Christmas so far

These pictures aren't in order so I will just talk about them as they come up. I didn't get a Christmas card out this year so sorry in advance for that. This christmas season has been great and as much fun with them as I was hoping for. They love seeing lights on everyones house and the trees, snowmen (blowup ones of course), and "neigh neighs" on everyones yards. They still wont call them reindeer. I am so excited for Christmas morning I can't wait to see them so excited when they get some goodies.

Ii was trying to get them to stand in front of the tree for a picture but she was way too close and getting tickled by the pine needles. Livy wouldn't participate at all. She was off doing her own thing. They love having the tree in the house and seeing the lights everyday. Eric has a train that goes around the bottom which is there favorite but we don't get to do it everyday. But most of all they love ripping the ornaments off the tree. From their heads down as you can kind of see in the picture, there are no ornaments. They have pulled them all down and pulled the ribbon off many times. The ribbon we put back up but the ornaments are in a pile under the tree. Randomly there are headbands and necklaces hung where they can reach. But they are enjoying it!
This is from our pajama story night at Kevin and April's. We all wore our pj's and read Christmas stories, sung a few songs and then had hot chocolate and cookies. It was a really fun night even though the only one who listened to the story was Halli. The others kind of ran around in the living room. This is Grandma the jungle gym/corral. She held as many as she could to keep them contained! We got all the girls but Katelyn in this bottom picture (and baby Blake). Sad but that is the best we could do.

 And for all of you outside of Houston I don't know if you heard the exciting news but we had snow! Eric was very excited if you can't tell by this picture! There was just enough for him to get both of the girls with a snowball. Livy enjoyed it kind of and Rachel was just crying when he got her! Eeryone in TX was excited. Eric hates when I make fun of TX but honestly if you have ever lived anywhere that it snows you would make fun of them too. The news casters make it sound like a blizzard. And I quote "It's really coming down out there and it's sticking" to a picture of a tree with two tiny patches of snow under it! I get a kick out of these Texans. Mmaybe one day I will be so thrilled with a small patch on the ground!

Cold cute Livy.

 Livy feeding her babies. Maybe she just thinks that is how it is, two babies always. ?

Hugging. Rachel does like to hug her too. I don't know why every time I get a picture of them hugging Livy looks so aggressive, like it's a tackle almost.

 And high fiving. They love to high five. Rachel calls it a "pack". I am guessing she gets that from patty cake? Either way it is really cute. And Livy finally started calling her paci a paci she used to call it a blah blah. Strange but kind of sad to see it go.

 Santa hat photos.

 Livy loves wearing this flashing Rudolph nose. My Grandma got it for all of us years ago. When she is done on her nose she puts it on top of her head like a headband.

Ii wish the girls understood a bit more so I could explain more about Christs birth and the true meaning of Christmas. I feel guilty just giving them present and having them experience the worldly side of Christmas without the spiritual side. I have tried a tiny bit but whoosh, right over their head. They know who baby Jesus is though. They love playing with my manger scene and calling all the wisemen Daddy.

We have had a wonderful year as a family. We have gotten to visit NY 3 times so far and go again after Christmas. We have been blessed with wonderful parents and siblings who we love very much and are so grateful for. I feel truly blessed to have so much loving family close by and all over the country. It may sound silly but, I am so thankful for inventions like the internet, email and blogging to keep us all connected. I know I am closer to much of my family because we have these things in our lives. We will miss you all and wish we could all be together for Christmas. Eric and I got to serve together in primary this year. We teach the CTR 8 class and are really grateful for this opportunity. We have had so much fun together doing it and are really gonna miss our class. They are great kids. And I couldn't ask for more from Rachel and Olivia. They are tiny adorable funny little people. Not babies anymore, sad, but great too. They are wonderful. I don't know how many times a day they make me laugh and they are so sweet. I love seeing them play together and how much they want the other one near them. Sometimes yeah, I could do with a little less whining but that is a small price to pay for healthy growing beautiful girls. They are so much fun and talking more everyday. We are so blessed to be their parents. Ii am also grateful for my husband. I know he works so hard for us and is a great dad. I am thankful to have someone Ii can lean on and who puts up with me. We are grateful for all of the blessings of safety, protection, work, health, healing, and comfort that we and our families have been blessed with. We are so grateful for our Father in Heaven and all that he blesses us with. We are grateful for our Savior who was born on Christmas day and that we get this chance to remember that every year. What a wonderful gift. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year.

