Christmas with the family

Can Christmas just last another week or two? I'm not ready for it to be over. I'm still singing "Silent Night" every night to Pearce to get her to sleep and we're still having family get-togethers/dinners since there are a couple post-Christmas birthdays and Brandon and Brittany are still in town for a few more days.


My heart is full. It feels like it's grown 5 times bigger this year sharing it with our sweet little girl who makes me smile everyday. I feel so blessed to have such a loving and caring family.

CHRISTMAS EVE we had a lovely dinner at Natalie's house. And afterwards did a first time White Elephant Gift Exchange. 

Pearce lovin' on all her cousins, especially baby Scarlett.

Nicole is so sweet with the baby cousins. 

McKay got a Barbie doll, and was asking for someone to "steal". Pearce seemed very interested, so I stole it for my gift. I'm getting excited for the "Barbie stage". Brings back many childhood memories of Megan Garcia sleeping at our house and bringing her huge bin of Barbie Dolls. We were in Barbie heaven.

McKay was so sweet to open it for her and play with her.

yay for Barbies!!

Jeremy was so excited to see one of the Hancock boys open his white elephant gift---a Mexican Luchador Mask---that he received from a white elephant party many years ago when we were dating. Dave totally got a kick out of it, too.

Brandon ended up with his dad's "Painless Dentist" sign that he had in his office for 20+ years. It was pretty funny though, because it was Leslie who brought it, and when it was Clyde's turn he stole it from whoever had it at the time, before Brandon had a chance to. I guess he wasn't ready to part with it. But then handed down the torch, if you will, once he knew Brandon wanted it.

We ate lots of yummy treats dipped in the chocolate fountain as part of our Christmas Eve tradition. And lot of people (kids, mostly) had little chocolate mustaches for the rest of the evening.

After the chocolate fountain, Clyde always reads from the book of Luke and we sing lots of Christmas songs. We get pretty "spirited" while singing the 12 days of Christmas.
And then we did our annual Christmas sibling gift exchange with all of Jeremy's siblings and spouses.
Here is a little snapshot from my phone of the pillow that I made for Natalie. I cross stitched for the first time since I was like 8! It took a lot longer that I thought it would, but I love how it turned out. I saw this in November's Martha Stewart Living magazine.

And afterwards the kids each got to open a gift. Shannon got Pearce this cute little crown, that Pearce wore for the rest of the night and ran around saying "crown" or "princess" (she doesn't really pronounce it "princess" but it's way to hard to try and spell how it actually sounds.) And Jeremy's handmade marshmallow guns were a big hit with all the nephews. 

It was full on war once we handed over a bag of mini marshmallows. Marshmallows were flying everywhere. Whoops! Totally a coincidence that we left soon after for bedtime. Have to be to bed on time for Santa!!

---------Christmas DAY----------

With church at 10am, we scooted along pretty quickly in the morning with Santa's gifts. I LOVED seeing Pearce soooo excited that Santa came. For days before I would ask her 'who's coming?' 'what is he bringing?' She would shout "SANTA!!" "PRESENTS!!"


Church was wonderful.  There is so many musically talented people in Jeremy's parent's ward. Seriously, like a mini orchestra. I could listen to (well tuned) violin's all day.


We had a big family dinner in the afternoon. And Pearce got to play with all the cousins again. I'll be sad for her once we go home tomorrow and she doesn't have any kids to play with. She is so happy when she is around kids.


Pearce (borderline) attacks Scarlett whenever she sees her. She tries to hug and kiss, but sometimes it ends up that she is standing on top her her suffocating her. (not really, Jenny, I'm exaggerating!! ;-) She is SUCH A CUTIE PIE!! AND makes me want a little 8 month baby again!! I miss that stage. She is such a happy baby.

Rachael and her cutie pie doggie, who Pearce is also obsessed with. She says "doggie eat" about a million times a day.

Pearce got a few more presents from her Aunties. And it was so cute when she ran over to Aunt Natalie to give her a huge hug for the doggie-back-pack she got from her.

Shannon made this beautiful pillow. She sews the prettiest pillows.

Ended the night with dessert and BINGO--another tradition.

I think we have a winner!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by loved ones. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Eve at Pike's

We've made it a little tradition over the past 2 years to go down to Pike Place on Christmas Eve. Due to weather forecast stating RAIN Saturday through all next week :-(...we thought it'd be a better idea to go today instead of tomorrow.

