Helping with Home Improvements

As many of you know we are trying to get our house ready to go on the market so I am putting a fresh coat of paint on which might not seem like a big deal to some, but trying doing it with a two year old who is ready to help whether or not you want him to, and you have just entered my nightmare! P is just so darn cute though, that it's hard to get mad at him for just wanting to help mommy!!!

Celebrity Apprentice

Love and I are obsessed with Celebrity Apprentice and on that show everyone wears sunglasses all the time (especially in the board room) so P decided that he needed to as well. He wore these all day long!

YouTube

Oh the things you can find on youtube! Love found these for P and he is obessed with them! I think they so incredibly BORING but P loves watching them.

Thirsty???

I think this video is self expanatory, Preston can keep himself entertained with just about anything!

Back to the Future

Love was in the living room watching a movie and all of a sudden P heard a train and had to run in and see what daddy was watching, he was completely mesmerized by what was on, so I came in to see what it was and to my amazement it was Back to the Future III. So for those of you who are not up to speed on the back to the futures, this is the one where they go to the old west and at the end they use the train to get the car up to speed so they can go back to the future. P sat there and watched intently everything that was going on, it was hilarious so I grabbed my camera and got some video of it. P is so intent, he won't even answer any of my questions!

I love to see the temple

My family had the chance to attend the Draper Temple open house on Saturday. The inside is absolutely beautiful! You go to a chapel down the road and watch a video about temples and then they bus you up to the temple. We told P that it was a choo-choo bus, so the whole time we were walking through the temple he kept wanting to get back on the choo-choo bus. We were almost done when he had a complete meltdown because in his mind we were getting further away from where he thought the buses should be. It was such a special night though because my whole family was there. We love spending time with everyone and getting to do something as special as this was awesome!

Train Exhibit

I took P to the train exhibit at Thanksgiving Point because as we all know, P is obsessed with trains! They had so many cool things there, they had an exhibit made only out of legos and a ton of collectible trains that were really old. P had such a fun time that the next day as soon as he woke up he grabbed my hand and said "choo-choo again momma". P driving a Thomas Train P looking at a train that was as big as he was The Lego train exhibit even had a garden! More of the lego one (this was mommy's favorite)

This was P's favorite train of the whole exhibit, we stood here and watched the train go around and around and around for over an hour!

Walking in mommy's shoes

P loves to wear other people's shoes and especially mommy's because most of her shoes click on the hardwood floors, so he can make tons of noise!

1-2-3 or 2-6-5

This is a cute video of P counting his poppers, he has all the numbers down just not in the right order!

Christmas at the Muirs

After we opened all of our gifts from Santa and got dressed we went up to Love's parents house. I made breakfast for everyone as my gift to my mother-in-law because she cooks for everyone all year so I wanted to give her a break. We usually spend all day there so while we were waiting for everyone else to come we played with P's trains (of course) and watched a movie. Then we had dinner and opened gifts. P loves to play with his cousins Love's parents have this second basement that is below their basement and it's a basketball court, P loves to go down there and play ball or ride his bike around the hardwood floor. The night ended kinda hectic because Steve's uncle crashed his car going down the driveway, so we left in kind of a hurry to get home. But it was a fun day and we love spending time with family.
.

Santa Came

Santa came bright and early Christmas morning. We spent the night at my mom and dad's (or as P calls them Bob and Ma). When we went out to the living room, Santa had left P a brand new car to ride in. Love's mom had sent down her present because their was a huge snowstorm and we weren't sure if we were going to make it up there or not. So P had a trike and a car to ride around in until Grandma Dorothy came down. He would ride on one for a couple of minutes and then not wanting the other to feel left out he would take a turn on the other for a couple minutes. He just kept switching back and forth. Santa made the mistake of putting 4 choo-choo trains in P's stocking so he didn't want to open any of his presents because he already got what he had asked for, so mom and dad ended up opening the rest of P's presents. He got a radio, a handy manny tool box, and a track for his trains to ride on. Love got some new scriptures, and a broom-vac, and I got a new coat and some boots. My dad is such a great grandpa, he was all prepared with the batteries (that santa forgot to bring) to get P's toys up and running and he helped put everything together. We love spending christmas at grandma and grandpa's because they get such joy out of watching P open his presents. Thanks grandma and grandpa for letting us spend Christmas with you. We love you so much!!! It was a great christmas!
P opening his shopping cart from Uncle Tom and Uncle Dan that was sent down because of the snow storm.
Grandma helping P put batteries in his new trains.
Grandma Dorothy opening her stocking.
Love seeing what Santa left him in his stocking.
P reading the train book that Santa left for him in his stocking. (Do you think Santa knows he loves trains?)
P riding the trike that Grandma and Grandpa Muir gave him.
P getting a push from "bob" in his car.

