Space for an Easel

I've been working on cleaning up my craft room and organizing it yet again. I have bought some shelving with some of my Christmas money and have a few more ideas up my sleeve. I was very overwhelmed with my room and trying to get it under control. For Christmas though Jared's parents bought Benjamin an easel. I wanted it for him so that way he could craft with me in my craft room.

With the determination in mind to make room for Benjamin I got to it and quickly got my room under control. I must say it looks much nicer. I can't wait to hang up my shelves. We will be remodeling my sewing desk and I need to finish the stenciling still.

Jared set-up the easel for Benjamin. Benjamin loved watching and trying to be a part of things but I eventually had to distract him in the other room. Once we got it set-up we got out some crayons and showed Benjamin how it works.

A Proper Table

We had our good friends over the Lyons. We hadn't hung out in a bit so we decided to do a dinner together before Christmas. We had a nice ham dinner.

I had just gotten new dishes from my grandparents and could not wait to try them out. I texted Heather to make sure they were okay with a super fancy set-up. My mom stopped by to visit and helped me decide which dishes to use.

I got out my etiquette book to help me set-up a proper table. I had so much fun!

I can't wait to use more of my dishes!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day! We all woke up a little later than I thought we would. Once we were up Jared made sure we did our scripture studies and family prayer before we opened any presents. It's probably a good thing because I am sure it would have been forgotten once we got things going.

Watching Benjamin open his gifts was such much fun. He had seen the toys when we bought them yet he was still excited. I'm sure he had forgotten about them. We got him a 4X4 truck that runs on it's own, a pack of Ferrari hot wheels, and Santa brought him a Dump Truck with boulders. After Benjamin had fun ripping the paper off he had a blast playing with each toy.

After the presents were opened we had some breakfast and quickly moved onto getting ready for church. At the last minute we decided to go to church at Jared's parents ward as it seemed like a nice Christmas gift we could give them.

After church we hung out at the grandparents house. Grandma made herself and I some hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipping cream. Benjamin got in on the whipping cream action and Grandpa was laughing pretty good about it and advised a camera was needed.

Indeed.

Jacki and her family showed up a little bit later with our newest nephew Tyson. I cannot get over how small he is. We had fun opening up presents. I think we would all agree the money in a puzzle were pretty awesome. Jared opened his first and later hid Terence's keys in my puzzle.

We had a Mexican fiesta of burritos, chicken enchiladas, guacamole, pico de gallo, chips, beans and rice. I ate to my hearts content. Very full!

For the rest of the afternoon/evening we hung out and played games.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a busy day! We started the afternoon off going to my favorite cousin Theresa's home to celebrate. Theresa spoiled Benjamin as she always does. She got him a toy. Benjamin had no problems opening the toy once I started it for him. Ripping paper is a pass time hobby for him...it comes in many forms...toilet paper, tissues, post it's etc.

It was a singing monkey. It has shapes on it's belly that you press and it tells you the color and shape on one setting and plays songs on the second setting. It is now a great car toy for Benjamin. He loves to play with it.

After Benjamin was no longer fun and it was time for a nap we headed over to Jared's parents house for their traditional extended family Christmas Eve party. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures from that. They had the children act out the birth of Jesus Christ which was fun. I didn't get to see any of it as I was playing the piano down an octave because my keyboard has a broken key. Benjamin was a little angel along with his cousin Brooks.

We had a busy but good Christmas Eve.

Air Time

I love this little boy!

Benjamin loves to be thrown up high in the air. It gets a little tiring for me quickly. But Jared is better at it anyways. Benjamin gets so excited and becomes all smiles.

Afterwards though he becomes all frowns when it stops.

Pancakes for a Pillow

Benjamin has started getting into a phase of not wanting to go down for naps. It means he goes to bed a little earlier which I don't mind too much. But the problem is that he can be kind of a grouch until he does go to bed.

On December 20th we had one of those napless days. We all sat down for dinner which was breakfast...pancakes. Benjamin ate one and then started on a second one when he started to doze off to sleep.

It was pretty funny to watch him fall asleep almost in his pancakes.

I held him while finishing my food and Jared got things ready to put Benjamin to bed.

Martinelli's

I was downstairs on the 19th of December when I heard a noise upstairs like a crash and then a cry. I ran upstairs quickly to see what had happened to Benjamin. He comes walking around the corner holding onto a Martinelli's bottle.

I laughed as he tried to drink from the bottle. I grabbed my camera and followed him around as he played with the bottle.