Jeremy got his dose of Salmon, and tried something new this time--Salmon Jerky. I was surprised that Pearce ate it. And not just one bite. She wanted as much as Jeremy would share. 

This is such a typical scene. I feel like I'm always tucking Pearce's hair or replacing a bow.

Also hanging out with us was Jeremy's bro Brandon (and wife Brittany) and Rachael (his sister). Same group from two years ago.

Pearce has been chasing Jasmine, Rachael's doggie, everywhere! Crawling under tables with her, sitting in her doggie bed with her, and always trying to feed her. I use this to my advantage whenever I need Pearce to come to me, I'll just call for the dog, and Pearce will be right behind her.

Off to our annual A Christmas Carol play in downtown Seattle... Crossing my fingers Pearce is okay for the babysitter. She is going through a major mommy separation anxiety phase.

Me and my girl

I love these two photos my friend Sarah just sent me. Just me and my little girl. Glueing on candy to her candy house. 

Sarah had us over last week for a fun Christmas kid activity and Pearce was so happy to go to Audrey's house. I don't know why I thought Pearce would help me construct and decorate the house, because she was way more interested in playing with Audrey, their sweet baby Claire, and their dog. She did help stick candy on the back wall when I told her they were "stickers".

I'm getting a little sad that the Christmas season is coming to an end, but we are enjoying the rest of our holidays in Seattle with ALL OF the Curfews! And I'm relieved that my to-do and to-make list is complete. The last two days have been so nice to relax and chill out.

Jeremy sent me this link the other day, and I'm afraid this is happening... Is this real??? I'm starting to think so. At first I thought it was because we took away the binky, but I now don't think so. She stopped asking for it a little while ago, and she is going to sleep pretty fine. Plus,  she still sleeps through the night. However, she wakes up from naps SCREAMING, won't let us change her diaper, and says "NO!" way more than usual.

Another fun addition to the day is that she has afternoon MELTDOWNS, and she is becoming less and less cooperative. There have definitely been some frustrating moments. And at the end of a day, I feel like a wimp because I need a little break after dinner every night and sneak off for a really long hot shower. (So soothing considering it's like 16 degrees here.)

HOWEVER....there has been just as many, if not more, sweet moments, too. She still cracks us up, and is talking like crazy. And the BEST thing that has happened in the past week is that she said "WUV YOU" for the first time!! MELT OUR HEARTS. It was actually a one time thing. But, Jeremy will say, "I love you sooo much." And then she'll say back in a sweet little voice, "MUCH".

AND it's been so fun to see her get so excited about all things CHRISTMAS!!!

She loves "christmas songs" and asks for them whenever we are in the car now.  The other night Jeremy put on Christmas music while we were making dinner and she  kept saying "Ty Bon". I didn't have a clue what she was tryin to say, but she was persistent and kept sayin it over and over again until Jeremy figured it out and said "Charlie Brown???" Duh, mom! That was the music that just came on.

She loves playing with her wooden nativity set everyday. She loves the Angel, Mary, baby Jesus, and the camel. I need to get some video of her playing with it. She tries to put all the people through the windows. And she'll hold Mary next baby Jesus next to her chest, and say "hold you" and rock back and forth.

Anytime she sees a Santa, whether it be a small sticker in a McDonald's window or in a book, etc she says "HO HO HO!!!". And she says "night night santa" every night before bed.

She was thrilled to "help" string these ornaments to make garland.  And she was so excited to show daddy the "garland" after we hung it.

"uh, oh, mama! fix it!"

Some other random pictures of Pearce. Never really sitting still.  Either following me around wherever I go, or being goofy and dancing and acrobatics.

Saturday night was the Branch Christmas Party, and I was hoping for Pearce to see "Santa". But, we had to leave for bed before Santa came. :-( We also missed Audrey, who Pearce asks for whenever we're at "church". But her new friend, Riley, was there to play with.  It's a miracle that a new family with four kids recently moved in the branch. Pearce loved following her around all night and playing with her and making   necklaces at the craft station.

Dinner. Crafts. Christmas story reading. And even a Christmas hula dance, oh my! 

Pearce was exhausted by the end of the night. Off to bed...

