Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas this year. David didn't have to work Thanksgiving or Christmas this year which is quite the rarity at the jail. Every year we spend Christmas Eve with Davids side of the family. This year we went to his sisters house. Our nephew and his girlfriend (who is whiter then me) had their baby just a week before and brought the little guy. He is such a little beaner. I honestly thought our babies would look more like him but, no they are white.

We ate the traditional tamales that my mother-in-law makes. They are so yummy. One of the brother-in-laws found a thermometer in his tamale oops. At exactly midnight everybody wishes

everybody a Merry Christmas and then we open the billion presents.

It only took us 2 1/2 hours to open all the presents. Mia wasn't so sure about opening presents. I think it was because I tried hard to not let her destroy the present under the tree. She probably thought she would get in trouble for touching the present.


Aleecia was such a patient girl waiting her turn for her presents, unlike her cousin Lilly. Dave and I were so proud of her.

By accident a roll of scotch tape ended up in one of Aleecia's presents and she thought it was the funniest thing that she got tape for Christmas.

After all the presents were opened, it was time to go home and try and get a least a couple hours of sleep. Santa came to our house even though we forgot to leave a wish list and cookies. Aleecia asked for a skateboard but a "girl one". Santa was a lucky guy this year to find a skateboard with the princesses on it and on sale too.

This year we decided to go to Village Inn for breakfast before going to Grandma and Grandpa Talbot's house. At Grandma and Grandpa's house Aleecia opened all her presents first so she could play while the rest of us opened presents. We discovered a hidden talent of Davids. He can guess what a present is before it is opened. He was just playing around and guessed that my dad got a suit and tie and then he guessed my mom got a jacket. The funny thing is that if you looked at the box it was very difficult to guess. This year for Christmas my parents are taking us on a Caribbean Cruise. Mia had a great time buried in all the wrapping paper. Honestly babies don't need presents for their first Christmas because they are perfectly happy playing in all the wrapping paper.

Since the whole family was over my mom asked if they would take her elliptical down stairs. Well, they forgot to measure to see if it would fit down the stairs and discovered that it was too big to fit down. So, they got stuck at the bottom of the stairs. Instead of carrying it upstairs and going the other way they got their tools out and took it apart to take it the rest of the way down the stairs. Ya, my family is full of geniuses!

Aleecia's First Dance Performance

Aleecia had her first Dance Performance. Aleecia has been taking dance for a couple of months now with her good friend Halle. The other night was their performance. I was concerned she wouldn't remember the dance but, when it came down to it she performed perfectly! All the money and work that went into it was worth seeing all her excitement.

Trimming the Tree

It's that time of year again. Time to set up the Christmas decor. Since David actually had Sunday off we set up our tree. Aleecia did a fantastic job of placing all the ornaments on the bottom half of the tree and David did the top. Mia even got to place an ornament after she slobbered all over it. We love our Christmas tree even if it looks a little anorexic.

Aleecia's impression of Santa pulling the sleigh!

Mia's favorite toy

Mia has a new favorite toy. It is my cell phone. I used to let her play with it without key lock but, she started making phone calls to people in my phone book. Then I started to let her play with it on key lock until she called 911 twice! My phone is stupid. If you have it on key lock and push a certain button it gives you three options: Cancel, Unlock, or Emergency Call. Twice now Mia has pushed the Emergency call button. The first time she was playing with it on my bed and I could hear a ladies voice saying "Hello, Hello". I grabbed the phone and it had already hung up and then immediately they call back saying they had a 911 call from my phone. How embarrassing to tell them that everything was okay and that it was just my 7 month old baby who called. The second time I was just furious that it happened again. I don't want to hold up the operator when she can be making real emergency calls. Yes I still let her play with my phone occasionally but I keep a close eye on making sure she doesn't push that one button.

Princess Classics on Ice

Because David spoils his little girls we went to see Disney Princess on ice. Aleecia loves Cinderella and kept asking me when Cinderella was coming out. I told her they save the best Princess for last. She wanted her to be first. Aleecia and Mia both wore their Cinderella dresses. Aleecia got a Cinderella doll for a souvenir (big surprise).

"Fake Tooth"

This was Aleecia's attempt at tricking the tooth fairy.

The other night while I was tucking Aleecia into bed I spied her sliding this under her pillow. What looks kinda like a small tooth is actually a small bead that had broken off of one of Mia's socks. Aleecia thought she could get some extra cash off the tooth fairy so she snuck this "fake tooth" under her pillow in hopes the tooth fairy would come. Unfortunately the tooth fairy was not fooled. Darn tooth fairy!

Trick-or-Treat

My favorite part of Halloween is the costumes! This year Aleecia wanted to be Cinderella and Mia was a pony (Aleecia helped grandma pick out her costume). While waiting to go trick-or-treating Aleecia was riding her scooter. Her dress got caught in the wheel and tore the bottom of her dress. For those who know Aleecia know that she destroys nice dresses. Aleecia got a lot of candy and Mia was cute in her little costume.

Family Outing

I just love October and all the fun festivities! Yesterday we went to Black Island Farms. A while ago my friend April posted a blog about this place and ever since then I have wanted to go.

The first thing we did when we got there was attempt the corn maze. They handed out maps of the mazes. So, my brothers took on the responsibility of finding our way through the maze. Now, I have never been to a corn maze and have always wanted to try one. We didn't get lost but had fun trying to jump out of the corn stalks to scare one another.

(Our fearless leaders)

(The corn maze was a little too much for Mia to handle)

(Aleecia, Mia, Clayton, Ben, Joy, Mom, Dave, and Me)

At Black Island Farms they have these giant slides made of hay stacks. They were too fun. Aleecia thought it was fun to push grandma and grandpa down the slide. She loved the big tunnel slide and kept changing the potato sack every time she went down. Once we finally pulled her away from the slide she shot a few paint balls and rode the cow train a hundred times.

We went on a "hay less" hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and picked out our own pumpkins. Aleecia couldn't decide which pumpkin she wanted. She said there was too many to pick from. David picked one that had green vain like lines on it cause he wanted to be different. He named his pumpkin "varicose". And my brother named his "mini me".

After a fun field day at Black Island Farms we went to my parents ward Halloween Party. They went all out! They had trick or treating for the kids, a spook alley, face painting, bean bag toss, fish pond, donut on a string, and a cake walk. For those of you who don't know what a cake walk is like myself. It is like musical chairs. When the music stops they draw out a number and if you are standing on that number you get to pick out a cake. Mia and Aleecia both won a cake. It was optional to dress up so my parents went as a Deer hunter and a Deer. Ben, David, and I both pretended to not know our dad.


(Aleecia and her friend Brilynn, who lives by grandma)(see what I'm talking about)

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Every year since Dave and I have been married we carve pumpkins. The first year Aleecia helped us she did not like the pumpkin guts and didn't wanna help but she loves helping us now. We bought a pumpkin carving kit and we let Aleecia pick what she wanted to carve. She picked Trick or Treat for her pumpkin, a bat for dads, and a skeleton for mine.