Happy Half Birthday!

A couple weeks ago we celebrated Macie's half birthday! We had a simple half of a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sang half a birthday song to her ;)

Unfortunately she is still too little for cake...but she did enjoy her banana treats instead. 

More on Macie's 6 months coming!

Kilmer Christmas Weekend

Like usual the weekend after Christmas we headed down to Manti for the Kilmer Christmas Party. Most everybody went on Thursday but Jake's brother Matt was flying in to visit us for a week and he didn't fly in until Friday night. So we picked him up at the airport and headed to Manti. That night was filled with watching the BYU Hunger Bowl game, eating, more football, and games. 

The next morning we got up and did the usual shooting, shooting, more shooting, and then the boys when and did some rabbit hunting. I took Emery and Amber and went along and just played in the snow with them. Actually I did some shooting too once some of the boys were done shooting because they took the girls and went sledding. 

After the boys got home from hunting we ate a nice big Mexican dinner and then started with our party. We did our usual White Elephant gifts first. 

In which I learned, don't do white elephant's with a 2 year old...haha! She did not understand why she opened this present and got a hot pickle. But she did not like it, she was quick to give it away...haha! Luckily she has an awesome family and my aunt Miriam traded her presents and she ended up getting a whoopie cushion. Which she actually thought was really cool. 

Braxton got a really neat scrapbook...haha! 

Then after white elephants we did real presents. Macie got some really cute bath toys and Emery got a new doll and a book. My grandma also gave each of us girls one of her nativity sets which was so awesome! I got a gorgeous one and it is one that she actually made. I am so excited about it. I have been wanting some nativities and bought my first one this year, but I'm most excited about the one she gave me. 

That night was again filled with games, food, football, movies, and kids running around. Emery absolutely loves being able to go and play with cousins. I love it too because she gets to just play with kids and run around and I don't even have to worry about her. There are so many eyes out it is nice to just relax (a little!) 

Can't wait until our next weekend down there!

Christmas 2013

Whew! Nothing like getting around to posting Christmas at the end of January. But better late than never! Christmas was wonderful as usual. It just gets better every year. Emery was at a super fun age. Next year will be even better with both Emery and Macie understanding more. Emery sort of understood Santa. She still asks about him all the time. I don't know how much she really got though. But it was fun. Christmas Eve was a little crazy in the morning. Jake had to work a few hours and I had to work a few hours, but it wasn't bad. Later that night we headed up to my parents for our usual Christmas Eve festivities. My grandma and grandpa came up like they always do, then my uncle also flew in from Panama too. So that was fun. We had a big Christmas Eve dinner and my mom invited some friends from work that didn't have any family so that was fun. Later that night we opened our traditional Christmas Eve pajamas. The girls scored since I got them their pajamas and my mom got them some too. 

Emery LOVED her Minnie nightgown. I had that thing for like 2 months before Christmas and I could not wait to give it to her. She loves Minnie Mouse so much. These are still probably her favorite pajamas to wear. Plus I love nightgowns, I think they are so cute. 

Macie got some pretty freaken cute Santa bum jammies too ;)

After all of our Christmas Eve festivities we headed home to put the girls to bed. We had been telling Emery all night that Santa was coming, but she misunderstood and thought he was actually going to be at our house when we got home. She was devastated when he wasn't....so we logged onto the Norad Santa Tracker and showed her where Santa was. She was so excited to see where he was. It still took a little convincing for her to go to bed without Santa....She did not understand. But after a while she gave in and went to sleep.  

Christmas morning we decided to start at 7. I don't know why Emery had such a hard time waking up because she normally wakes up at like 7:15...haha. So we only woke her up 15 minutes early but she wasn't thrilled. My mom and dad and Shayli came over too to watch the girls open their presents. So once she saw pa-pa and ma-mo she was a little more chipper. 

Macie was up at the crack of dawn ready to go...shocker..this kid is a morning person...in a family of non-morning people it makes it hard to be as cheerful as she is in the mornings!

She was kind of confused why there was a kitchen in her living room though and just kind of stared at it for a little while...

Then she jumped right in and started playing.

Emery's main presents were her kitchen and her shopping cart. We also got her a Minnie Mouse suitcase that she loves sooo much, she carts it around the house all the time. Then some small things like play-doh, bath stuff, a couple treats, stuff like that. Macie got those blocks and then a Elephant ball popper thing. Emery has now pretty much adopted both things and thinks they are hers...So Macie has to kind of fight for her toys...She got some small things too in her stocking. She was mostly just content with playing with wrapping paper. 

