both at such a pivotal stage in their lives; and I'm so blessed to be apart of it.
So today, I think I am just going to catch everyone up on where my kids are at in their lives.
Hyrum is truly developing into his own person. He has become more and more independent as the days go on. I'm sad, but happy at the same time to see him grow in his independence. I'm so sad that I can't just scoop him up to cuddle whenever I want. He now is a little boy running around all over the place. His favorite thing to do these days is READ. Yep, my child loves books, and I am so happy about it! He has a favorite book right now about animals, and it is cute to see him learn all the animals and the sound they make. Right now his vocabulary is growing so fast. He is a little parrot. A chatterbox, if you will. He will repeat anything that comes out of my mouth. I cannot now give a list of things that he says, but the newest words in his vocabulary are: "All Done, Up, Potty, (the potty terms), Trucks, Books, Thank You, NO Thank You" And so much more, I can't even think of them all. Sometimes he talks even though I can't understand what he's talking about. He's always blabbing. He is showing a huge interest in going potty and actually went in the potty for the first time yesterday. Our family was sooo excited, especially Madison! (Don't worry, I'm not holding my breath. I know he's still pretty young to start.) I feel that he is just on the brink of developing so much. And I'm so excited for him!!

Madison has blossomed in her creativity. Her happy faces that she draws have developed into people. They have arms and legs, hair, and ears. She is getting into learning her alphabet and always asks what letter everything she sees starts with. Every night she goes to bed she plays a little game with her Daddy and spells her name over and over and over. She finds it very fascinating! She has continued to love her books and is enjoying being a mommy to her babies. Something that has touched my heart is to hear her say her own prayers. She is still off and on about whether or not she wants to pray, but when she does, it is amazing! There is nothing better than hearing a child's prayer. That just warms my heart to pieces. The other day she came home from Primary telling us all about Daniel and the Lion's Den and I couldn't believe how accurate her story was. She truly loves to learn. The other day we were laying down for a nap and she was asking me where certain people in our family were at the time. She asked where Grandma & Papa, and cousin Carter were and then she asked where Jesus was. She told me she wanted to see Him. She has such a tender little spirit.

I am so proud of my cute little kids!! I am so excited to see how much they are learning right now. I feel like I need to get on the learning boat myself to catch up with how much my kids are progressing at the moment. I LOVE being a mother, and there is nothing else I would rather be doing in my life right now!!

Jack

Madison made a snowman with Grandma while we were in Utah. She was very attached to this snowman and gave him a name- Jack.

As we all know, snowmen melt as time goes on, so we reconstructed Jack a time or two while we were there.

Papa was nice enough to help her. They had a lot of fun out in the snow together.

One on one bonding time with Jack. Funny Madison.

Gingerbread House

A few days before Christmas Aunt Caitlyn and Grandma created a gingerbread house with the kids. Caitlyn and Madison are both very creative and enjoyed working on this project together.
Grandma had fun feeding candy to the boys, and the boys enjoyed eating the candy!

Hyrum snagged a gingerbread tree when nobody was looking and took a nibble or two.

Madison was in heaven with candy, frosting, and more candy. She did a really detailed job with the decorations on the house. I was really impressed!

Madison and Aunt Caitlyn with their finished masterpiece!

Lookin' Good!

All the grandchildren got new church clothes for Christmas. They all looked so adorable! We couldn't miss out on getting pictures of them all.

Here is a picture of my brother Tyler and his son Carter all ready for church. What studs!
Miss Madison loving that she is all dressed up with purse and all. She felt like a princess all day. She even twirled in the aisle during church.

Hyrum was passing the time by playing with Papa's cell phone. He is such a cutie!

Cousin Carter always looks good... even if he just woke up from a nap!

Look at those cute kids! Grandma did a good job with their church clothes... they're dolls!

Christmas

I know everyone I know has posted all of their Christmas pictures. I know, I'm a slacker. I'm a little on the late side. But here they are.

Here are the grandchildren on Christmas Eve in their new pajamas from Grandma. (Carter, Madison, & Hyrum)

This picture was taken on Christmas Eve. But I had to get the classic "sitting on the stairs" pose.
Madi & Hy were good sports!

Christmas morning- Madison and Hyrum were overwhelmed with gifts!

Here is more Christmas chaos. Cory is blowing a balloon for Madison and Tyler, Hilary and Carter are enjoying their Christmas morning. (I just had to take a picture of my Grandma taking pictures. I've realized I'm becoming like her... I love capturing special moments!)

