Christmas Time

 I missed writing about Christmas and its already the new year. I'm going back to last year for this post. This year was really fun with the kids! Noah really got into opening up his presents and watching everyone else open theirs too. It was so so fun! He was so funny while unwrapping. He would take off a piece of the paper and then hand it to me or Sean and then rip off another piece and hand it to us. It made unwrapping take a longer time but he was having fun.

For Christmas Eve we went to my parents house to unwrap gifts and hang out. My parents and Justin were in Wyoming with my sister Robyn and her family for 2 weeks over Christmas and New Years. I'm glad that Robyn and Carlos were able to have them there for Christmas and it was nice not having to go to two houses on Christmas haha. Amanda and Corey and their two kids and Andrea met at the house at 6pm and exchanged gifts. We skyped Robyn and everyone in WY while we unwrapped the gifts that Mom and Dad bought and made the kids. My mom made the grandkids these really cute pillow pets. Bekah loves her and eats the arm of it all the time. Noah likes to hug his chicken and make chicken sounds. Cortney had fun "helping" Noah open his gifts because she thought he was going to slow haha. Silly kids. Joshua loved the stand and walk thing we got him. He actually fell on it trying to open it. Rebekah was just happy eating the wrapping paper. It was nice spending time with the family and seeing the kids play with their toys together.

Christmas Day we woke up at 7am and watched Noah and Rebekah open their gifts from Grady Rachelle and Emily, and our secret santa. It was so surprising the things we were given. I am so grateful for friends who loves us. We love them more than words can say. Sean and I got some awesome gift cards for Buffalo Wild Wings and Chipotle Yum! And new bright yellow bath towels which make me really happy. The kids got some really fun toys which they love.

After we finished with presents at our house we went to Scotts house to spend the day with Sean's family. Scott is Elizabeth's boyfriend. Onda small is livin' the life in New York still and Jim spent Christmas with his Dad and Step mom. So it was Elizabeth, Scott, David Sean and I and the kids at the house. Scotts daughter and her family came over for part of the festivities as well. We had a delicious breakfast, unwrapped presents, and then just hung out and played with the kids the rest of the day until we had dinner at 3pm. We each took naps at different times during the day too. Thats the way to do it with kids in the house, tag team naps haha. I still don't think Noah really knows who Santa is. We just didn't really talk about him very much this year so maybe we will play it up more next year. We will see. We talked a lot about Jesus and his birthday. Noah thought that was fun and liked the idea of Jesus being a baby. Rebekah was very lively on Christmas day and was crawling all around the house. Some of my favorite gifts the kids got were; Bekah- earrings from Andrea, dresses from Robyn and Amanda, rolly ball from Grady Rachelle and Emily, finger puppets from Sean and I.  Noah- Pirate ship from Secret Santa, Pillow pet from Mom, Race Car from Andrea, bath time shaving kit from Amanda, slippers from Grandma Elizabeth.

An awesome event that took place Christmas day was the birth of another Niece! Jason and Melissa had their little Noelle Elizabeth Howell Christmas morning. She looks just like Rachel and Alden did when they were little. We are so excited to meet her this year sometime. They live in Maryland so we plan on taking a trip out there when we have the money. Also Seth called from his mission in Hong Kong. It was nice hearing from him and how things are going there. He is doing great and serving the Lord.

Oh so I mention above that we had a Secret Santa. I still have no clue as to who it was. I thought it was my ward but someone told me that it wasn't and that it was someone I knew but the person wouldn't tell me who it was. I guess it doesn't matter who it was. I am just so grateful to them and the love they showed for us. We were given gifts every night for 12 days ending on Christmas Eve. It
was sweet things like Christmas movies, Christmas books, hot chocolate, oranges, Christmas ornaments and yummy treats. My absolute favorite was the gift on Christmas Eve. I cried so much out of surprise and gratitude.We were given awesome toys for Noah and Rebekah. Noah got a cool pirate ship and Rebekah got . . . hmm I can't remember what Rebekah got haha, I know she played with it though. I will have to think about that. I received a groupon gift certificate for 2 massages (can not wait to use those!! ), gift card to Downeast Basics (my favorite clothing store of all time!). Sean got a gift card to the Olive Garden and an awesome action figure of Darth Vader. And we got a really pretty picture frame with Family written in it. We were blown away by the generosity of those around us. I have gone through the things we have and am donating the toys we don't play with anymore. It will feel good to pass on the kindness.  

I'm so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for the knowledge I have been blessed to have. I know that Jesus was born for us. I know that he lived and died that we may have his example and his atonement and that we can return to him and Heavenly Father someday. I love the feeling of Christmas and the spirit of love that it brings.  



I hope everyone else had a great Christmas and had fun with their family :) 

My Graduate!

My honey graduated today with his bachelors in psychology. I'm so unbelievably proud of him. He went to school full time, worked full time and was a wonderful and active husband and father all at the same time for the past 3 years. Go him! I'm so grateful for the things he does to provide for our family and help enrich our lives. He is such a smartie pants and I love it. I learn new things from him everyday. I love you sweetie and happy graduation! Only two more years left til you're done with school!! 

"I did it too, I graduated"

Bekah wanted to graduate too

Glad Sean's dad was able to come from South Carolina for this day :)

Rebekah got bored during the ceremony 

Sean's mom got some awesome pictures on her fancy camera. I will post them when she sends them to me. Also the pictures of her and us in them. I failed to get pictures on my phone of her and the kid snd Sean :/ 

My Children Make Me Smile

 My littles are just so so cute! I am in awe of their sweet spirits everyday. Rebekah is getting bigger and bigger and growing such a cute little miss priss personality. I love watching her and Noah interact and can't wait to see how things are when Rebekah is able to talk. She gets so excited to hear him talk to her. Noah is always telling her how much he loves her and asking her what she is doing. I love hearing him tell her he needs her to wake up so they can play. I thought I would just write a couple examples and stories of what they have been up to lately.


