Santa

I thought that it would be a good idea to take Noah and Leah to see Santa today...I thought wrong! It was a disaster! All I really wanted was a picture of Noah and Leah on Santa's lap, since that was what we have done with Noah the past two years....and the pictures from the past two years turned out wonderfully! See...

Christmas 2006

Christmas 2007

Once we got up to see Santa, Noah ran away and fell on the floor. Doug went and got him and held him on his lap instead. Then I tried to get a picture of Noah by Santa's side, and he decided to stick his tongue out. THEN, I wanted to attempt to get a picture with Noah and Leah toghether with Santa, and the moment I handed Leah to Santa she started to SCREAM. Maybe I will attempt to get a Santa picture in a few weeks. Doug said that these pictures are the best...good memories! It's a good thing that we decided against buying a picture from Santa this year...plus can you believe that they charge you $24 for one picture?!?! Anyway, I totally got a kick out of this and I just had to share...

Doug was holding Noah by Santa's side

Noah being a little stinker...oh my!

This picture is classic!

Oh...and Santa told Doug that we only have about 2 seconds to get a good picture before they start freaking out. I wish he would have told me that beforehand! Maybe next time.

Christmas Tree

We have had a real tree every year since we have been married and every year I am beyond frustrated because it always dies by mid-December! I love it, feed it, give it all of the attention that it needs and it just dries up and becomes a big pain to clean up. SO, this year we decided to get a fake tree, and I love it already! Reasons why I love my new tree:

~ I didn't have to go to a lot to pick it out, which means we didn't have to deal with sales people. ~ It was so easy to put up AND the lights were already on it, so I saved a lot of time there!

~ I don't have to water it every day.

~ I KNOW that it is going to look just as pretty in one month as it does today :).

~ I don't have to clean up all of the pine needles every day.

~ I don't have to deal with getting rid of it at the end of December.

Yes, I really think that getting a fake tree is a good idea for us. It doesn't smell as good, but a nice seasonal candle will fix that :).

That said...we set up our Christmas tree this weekend. Christmas is by far my favorite holiday, so I wasn't going to waste any time putting up the Christmas decor once Thanksgiving was over. Noah was such a great help and he had so much fun putting the ornaments on the tree with me. Let the holidays begin :).

Happy Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for this year. More then anything, I am thankful for my friends and family and how my life is so much better because of you!

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving with the Smith family this year. The food was great, the company was great...it was a wonderful day! I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Noah and I started the day by going on a little walk. Steff cutting the turkey...it was so good! Our Thanksgiving feast. Elizabeth and Madie playing Guitar Hero after dinner. Noah had SO much fun playing with the cousins. He wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get a picture of him. Karin and Maya getting some pumpkin pie. Maya and Leah Connor...he's pretty cute! Noah finally sat down to eat some pie. My sweet little angel.

Leah ~ 8 Months

Leah turned 8 months old this past Friday. She is growing so much and she is doing new things every day. It is such a joy to watch her progress and learn...that is definitely one of the best parts of being a parent :).

~ She still wants to be held all of the time. The moment that you put her down she cries. It breaks my heart when she is sad, so I pretty much hold her all day long. Yes, she definitely has me wrapped around her little finger!
~ She loves to play with Noah and prefers playing with his toys over hers...Noah doesn't like this very much.
~ She prefers to eat solid foods over baby food. She will eat baby food, but she enjoys eating bread, cut up bananas, cut up peaches, etc... She loves to grab the pieces of food and feed herself.
~ She is fast! If she is on your lap, she will grab anything in sight, and most of the time it is stuff that she should have her hands on. The worst is when we are holding her at the dinner table and she grabs our plates and throws them on the ground...this has happened more then once. You would think that we would have learned by now.
~ She has a little attitude and is starting to throw some little tantrums. I think that she is too young to be doing this. Oh boy!
~ It is still hard to get a smile out of her, and we think that she is just being stubborn about it. We will try to get her to smile, and she will look at us and smile with her mouth closed, and then she will turn her head away. It's pretty funny to watch!
~ She is starting to babble a lot and we get a kick out of listening to her. I swear, I would be content listening to her babble all day long...it's so cute! Oh...and she can say "Mom" and I know that she is saying it in context {wink, wink}.
~ She is starting to fill out {especially in her face}, but she is still pretty petite. I took her to the doctor last week because she was sick, and she weighs 15 pounds 6 ounces. Her cousin Ryan, who is 4 months younger, weighs 16 pounds! Wow!
~ She is starting to get really mobile. She is in the beginning stages of crawling. She will go from the sitting position to getting on her hands and knees, but after a few seconds she falls down on her belly. Once she is on her belly she will do an army crawl to get to her destination. I don't think that I am ready for her to start moving around. Ready or not, here she comes :).
~ She has just started to pull her self up onto her knees when she is holding on to a toy or something stable.

Here are some pictures from this past month...

I let Leah play with Noah's trucks during his nap time :). Shhh...don't tell Noah.
Trying to crawl.

