Christmas Day

This was the best Christmas yet!  I love my family so much!  I had so much joy seeing everyone together for Christmas.  I was missing my childhood Christmas's so we decided to stay overnight at my mom's on Christmas Eve.  The adults stayed up until 2 am playing games.  Everyone was laughing so hard I am surprised we did not wake up the whole house. 

Aiden woke up at 1:30 am ready for presents.  He and I talked for a while, which was so special.  It was not anything important, but I love the one-on-one time we have together.  Taylor slept in Nana's room and eventually kicked Nana out of bed and took her spot.  Austin slept on the floor with Thad and actually did pretty well. Aiden and I had the bed.  Aiden asked Dad if he would not move him once he fell asleep.

Finally at 7:30 am we woke up the kids.  Thad tried all sorts of things to wake up Aiden, but all we had to say was presents and he was wide awake.  Taylor was so tired I had to carry her downstairs.  Austin is so easy going he woke up happy as can be when we picked him up.

The kids loved their stockings and Santa presents.  Both Aiden and Taylor received DS Lite and games from Santa.  We only did a few presents from us.  Aiden received mostly Lego's.  Taylor got an American Girl that looks like her an clothes.  Austin got a lot of teething toys.  He is so excited as well.  Christmas is so much better with kids.

I got come cupcake books a magazine subscription and a purse from the kids. Thad received a Lego online game, hat and something else that I can not remember. My mom got both of us an IPad.  I am really excited to get it set up.

After a fun filled at my moms.  We went to Thad's parents and had even more presents and dinner.  It was a long day, the kids were exhausted.

Christmas Eve

We had an amazing Christmas this year! We went to Rachel and Alan's for Christmas Eve. It was filled with family, friends, food and fun. Santa made an appearance and gave everyone jammies, even Jasmin.

Aiden was so excited to see Santa. He absolutely loved it. I love seeing the Christmas magic through his eyes, it is even better than when I was little. Taylor was petrified of Santa and would not go near him. I had to get the present and give it to her.

Austin had a great time trying to eat Alexander's hat and he liked sitting on Santa's lap as well. The red suit was mesmerizing for Austin.

Taylor loves Austin so much. She is the best big sister in the world!!

Christmas Programs

We have had some adorable Christmas programs for the kids this last week. Taylor had a Teddy Bears Picnic program at preschool. She was so good at practicing her songs at home. However, as soon as the parents showed up at school she got scared and refused to sing any of the songs.

Aiden had his very first piano recital. He played Jolly Old Saint Nicholas. He has only been playing the piano for 3 months. I am so proud of him getting up in front of so many people and playing. He was a little nervous, but did so amazing. I can not believe how big he is getting. He won't let me call him Baby Boo anymore.

I'm A Little Tea Pot

Winter Worderland

This is new for me, but I absolutely love winter. Plus, I feel like a vampire burning in the sun ever since I had skin cancer.

Lately, I look forward to every snow storm. Christmas just brings so many fun memories from my childhood.

Aiden and Taylor have been having fun in the snow too. Taylor has even managed to figure out how to be a princess in the snow wearing a skirt over her snow clothes.

This Christmas we are starting some new family traditions to help make Christmas more memorable for the kids.

1. Elf on a shelf: I am sure everyone has heard about this now, but we love it. We named our adopted Elf "Scout". The kids have so much fun looking for him every morning. It is also great motivation for the kids to remember to be nice.

2. Temple Square: We took the kids to Temple Square for the first lighting. We had a lot of fun until Taylor got sick. She was such a trooper. She did not even tell anyone she got sick as she did not want to ruin the lights for everyone else. Poor girl.

3. Wishes: Every Christmas Eve we are going to place our wish for the next year in a glass jar on the Christmas Tree. The next Christmas we will read our wishes and see if they came true. I liked this as we could make lasting wishes not just for toys.

4. Movie Night: This is something that will take place year round. Every Sunday night is Movie Night. Everyone in the family is required to be there. The kids switch off on picking a movie, my only requirement is no Scooby Doo, or else that is all we would watch. We make popcorn and treats and spend 2 hours as a family having a fun evening with no other interuptions. I hope to keep this going until the kids are all grown.

If anyone else has some fun ideas for famly traditions I would love to hear them. I don't think the kids will remember their presents but they will remember the fun things we do as a family.

Austin James

It has been crazy around our house for the last few months. We had a wonderful new addition to our family in July.

Introducing Austin James Roy

Austin made his debut appearance a week early. It was so much fun. We had decided not to find out if he was a boy or girl while I was pregnant. We had all our friends and family guessing. I think Megan was the only one who consistently said I was having a boy.

On July 21st, I had the crazy experience of having my water break at work while I just started training a customer service representative. This happened about 1:30 pm and I was not expecting this, but as soon as my water broke I had an idea that my baby was a boy. My water broke with Aiden as well, but in a grocery store. Taylor was more of a "normal" contractions.

When we got to the hospital, the nurse was so cute. She was so excited about us not knowing the sex of the baby. She made sure everyone who entered the room knew so they would not give the secret away.

Since my water had broken but I was not having contractions, I was put on pitocin to help things along. The pitocin worked very well, they expected Austin to arrive after midnight, but he was in a hurry. Around 10 pm I was feeling very uncomfortable. They thought my epidural was wearing off. Due to some complications the anesthesiologist spent the entire delivery in my room. I actually received four separate injections of the epidural to help with pain and to try and slow down the delivery. Now, my OB doctor almost did not make it in time. The on-call physician was there as well. My mom and sister arrived just after he was born, well they were running down the hall as they heard his first cry.

