The Cardinals Win!!

So, of course it's playoff time and for the second year in a row the Cardinals have made the playoffs. We watched to game today and it came down to the end of the game and overtime. JD and I were on the edge of our seats. Brooke went a put her cheerleader outfit on with her pom poms and was cheering for the Cardinals near the end of the game it was so cute. But all throughout the game any time there was a high five, Brooke and Nixon were right there to give one! At the end of the game when the Cardinals recovered a fumble and ran it into the end zone for a touchdown to end the game we were all up on our feet cheering. Nixon even had some pom poms and was cheering and hooting and hollering along with the rest of us. It was so fun to just see the kids dancing around and being loud! It made for a fun evening!

This is Brooke and Nixon sort of celebrating after the game. We couldn't find the camera really quick while the were being really loud, but it was so fun and cute!!

Christmastime

Well we were busy this month, but we had a lot of fun and a wonderful Christmas. The kids had so much fun getting all the decorations out and decorating the house for Christmas. Brooke will be sad to see it all come down this weekend. I mostly am going to post a ton of pictures from over the past month (more like the past couple of weeks).

I love having the kids help decorate the Christmas tree because we wind up with bunches of the same ornament in the same spot! But it never fails every year Brooke gets the urge to add her own decorations to the tree. We never know when she's going to do it. One year it was after we had opened all the presents and we found hangers and stockings and anything that you could find. That year she even put the car keys in a hanging container and hung it on a tree, that was a problem when it was time to drive over to Grandma's! But this year we go ALL her wonderful play jewerly on the tree. She put on her necklaces and bracelets. And was very proud of how the tree looked in the end.

A couple days before Christmas, JD had the day off and so we took the kids down to the mall to see Santa. That was such a fun experience! It was Nixon's first time seeing Santa and he did great. He just sat there, but didn't cry. Brooke was so excited to see him and let him know what she wanted. One of the best parts of the experience was when we were waiting in line there were three other families around us with little kids. All three families had sweet little girls around Nixon's age and he made fast friends with two of them, definitely flirting with them. Another little girl saw this and came right up to Nixon and just started hugging him. Nixon wasn't to sure about her. It was fun for all of us in line and kept us a little entertained.

One very fun and unexpected surprise was that we got a snow storm on Christmas Eve! It was so beautiful to watch the snow fall. We all bundled up and played in the snow while it was falling. We are all kids at heart so we had a ton of fun!

Nixon after we were out in the snow.

This is what our car looked like on Christmas Eve night when we went out to give some goodies to our neighbors and grab a pizza for dinner. I don't have much experience with snow, so I had never had my car doors frozen together. I told JD that I couldn't get the doors open and one of them he had to push on the inside while I pulled on the outside! Oh the fun things you learn!

Christmas morning coming down the hall!! We had to wake Brooke up because Nixon woke up first and we were pretty sure he wouldn't wait for Brooke.

Nixon with his new beanie and banana from his stocking. He LOVES bananas. I think that is honestly an understatement!! He wouldn't wait for his banana so that was the first thing he did.

Nixon's backpack from Noah, that he loves!

Santa brought us a new Wii game and it has been so much fun! I think I'll have very strong arms in a couple of months, it's a good work out. JD gets frustrated because we can all (excluding Nixon) beat him in ping pong.

Brooke with one of her favorite presents, a barbie fairy from Grandma Burns. Her other favorite gift was a robe and slippers. I love when they are so easy to please!

When we went to Arizona for Thanksgiving, Nixon found Noah's Handy Manny toolbox and the tools bounce up and down in it and it plays music! He loved it and played with it a lot and would dance to it, so Santa brought him one of his own. It was been fun to watch him dance to it. Him and Brooke also love chasing his cars that you shake and then they go on their own.

We're all bundled up and ready to go play in our little amount of snow.

Brooke throwing her first snowball. She had to ask how to make one! It was so fun. The snow was so powdery that it had a hard time sticking together and would fall apart as we threw it.

Nixon watching Brooke and mom have a snow fight and not sure if he wants to join or not.

Running around the yard trying to avoid the snowballs. The sidewalk was icy so we had to be careful and after Nixon slipped twice on it we went inside to have hot chocolate and get warmed up. It was a wonderful month spending time together as a family, spending time with friends celebrating the season, and most importantly remembering the birth of our Savior.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a wonderful New year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!!

SNOW!

So I didn't know that it snowed in Texas. Yesterday morning we woke up and it was raining and very cold and about 30 minutes after the kids woke up it had started to snow! It didn't stick to the ground, but of course we ran out in our pajamas to see the snow! Then we came back in and go bundled up so we could stay outside for more than a minute. Brooke would stick her tongue out so she could eat the snowflakes. Nixon wasn't sure what to think about it. It was so pretty to watch the snow fall down. It snowed for a couple hours and Brooke was so disappointed when it was done. We are definitely desert people so any site of snow is exciting for us! Also, Brooke thought it must be Christmas since it was snowing!! I thought it was a great way to start December and the Christmas season.