Here is Hyrum enjoying his classic Popper toy. He and his cousin Carter both got these for Christmas and played together with them the rest of the time they were together!

We had such a fun Christmas. It was even more special for us because we were able to spend it together as a family!!

Live Nativity Scene

My mom made super cute costumes for the grandchildren to dress up and do a live nativity scene for our family on Christmas Eve.
Grandma took the kids to the basement and dressed them up for the play. The kids came up all excited!

Hyrum was so excited he was clapping his hands. I don't know if he was excited about his part in the play or if he just wanted more candy cane that he was getting bribed with.

Madison playing her part as Mary. She did so good! She wanted to be Mary all night long. She was adorable!


The kids were quite excited to perform for us and were loving the bribe from Grandma to stay still while Uncle Tyler read the Christmas story for us.

Let me tell you, it is very hard to get three children to all look at once. So this is what we got. Hyrum, Madison, and Carter were all so cute in their costumes. This was a great tradition to start so that we could all remember the true meaning of Christmas!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Our first experience when we arrived to Bama and Papa's house in Utah was the cold snowy weather! It snowed so much while we were there! We couldn't resist the temptation of going out to play.
This was my attempt of getting a picture of our family (minus Cory) in the snow.

This was Hyrum permanent position after he got a taste of how cold snow really is!
There was so much snow I just had to take a picture of Hyrum knee-deep in it.
Madison had a lot of fun in the snow- she loved it!

Back to Life...

We just got back from our awesome 3 week trip to Utah last week and moved into our new home in Brandon, Fl the same day. It was quite the day for me. I don't know how anybody can fly with two kids by themselves across country and unload a U-Haul the same day. Call me crazy... but I did it!
We are slowly getting settled. I have SOO much to blog about, it's not even funny! So prepare yourself for a lot of posts to make up for the last month.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Madison was so excited to put up Christmas decorations this year. I left the tree up to her this year. Madison had the time of her life as she decorated the tree while we listened to Christmas music.
Madi decorated the whole tree all by herself. She was so proud! (Sorry this picture is a little blurry.)


Christmas is so much more magical with children! I love to see the simplicity of Christmas through a child's eye.

Cookie Monsters

When Grandma came to visit she brought all the goodies! Even all of her yummy cookie recipes. Madison loves to bake and work in the kitchen. Madison and "Bama" worked on the sugar cookies, while Hyrum took watch over the frosting!
Hyrum had a blast with the frosting!


I LOVE this picture of Madison and her "Bama". They have so much fun together!!

Welcome to...

Yes, believe it or not, Cory and I took a Cruise to the Bahamas. Thanks to Cory's work and good friends who persuaded us. We had such a great time!
This is the HUGE ship we were on for 4 days. It was nice to get away for a while and not have to worry about the stresses of life. BUT we were so happy to be home again. What can I say?.... I missed my little kiddos!

I thought it would be so nice and relaxing to visit some botanical gardens while we were in Nassau. The brochure said it was just a mile away so Cory and I decided to walk. It was a nice walk, but longer than we had bargained for. When we finally arrived at the garden it wasn't in the greatest shape. It looked like it hadn't been taken care of in a LONG time. So, that was a bummer. After that experience we decided to take a taxi to Atlantis and take a tour of the beautiful hotel and everything that they had to offer there. It was amazing! It had an aquarium inside the gigantic hotel along with a beautiful beach resort. We were so glad we took this tour.
This was a little eating area at one time I think. But it led us into an underground tunnel where we saw the fish and sharks. It was really neat! We just had to take a picture of this for Madison because it looks like it could be Little Mermaid's castle.

Coop and the cool glowing jellyfish.

Outside of Atlantis... everything was beautiful!

Feeling like King and Queen for the day!

This is a picture most, but not all, of the group that went on the cruise.


And for your viewing pleasure... YES, Cory did Karaoke on the cruise. (Something he told me when we got on the ship that he would never do.) The gang persuaded him otherwise...
(Sorry I only got a clip of it because my battery was running low.)

Nerd Boy!

Grandma and Grandpa came to play with us this last week and we had a BLAST! Hyrum was fascinated with Bama's glasses and has proven that Bama looks a lot better in them than he does!
He loves making his "cheese" face, which makes him look like more of a nerd in those glasses!


We still think he is a cutie though!

K*I*S*S*I*N*G

At snack time the other day the kids were being cute and giving each other kisses. I always love these sweet moments!