Playing catch up!!

Hello all! I hope your holiday season has been as busy and fun as ours has! Hence the lack of posting!! So I was going through my pictures and realized that I haven't even posted from Thanksgiving! Wow! So I thought I'd just do a quick recap on our holidays! We spent Thanksgiving with the Rodee's this year and couldn't have had more fun! It was relaxed and filled with games, chatting, GREAT food (and dessert!!) and looking at all the sales for black Friday! We love our family so much and feel so grateful that they're so close that we get to see them as much as we do!

So then Christmas fun began! We made gingerbread houses...

We went to see Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork (which Eden LOVED! Every time we got in the car after that for a long time she would ask if we were going to see more lights!)

We got to see Santa a couple of times. This time was at our ward Christmas party and Ella REALLY wasn't feeling Santa! We went to the mall as well but I don't have those pictures yet so I'll have to post those another time! Ella still wasn't feeling santa so we did a family picture!!

We went Sledding...

We welcomed home our awesome Missionary Elder Scott Rodee, from Chile! Ella wasn't scared which was good but she kept staring at him, but Eden, man she was SO happy to see him! She wanted to be wherever Scotty was and she wanted him to hold her all the time! It was so awesome, she was only 8 months old when he left but she remembered him!

We've been to some football games! (Didn't think you'd get away with reading my blog and not seeing any football pictures did you?!?)

Christian is number 20!

Had a little family photo shoot when Elder Rodee got home!

Decorated our tree...

Daddy took Eden on a date to go and see Princess and the Frog! Which she loved!

Had a little Christmas party with our friends...I think Eden likes Dax just a little bit! (We missed you Barnette's)

And we had a little Christmas morning at our house the day after Christmas! The girls loved their gifts! I guess it's a good sign when they haven't put them down since Saturday right?

We also had a VERY fun vacation in Mexico with my family for Christmas this year! It was the funnest vacation EVER!! We spent a week in Cabo San Lucas with the Ellingson's and had a blast. We rented a Villa that we had all to ourselves, our own pool (more like a really big hot tub after we figured out we had control over the heating) our own jacuzzi, fully stocked kitchen, laundry room, anything you could ask for for a good vacation was there! It was awesome! We did a couple of really fun excursions but I'll save all the details till I put up the pictures! All in all we had a wonderful Christmas season! I am so so grateful for my family and for Christian's family for just being so amazing to us and especially to our little girls! We couldn't have asked for better families. What a wonderful time of year to celebrate love and the birth of the Savior! We hope all of you had a very merry Christmas and we hope 2010 bring you all so much joy!! I know it's late but I thought I'd just put up our Christmas card anyways!! Love you all!!

Love my little Eden!

I just had to share the cutest story! So we went to my inlaws ward today for church, it was fast Sunday. A couple of little kids got up and bore their testimonys an Eden couldn't take her eyes off them! She said "mommy I want to bear my testimony!" I wasn't sure if she was old enough, thinking she'd just get up there and not want to be up there and start crying! So I just told her to listen. She kept saying after every testimony "it's my turn mommy!". She really wanted to go! So her uncle cam said he'd take her up there. They went up and waited their turn. They got up and Eden grabbed the microphone and said " I'd like to bear my testimony." Cam whispered something in her ear and she said "I'd like to bear my testimony". Cam whispered in her ear again and she said "I love my mommy. I love my daddy and Ella. I love to see my Gramsy and papa and cam and rocky (their dog) and I love to see all my peoples!". She said a few more things and we motioned to cam that he should probably end because she could have went on all morning! So they finished and she came back down and had the biggest smile on her face! She said "mommy I bore my testimony!". I had tears in my eyes and just gave her the biggest hug! This is what being a mom is all about!

More Family Pictures

So here's some more of our family pictures! I am so happy with them! Thank you so much Stef for doing this and for putting up with the girls! I think they turned out so good and I'm so thankful I have such a talented sister who does things like this for me!! I love you so much!!!!

Could it be true???

HELP!! Could it be that my sweet precious 2 and a half year old is ALREADY done napping? It is such a fight EVERY day for me to get her to nap. Most days I just don't have the time or energy to fight with her for an hour so she doesn't get a nap! Is this real? I need that 2 hours!!! When she doesn't take a nap she does go to bed super early so maybe I can get my sanity back when she's in bed by 7! Moms out there...is this real?