She gets treats from Santa everyday. (Thanks grandma Curfew!) And I love hearing her say "Tank you Santa!" after she eats her chocolate treat. It seems like she points to the Santa advent calendar earlier and earlier each day. I try and wait for afternoon snack time. But lately she's been getting it right after breakfast!

I just "trimmed" Pearce's hair this morning. I mostly needed to trim the bangs that are always in her face... but I got carried away with the scissors, because it's kinda fun pretending like you know what you're doing, and then I started trimming the ends of her hair in the back. And now it's short, and I miss her old baby hair. And I'm kinda bummed. So I keep telling myself, hair does grow.

It's crazy that at the end of the day, even the tough ones, she's upstairs sleeping, and I'm looking at these pictures and missing her. Sweet dreams little one. xoxo.

Tis the Season!

Isn't December the best month of the year?? 

There is so much to look forward to and so many wonderful things to see and do.

I loved the new short Bible videos they showed during the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional. Christ's birth story was beautiful. Pearce took a little break from playing with her toys to watch that part with us. She liked seeing all the animals in the manger and of course the baby. It was so sweet having her snuggled up with us.

I had so much fun making handmade gifts last year, that I'm trying out some new things this year. Time is crunching, and I've been a busy little elf while Pearce watches "Christmas Cartoons" (Charlie Brown, Twas the Night Before Christmas, and Mickey's Christmas Carol).

Singing Christmas songs with Pearce.

Jeremy teases me how much I love the post office. I go there all then time. And December is no exception. Each day is a fun little trip there to drop off more Christmas cards. Doing them in batches is much easier.

A little cookie exchange party with the Young Women.

And I'm way excited for a whole day of BAKING at my sister-in-law's next week.

_____________________________________

This little girl LOVES hanging out by the tree -- pointing and grabbing and shaking the bell garland.

We are almost out of candy canes on the tree -- thanks to Pearce AND Jeremy.

And ALWAYS dancing around.

Christmas Tree Hunting

       We at first wanted to find a tree to cut down here at the ranch (with permission of my father-in-law, of course), so we put our snow boots on and walked around to find one that would be a good fit. Most were very "pine-y" or odd shaped or too tall. We even drove up to the pond to see if there was anything different up there. No luck. But we had a back up plan after chatting with friends at church. 

      So we loaded up in the jeep,  stopped at the ranger's station to pick up a $5 permit, and headed up to the mountains. As soon as we got on the bumpy dirt road Pearce was out faster than a sip from our fountain drinks. She definitely takes after her mama. Whenever we would go off-roading (pre-baby days) I always ended up falling asleep in the passenger side. It always astounded Jeremy that I could fall asleep in such rough and bouncy conditions. But maybe I'm the one like a baby, because it's usually the quickest I can ever fall asleep, being "rocked" to sleep.

       It turned out to be a good thing that she was asleep for a while, because it took a while to find a "Christmas" looking tree. We were truly in the "wild" tree zone. Anytime we'd see a good looking tree, we'd look closer and notice it was 3 put together which made it look full. Ultimately we found one around the same time Pearce woke up. Probably not a coincidence. 

And there she is! Our wild tree. Covered in smoke by the chain saw. 

TIMBERRRR.....!!!

Watching daddy cut down our tree in the warmth of the car.

Ready to get out and play in snow. It's been a while.

Helping daddy set up the tripod.

I love seeing Pearce smiling with her daddy.

ok, Jeremy, humor me and hold up the tree you just cut and take a family picture. ;-)

we're legal

that'a'boy!

"are we done yet??"

       In other news, we've gone FOUR days pacifier-free!! This is HUGE!! I was terrified to finally take it away completely. I was convinced this was the only way she'd sleep good (and long), and (fairly) quiet in our many, long car rides. It is so nice to not hunt down a binky each nap and night time. I'm almost afraid to write this, that I might jinx myself, and she will scream for it tomorrow. She asks for it each time I'm rocking her to sleep, but I repeatedly tell her she doesn't need it, she's a "big girl now" and we gave the binky to the babies who need it, and that she still has her blankie. It takes twice as long to rock her to sleep because she fidgets so much to get comfortable; last night she tried putting her leg up on my armrest.  It's kinda cute now that she doesn't have that thing in her mouth, because once she finally does fall asleep, I hear sweet little angel-like sounds---a cross between humming and whispering little words.