Cookies for Santa

On Christmas Eve we made some cookies for Santa, they are just like sugar cookies except you don't have to cut them out and frost each one (I know I know- I'm all for anything easier!) P had such a fun time putting the sprinkles on them. At first he would just pick up one pinch of sprinkles and put them on the cookies but at the end he decided he was done and just dumped the rest of the plate onto the batch. We then cut them into squares and put them on a special santa cookie plate with a note to Santa. I turned my back for a minute and Love started eating the cookies off of the plate. Now I know we are still new at this whole parenting thing, but come on who eats the cookies for santa before we can even get them set out for santa. It did make me laugh so hard though because that's just Love, and I love him so much!!!


HERE'S THE RECIPE
1-1/2 C sugar
2/3 C butter, softened
2 eggs
2 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-1/2 C flour
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp salt
Beat together sugar and butter until creamy. Mix in eggs, milk, and vanilla. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to sugar mixture and mix until flour is just barely incorporated. Do not over mix! Press into a jelly-roll pan (dough is too soft to cut out with cookie cutters.) Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool completely, then frost. Cut into 2" bars.
Frosting:
1/2 C butter
1 lb powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)
milk
Beat butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and almond extract together in a large bowl. While beating add milk until mixture becomes smooth and a frosting-like consistency.

Christmas Eve Eve

Every Christmas Eve we get together with the Luke side of our family, but for the first time since their marriage, my sister's in-laws were coming into town for a wedding so they were spending Christmas Eve with them. Long story short we got together Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd for those that can't keep up with the story). Everyone was there and it was so much fun to get together and exchange gifts. We always just do a buffet of finger foods and then start opening the gifts.
P, GG, my baby brother, Grandma Dorothy, and my brother-in-law.
Sister-in-law holding n/n #11 and Grandma Dorothy holding #9.
GG, my dad, n/n #1, P and #4.
Sister-in-law holding #11, my little brother holding #9 and Chubbs, my dad, and #4.
my mom, #2, 3, & 4.
#3 showing off all the presents.

Cookie Day

Every year, the girls in my family get together and make cookies and candy to pass out to our neighbors. This year since my mom and dad decided to "skip christmas" and no one else came, my sister and I (holding true to our traditions) decided to hold cookie day ourselves. We made a ton of candies and cookies and had lots of fun just being together. Thanks for the use of your kitchen Rachael, you are awesome!!The finished product. For a list of all of the goodies and their recipes go to my sister's blog here, and she has them all listed.
My niece #2 and I making candies.
My sister, Rachael.

Church Ball

N/n #1 was on the church basketball team.  He did such a great job and we are so proud of him!  His dad is also the coach (if you couldn't tell from the pic).

Another Snow Day

I know I have already posted some pictures of our first snow of the season, but P was so cute today. Love went out and was shoveling the driveway and P had to be out there to help him. He started out with this huge shovel (in the video) but then he went into the garage to see if he could find one more his size and he brought out this dustpan and started shoveling away the snow with that.

The Opening of the Presents

To finish off the wedding festivities, when my baby brother and his new wife got back from their honeymoon we went over and watched them open up their gifts. They think they got most of what they needed and wanted!

Christmas in Payson

Last week we went to my sister's house and celebrated Christmas in her small town . We started the night out by going to a train exhibit and P would have been content if we never left. He loved watching the trains go around and around. Then we went and watched a house who's christmas lights danced to the music (that's what the video is of) and then we ended the night by going to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what we wanted for Christmas. P of course told him that he wanted a train- what else would P wish for for Christmas??? He wasn't one bit scared of sitting on Santa's lap like I thought he would be. He just climbed right up on his knee and Santa asked him what he would like and P said a train.
P and his cousins waiting in line to sit on Santa's lap.
n/n #3 & 4 and their friends standing on the lamp post to see if they can see a glimpse of Santa yet.
P telling Santa that he wants a choo-choo train for Christmas this year.
At the train exhibit watching the trains go around and around.

Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas Tree

Every Christmas my parents put up their christmas tree and let the grandkids come over and decorate it. The kids have so much fun trying to put their ornaments on the highest branch while P and n/n #9 piled all their ornaments on one single branch. My parents really love having the kids over and enjoy their tree the rest of the season!
The finished tree!
#11 helping Grandpa put on the star.
#4 trying to find just the right spot!
#2 putting her ornament on just right.
#3 looking for his favorite ornament to put on the tree.
#9 trying to figure out how to get it to stay on the tree.
#1 seeing how high he can get his ornaments on.
P take the ornaments back off the tree and putting them back in the box.

Wedding Time

It's finally here!!!My baby brother got married on Friday December 5th in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. It was so beautiful! We are thrilled to have a new sister-in-law in our family now and know she will make my brother very happy. Here are just a few pictures from that day.