Family Portrait

Well, they are finally here, our family portraits. I had one of my "crazy-daughter-in-law" moments when I saw the group shot, because I looked 400 pounds (literally). The more we looked at the picture the more we realized something was off (besides me). Ryan's head was smaller than Ethan's. Eric looked gigantic compared to Kyle (in the sibling shots they are about the same). We soon realized that something about the camera angle, or splicing of photos was VERY off. Joan was so nice and talked to the photographer about it, and luckily she was able to work some magic. It's still not the best photo ever taken of me, but, deep breath: not everything is about me. I know, I'm still trying to internalize that, but recognition of the fact, if not quite total belief, should count for something. Our little family picture is cute. I look normal (which makes me wonder more about the family picture), but poor Ella was about to burst into tears. She has her special "princess pose" that she loves to strike when taking a photo, and the photographer was not as nice as she could have been about it. Basically no princess poses allowed. This photo is the best of Ella, in some she looked like she was contemplating creative ways to torture the photographer. Ethan was bored out of his mind, and ready to help Ella in her dastardly plans, but Eric and Livi look great. I LOVE the shot of Joan and Alan, and can't wait to print one up to put on our shelf. Thank you Joan and Alan for putting up with me, and for getting these pictures for us!

Christmas On Our Own

Oh, the joys that come with being the ones in charge at Christmas time. This was our first Christmas since Ethan was born not being with our families in California. It was weird, a little lonely, but still fun. We kept a lot of the traditions we were use to: opening 1 gift on Christmas Eve (that is somehow always pajamas, even though the kids haven't figured that out yet), reading Luke Chapter 2 and trying to act it out with our Playmobil nativity set, which turned into attack of babyzilla trying to eat the manger and running off with the wise-men's camel,

running out to open Santa gifts and our stockings

then having a cinnamon tree sweet roll for breakfast (with scrambled eggs, so Eric wouldn't feel too badly about it), taking turns opening gifts so we could all see what everyone got (and so it lasted longer), eating ham and marshmallow fruit salad, and generally spending all day in our pajamas.
Now a couple highlights:
Ethan is so hard to read. I can't tell if he likes the transformers Santa brought, or if he is scared out of his mind! All I know is that he played ALL day with them, and figured out most of them without the instructions! He has such a great little mind.A Playmobil Princess castle for our resident princess. Livi thought it was pretty great too, and kept trying to rip off the flower pots to carry around.Livi got a stuffed kitty with a pocket to put treasures in, but really really really wanted to "help" undecorate Ella's magic castle.
. Really, the only time Livs was quiet was when she was eating cinnamon roll. Probably not the best parenting, but she ate A LOT of cinnamon roll on Christmas.Grandma Joan made the cutest blankets wrapped with a pig shapped pillow (pigs-in-a-blanket). Ethan thought the blanket holding elastic made the perfect straps to keep the pillow exactly where he wanted it. The kids LOVE their little portable beds and have set up camp under the table, in the living room, on their chair, and in the hallway.
Ahh, and last but not least, Eric spent most of the afternoon on Cabelas.com trying to figure out how to spend his Christmas money. Thanks to the generosity of so many, in about 2 weeks the animals in western Nebraska will sleep with one eye open. Eric is equipped to kill animals in every way imaginable now. It was fun to talk to all the friends and family that called (even my brother on his honeymoon called to wish us a Merry Christmas!). We miss you all, and even though this was fun, we hope that we are with you next year!