Leah pulling herself up on her knees. Very impressive :).

Here is a video of Leah saying "Mom" :).

Go Utes!

Today was a REALLY GOOD DAY! I am so proud to be a Ute...so proud! I will ALWAYS support the University of Utah and I absolutely love it when we have seasons such as this. And the fact that we won BYU 48-24 makes this season even better :). So, the Utes went 12 and 0 this year, and hopefully {we better} go to a BCS game, which will be awesome! Thank you for a wonderful season! I look forward to next year.

Don't we look great all geared up for the game!

We go to all of the games with Stephanie and Aaron...they're the best!

I just had to share this sign :).
Final score and the fans running on the field.

TWILIGHT {Updated}

**I have added what I thought of the movie at the end of this post.**

I saw it...and I LOVED it! Don't worry, I am not going to say anything to spoil it...but I will say that it was SO GOOD and it does not disappoint! My dad got me and my mom some vouchers to go and see the private screening last night! I had to wait in line for 2 1/2 hours to exchange my vouchers for the actual tickets, and by the time they got to me there were ONLY 10 TICKETS LEFT!!! I couldn't believe that I was lucky enough to get tickets to get into the show! All of those people behind me were so disappointed...but I was very happy to get my tickets! Mom and I came back at 7:00 to see the movie, and we both loved it! Edward was all that I hoped that he would be, thank goodness! It was absolutely amazing and I am so excited to go and see it again tomorrow night with my sis-in-law and my niece {I bought these tickets 3 weeks ago}. I am sure that everyone {who is interested in seeing it, that is} will be very happy with it. Let me know what you think when you see it :).

KOSY 106.5 was there taking pictures and they took this one us.

{I stole it off their site, that is why it is so blurry}.

I thought that I would wait a few days to post what I thought about the movie, so don’t read this unless you want to be spoiled. I went into this movie knowing that it wouldn’t match up to the book…the book is so good {in my opinion} and it would take a 6 hour movie to capture everything that is in the book. That said, here is what I thought of the movie…

~ Edward was PERFECT! This Edward was exactly like the Edward that I envisioned in my head…they hit it right on with casting Robert Pattinson for the part.
~ I really liked Bella, as well. Kristen Stewart portrayed Bella perfectly!
~ I was a little disappointed with Jasper and Jacob…they were not at all what I thought those characters were going to be. Maybe they will grow on me in the upcoming movies…we’ll see.
~ My favorite scene was definitely the baseball scene. The special effects made this scene amazing and I could have watched it over and over. I loved watching Jasper juggle the bat around and Emmett being the playful character that he is. It was fun to watch.
~ The scene in the dance studio was great too. The only part that was a little odd to me was when Edward was saving Bella…it was just odd to watch.
~ There were some crucial scenes in the book that weren’t in the movie, and I was a little irritated by that, but, again, that was to be expected.
~ I so wish that the meadow scene was shown in its entirety. I know that what was said in that scene was in the movie, I just wish that it was shown just as it was in the book.
~ I really love the soundtrack for this film. I have been listening to it this past week and I really enjoy it.

I thought that it was so much fun to see this book brought to life. It was announced today that, due to the success of Twilight this weekend, they are going to move forward with the filming of New Moon, and it will hopefully come out at this time next year…very exciting. I am very excited to see how that movie is in comparison to the book…probably more so then Twilight. Until then…

Noah is Potty Trained!

He did it...Noah is officially potty trained. Noah has gone 2 weeks without any accidents, so I think it is time to make it officially. Here is the Big Boy himself sharing the BIG news! {I think that I am more excited then he is...it is SO wonderful not having to change his diaper anymore!}.

Total Amazement

Leah is loving her new toy...loving it!

Thank you, Noah, for passing it on to your little sis!

Tired

We got home from Costco.
I took Noah in the house.
I brought in the goods...
...and I found this...

Good Day

Yesterday was a good day...a VERY good day! I am so proud to be a Ute!

Much excitement after the game. It was GREAT!

Notice the goal post being taken down on the left.

Ring Bearer

Noah was asked to be the ring bearer at my cousin's wedding, and what a great little ring bearer he was! He looked oh so very handsome in his tuxedo, and he knew it too! Once he realized that he was looking mighty sharp, he started to smile at everyone and walk around with his head held high. Doug and I couldn't get enough of watching him in his fancy attire. I'll be the first to admit that I was a little nervous about him walking down the aisle, but he surprised me by being so good and holding McKenzie's hand the entire time. Once he got to the front, he came and sat by us, as I knew he would. We had such a wonderful time hanging with the family and dancing the night away...well, Noah was the one dancing the night away :). I was able to have a dance with my cute hubby, which was wonderful...thanks for the dance, babe! Love you!

My handsome boy!

I am so glad that little face is mine...all mine :).

Noah and McKenzie walking down the aisle...they are so cute!

Noah watching the ceremony.Jessica and Jason saying their vows.
Noah would have stayed all night long, if he was given the chance.
Leah was spent by the end of the night.