Family Pictures

So we went and did some family pictures today and let me tell you, it was a nightmare! The girls were SO CRAZY, and Ella is seriously the most stubborn 1 year old I've ever met. Once she has something in her head, where she wants to go something she wants, you get the picture, she DOES NOT STOP until she gets it. And if she doesn't get it, she throws a fit! Luckily my sister was taking our pictures, and she didn't mind the tantrums and the bribing with candy and the running after the girls. We did get some REALLY good shots I think! Here's just a sneak peak!

Didn't my sister do a GREAT job!! I was so impressed!!! More to come later!

Halloween Festivities!

Christian got home on Wednesday night for Ella's birthday and Halloween so we tried to get all the festivities jam packed into one weekend! We had so much fun at Ella's first birthday party (pics to come later) , I still can't believe she's ONE! Anyways so Friday started off with a trip to Ikea to get Eden her very own big girl bed! She's been in a big girl bed since before the summer but we haven't officially got her her own bed. So she got to pick out whatever bed she wanted! Well she couldn't really decided so Mommy kind of made the decision for her. Haha! Anyways we picked out a really fun one that is a bunk bed for when Ella is older and they get to share a room! I'll put some pics up once I'm finished changing her room around from a nursery into a big girl room! It's going to be so cute!
After Ikea, we headed over to Cornbelly's. It was SO much fun! Even though it was REALLY cold, the girls, and Christian and I had so much fun together! They had a princess area where you could dress up as a princess and take pictures in the carriage. Wow was that a hit!! Eden picked out a Snow White dress, we had just finished watching the movie! She LOVED IT!!Look at her! She's was seriously so happy. She kept saying, "Mommy I totally love this dress!"
Here she is trying to do her best princess smile! We need to work on it a bit!
Snow White and her handsome Prince!
Much better Princess pose!
We got a wagon to carry to girls around from place to place and Ella was having a BLAST in it!! As you can see!
They had slides and train rides and monsters to walk through and hay rides and pumpkin cannons...it was awesome!
They also had these awesome Trampolines that the girls, and Christian, loved!!
Daddy showing off his mad skills! All the little boys that were around kept asking him, how do you do that? It was so cute!
Cute little monkey!!
Here we are on the hay ride! We were all so cold that it was definitely time to go after!
After we left cornbelly's we went home and took naps and got all ready for Brittney and Josh's Annual Rodee/Leavitt Halloween Party! It's so fun! They've had it for 4 years now I think...I can't remember but it is seriously so much fun! We had some great costumes this year! Here's mom and dad...Can you believe them? They go all out every year!
Brittney made these!
"Crikey"
Incase you couldn't get it (I couldn't) A blade of grass and a Lady bug! Cute huh?
The Leavitt's did so awesome this year!!!
Look at Ava! Cutest Minnie ever!
Rodriquez family!
And...2 little monkey's jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped her head. Momma called the Dr. and the Dr said, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" What do you think? Britt gave us the idea!! We even won 'Funniest costume'!!
How cute are these monkeys!!!!!
Britt and Josh do such a great job every year at having the best parties! We just love them! We had dinner and played bingo and had dessert! It was so fun!
Halloween day was pretty uneventful, Christian painted Eden's bed and I played with the girls. Then we went to take the girls and go Trick or Treat for the first time! I can't believe that I have girls old enough to Trick or Treat! It was a blast! We went up to American Fork to Gramsy's house and to their neighborhood. The girls didn't get too much candy but that's ok with me! Less temptation for me!! Bit it was so fun to see Eden especially, Ella didn't really know what was going on, but it was fun to see her so happy! She said "Trick or Treat" to every house! And she even said "Happy Halloween to some houses! I have to say that I am just so lucky to have such a wonderful family. Christian's family has seriously made living so far from my parents so easy. I love them so much and I'm SO SO HAPPY that they love me and my girls so much. It really is just a blessing to have such wonderful inlaws. And having Christian here has been so awesome. The girls are SO much happier, I'm so much happier! I just love him so much. I can't wait for him to be back for good! He is such an amazing daddy! Well I hope you all had a fun Holiday! Can't wait to see everyone else's costumes!!!