Christmas 2014

We had a fabulous Christmas break. It was so nice to have Travis home all week. We were able to spend time as a family, and visit extended family as well. Here's a look at what our Christmas was like:

After a visit with the Andersons early Christmas Eve, and that evening with my parents, the kids were tuckered out and we let them sleep in on Christmas day (mostly because we didn't want to have tired, fussy kids on Christmas!). Jaxon's not a toy kid, but Santa did get him a bike with training wheels. He's looking forward to trying it out once the snow is gone.

Excuse our bed hair...

This little princess just got her first tooth a week ago and has continued to chew on anything and everything. Presents were no exception. Violet mostly received clothes for Christmas- girl clothes, since she's always wearing her brother's things.

After almost two months of nothing, we woke up to a very white Christmas! It snowed non-stop all day long! Jaxon loved playing in the snow with his cousin, papa, and Uncle Bridger. So glad he got snow pants for Christmas. :)

Being pulled by Britain

Unfortunately, he loved being outside so much that he caught a cold and has had a miserable couple of days cooped up inside post-Christmas. But we've had lots of fun making homemade pasta with the Kitchen Aid pasta maker extension Travis got me for Christmas. SO much better than store-bought pasta!

We hope you were also able to have a fun holiday break like we did!

Getting into the Spirit of Things...

We're super excited for Christmas!

We were able to decorate the tree as a family and started a new tradition of eating "Christmas cake" afterwards.

I don't have pictures of the cake, but it was basically a red velvet cake roll. My first attempt was something you'd see on a "pinterest fail" meme. I ended up tossing it and making a second one into an easy bundt cake. This is what I'd like to remember it looking like:

Next year. Next year it'll look like that. :)

Our Thankful Tree

I heard of this idea of making a  "Thankful Tree" and thought it would be a fun, new tradition for our kids.

Basically, you cut out a "tree" from brown butcher paper and tape it to your wall. Then every day from Nov. 1 to Thanksgiving you and your kids think of something you're grateful for and write it on a "leaf" and tape it to a branch. Sometimes we missed a day here and there, but we were pretty good for the most part. Next year, I want to have enough leaves to where I have some "falling" from the tree and into piles since it's fall.

It was fun hearing some of the things Jaxon was grateful for, like toilet paper and the storage room in the cultural hall. And it was a great tool for teaching gratitude. :)

I'm grateful for these kiddos. :)

Halloween 2014

This year, we unintentionally did a "sci-fi" theme. Except Einstein is obviously more "sci" than "fi". Unfortunately, Violet's hair isn't as crazy and white in this picture, as these pictures were taken the next morning and I was lazy. I used baby powder to color her hair white. Worked like a charm and she smelled very nice. Jaxon was Captain Kirk. He doesn't know who that is, but he really loved the costume!

Travis's work does trick-or-treating "cubicle to cubicle" for employees and their families. Employees who participated had a balloon float up from their cubicle which meant that cubicle had candy. Jaxon loved it, and got most of his Halloween candy from these desks. Violet just screamed the whole time. She was not a happy baby. She was probably furious about her costume. (Her hair was perfect for it, though!)

Here is a photo of her white hair before we modified the mustache

In the Pumpkin Patch

October means visits to the pumpkin patch! We've been able to visit a couple different pumpkin patches this month with friends. The first was our traditional visit to Pumpkinland. :)

This was Violet's first time, of course.

My little "pumpkin".

And Jaxon's yearly pumpkin photo...I wonder how long I can get away with having my kids sit IN the pile of pumpkins for their photo before it becomes too awkward. Obviously not much longer.

I can't believe how big these boys are getting. :) Whenever I post about this trip, I always revisit post from previous years to compare. Especially this one.

This past week, we visited another farm close by. We climbed mountains of hay bales, played in a big corn kernel pit, and went on a tractor ride. Jaxon loved the slides.

Turned my back for one minute... 

Kept finding corn kernels after we got home.

Excited for the rest of fall festivities to come this week!

Summer Wrap Up

We had a great summer, but are excited for fall. Here's some of what we've been up to in the last few weeks.