- Rebekah can sit up now on her own. She has done it a few times now and can stay sitting up for a few minutes at a time before tumbling over. Yesterday I think it was so much excitement because she was sitting up and then toppled over and spit up.

- Noah has this cute thing he does all day everyday which Sean and I absolutely adore. He will look at us and say "Are you love me?" and we of course reply "yes I do love you sweetheart" And then he says "you love me?! Very much?"  to which we say "yes we love you very very much honey" Then he gets all giggly.

-Rebekah giggles all the time and it cracks us up. She is such a happy baby

-Noah's communications skills are blossoming. I'm amazed at his vocabulary and understanding. He uses much bigger sentences than I would expect a 2 year old to use and understands thoughts as well as the normal requests and commands that other kids usually understand.

-Rebekah is basically a crawler. She was getting around all over the house by rolling herself to what she wanted. She started doing that at about 4 months. Now she actually gets up on her hands and kness and will either pull herself army crawl across the floor or she will push herself with her legs and scoot. She loves going after specific toys and coming to get us.

-Bekah loves feeding herself. She has eaten those little puff Cheetos baby things, cheerios, grapes, strawberries, whipped cream (she actually hated that), dark chocolate piece (loves bitter tasting things), and a tomato.

Hated whipped cream haha

-Noah can count to 12 all by himself, and can say his ABC's to the letter H .

-Noah has been trying to go potty but he forgets and tells me after he has gone most of the time. Work in progress still with the potty training.

-I'm still watching my friends daughter during the week and Noah loves it. He and Calli are best friends and its so sweet seeing how the play. They love to tickle each other, play games, hug and giggle.

-Noah enjoys seeing himself in the camera on my phone and asks to watch videos of himself and Bekah.

-Noah's favorite shows to watch lately have been Daniel Tiger (made by the Mr Rogers corp and is the place he used to go in his show), Curious George, Winnie the Pooh  and Sesame Street. 

 

-Rebekah is more interested in screens and tvs than an infant should be. haha. She is always trying to look at a screen if its near her. I don't like my kids watching tv until they are at least 1 and even then not too often so I try to not let her stare at it very often. She is so curious though.

-Noah knows some of his shapes and colors and loves to impress people by showing off.

-Rebekah is such a cuddle bug. She will curl right up in our arms and just stare up at us and grab our faces with her tiny little hands.

-Noah is learning how to pray and is so good at doing it with little help. He can say a variation of "Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for this food, Thank you for this day, Thank you for mommy and daddy, Amen" I am so proud that he is able to pray and is interested.

-Noah can brush his teeth by himself for the most part but I still need to help him be sure to get all of his teeth.

-If Noah is in his room playing, Bekah will do crawl herself over to where he is so she can be in on whatever action is happening.

-Rebekah never wakes up upset or crying. Even when she is hungry. She just wakes up cooing and blowing raspberries. She is so happy.  

-The conversation of Daddy and Son.
Noah is sitting on the floor next to Sean. Sean looks at Noah and says "whew! Your bum is stinking!" Noah replies "I don't want you to smell my poopy pants any way."
S- Can I change your bum?
N- No I don't want you to change my poopy bum right now.
S-Can mommy change your bum?
N- No mommy can't change my bum right now
S-Can a rubber duckie change your bum right now?
N-No I don't want a duckie to change my bum
S- Can you change your bum?
N- Ya I will change my bum.

-When Bekah is napping on my bed Noah will go in and check on her to see if she is ok. When he goes in to check on her and she has woken up he gets so excited to see her and asks "are you awake now Bekah? Youre awake now! Good job! Lets play now. You and me can play since you are awake now"

-Noah really enjoys making and eating smoothies. I got a new blender a month ago when it was on sale at Costco. The Ninja is an amazing blender! Noah will pick out fruits and tell me what to put in our smoothie for the day. Then I get all the ingredients and Noah throws them in the blender and pushes the buttons. Its so fun. He is such a good helper in the kitchen.

-Rebekah loves blowing raspberries. She is so funny! She is always making some noise and sounds. She makes little cooing, grunting and yelping sounds.   

-My littles love the Christmas tree. Noah calls the decorations "Christmas". Rebekah crawls towards the tree tries to pull everything off.

-Action shots of Noah picking up Rebekah and putting her in his lap for "cuddles time" (his words). First he flings her too far to his side then pulls her into his lap. Haha. I love that he loves her so much and tries to be gentle. Her favorite thing to do is stare at and laugh with him. 

-Noah loves when daddy reads him stories at night. His current favs are: chicken licken, if you gve a mouse a cookie, if you give a moose a muffin. 

-Rebekah has finally started to really enjoy bath time. She has a fun time splashing around and likes the water to be poured on her belly. 

-Noah likes to help with Bekah in anyway I will let him. He especially likes to help feed her. 

-Rebekah moves a lot in her sleep 

-Noah likes to help out with chores and is still our little cleaner. He loves helping with dishes and taking out the trash. 

-they both love the swing set! 

We are so blessed to be parents to our little ones. Sean and I keep trying to be better parents and have more patience and pray to know what things we need to do to help lead and guide them. I love you Noah and Rebekah. Thank you for being mine.