Santa!

This year we got a picture of Lucy with Santa where she is actually smiling! Santa came to our ward Christmas party this year and she was super cute about it. She knows who he is now and that he brings presents. Throughout the month when you ask her what she wants him to bring her she's changed her answer. For the first little bit it was balls. Then a choo-choo. Funny - I don't think she's getting either :) Merry Christmas!

Sammy 7 months

Sammy's big news this month is that he learned to crawl! He crawled for the first time on Dec. 1 - just 2 days before his 7th monthday. He had been doing what is best described as "the worm." He would jump his legs forward and then move out his arms to get around. It was so cute to watch him rock back and forth on his arms and legs too but sad when he'd face plant it. It's so interesting to see how different kids figure things out differently. Lucy hated being on her belly and bum crawled first. Sammy loves being on his belly and started with the worm. He also crawled about 6 weeks earlier. He has also started to like solids. His favorite meal so far is pumpkin mixed with applesauce. He's starting to get mobile enough and interested in toys enough to be interesting to Lucy too - it's fun to watch them interact.

We sure love this happy, happy boy!

Lucy at 2 1/2 years

Lucy is now 2 1/2 but if you tell her that she'll say, "no, I'm 2!" She is a little fireball with her own personality and opinions. She is talking up a storm and remembers things so easily. It's so funny the things she says sometimes. One day in the bath she said to me, "How are you doing Mommy? Good?" I said, "I'm good, how are you?" and she replied, "I'm good too." lol! Another time she said to me, "I love you Mommy. I give you a kiss." I sure love this little girl! She is also potty trained! Yeah! We still use diapers when she's sleeping but I say that doesn't count. She is getting more used to Sammy too and actually likes to play with him sometimes. I love watching them interact together. She loves dressing up in the tutus my mom and I have made her and she loves playing with the many, many, many silly bandz my dad has given her. We've also started doing more art projects lately and she asks to do more and more all the time. She hates me to do her hair now - I'm lucky if I can get a clip in there once and a while. She does like it in braids after the bath though and it's so cute when it's in braids. It's so interesting to see how much mess one little person can make and how it can take her to get ready to go somewhere! If anyone needs lessons on dawdling, she is a pro!

Pretty Kitty "Meow" Van Hoose

Pretty Kitty "Meow" Van Hoose

1998 - 2010

We said goodbye to our wonderful cat Tuesday, Dec. 21. He was 12 years old. Pretty Kitty came to live with the Van Hoose twins, Kristin and Tracie, as a kitten 12 years ago in Anaheim, California. While there he made friends with the other cats and dogs and people he lived with. In 2007, he moved with the whole entourage to Utah and a year later, came to live with this Van Hoose family. He was loved by all who had the privilege of having him as a pet. He was wonderful with kids - loving to snuggle up close to them. It was many a morning that we'd find him curled in a ball next to Lucy or Sammy - he even helped Lucy get to sleep some nights. He was so patient with her too - never scratching her unless she really, really deserved it. He loved to steal food from our plates, keeping us on our toes and earning him the nickname "mendigo" or beggar in Spanish. He was most commonly known around our house as "Meow" though. That was Lucy's name for him. We will miss this wonderful member of our family. Rest in peace little one.

Christmas Time is Here!

Do you think he has a big sister? ;)

Spencer and I have the philosophy that each holiday should be celebrated separately, so that means no Christmas decorations or music before Thanksgiving. However, once Thanksgiving is over, bring it on! In fact, this year I started at midnight!

I braved the cold and the crowds to do a little Black Friday shopping at Walmart at midnight. I've never been shopping on Black Friday before and I was a bit nervous, especially since I was attempting to go to Walmart.

It actually ended up being a lot of fun! My mom came along and the crowds were really crazy but between the two of us, we got what we wanted (mostly pjs) and then stood in line for an hour!

The next day we cleaned up in the morning and then put up the tree and the decorations. Lucy loved this so much and it was so much fun to watch her get so excited.

She helped put up all the decorations and later, after it got dark, we turned on the lights for her.

Oh, to have been able to record what she was feeling - the excitement and awe! The next morning I got up and she says, "Mommy, mommy come here! Look! Christmas tree!"

Sammy wanted in on the action too - especially with his new crawling skills, it's tough to keep him away! Instead, we moved the more delicate ornaments up higher.

She spent a good part of that day decorating and redecorating the tree. Her animals also found a special spot for the season - right under the tree.

In an effort to keep her occupied and to have a bit of fun, I've started trying to find some fun activities for her to do. I've found a bunch at a blog I love - www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com. This idea was to make a stamp out of a potato. I made two - a star and a tree. Lucy really enjoyed it.

Then last week, we went with the youth of our ward to see the lights at Temple Square. Lucy said she liked the pink lights best of all. :)

Gobble, Gobble!

Check out that killer turkey! Lucy and Spencer made this baby while I was out at book club last week. Here she's "gobble-gobbling."

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sammy 6 Months!

Sammy turned 6 months old on the 3rd of November.

He is such a wonderful, happy baby!