Jake got me a Silhouette craft cutter that I have been wanting for YEARS. I couldn't believe it. I was so shocked. I had told him I wanted this fancy crock pot. I had picked out the exact one and was SURE that was what I was getting. I was so surprised. But no fear, my mom ended up getting me my crock pot. And I'm pretty much head over heels in love with that thing too. I have used it a million times in the last month I swear. Seriously, I love. My mom decided she wants it for Christmas next year. 

After we finished opening present at our house we headed back up to my mom and dad's to open presents up there and have our traditional Christmas morning breakfast. The girls loved their presents. And once again Emery kind of adopted Macie's present...she is better at sharing that one with Macie too though at least. 

After a while up there we came back home and let Emery play with all of her Christmas goodies for a while. After some naps we went back up to their house for games and dinner. It was such a fun Christmas! 

We are still trying to find traditions that we want to incorporate in our family. One that we started this year that we will keep doing is getting the kids an ornament each year. It'll be fun for them when they have their own trees. (If I'm willing to give them up!! ;)) We are still trying to find a few more traditions that really incorporate the true meaning of Christmas. One that I think we will do next year is 3 gifts to Christ using the Frankincense, Gold, and Myrrh symbolically. I have a few ideas with that that I want to do. One that we usually do to is a name off of an angel or giving tree. One year we bought Christmas for a family, that was fun too. Our family is still young so we are figuring out our own ways still, but we love it. 

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!  

Temple Square

Well hello there blog. I'm back from my little blogging hiatus, and I'm not gonna lie, I enjoyed every minute of it. I love this blog, and I'm glad that I do it. I'm glad all of my pictures are organized and put somewhere, otherwise I'd have thousands (literally) of pictures just taking up space and not doing anything. BUT with that said, it takes A LOT of time! By the time I actually get the pictures on the computer, organize them, edit them, and get them into the blog, I'm into each post about 2-3 hours. So it's not exactly something I can sit down and do during nap time. I actually have to have a free evening, kids in bed, and have the motivation to spend the evening on the computer doing pictures. And with all of the sickness and busyness around here lately, that hasn't really been a feasible option. But I did get these pictures done tonight. I am hoping to get the rest of my December posts done in the next couple days, and hopefully get Macie's 6 month post up here! Before she turns 7 months....anyway...

Back towards the beginning of December we took out annual trip to Temple Square. For part of our Christmas my parents got them, us, and my brother and sister in law rooms at the Hilton downtown and we made a weekend out of it. The original plan was to go to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert that night too, but we didn't get picked for tickets. (you just submit your name and they randomly draw who gets tickets) But it was okay, we couldn't have taken the girls anyway so someone would have had to stay back with them, so it worked out. We started on Saturday afternoon, headed down to Salt Lake, had lunch and hit the City Creek Mall! We shopped pretty much all afternoon. They girls did not sleep at. all. though. Macie did a little bit, but Emery was not having it. So by the time dinner time came, she was out! 

After some shopping we went to our hotel and checked in and met up with my sister in laws family. They came with us and stayed at the hotel with us. Then we headed back to the mall to have dinner. Both of the girls were totally out by the time we got there. Which was nice, made for a quiet dinner. Which is very rare these days...

But I was bummed that Emery was asleep because she loves Christmas lights. So I didn't want her to miss them. Plus it was getting late enough that I did not want her napping too long, or she would never go to bed! So we woke her up. She immediately wanted Shay but it still took a few minutes for her to fully wake up and realize what the excitement was all about. Then she was really happy. 

Love that happy baby. 

My sister in law super sweet family. 

Emery and Jake being hams. She loves when you'll laugh really loud with her. 

After we walked all around Temple Square and saw the lights we headed back to our hotel. Emery could not wait to go and swim so we changed and headed straight to the pool. Macie was a big fan too. Until the big kids came and started diving in the pool...they weren't splashing her or anything. She actually wasn't even in the pool any more when they came, but she was getting so mad at them. Every time one would dive in she would yell really loud. It wasn't a cry or anything, she would just scream at them. Jake and I were laughing so hard. 

After the pool we headed back to the room and got cozy in pajamas. 

Played a little peek-a-boo with the curtains....

And did some cuddling. 

After a little while Macie was ready for bed and we put her down. Everyone else was in the Haws room eating and playing games. So I stayed with Macie and Jake and Emery went to go hang out. After a while Jake came back with a tray of food for me. They had sooo many yummy snacks! Emery wanted to stay and play games with Grandma though so she got a pretty late night. Which made her day. Overall it was a super fun little mini vacation. It was nice to get away even if it was only for a day and night! Thanks Mom and Dad!