3 Years Old!!

My baby girl is three years old...how did that happen so fast?  It seems every year goes faster and faster and there are times I wish it would slow down.  I love the ages that both of my kids are right now...being a mom to them makes me happy and I find myself thinking throughout the day how lucky I am to be the mom of two such amazing kids.  I want to enjoy each moment with them since they are only this age once.  Claire is and always has been a complete joy in our family....she is so sweet and thoughtful.  She tells me often how much she loves me and it never gets old.  She calls me Mama...not that I mind being called Amy, but it is nice to be called Mom for a change.  She is a peacemaker and is aware of other's feelings.

On her birthday, when she walked out and saw her presents by the fireplace and the balloons she had the biggest eyes.  It's sure fun surprising your kids and making them feel special...I hope that's how she felt on her day!  We started the day with presents.  She got the art easel from my parents.

She wanted a broom and a balloon for her birthday...easy enough!

She also got some dress up shoes, accessories for her babies, more puzzles, and some new clothes.

We did cake and candles before Jeff had to leave for work.  I took the kids to Classic that night since Jeff was working.  They had a lot of fun jumping in the bounce houses and playing in the jungle.  Jaxon stayed by his sister's side (there were a lot of teens there since it was Friday night) and I love watching them when they are the best of friends.

The next day, we went with Jeff's parents to lunch at Smashburger....(I'll admit I am a Smashburger addict at the moment...this is the third Saturday in a row that we've eaten there...it's SO good and by far my favorite hamburger place right now).  After lunch, we went with his parents to the mall and they took Claire to Build-a-Bear for her gift.

She loved watching them stuff her bear...

Loved giving it a bath....

And loved picking outfits for her bear...so many choices.  She wanted to name it Nick so we convinced her of a more girly option...Nicole.

She kept looking at it as we walked through the mall, making sure she was ok in her box.

Things I don't want to forget about Claire at this age:

• She is independent (in a good way).  She loves picking out her own clothes and getting herself dressed.
• Favorite thing she says,  "I love you the mostest".
• Favorite Song...5 Little Monkeys.
• Favorite TV show...Curious George.
• Favorite movie...Cars.
• She loves puzzles and reading books.
• She loves dance and gymnastics.
• Favorite Foods...Pasta, Peas, and Pancakes.
• She loves her Daddy...loves to cuddle with him.  
• She loves helping me cook.
• She loves taking Toby for walks around our house and making him dance.
• She loves playing with Jaxon whether they are playing store or hide n seek....she just likes being with him.  

Happy 3rd Birthday Claire...we love you so much!!  

Hooked to my nook!

My favorite Christmas present this year was my Nook.  I wasn't sure if I would like reading a book without holding the book and turning the pages, but after one book, I love it.  What I love about it...there's no wait time for me to get a new book.  Usually I have some down time, but I can start a new book as soon as I want.  Also, I love that it's small...I always have it in my purse so I can pull it out when I have a minute here and there.  

The Male Brain was the first book I read on my nook.  The book was completely fascinating.   I kept talking about it with Jeff just because it was so interesting to me.  It gave me such a greater appreciation and understanding for men, for the way they are wired and the reasons why they are wired as they are. So really I could go on and on listing interesting things I learned, but you'll just have to read it...it's well worth your time.  Here's just a few of the things I learned:

• Boys/males are wired to hide their emotions. 
• Boys brains are programmed to move, make things move, and watch things move.  They are more active and more rough than girls.  
• Boys are six times more likely than girls to use domestic objects as pretend weapons.  Explains why Jaxon uses anything as a toy gun.
• To boys, victory is everything...losing is unacceptable.  Boys are wired to be more competitive..they are six times more competitive than girls..they want to be the first and best at everything...a difference I've already noticed with my kids.  Jaxon has to be first, Claire could care less.  
• There was a section that talked about what happens to boys brains while playing video games...it gave an example of a boy playing Mario and the hormones that are released as they play.  Made me understand why Jaxon enjoys it so much.  
• Male brains are wired to go to bed later and get up later.  
• The male brain changes when their mate is pregnant.  Their testosterone goes down and their prolactin goes up.  More prolactin prepares them to be a dad.  So cool!  

  Boys will be Boys and I'm so glad for that...

Wrapping up 2010...

Even though it was almost a month ago, I need to finish blogging about 2010 so I can move on to this year.  Here's what the rest of our holidays included after our stay in Heber.

A Minute to Win It party with my Dad's extended family.  It was hilarious and a lot of fun.

The first challenge...getting all 12 ping pong balls out of a tissue box that was strapped to your back.

Second challenge...moving skittles from one cup to another cup using a straw...harder than you would think. 

Third challenge...keeping three balloons in the air for a minute...much harder than you would think.  