At 11:05 pm Austin arrived. It was such a fun experience to hear "It's a Boy!" Definitely worth the 9 months of guessing. He was a healthy 7 pounds 11 ounces and 21 inches long. Holding him for the first time was heaven, love at first sight!!

The one draw back of not know if we were having a boy or girl was deciding on a name. We had plenty of options for a boy. Here are a few we were discussing.

Austin

Dylan

Noah

Jacob

Ethan

The day we left the hospital we decided on Austin. It just felt right. His middle name is James. This is Papa Cordell's middle name and Grandpa Jim's name.

He had the cord wrapped around his neck twice. Luckily there were not complications with this. However, I had some complications with my epidural. I spent the next two weeks in bed with the most extreme headaches I have ever had. I have to look at this as a blessing in disguise. I spent two weeks in bed with Austin by my side with no other distractions. Thad was lucky enough to be able to take 2 weeks off to watch the other kids for me.

Aiden and Taylor visited Austin at the hospital the next day. They absolutely adore their little brother. I was worried Taylor might have been upset as she wanted a little sister, but she loves him so much. She never even mentioned wanting a little sister after he was born. She turned into a little mother. Both Aiden and Taylor have helped me so much. They would get me diapers and even fight over who gets to throw the dirty diaper away. I am truly blessed to have such an amazing family.

We are so excited to have Austin apart of our family. WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Soccer Star in Training.

Aiden has had a blast with soccer. He has made so many new friends and just loves learning everything he can about soccer. Every night he has Thad read about soccer rules and how to become a better soccer player. We have seen a huge improvement in the last few games.

His team is the Super Kickers. All the kids are pre-kindergarten and this is their first time playing soccer. They have played 3 games so far. I love seeing them run around after the ball, not quite sure what they are doing. However, Aiden has almost scored a couple of goals. He is working hard to get his first goal during a game.

Planning their game strategy.

Aiden practicing before his first game! He is really good at getting the ball in the goal.

Happy Birthday Taylor!!!

We have had 4 adorable little kids turning three in the last three weeks! It has been so much fun to see all of them grow up. Last Sunday Taylor turned three. We planned a Mad Hatter Tea Party for her. She had an absolutely wonderful time. Luckily the weather cooperated and we had the tea party inside but all the activities in the backyard.

We planned everything around Alice in Wonderland. We had looking glasses and crazy hats for the kids to decorate, treat bags with water that said "Drink Me" on it and cake balls with "Eat Me" signs. The best thing about a Mad Hatter Tea Party is that nothing had to match. We just had fun bright and crazy colors every where.

I have spent the last couple of weeks planning for this party. I think Thad is happy it is finally over. Every night I was showing him pictures of things we could do, enlisting his help making tissue paper pom-poms, hanging lanterns and planning the food.

I wanted everything to be perfect for my little princess. Having a little girl is so much fun. I absolutely adore Taylor and everything she does. Even though I like to tease that she has Thad wrapped around her little finger, she has me wrapped around her finger as well.

Here are some of the reasons I love Taylor:
1. She has the most adorable smile
2. She wakes up every morning happy and tells me that she loves me.
3. I just feel her love every time she gives me a hug.
4. She cares about how others feel and likes to help them and make them feel better.
5. She is very mischievous, I never know what she is going to do next. It keeps me on my toes.
6. She loves cooking and taking care of her babies. She will be the best mom every when she grows up.
7. Everything has to be princess, including me. All girls are princesses to her.
8. She loves her brother and her little baby. She even gives my tummy a kiss every night to make sure the baby doesn't feel left out.
9. She never makes a rash decision. She has to thoughtfully think through everything before deciding. This makes trips to the store to pick out a toy challenging.
10. Taylor gets so excited even over the littlest things. It makes me so happy to be her mom.

I LOVE YOU MISSY MOO!!

Here is Taylor's beautiful hair. She loves having princess hair, but only when someone else does it. Mom is not allowed to do her hair.

Here is my first attempt at a Topsy turvey birthday cake. It is much harder then I expected to cover in fondant. Next time I may just use regular icing.

Everything had to be Alice in Wonderland themed.

Saturday morning Taylor and I had a girls morning out. She went and got her hair done for her party. I made this periwinkle tutu for her to wear at the party.

I love how this turned out! Thank you Thad and Annie for helping get it all together.

We had two tables set for 16 kids to join the party. The bouncy castle, slide and trampoline were too much fun to have all the kids join the tea party at once.

The tea party place settings.

The Super Kickers

Aiden has his first soccer game tonight. He is so excited. Last Saturday we meet his coach, Emily. It was so cute to see these little 4 and 5 year olds practicing for their game. He is on the green team and their name is the Super Kickers. He has two kids from Challenger on his team. So they practice soccer everyday at recess.
Here is Aiden in his uniform. He loves it and wore it to Senika's birthday party and the next day. I had to take it off him while he slept just to wash it.

Senika's Birthday

We have four birthday parties for 3 year olds this month. Taylor has so many friends that are just her age, which is so much fun. The first party is for our good friends daughter, Senika. We love their parties, the kids have fun and all the adults hang out forever. We were there for a good 7 hours.

Aiden was tired of me taking pictures, so he gave me this funny pose. I love it!

Aiden and Taylor with their present to Senika. Taylor started crying after she found out all the presents were for Senika. She was afraid that she missed her own birthday party.

Taylor showing off all the fun things she got in the pinata. Just a note to everyone, chips in a pinata is not a good idea.Aiden hitting the pinata.

Aiden and Gage playing sword fighting with the pinata bats.

Taylor loved her fairy wings. She still wears them everyday.Happy Birthday Senika! The two princesses wearing red headbands!

Here is a fun video of Taylor dancing. She was so excited to see Senika open her birthday presents. I have never seen her dance like this before.