Jordan * Janessa * Claire * Anya: January 2012

Resolutions...Just putting these out there for all to see

This way, I will be more inclined to do them??

1. 100% visiting teaching.
2. BofM reading DAILY. No exceptions.
3. Gym three times a week.
4. Fit into skinny jeans (yes, you know who you are, skinny jeans....)
5. Stop procrastinating laundry.
6. Temple attendance once a month.

OK, there you have it. I've said it. Did visiting teaching this month already. I figure that if I just stress over it from the get-go instead of at the end of the month, by the end of the month, I should have done it already haha!

Birthday for Like 2 WEEKS...

FIRST she gets utterly SPOILED for Christmas (and don't look at me. I blame my in-laws...love you guys haha) and THEN her birthday is RIGHT AFTER Christmas. Awful. What was I thinking when I got pregnant in whatever month made me have her in January??? Seriously. POOR PLANNING.

Anyway, I don't have any pictures of her actual birthday...maybe there are some on Jordan's camera, but we did celebrate it for many days. She now has no concept that a birthday is just one day a year, really. It happened on a Saturday, but we celebrated on Friday (sleepover at Grandma Taylors - pictures below), and Sunday dinner for her birthday too. But anyway, here are some pictures of her being pampered for her birthday by my sisters in law, Katie and Jessica on Friday for her special night at Grandma's house:

Absolutely Claire's favorite activity. Getting her nails painted. She also likes to pick the nail polish off afterwards, which makes mommy....oh so happy...

A princess cake, of course.

More pampering!

Jess, why are these pictures so blurry? I thought you were a professional photo-taker?? :) It's not like my kids MOVE or anything lol.

As you can see, she is wearing her favorite outfit. The "Princess Ballerina" one from my parents this Christmas.

This is my favorite picture. Seriously so cute!

Happy Birthday my Sweetheart!!!!

Yep, just posting Christmas

So, here are some Christmas morning pictures. Glad church was still at 1. 9am church is....SO FUN. :) And probably not awesome on Christmas. Although I have to say, it was SO NICE to go to church on Christmas. The whole Christmas season I was trying to pound into (gently of course :) the girls' heads that Christmas was celebrating "Jesus' birthday" and that it was about Jesus really, and that Santa and presents were just an "added bonus" :) I wish we could go to church every Christmas actually.

Some fun pics:

The cutest husband in the world. Filming the event.

Look at that little cutie!! In princess jammies, of COURSE.

These are the gifts for us, the kids, and a couple in the back for Jordan's parents. That's it! Not too much!

The tree. I added the cool white netting. These are lame pictures. I didn't do any editing. I'm too busy!

I think Claire now has more makeup, nail polish, and lip gloss than all 2 year olds around the world COMBINED. Seriously. It was bad at Christmas, and then again for her birthday. Sheesh.

Anya got like 2 things. It was fun :) Cute jammies too!

So we decided to start doing just one present from Santa and it's always wrapped in red paper. That'll be the tradition, I guess.

Jordan got "Carmex" for Christmas from Santa. Yep, that's it. We figured..."oh yeah, maybe Santa should get something for Mom and Dad too!" Problem is, Claire remembers we bought it for Jordan one day at Target, for Christmas. Good thing she's still young and "out of it" :) haha

I also got Jordan a new white shirt and some ties. Problem is I let Claire help me wrap it. She promptly told Daddy what it was "It's just a shirt and ties, Dad." He was like "She's worse than YOU honey, and that's hard!" Sad :)

Anyway, then my parents came out a couple of weeks ago and they gave us the most AWESOME gift!!! I hope I can do this for my kids one day. They gave us a book on Temple worship and a check for $100. This check is to be used to go to dinner, pay for a babysitter, and go to the temple. They hope we can go to the temple monthly, and use the money when we go. When it runs out, we can just ask them to send us another $100, and so on until the end of the year. Sweet, eh??? We wanted to go on Saturday, and I was even thinking "Man, nothing has gotten in the way of the temple! This is a first!" Then Claire woke up at 3am Saturday morning and threw up. Diarrhea the rest of the day. We cancelled the sitter and have rescheduled...

And here is our door this year. It as so nice to hear from so many of our friends and family!!

Did some Christmas Crafts this year:

Jordan was a little upset I hacked a limb off our tree without any "correct pruning" experience lol... but it was for a good cause!

Crappy picture (these are from my phone let's be honest) but did a copycat wreath of one at Target that was so cute, but so pricey. My awesome friend, Jacqui, got me these pine cones for FREE!! Spray them silver, add some berries, and they're good to go!