cooler weather

hi everyone. well the weather since last week has been a little cooler here in tx. i wont dare say cold because i know all the people in really cold weather wont believe it. we are enjoying getting to wear warmer clothes and new coats here. the girls love the lights that everyone is starting to put up. they are just a lot of fun. i finally don't want them to get any bigger. its sad. they are talking more each day and it is adorable but it will be gone soon. i really don't want them to get any bigger. they are adorable right now and think i'm the best! this is such a fun age to see the way they play and pretend. that's all for now.

rachel busy with her baby. she burps it and it is so cute. always wrapping it up too or telling me the baby is cold and makes the burrrr sound so i will wrap it for her.

livy before church. eric won that turtle out of the vending machine at a pizza place and she loves it. carries it everywhere with her much beloved duck.

walking their babies

giving each other hugs


rachel loving walking her baby. she loves her baby and is always carrying

getting ready for our walk

rae rae and her daddy. she is a mommys girl all day but when he walks in the door its all daddy. which is nice. as soon as she hears the door crack she says "hug" and runs to hug him.

livy's first braids. im not very good at them but it stayed in for a little. it looked so cute.

when i started this blog i said i was not going to be a super blogger but i guess that has been forgotten because i am being hounded, i mean encouraged, to post more! thank you because i know i need to.

the girls are doing really good and we are just enjoying the great weather around here. excited for thanksgiving and good food and planning a trip to ny after christmas. i think they girls will love christmas this year, well all the lights anyways.

my other big feat is that i cooked every night last week. ok, for those of you who know me well you know i don't cook so that is a big deal for me. i know not really a big deal but for me it is. but i guess it wasn't a whole week because i did go out to eat one night when eric and greg were working late. jamie and i and the girls went to get bbq. but i did make homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs that day so that counts still, right? it took long enough so it better! and of course we ate out friday and saturday. that counts as a week for me.

feeding the ducks with kylie and savannah. ky ky and nanna is what they call them but mostly just ky ky. i think that rolls off the tongue easier so both of them get called ky ky. poor nanna.

stealing some of the ducks food. they definitely eat more than they throw. if jamie and i weren't there too i don't think the ducks would really get fed!

livy saying cheese. not a great pic but i needed one of her in here too! she turns the tv on and off by herself now. she pulls her little car over and stands on it to reach the power button. she also saw where i put some christmas presents and i caved and gave her one early because she was pounding on the closet door crying for her piano, my piano my piano. just a junky keyboard but she loves pianos right now. she would pretend everything was her piano. it has some buttons that play beats on it so she pushes them and dances/bounces to it. but has a small problem sharing! she is getting better and rachel is quick to remind her to share. she crosses her arms and says, no, share.

i do. that i rachels favorite statement these days. she wants to do everything herself. i do, i turn and i carry you are the most popular phrases. it is really cute to hear how much they are learning and speaking.

they are getting so big. they pushed their own shopping carts at the food store the other night. they have child size real carts here. for those in ny, i haven't seen them there but maybe they have them now. anyway, it was a disaster because rachel gets distracted by any box that has a bear or dora or anything on it so she lets her cart go flying and livy will not let me help guide her cart. if i touch it she has to stop and push my hand off and then start again. but it was fun. livy crashed into a soda cooler going into the checkout line. it was seriously hysterical. the cashier couldn't stop laughing.

livy sitting on her potty. we are not going to start potty training for a while but we bought these when we went to ikea that other day and the girls love them. they have sat on them a few times without diapers but they didn't go.

they like using them for other things too, as you can see. and they like to carry them all over the house with them. lovely. at least they haven't used them yet so i don't have to worry about them making a mess. rachel was scared of it the first night and then the second time she did it with livy. livy loves it.

this is what happens when i don't give livy what she wants. or don't let her carry her potty around or in this particular case she wanted the camera. she throws herself on the floor no matter where she is. lovely.

rachel saw a picture of my grandpa fred on the fridge and immediately started calling him pop pop. then she wanted to hold the picture and was just smiling. it was so cute because she has never me my grandpa. he passed away before she was born. well, i should say she never met him here, on earth. he must have been her buddy up there in heaven before she came. this is her kissing her pop pop picture.

grandpa fred. both of my grandpas passed away before the girls were born. maybe grandpa george was livys buddy. we miss them both a lot. i really wish they could have met them. i am so happy to have both of my grandmas still. love you guys!

