Life Lately

Rockwell wanted to do a trick show for family night. We took turns doing 5 tricks each. The kids were so cute to watch. They each love having the whole family's attention on just them.

    

We've had fun playing with friends.

We worked on a 1,000 piece puzzle for a couple weeks. Wyatt and Rockwell spent a lot of time on it one day and finished it off. They were thrilled to put the last pieces in.

Damon got another haircut, and now looks super old. This happens every time. He doesn't look like a baby anymore. He looks like a kid now. :(

Paul and I went to Jim Gaffigan's show in Salt Lake with Aaron & Rachel and Dave & Alyssa. He is hilarious!! We laughed through the whole thing.

Paul was able to get Damon to stop whining long enough for me to clean dinner up by myself one night by putting him on his shoulders. I had to take a picture, because it was adorable and also because it felt like history in the making. Seriously, Damon will not let me do anything right now, especially in the evenings.

I went to Amarie's Christmas dance concert. She's a beautiful dancer and so much fun to watch on stage. EJ had a basketball game that night too, so I was able to stay for that. It was a nail biter! He and his team played really well, but lost it in the last few seconds.


We decorated sugar cookies for family night and took them to our neighbors. I love that Tessa is wearing her swimsuit while making Christmas cookies. Sounds about right for Tess!

Around Our House

We went to the Orem City Lighting for family night. Paul's school and Rockwell's school received the city's kindness awards, which were presented at the lighting. They had donuts and hot chocolate, musical numbers, and Santa came on a fire truck. Unfortunately there was a crazy rainstorm that night, so we were pretty soaked and cold by the end of it.

Marmie stopped by for a visit and to bring Tessa her birthday present. We were so excited to spend some time with her.

Damon is at a super challenging age right now. He is into absolutely everything he shouldn't be, he whines/screams a lot, and he is CRAZY attached to me. There's pretty much nothing he can't get into. He scoots chairs around the house to get all the things I put up high. He prefers to make all our toys into some sort of dangerous game instead of just playing with them. If I take my eyes off him at all, he gets into some sort of trouble. Also, he yells, "Ow!" super loud if anything doesn't go his way. I'm just waiting for someone to say something about me hurting my kid when we're out in public, because he really makes it sound like I am.  

  

Somehow, at the same time, he is the cutest, funniest little thing ever! He is still quite sweet and cuddles with me at least a couple times a day. When I tell him no, he does this squishy face smile, which makes me laugh every time. Seriously, how can you stay frustrated looking at that squishy face?!? 

  

We had our November dinner/birthday party at Grandma and Grandpa Ham's. Tessa loved having another celebration for her birthday.

She had fun making jewelry the next day with her jewelry kit Grandma and Grandpa gave her.

Mel, Al, and I got together to watch Gilmore Girls. We started at Al's house, stopped for dinner, and finished up at my house. It was fun to watch it with my sisters. 

We decorated for Christmas, and the war quickly began between Paul and Rockwell for the color of the lights on the Christmas tree. :) 

We have a "toddler Christmas tree", where it's only decorated on the top half of the tree. Damon loves the lights, and has been really good about only touching them softly. He's knocked the little tree in Rock and Tessa's room over a few times, but luckily has been really good about the big one. :)

The kids were playing ring around the rosies with Damon. He loves that game. It was so cute to watch and listen to them all laughing together.

Damon decided he's done with his high chair. He loves sitting at the table with us.

He has a booster chair (which Tessa calls the caboose. Ha!). Tessa always wants to sit by him at lunch and they have a great time while they eat. 

My mom was so sweet and offered to come watch my kids while I went Christmas shopping. It was fabulous to go shopping by myself in the middle of the day! Tessa and Damon loved getting some Grandma time.

Paul and I went on a date to see the new Dan Brown movie, Inferno. I always love seeing movies after I've read the book. We ate at Shoots before the movie, one of our favorite places to eat without the kids.

Walkin' In A Winter Wonderland

Winter weather has come! We've already had a couple significant snowstorms. The kids were excited to play in it.

  

  

Rockwell was happy with the tiny snowman we built. :) I'm enjoying the cold weather and snow. I think I always do before Christmas. It's fun to have the Christmas decorations up, watch the beautiful snow out the windows, and eat yummy winter foods.

  

Hey Good Lookin', What Ya Got Cookin'?

Damon's favorite thing to play with is our pots and pans. He gets out spatulas, measuring cups, and whisks and pretends he's cooking.

  

He pretends to put things in the pans, stirs them, and says "hot" over and over. 

  

Anytime I give him a snack where I put it in a bowl and let him eat it away from the table, he pours it in a pan and uses it to cook with. Funny kid!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at Grandma and Gramps Clark's house this year. The kids were so excited to play with their cousins.

We had a Thanksgiving lunch so we had plenty of time to play during the day. I loved doing it that way. 

Damon sure loves climbing on top of things and touching everything he shouldn't touch. I had to keep telling him not to get on Grandma's coffee table. He would lean on it just this much and look at me like, "What? I'm not climbing ON it!"

I took this toy over to the stairs to distract him. I thought he'd just like trying to stack the shapes on the pegs, but he actually took his time and looked at the color of each shape and stacked it on the right peg. I was pretty impressed!

After we played for a while it was time for pie. Yummy!

We celebrated Grandma's birthday the night before by going to The Mandarin for an adults-only dinner. We loved seeing the family so much that week!