Christmas Ella Singing

Ella had a Christmas party on the Tuesday before Christmas. Mrs. Hessler is amazing and goes all out for her parties. The kids sang the Christmas songs they had been learning. Santa came and each child got to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Each child got a candy cane and a stocking filled with goodies from Mrs. Hessler. I brought cookies and juice, and we played lots of games. Eric took a short break from work and came over to enjoy some of the games with us. Melissa and Carter stayed the whole time, too, which made it even more fun for me. Ella sings so beautifully, with lots of enthusiasim and pretty much on pitch. I love to watch how much fun she has while she sings. (although in the videos she gets a little distracted by happenings around her)Ella actually sat on Santa's lap. She told him exactly what she wanted, "A Playmobil Magic Castle," but never looked him in the face. You can only overcome so much of a fear in a year, I guess.
I love this photo because it is not posed, not encouraged, just pure cute baby all the way. Carter kept trying to give Livi hugs and he finally pulled himself up beside her and put his arm around in a love. They were pretty cute and played together more that I expected from two 1 year olds!Livi loved being with Ella and wanted to be in the middle of everything she was doing. Here she is as the center of attention during the calendar section of their morning routine.

For Time and All Eternity

Well, we survived. We drove all day Friday, spent all day Saturday with wedding things, and then came home on Sunday. It was one of the busiest, craziest, but best weekends ever. I am so happy I could be there when my little brother married his sweetheart. Jes is truly awesome and I am grateful she is my sister-in-law! Here are some highlights from the wedding:
I love being with my family, but this picture really hits home the Sesame Street song "one of these things is not like the other." (the giant is me, the other two are my cute mom and tiny sister) Livi loved the temple, more specifically she loved sitting on it. The reception was at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, which is always beautifully decorated for Christmas. Ella loved posing in front of the tree, Ethan not so much. Livi is always a surprise to me. She is just as much a pretty princess as Ella. The girls loved their dresses, and gold shoes, and pranced around all night. Ethan didn't prance so much as goof around. We had the best seat in the house at our table. Temple Square is so pretty at night during Christmas and we got to enjoy it, all while being warm, comfortable, and eating a yummy meal. By the end we were all tuckered out, I think Livi's look is basically about how we all felt. It was a truly wonderful day, and I only wish I had more pictures of Jes and James (I only have the low light, grainy one at the beginning) so if anyone reading this has one please email some to me.

Blankie 2.0

Weddings are a crazy time. We lost one oatmeal colored glove, our health, my will to NOT live in Utah, but most importantly we lost Livi's blankie. It somehow got lost somewhere in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building during the reception. Not only did we check lost and found there, but my dad went back and checked the temple too, to no avail. It wasn't in the car, or the hotel, so we were left with one option: Drive to Provo on Sunday right before we left and buy a new one. We thought it would be fine, and we were wrong. The University Mall in Provo is one of the few places on Earth that is not open on Sunday. Normally I would be their biggest supporter in that, but having a baby that misses her blankie, and doesn't understand why it isn't there, all I wanted was for the mall to be open. The trip home was very hard, to say the least. We did have a burp cloth that was made of the same material, on the front, as her blankie, but she was too smart to be fooled for long. At first she would cuddle the burp cloth and look relieved. Then she would feel the back, like she does with her blankie, but instead of the soft pink material there would be a terry cloth side. She would pull it away to look at it, and then: Total Meltdown!

Luckily I have the nicest parents in the world, who were not only willing to go to the mall on Monday and buy her a new one, but were also willing to overnight it to us so Livi would finally take a nap, or go to bed, without looking at us woefully and whimpering softly until she finally gave up and went to sleep. We waited all morning for the knock, and finally it came. The wonderful UPS man came, and brought our salvation. Livi came over, looked in the package, was little shocked, but then set off on some catch-up cuddling. They haven't been apart all day!

The Price We Pay For a Little Quiet

Livi hadn't been feeling well for a couple of days. On Tuesday I was asked to bring an extra girl to preschool with us, which adds an extra 25 minutes to our time in the car. It doesn't help that preschool coincides with nap time to begin with, but by the time we dropped the girls off at school Livi was screaming hysterically. Luckily Melissa had given us some Christmas goodies when we picked up Maddi, so I started handing Livi some chocolate covered caramel to help her with the ride home. I didn't look back till we pulled into our driveway, and this is what I saw:

Dancing Queen(s)

The View From My Window

...Who just happens to be named, Ella

Ella loves her new tutu/skirt from Thankmus. She wears it at least once a day. Here is one of her "interpretive" dances inspired by her new favorite tutu.