I'll have to post the few pictures I took later.

Brooke's Princess Party

This week is Brooke's 5th birthday, so we decided this year we would have a party with her friends. It was a Princess party and all her friends came dressed as a princess. The girls got a little pampering session, getting some makeup put on and their nails painted. They also colored pictures of princes so we could play a game called "Kiss the Prince." When we told the girls that we were going to play that game they all said "Ewww gross!!!" One of her friends said, "boys are stinky!" It was so funny! We had a blast with all the little princesses at our house. We danced to some of Brooke's favorite princess songs, but all the girls really love one of Taylor Swift's songs and wanted to dance to that. And a party wouldn't be complete without a pinata. So Brooke got a crown pinata that was filled with lots of things perfect for little princesses. My favorite part of the pinata was watching JD dodge some of the swings the girls had! We had so much fun and were really glad that so many of Brooke's friends could come and celebrate her birthday with us!

Brooke helping me with the frosting for her Barbie cake.

The finished cake.

Brooke was so excited about her party that she'd been hounding us to decorate the house all week. So she was more than helpful when dad started decorating Saturday morning.

The "party room" before all the girls arrived.

Brooke with Shelby and Ella.

Brooke and Kaylynn

Brooke and Zara

Ella playing "Kiss the Prince". (GROSS, Ella's the one who said boys are stinky, she even said her dad was a stinky boy.)

JD dodging a swing from Kloah.

All the girls that came to the party!! Shelby, Kaylynn, Kloah, Zara, Brooke, Zoey, Ella

"Reflections of Christ"

Candice sent me this e-mail that had a link to this slide show. It is really great, I love it. I'm sure that a lot of you have heard about these pictures. I'm pretty sure they had them on display down at the Mesa visitor center at one point. Anyway, at the bottom of my blog is a link to watch the slide show of it. You'll probably want to stop the music from our blog so you can listen to the beautiful music that goes along with the slide show and then I'm pretty sure you'll be able to feel the spirit more. Thanks so much Candice for sharing it with me. I hope you all like it!!

Nixon's Birthday Celebration

I know that it's two months after Nixon's birthday, but we have had a busy couple months. We moved twice, lived with JD's boss for a month and are now getting settled into our new home. I'll have to post pictures of that later.

We had so much fun celebrating Nixon's birthday. It was different to just have our little family there and not the rest of the extended. But first birthdays are always so fun! He was so cute eating the cupcake. He didn't really know what to think at first, but then he got the gist of it. Brooke had more fun then him opening his presents, of course. We did presents first and then went on to the cake. Good plan as you can see, he LOVED his cupcake!

I had to put a lot of the messy cake pictures because that is what is the best!!

He's even willing to share!!

Bath time!! Have to get cleaned up before we can play with the toys.

Happy birthday one more time to our little man! We love you Nixon!

Happy Birthday Nixon!

A year ago today Nixon was born into our family! We were so excited to have him be a part of our family. He came late, and probably would have come even later if I hadn't been induced. Thanks to Mom who I know secretly prayed that he wouldn't be born until she got back from her trip to San Diego.


Now we've had Nixon for a year, and he has been so fun! He is one of the happiest babies I have ever seen! He loves to smile at everyone. His favorite thing to do in church is flirt with anyone, but especially if there are any girls sitting behind us. He smiles at them, then buries his head into my shoulder, then looks to see if they are still looking at him, and starts it over. He LOVES Brooke!! They play and make each other laugh all the time. If they go to bed at the same time or within a half hour of each other they can stay up for hours jabbering back and forth to each other.


Just recently he's learned a few new tricks, the biggest one of all is walking! He loves to walk. When he first started he'd laugh the entire time he was doing it. He thought it was great! He's found a toy that Brooke likes to use as her vacuum that he can push around and walk with, he is having so much fun with that!! He's also learned "five." He loves to have Brooke give him "five" in the car and sometimes we worry that she's going to break his arm cause she does it so hard, but he laughs hard every time! Now he sticks his hand out and tries to say five, but it's more like "fah." He is so cute. We've also been trying to teach him to say more in sign language instead of screaming for more food, he's finally learned it, but it looks more like he's calling for a timeout.


Well, I guess as you can see, we love Nixon! He is always on the go. He is a little boy through and through, teasing his sister already, pulling her hair, loving to explore and be rough with Dad! We are so glad to have him! We love him so much!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIXON!!