He loves to be on his tummy and to roll from both his back to his tummy and back. He has learned how to move around the floor a little bit in this way.

We started to give him solids during this month and he hasn't been too excited about it - in fact he's not a fan at all but we are working on it still!

At his 6 month doctor's appointment, Sammy weighed 20 pounds 14 ounces and was 26 inches long. So his growth has slowed way down. In fact, he gained less than a pound in the past 2 months. But no worries - he's still in the 93%.He's just gotten much more active.

He is so funny when he gets excited. He'll start wiggling his arms and legs and get a giant smile on his face and make his "dinosaur" sounds.

He loves to lay on his belly and put both his legs and his arms up - kind of in an airplane pose. His abs must be so strong under all that pudge!

Little Friends

Before I had kids I had no intention of ever being a full time stay at home mom. Why? I thought I'd be bored. Seriously. Now I can't believe I ever thought that. I mean, obviously sometimes you get bored, but who doesn't? Overall though, I feel like I'm so busy I can barely get the basics done each day. One thing keeping us busy lately, is friends.

At the beginning of October, a couple of the moms in our neighborhood andI started doing a preschool of sorts with our kids. There are only 5 of them and we meet twice a week for 2 hours each. We have been working on learning letters using a super cute book that tells a short story for each letter and teaches the sound of that letter.

We are also using Signing Time to teach them sign language. And of course, we play and eat. It's basically a more structured play group.Lucy absolutely loves it! She loves to go play with her friends and she is learning some of her letters. She likes A and E the best and will do the sound and action to go with the letters.

We take turns teaching which is nice too because when it isn't our turn, it's a nice opportunity to get some shopping or house cleaning done sans toddler.

When we named Lucy, Lucy, we didn't know a single other Lucy. Then our first Sunday at church, a little girl named Lucy was blessed. They are 3 months apart. Then this summer a family moved in with a little girl named, you guessed it, Lucy. She's 4 months older than our Lucy. All three Lucys are 2 right now and all three are blond. It can get a bit confusing at times. They've all learned their last names now - kind of a good skill for them to have already! Here they are all together on Halloween.

Sammy isn't without his friends either. Between the months of February and September, there were 12 babies born in our ward. Sammy was number 6. In fact, six of the babies were born within six weeks of each other and Sammy was the second of that little group. So there are lots of little ones his age. He's starting to get to the age where he notices them a little more too. Here he is with the little boy who lives 3 houses down from us. Simon is only 8 days younger than Sammy. We are looking forward to watching all our little kiddos grow up together!

Too Hot! Too Cold! Just Right!

Now that it is almost Thanksgiving, I thought I'd post our Halloween photos! I just got a card reader to replace my defunct camera cord so hopefully I won't be as behind in the near future.

For Halloween this year, we dressed up as Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. I came up with this idea last year at Halloween.

When did I finish the costumes? A couple of hours AFTER our first Halloween party.Yep. I'm on top of things (as evidenced in the fact that I'm posting Halloween pictures almost a month late).

Anyway. I think they turned out pretty cute. I found Lucy's dress at DI (yeah for DI!) and my mom made her the pinafore.Sammy's outfit was found by my super awesome friend Katie at Kid to Kid.

And Spencer and I's costumes are semi-homemade by moi. I took some basic brown sweatshirts and added cream fleece circles to the middle.There is also a cute fuzzy tail on our bums that you can't see in the pics.

And I made up the beanies. If I did it again, I'd make the ears shorter and rounder, but I'm not doing it again - so there ya go! We had a lot of fun the week of Halloween.Wednesday night our ward had a super fun Halloween party.

We had a chili cook off and lots of yummy desserts and then there was a carnival for the little kids and a haunted house for the bigger kids. Lucy loved tossing the bean bag into the ghost and knocking over the bowling pins with the pumpkin.She especially loved the games when she realized she would get a prize after playing each one!

Then they handed out prizes for everyone's costumes. She got the "Happily Ever After" prize.The next day was Spencer's school Halloween parade. We, of course, had to go or his costume wouldn't have been complete - what's a Papa Bear without Mama, Baby, and Goldilocks? Everyone ohhed and ahhhed.

Then we headed over to my dad's school where I showed off the kids too. It was fun to see some of my old junior high teachers and a friend who now teaches there. Lucy loved it too - everywhere she went she got candy!Speaking of candy, that Saturday we went trick or treating. Lucy loved it! It was raining and kind of gloomy but once she got the idea that saying "trick or treat" got her candy, she didn't notice the rain at all. After each house she'd say "more houses." It was super cute.

Holidays are so much more fun with little kids around. They receive so much joy out of the simple things in life and it's such a good reminder to look at the good, positive things we have going. I'm looking forward to Christmas this year because I'll get to see it through her and Sammy. Now to come up with next year's costumes. Maybe I'll get them done in time for all of our parties!

Family Photos 2010

Here are a few of our favorite new family photos - now featuring Sammy!

My good friend Lauren took them for us and I think they turned out wonderful!

Thanks Lauren!