ny

we had so much fun in ny with everyone. my brother richie and his wife erin and josh and katie are living in apartments at my parents house so we got to see lots of family this trip and had so much fun. they loved playing with everyone. sad i dont have a picture of rachel with danny but she was his best buddy. she would feed him and say "hi danny" non stop when he was around. she always wanted to be with him when he was home. it was so sweet. and livy i scared of him. the pictures are out of order but you get the idea.

play time with aunt hannah. lots of that going on. hannah skipped three days of school while we were there and they had so much fun with their auntie! they ask for her everyday here at home.

tea time with grandma. grandma had tons of new toys to keep us entertained. we loved it there!

pop pop! it was great having so many helping hands there. we got to see my dad almost everyday for lunch and meet up to do something fun. we rode the carousel and train in a mall about 20 times one day. they loved it.

bff. too cute.

they had fun trick or treating with the older kids on the block for a few houses. they we walked home very slowly.

hannah, livy and rach were all dorothy. they were adorable. and here is livy in her most common form this trip. thanks to auntie becky for the awesome costumes! she sewed them herself! we will be calling for next years too!

clapping for m&ms.

at the farm feeding the animals. they liked it most of the time. rachel got scared of a few animals and livy liked it only if she could do it by herself. that is how it goes with everything now a days.

livy doing it on her own. she would not let anyone help her pull the wagon. she would remove your hand and tell you no. she is "strong-willed and independent." i believe that is the term i was told to use instead "brat or punk."

we had a great time. thanks so much for everyones help. we love you and miss you all! cant wait to see you soon. mom thanks for letting me sleep in! it was a great treat! and a big thanks to alan and brenda who conquered a flight from ny to tx with a wiggly baby on their laps! they were in ny to see their friend run the marathon so i flew back the same time as them but couldn't get the same flight so they had livy and i had rach. thank goodness is all i can say. one was enough for me for that night.

vegas

well we did it. our first trip away from the girls was a success thanks to josh and katie. i was worried about them but ok after i the first morning and heard that they didn't cry when they woke up without us there. they were good for them and had tons of fun. thanks so much josh and katie! you guys rule! and we owe you now! josh and katie thought that they would be the favorites in ny but unfortunately for them when we went to ny the week after vegas livy and rach were scared of them. they thought that i would go away again. sorry guys.

we had a great time just the two of us. lots of eating and relaxing. and i finally got into the twilight books. bad because now at home i just want to read instead of do everything i need to be doing!

we got to see my friend julie who lives in vegas. we were roommate at byu forever ago. she is a wonderful teacher and primary president and busy mom to adorable son noah. it was so great to see you julie! thanks for dinner!

eric at the bellagio. his favorite hotel. although that is not where we stayed. to expensive for us. we stayed at the mandalay bay and it was great. just a pain because it was a the end of the strip so we had a lot of walking. luckily they have a tram that helps just a bit.

and the best part of our trip was in and out burger. eric served his mission in vegas and loves, i mean loves, in and out. it was the first place we went once we got off the plane and we ate there at least 4 times i think. so happy he could enjoy his favorite meal again!

mixed emotions

well it is a happy day and sad day. eric and i are off to las vegas tomorrow morning. scary. josh and katie are here to watch the girls for us (thanks so much guys). and the girls just love them.
they have been "performing" for them all day and trying to get their attention. i am not worried about them just sad that i will miss being with them. it is supposed to be a nice break and it will be but it is just sad. all you moms know what i mean. you always want a break but it is hard to leave these little sweeties.
the last few minutes together. i haven't cried yet, i have fought it back a few times but so far ok. good luck josh and katie. love you livy and rae rae and see you soon! be back on friday night.

weekend update

now that she is tall enough to get in and out of her chair by herself rachel loves sitting in it and sucking her thumb in her new backyard.
we just got some trees added to the corners, which are hard to see in this picture but they look nice. they moved the palm from the left corner to the center too.
we went to the pumpkin patch on sat morning. the girls had fun playing with the pumpkins. this is the only one we got both of them smiling. dont mind the random person in the background. but i think they look so cute! excited to finally have a cute pic of them together again. that i has been hard to come by lately.
rachel trying to pick up a pumpkin!
livy on the hay ride watching all the trees and 2 animals. lame hay ride- one cow and two goats to see. they somewhat enjoyed it.