Growing Up

Sienna went to Joci's house this morning. I thought it was going to be so nice to have some time to get a few things done without interruptions. It was nice but my house felt so boring without her talking to me and running around playing with her toys. I love my girls so much and can't imagine my life without them. I am very grateful for the opportunity I have to stay home with them every day. Here are some random pictures from the past few days of what my favorite people have been up to.

The other day I put Sadie on the floor to play for a couple minutes while I loaded the car to leave. I came back in and she had rolled over and fallen asleep. She must have been tired because she was out in about 30 seconds.

Sienna loves green ice cream cones.

Sadie playing tea party.

Getting ready to leave. She is so grown up.

Sienna took her own camera with us to take pictures of Uncle Bryan's house.

Matt is a good sport. Audrey and Sienna wouldn't leave him alone the other night but he just let them climb all over him.

Today my nephew turns 4. This is a picture of him taking Sienna on her first Mustang ride. Happy Birthday Cole! We love you.

Christmas Highlights

Today has been such a fun day. Sienna was thrilled to finally open all of the presents under the tree. She got so excited over every little thing and would open a present and say, "oh, wow." She also loved handing presents to Matt and me to unwrap. After opening presents and hanging out for awhile, we went to the Mathis' home for breakfast. We bought James and Kiera "The Office" DVD board game which is actually what they got us too. Great minds think alike. We're just going to return ours and take them out to eat this weekend. After playing a round of the game we came back home and rocked out to Guitar Hero for awhile. We got back together with the Mathis clan for games this evening. We're grateful to have such awesome friends that we do pretty much everything with. Here are a LOT of pictures from the day.

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I finally found some cute matching PJs for the girls yesterday.

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Body surfing.

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We all got Nerf guns and had a death match. Sienna thought it was so fun shooting each other.

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"CHEESE"

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Sadie just tried to eat everything.

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I admit I am very spoiled. Matt loves when I ask for cooking utensils for Christmas or my birthday because he benefits from me putting them to use. I am so excited to get to know my new food processor.

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Matt's present was me agreeing to play Guitar Hero with him again. I bought him the newest version of the game as well as a second guitar so we can rock out together.

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Sienna's "cheese."

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Sadie still trying to eat everything.

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My mom always finds the funniest gifts.

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Matt and I have agreed that we don't need to buy the girls presents anymore. Grandmas get them more than enough. We were talking about throwing away all of our old toys because we got enough to replace them all today.

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Check out those leg warmers.

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Sporting our new BYU apparel. Dan and Andrea's money put to good use. GO COUGARS!!!

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We all get a box of our favorite cereal for Christmas (Matt's family tradition) and so we got Sadie a box of oatmeal. This was her first time with food and she loved it. She ate it so fast without any problem you would think she's been eating it for months. It doesn't make for a funny picture when she doesn't get any on her face.

Sienna playing with one of her many new toys.

Christmas Card

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Princess Ball

***This was all donated. Natalie's dress was costumed made for her. A charity paid for her parents' dress and tuxedo and the gentleman that owns the the building where this was held didn't charge the charity at all. He donated all the food and building for free.***

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Sienna and I were privileged to attend a princess ball last night for our friend, Natalie. Natalie is a 4 year old in our ward and has suffered with lymphoblastic leukemia for the past two years and two months. She was diagnosed on her second birthday. This ball was a surprise for her to celebrate her last treatment of oral chemotherapy. It was such a magical night that I know Natalie will remember it forever. Last night I caught the 10 o'clock news and they highlighted Natalie's special evening. It was so adorable to see this little angel on TV experiencing her dream come true. First they took her to a very high end salon to get her hair done, then they had her open a huge present that had her beautiful princess dress in it. Later it showed her talking to Bell and telling her that she's always wanted to go to a ball. Her wish came true. Last night with over 100 people to support her, Natalie was escorted into her very own ball. Natalie's entire family looked phenomenal and you could see the joy and hope in their eyes. I am so grateful to know Tammy and to have been able to experience such a magical night. What a perfect reminder of all of our blessings at such a special time of year. I have again been reminded that I cannot take anything for granted. I cherish my girls more than words can explain and I am blessed to have them with me for Christmas. My heart goes out to all of those that have lost loved ones or are unable to be with them at this time. Merry Christmas.

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Natalie had her own dance with her father, her mother, and then her little brother Stephen. Natalie is such a special little girl that lights up the room with happiness.

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Audrey and Sienna dancing to the different Disney songs being played.

To Alabama and Back

Matt had a couple days off this past weekend so we decided to hit the road and head to Alabama. We drove all night and showed up to my sister's house Thursday morning at five. We had such a great time visiting with her family and seeing all the highlights of Demopolis. Matt was able to golf a couple times with a pro and the girls just played with their cousins in the coolest playroom ever. The girls did awesome in the car and nine hours really isn't that bad. Thanks Brit and Kyle for such a fun weekend. We would do it again in a heartbeat.

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Brittney, Karin, Dash and Sadie.

Matt and Dash. I think Matt needs a son. Dash is such a cute and happy baby.

Grandma and her girls. We got them all to smile too.
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Walking to see the ducks.

Sadie sleeping on the way to the ducks.

Kate and Ella feeding the ducks with Matt while Sienna stood back and ate the bread herself.

Ella and her baby brother. She is such a good big sister.
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The aftermath of face planting off of the back porch.

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Sadie has two teeth coming in so we figured it was time to start feeding her real food. She hasn't even had oatmeal/rice cereal yet but she loves apples. We were wondering if she'd get teeth as early as Sienna. Sienna had four at six months and eight but eight months.