Brownies for Breakfast...Almost

For a White Elephant gift exchange at work I got a box of brownies, cold cereal and a few other items for baking. My sweet tooth has been raging (along with my spicy tooth...which I didn't know I had one) so I made the brownies pretty quickly. We ate almost all of them the day I made them. There were some hard parts left that we couldn't easily get out of the tray.

The next morning (12/16) Benjamin after breakfast pushed a chair over to the counter and started attacking the brownies. He was able to get out quite a bit and eat to his hearts content. I didn't get upset at all. It was after breakfast after all and he was so dang cute.

Instead I ran for my camera to take pictures of it to remember and catch the moment.

Hanging Lights as a Family

I find it a little funny that I am taking the Christmas decorations down and I am going to post about putting the lights up.

I tried to put the lights up myself this year. We've never hung lights before and we have tons of lights for it. We didn't have a staple gun so I tried to be resourceful to hang the lights. I used thumbtacks. Jared came home and was impressed with my efforts but laughed and said that won't work. I should have just waited for Jared to come home but part of me thinks if I hadn't tried we never would have done it.

Jared got the right materials to hang the lights and went to town. Benjamin and I kept him company out in the cold.

Benjamin had fun walking around climbing the stairs and the ladder. It was chilly though.

I love having the lights up. It's so pretty.

Benjamin Catch-Up

I just had to share these pictures of Benjamin!

Here is Benjamin feeding himself yogurt (11/20/2011). He loves yogurt. And he loves to feed himself! It's great but it makes for a big mess each time. I let him feed himself standing up this time. It got a little slippery.

So we had Jared's sisters over for breakfast (11/23/2011) and their kids last week. It was a fun time. Somehow a back room door got left open and Benjamin disappeared. Jared found him and told me I had to see it. Benjamin and climbed up into his old bassinet and was happily playing with bottle parts.

Here is Benjamin after his 2nd hair cut but his 1st home done hair cut (11/23/2011). We stripped him down, strapped him into his high chair and played Phineas and Ferb for him. He did really good and it turned out okay. I have a hard time with cutting his hair short. I don't like it too short.

Handmade Ornaments

Jared's family does an ornament exchange every year. Last year I signed up to participate but then ran out of time to get anything put together. So this year I decided I better hurry up and get it done. I finished it at the beginning of November.

I had been wanting to make a certain ornament for a very long time. I had seashells and angel stickers. I put the stickers in the shells and then covered them front and back with modge podge so they would have a nice shine. Afterwards I took them outside and sprayed them with silver glitter. After they were good and dry I glued on some string. I enjoyed making them and had fun!

I think they turned out really cute! I made way more than I needed for the exchange so I could use them as gifts as well.

After all that work though on our way to Jared's Aunt Pam's house I realized I had left them at home. I was so disappointed. Luckily we had a party just a few days later and I was able to hand out some of them. The rest I will have to get at Christmas.

Two Trees

I started setting up for Christmas extra early this year. We never put it all away in the attic last year so I didn't have to rely on Jared to get the job done. I must say as much as Jared doesn't enjoy everything around decorating for Christmas he sure does help me out a ton. I felt so loved with all the help he gave me.

With Benjamin being 18 months this year at Christmas time I was really worried that I would have to have an unbalanced tree with only ornaments at the top. I couldn't handle that. It just bugged me. Jared said to me that we would just have to be diligent and teach Benjamin to not touch the ornaments.

So far so good...every once in awhile Benjamin touches something but we quickly tell him no. For the most part he leaves it alone which makes me very happy.

I love my Christmas tree! I am very particular about how it is set-up. I am not really sure how I got to this point but I only like glass, silver and gold (with a little bit of red here and there) on my tree. I've been stocking up every year with more ornaments after Christmas is over because really I can wait and pay way less to have ornaments. I just love the classy feel I get from my tree.

After setting most everything up I decided I wasn't going to set-up my smaller tree downstairs because it seemed like so much work. Jared said give it time. Jared's family does a ornament exchange every year at Thanksgiving. I came home with like 13 or 14 ornaments and I couldn't pass them up. So I broke out the little tree and all of my other ornaments. This is my fun kid like tree.

I know spoiled right? Two trees! I bought the little one when I got my first apartment. I had to have a tree. We bought the bigger tree when we moved into our house because lets face it the little tree is not big enough for a house.

I love how I can have Christmas all around the house.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you enjoy this time of year!