Yeah for Hair!

Finally I can get two little ponytails in Livi's hair. Maybe now people will stop asking how old my little boy (dressed entirely in pink) is.

The Amazing Race (but not really since Dad let everyone catch up)

My dad is a man of many talents. One is trying hard to help people have fun experiences. This year, after Thankmus, my dad (with a some help from my mom) set up the most awesome game. Most of us are big fans of The Amazing Race on tv, so my dad set up The Amazing Race: Antelope Valley Edition. Dad had clues, roadblocks, the whole nine yards, with lots of fun activities for us. We took videos of most of the tasks (driving remote control cars and helicopters, feeding ducks at Apollo Park, shooting at targets) but for this particular activity we had to take still photos. We had to make our way to the exotic feline breeding compound in Rosamond and take photos of teammates with the different breeds of cats. I wish we had more time to spend there. I had lived in the Antelope Valley for 10 years and never visited, and it was much cooler than I expected. If anyone reading this lives there, go visit, it's worth it!

Seriously????

She is seriously asleep. Totally, completely asleep.

Thankmus, Christgiving, or whatever

On the Beesley side, were all saddened by the thought that we wouldn't have Christmas together. James and Jes would be on their Honeymoon, Andrew and Joy are going to Joy's family, and Eric and I couldn't find a way to make it to the wedding in Utah, then head on to California for the Christmas, and make it back to Nebraska in time for Eric to be back to work. In trying to figure out how to not fade into a depression in the lost traditions, my Mom had a truly inspired idea. We decided to do Christmas at Thanksgiving (James came up with "Thankmus" but Ethan is convinced it should be "Christgiving" to keep Christ involved, which makes sense). It was a hard idea to wrap my head around at first, but after embracing it, it was a lot of fun to take care of half of Christmas ahead of time.
There were somethings I missed, like reading Luke 2, opening pajamas the night before, eating Christmas tree sweat roll for breakfast, and opening stockings, but something that made missing those things worth it: spending the time with my family. I can make the sweet roll, we can read the scriptures here, but I will truly miss our families on Christmas.

Enough of dwelling on the sad, here is our fun celebration: Livi LOVED unwrapping

Ebby in his totally awesome sunglasses (he takes after his Daddy in crazy sensitive eyes)

Livi kept running over to play with toys when it wasn't her turn to tear into a present.

Then she ran over to put on her new hat and ran back to the toys.

Ella and Livi helped James, who was working as the present sorter, to hand out the gifts.

Ella got a cornucopia of pink. She got a pink apron, which she wears every time we bake, a pink tutu that she wears at least once a day, and a pink Barbie camper that Livi tries to "play" with whenever she can, but that Ella is very proprietorial over.

There were lots of "favorite" gifts for Ethan but when we left Thankmus and were getting ready for bed that night Ethan almost started crying when we realized we had left the Power Ranger transformer thingy at my parents house. I had to run over in my pj's and get it for him (luckily the Stotts and my parents live only a little over a mile apart).

I'm still missing some key pictures, so if anyone (Mom) has a copy of the group shot from that night, if you could send me a copy I would appreciate it!

Attack of the Geese, or Apollo Park

One other thing the kids were excited about when visiting California is going to Apollo park with their Grandma Joan. They love to play on the playground, have a snack, and feed the ducks cornflakes. Joan is sport to take them, and she even got some really cute pictures.It looks like the ducks only got a little, because the kids ate most of the cornflakes themselves, and the geese where there to help them out! Maybe they helped out a little too much, by the look on the kids face!It's amazing to me that Ella hears someone getting out a camera, and "Boom" she is in princess pose. An real smile from Ethan, a priceless photo.