Fourth event....bouncing ping pong balls into the cups.

Fifth event...getting an oreo from your forehead to your mouth.  

My brother and sister-in-law were the only ones who did it. 

The cousins had so much fun running around the gym and doing everything that's not allowed on Sunday.  We caught the girls dipping their heads in the drinking fountain....they were soaked.  It's hard to get mad when you hear them giggling.

  They found the big ball highly entertaining and were singing songs together as they pushed it around the church.

We hosted a Christmas party for our friends from high school..a tradition we've been doing for 6 years now.  I was lucky to be in a great group of friends during high school...it's nice to catch up since we don't see them as often as we would like.  We ate dinner, exchanged gifts, played Trimble games, and finished the night with walleyball. I figured the pictures below might need some explanation...they were part of the Trimble games (they are a tradition with Jeff's family and usually involve pain and craziness).  

Some of the games this year were balancing on one leg with your eyes closed...last person standing wins for their team.  

How long can you hold on to a pole?  Hannah set a new record and went for over 4 minutes.  We thought there was no way she'd be beat....

Until Ben hung on for 4 minutes 30 seconds.

My dad surprised my mom and gave her and all the girls tickets to the Nutcracker.  The only day that worked was New Year's Eve.  That day it happened to be a spoof and was called the Nutty Nutcracker.   I had to wonder what my grandma was thinking with the nutcracker being Luke Skywalker and the little girl Dorothy.  Jack Sparrow, James Bond, Jackie Chan (to name a few) made appearances in the dances.  I enjoyed the dancing and thought the show was more entertaining than the original Nutcracker.  We went to the Olive Garden after and had fun talking and eating.  

We also had a New Year's Eve party at my sisters and went to the mall with my parents the day before they went back to Arizona.  I loved having my parents and my brother and his family in Utah.  There was a party or get together every day and we enjoyed every one of them!    It's always nice getting back on a schedule, but I always get a little bummed when the holidays are over...no more parties, families go home, and the long wait for spring begins.  

Jeff a Jazzbot

What is a Jazzbot you might ask?  It is someone who writes posts for the Utah Jazz. Jeff submitted an entry a while back to contend for a spot.  He made it to the interview round and got an offer to become a Jazzbot.

Tubing!!

One of the favorite traditions to do in Heber over Christmas is to go tubing at Soldier Hollow.  I missed it last year since Claire was too little and missed again this year with being prego.  I'm hoping I can go next year because it looks like so much fun.  Claire stayed with Grandma while I got my hair done...she told her Grandma that I couldn't go tubing because it would hurt the babies feelings.  The things she thinks and says makes me laugh...

The guys ready to go tubing...Jeff with his dad and his four brother-in-laws.  

Jeff and Jaxon...I wasn't sure what Jax would think of the tubing hill, but he loved it.  

I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures that Jeff took....

Looks like my kind of tubing....getting pulled up the hill instead of walking up...

Christmas in Heber

On Christmas Eve, we headed to Heber to spend time with Jeff's family....his parent's rented a house for the week...such a fun place to spend Christmas....the house was great with plenty of room for everyone and plenty to do....the kids were as excited to spend time at the "cabin" with their cousins as they were for Christmas.

Here are the kids in their Christmas Eve p.j.'s....let the long wait till morning begin...they were all so excited and had a hard time settling down...

They watched Toy Story in their new sleeping bags and finally fell asleep around 11:00.  Made for a late night for Santa, but I love that we get to be Santa.  It was hard for me to go to sleep that night....after we had put all the gifts out, I was so excited for the kids to open their gifts....

Up at 7:30 waiting on the stairs to see what Santa brought...

Jaxon got the two things he asked for....a DS...loved how his eyes lit up when he opened it...

And the fire station that sprays real water...

Claire knew which present was the pet stroller she had asked for and opened it first...I thought she might lose interest in the rest of her gifts once she had opened the pet stroller, but this year she opened all of them...

The two twinners playing their DS's and having so much fun...

Claire with her pet stroller...she kept saying she wanted to go home and see Toby...what she really meant was that she wanted to put Toby in her pet stroller...she was disappointed when we got home and Toby was just a little too big for it.  

Claire also got a CD player with microphones and some fun music to go with it....she's had fun singing along to her favorite songs....

On Christmas Day, we went to my grandparent's for a dinner with my family.  It was nice to have my whole family together for the holidays....

We went back to Heber that night and stayed through Tuesday.  We went tubing(post to follow), ate at Tony's tacos, played games and watched movies.  On Tuesday, we drove to Orem...went to the Old Spaghetti Factory and saw Tangled.  Such a great movie that we all enjoyed...it ranks up there in my top 3 or 4 best princess movies.   It was a wonderful Christmas with great memories and lots of fun times!