Ella and Kate had the cutest miniature sofa seat that Sadie loved.

Sienna and Kate had a blast together. They thought it was funny to sit on the stairs and try to kick the Christmas tree over.

One of the benefits of having an optometrist as a brother-in-law is confirming that you have bad eyesight for free and ending up having to buy glasses. I have a pretty bad astigmatism in my left eye that causes my vision to be blurry. I thought I had eyes like an eagle but the glasses definitely make images sharper and more clear. I will only be wearing the glasses for reading (which we all know I do a lot of...not) and driving. These aren't the frames I ended up ordering but they are similar.

TWG Party

Last Friday was Matt's Christmas party for work. It was "cocktail dress" and most of us LDS ladies were worried about what to wear. Really, we could've worn our Sunday best and been just fine but I think everyone freaked each other out so most of us bought a new outfit for the night. Kaytie and I went to Ross late the night before the party and both walked out with new dresses under 25$. It isn't a typical style that I would wear but I think that was the point. The party was a ton of fun and Matt and I danced for the first time together in almost four years if you don't count dancing in the kitchen. I am happy to report that Matt is still doing great at TWG so it looks like we will be here for a "few" more Christmas parties. Don't worry, we will still visit.

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I tried my dress on again before the party to see if it was going to be okay. I went into the room where Sienna was and asked, "Sienna, does mommy look okay?" I didn't expect her to really understand what I was saying but she did and she replied, "yeah, (short pause) mommy's so cute!" It was the sweetest thing. Now she'll say that about anyone if we ask how they look.

Matt putting up our Christmas lights a couple weeks ago. Our roof is maybe too easy to get on top of. You just have to stand on our gate that leads into the back yard and you can step onto the roof. The girls and I were watching him and Sienna said, "where did daddy go?" I told her that he went on the roof and she said, "oh no, daddy's going to fall." She is constantly learning more and more and puts things together you would never expect a one year old to comprehend.

Breakfast With Santa

Our friends had such a fun little get together for the kids to meet Santa.

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Daddy and Sadie in their pajamas.

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Sienna and Vienna eating together.

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Our little family singing jingle bells waiting for our surprise visitor.

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Not too bad compared to how a photo of the kids usually turns out.

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Some kids just like Santa more than others I guess. Sadie was laughing but we caught her with her tongue out again. She cannot keep that thing in her mouth.

Coloring Elmo

My Favorite Traditions

I love Thanksgiving and Christmas for many reasons but my favorite things have to do with traditions with my family, specifically my mom. Before I get into our Christmas traditions I want to say that Thanksgiving at home was a success. We had some great friends come over and the food was delicious. I could go on forever about how grateful I am for the different things in my life but I'll keep it short and simple. I have been so blessed to be born into a good family that raised me with the knowledge of the true and restored gospel. I am also extremely grateful for the people in my life. I have the best family and friends anyone could dream for. Matt is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me and we are blessed to have two beautiful girls that make our lives better every day. Matt and I love life and are grateful for the good times and the hard times along the way. We are most blessed by the relationships we have developed over the years. I have so many friends that I hold close to my heart and I look forward to talking to them on the phone since most of them still live in Utah (or currently Spain).
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Here is the only picture I have from Thanksgiving. Audrey, Sienna, and Brooklyn devouring a plate of jello at the kids' table.

Moving onto traditions... one of my favorite traditions at Christmas time is reading a Christmas related story. I don't have a picture of this but I probably will later in the month. What happens is every year one of our gifts from my mom and dad is a different Christmas book. In the cover of the book my mom has typed out a paragraph or two about everyone in our family including the family pets. We read what my mom has written and then we read the story as a family. It is a fun reminder of different things we experienced from the previous year. It usually brings out a lot of laughs and a few tears.

Don't worry, Sienna was supposed to open these presents early. She is opening a package sent from my mom. Every year my mom sews all of us kids and grand kids Christmas pillowcases. Matt loves the ones she made 2 years ago so much that he keeps them on our bed year round. Sienna opened the present and said, "WOW!" She loves them too.
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These are the beautiful pillow cases for this year.

My mom also paints us new Christmas ornaments every year. We have hundreds of dollars worth of ornaments from Hallmark (also from my mom from over the years) but these are my favorite because they are so personal.

Sienna holding her "baby's 1st year" ornament. Matt kept telling Sienna not to touch the ornaments because they were mommy's special ornaments, so Sienna walked around saying, "mommy's specials." She got to hold, "Sienna's special" for awhile which made her happy.
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I also love the tradition of stockings. I think they are so cute and fun.
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Christmas came early here. We are completely done Christmas shopping. That feels so nice figuring it isn't even December yet. When I say done, I mean done. The only thing we may still purchase is a couple of small gifts for each other. Most of these gifts are from our parents and even though after today she may not deserve it, about 80% of them are for Sienna.
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Getting out my mom's Nativity Scene is one of my favorite things about Christmas time. It means so much to me to have something so personal from my mom to keep forever. She is such a talented artist and it took her over 3 years to finish this because she painted about 15 sets for different people. Our stake is using this in their Nativity display this week. I am torn about my decision to let them borrow it because it is irreplaceable to me but I can't wait to see it set up at the stake center along with over 1,000 others for everyone to come and see. Christmas is such a special time of year and as much as I love the look of presents under the tree, Christmas is about the Savior. That is another reason I love this Nativity so much, what a beautiful reminder of what Christmas is really about.