December 2013 Part 3

The big day arrived, and Santa brought Malia the requested bow and arrow!
Santa brought Riley a lava lamp, but wouldn't you know it broke.  That is
a major bummer.  I found one at Walmart, same brand as the one Santa
brought (hmmmmmm) and it's not doing so hot either.  Wierd!  We may
have to find him a really cool one somewhere else and have a talk with Santa.

Riley and Malia are pet owners.  Tiny turtles are much easier and quieter
than bunnies.  They are named, by their respective owners, Scooter and
Christina.  Scooter makes sense.  Christina????  Oh, and I saw Christina
crawl/swim over to Scooter the other day and lift a "hand" and slap Scooter.

K, umm, priceless!!!  There's the beautiful brown hair,
the raised eyebrows (even in the middle where there are no
eyebrows), the beautiful blue eyes, button nose, sweet little
mouth, puffed up chest, enormous full belly, "muscly" arms,
the way she perches on my arm and grabs my thumb for
balance.  I never, ever want to forget this.  Oh and don't
forget my aching arm now that Gracie is the queen of chub,
and the way she looks at me accusingly every time I
lay her down.  Yes, she loves her rides around the house.

I love Malia's face in this.  So posed.  

She was doing this to herself.  For fun.

Nothing quite like big bags of candy to prop you
up when your own stomach muscles aren't up to it.

Let's none of us be normal, k?  But to explain, they are each
playing with a present they got from GREAT Grandma and
Grandpa Blacker.  Riley has fake snow, Malia a Hello Kitty
lunch box, and Gracie the chew toy, nice for her first little tooth.

Christmas Eve, after opening presents.  Yep, we opened all the presents
Christmas eve because we had to leave the next morning for the
Hansen breakfast in FG.  It was pretty cool doing it this way, actually.

Ellie's last night.  Goodbye Ellie.  Oh how we will miss you.  It was
so fun to watch you try to figure out a new and creative place to turn
up each and EVERY morning in December.  And equally fun explaining
why sometimes, you didn't move at all!  We can't be perfect, can we, Ellie.

Well, the other two minions are allergic, but maybe this one will
get away without allergies.  Cute new puppy.

She looks uncertain.  She probably is wondering
what his beard tastes like.

New jammies.  She was able to name all the princesses.
They forgot one.  Princess Malia!!!

December 2013 Part 2

I love my boy!  He's happy about Christmas.

I wonder who's brilliant idea it was to make 250 sugar cookies for
neighbor gifts?  I wonder if it will EVER happen again. 

Yay for being 5 months old, and yes Gracie has a diaper on.  I love
Gracie's smile.....so perfect.  And the sign holder is kind of a show stealer :)

Santa!  By the way, we weren't allowed to take our own pictures.
These were taken illegally by my mom, who was hiding from Santa's
helpers.  You couldn't even see her behind the pine tree decor.

Good pic, taken with my new "smartness" phone.

Awwwwwww......

Yum!

Squishy!

The rice cereal was a hit!

Well, kind of....

....other than the occasional gagging....

She has now become a danger to herself.

So much happiness!  Except if you look closely,
Gracie is pretty annoyed.

Sissy's!  Never thought I'd encourage that term, but it is now
being used all the time in our house.  

10/10 on the cuteness scale.  I think I will
keep her forever and ever and ever.....

December 2013 Part 1

Well, inevitably, Christmas time came around again. And
with it, our little friend Ellie the elf.  Her first stop was our tree.
She TRIED to move to a new and exciting place every night,
but sometimes she forgot or was lazy :)  Oh Ellie...... 

Chris came to visit!  We genuinely love it when Chris comes.
He's a unique distraction :)  Just like with Grandma, the kids
battle for his attention a little bit.  Anyway, he entertains us.

As brilliant as I am, I can't remember EVERYTHING.  And on
this day I (Ben) forgot the stroller.  Lucky for me (Ben) the mall had
ONE stroller for rent, and Gracie enjoyed sitting up for a change.

Wow Chris.  Wow Riley.  You both are so handsome!

So there is definately a story behind this picture.  I wished I had scanned
in the picture we were re-creating.  When I was maybe 9 or 10, and Chris
around 2, my mom took a picture just like this and it is one of her favs because
she loves how guilty I look while Chris is having a meltdown.  So for
Christmas, I gave her this picture framed next to the old one.  It was great!

Oh!  And I can't forget....Riley was the photographer of the above picture.
So here's a picture of the three of us after our little project was finished.

Ben and I took Riley and Malia (sorry Gracie!) on Frontrunner for the
first time ever this month.  It was quite fun!  We paid $15 and that took
care of our trip up, Trax to Temple Square and back, and the trip back.
Actually, no one ever checked our ticket!  One fun memory...I actually
got a nice phone call on the way up.  A job offer for the new Payson
Instacare.  I had been a grumpy, nervous wreck waiting for that call,
so it came at a good time :)

The Church History Museum has quite a fun little children's area.  

I helped Malia put on a skirt, and she followed the dance
movements of the senorita on the screen.  It was really cute!

And Riley having fun doing...something!

I'm glad we made it to Temple Square.  We will take
our little Gracie next year.

"Mooooommmmm.  Enough with the pictures!"

Riding Trax with a huge candy cane and some crazy hair!