We went berry picking again this year. Jaxon loved trying out the raspberries and running through the rows with friends.

This year, I used the raspberries to make a couple razzleberry pies. Yum, yum!

We decided to start a family tradition to make doughnuts on Stake Conference Sundays. Note to self, make 1/3 of the batch the original recipe calls for! :)

And, of course, this little 3 month old is loads of fun.

Yes, she is. :)

Jaxon Turns 3

Happy Birthday to the big brother of the house! :)

Some things about Jaxon- this little boy still loves fans, along with ice cream cones, play dates, and talking (good heavens...). He is such a good, and obedient boy. He's so smart, and you can always see him thinking and trying to process how things work, or something that's been explained to him. He's constantly repeating what others say, especially if it's English- it's his way of learning.

He checks on these A/C fans daily

Jaxon has handled the transition of having a baby in the house very well. He doesn't really interact with Violet, but when she cries he'll often say, "No hay que llorar, Violet," (There's no need to cry, Violet). He'll also bring her her binkie and he gives her a sweet kiss every night before going off to bed. He's a great help in bringing me things I need when I'm busy with Violet, and he loves to throw away her diapers. :)

He also has his moments...

Apparently, Jaxon thought he had a diaper rash on his face. I took pictures, of course, because I knew that one day we would laugh at this; however, I was not laughing this particular day. The hair was the worst, ugh... I also may or may not have dug into a bag of chocolate chips after dealing with this mess.

We were at a ward activity a couple weeks ago, and being in a Spanish ward, of course a soccer game ensued. Jaxon ran into the middle of it and they let him play around for a minute. :) He just loves to play with others.

We sure loves this little green-eyed, fan loving, Spanish speaking boy. :)

Lake Cascade

Considering we haven't really taken a long family vacation that hasn't been part of a larger family reunion of some sort since our honeymoon, we were long overdue for one. So we decided to rent a cabin in Cascade, Idaho for a few days. It was nearly a full week of swimming, fishing, kayaking, hiking, huckleberry picking and eating way too much food. :)

Kiddos with Travis fishing in the background

Jaxon loved exploring and running around the cabin. He spent a lot of time out on the deck. It was a very nice, fully furnished cabin. It also had a fire pit around back we had fun roasting s'mores over.

Travis kayaking

Lacee and Jaxon

This little one did great the whole time.

We also took a trip to nearby Ponderosa Pine State Park and went on a nice hike. Jaxon loved it and walked the whole way without Travis having to carry him; however, he was thoroughly exhausted by the end and fell asleep less than 5 minutes after we drove out of the parking lot at the trail head.

Travis and Jaxon were able to reenact the "trip, trap" scene from The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

This trip definitely got us thinking about buying one of these for ourselves! We had a great time, and now Jaxon thinks Idaho is the best place in the whole world. Seriously, he LOVES Idaho.

Violet's Blessing Day

Violet was blessed last Sunday in our ward. She looked like an angel and only fussed a little bit. :)

Travis gave her such a beautiful blessing that I hope she'll cherish forever. I'm so grateful for the priesthood and how it blesses our home and family.

Those who participated in the circle...

It was a little bright outside, ha, ha...

We had a yummy luncheon afterwards and it was nice to have both sides of the family there to catch up with each other. Thank you to everyone who came! :)

Hairy Baby

She has lots of hair. Enough said.

It's a boy! :) (She wasn't pleased...)

Bad news is that she'll pull it, sometimes so hard she cries. Good news is that it's hiding her cradle cap well. :)

Summer Snippets

It's been an easy-going summer, and since we have a newborn we've stayed close to home. But we've still had a lot of fun in the sun. :)

Water + friends = a good time. :) This was a birthday party for one of Jaxon's friends. I thought it was such a great idea to set up different pools and just let the kids loose. They had a blast. Good thing my kids have summer birthdays, I might just steal this idea in the future (whenever we have a private yard!).

More pool, more friends. :)

The little princess. She doesn't like pools much, as you can see from the following video...

We've also enjoyed time at the splash pad and rec center pools.

My mom thought it would be fun to rent a bounce house for the grandkids to help celebrate Pioneer Day last month. Jaxon had a blast!