Merry Christmas Everyone!

We are headed to Vernal today and just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas!

Why I haven't been blogging lately

We sure have been busy this Christmas season. These are just a few of the things occupying all of our time.Saturday, Dec 20, we went to dinner with some of my good friends from college. We had a great time laughing and catching up. In the picture is my friend Katie (from Idaho) Kirsten and my first roomate Heather's daughter Reagan. Our little "treat boxes" we took around to friends and family for Christmas. We spray painted the lids (which still smelled like paint 4 days later) so I'm not sure people actually ate the cookies but they sure were cute!We dyed our cookies red and green in the spirit of ChristmasThe tutu's I made for my nieces Abby and Alyviah. They turned out so cute my friend Katie and I made more for her to give away for Christmas.Flour Sugar jars I made for my sister-in-law Liz. Don't ask m e why I didn't center both of them I made this for my parents. The vinyl lettering that we did didn't work very well so I had to stick each letter on my hand and so it's not exactly perfect...but that makes it homemade and special.The calendar I made for Chelsey (for our annual girl Christmas party) FYI calendars are a heck of a lot more work then they should be. Take a good look at this one, it might be the only one I ever do.My youngest brother Garrett entered the MTC on Dec 17. So we have spent time in Vernal for his farewell, etc. We got to go to breakfast with him the day of entering MTC. Then we went to the Provo Temple for last pictures and then we went to the MTC to say goodbye. Kirsten even folded her arms for the prayer (very first time ever!)Elder Brinkerhoff (both of them...Garrett and William, but Garrett is the only one with the greenie dot)Garrett and his adorable neice at the Provo TempleAfter the first big snowstorm we went out and built our snowman. We had a lot of fun, but Kirsten decided she would rather take a nap than help. Her snowman is supposed to be crawling (but it looks more like a dog...whoops!)Kirk's neice Brixton came and stayed with us for about 4 days while her parents were out of the state. We had a lot of fun with her (especially because we told her about the elves watching her...she was an angel for us!). We colored, painted fingernails, shoppped, and made cookies. We told her she looked like a snowman becuase she was so covered in flour.My friend Brenna who came over for holiday bakingThe cookies turned out really cute and delicious!She is what occupies most of my time, and I'm so glad. She's been so much fun to have this Christmas season. Christmas really is more fun with kids. She always has that big smile on her face and I just love her to pieces!My mom sent her this cute nativity set. She loves it and doesn't leave it alone unless she is sleeping. We've lost baby Jesus though, so keep your eye open for him!

And I'm exhausted!

9 months

These are her nine month pictures we had done at Target. I am so in love with them and love how they turned out. Her left cheek has a scratch on it from someone giving her a pen to play with on the drive up to Target (I promised Kirk I wouldn't point any fingers). But luckily you can't notice and she's adorable enough that it doesn't matter.

A few things you might not know about Kirsten:

• She loves animals (especially dogs). Every time she sees a dog she giggles and giggles. She wants to touch them and kiss them. It's pretty darn cute and I can't wait until we have a house to get her a dog.
• She loves people. Church, stores, and campus are a few of her favorite places because of all the people. She rarely cries for a stranger. We've had more than one person mention that they have never seen her cry because when she's around people it doesn't matter how hungry or tired she is, she's just happy to be there.
• She's a total tease. One of her favorite things to do is to keep a straight face when we are trying to get her to laugh. After we stop trying she busts up laughing and thinks she is pretty funny (we do too). She likes to crawl towards the stairs just because she knows it will freak us out.
• She loves the wii (or any gaming system), just like her dad. Whenever we play, she crawls and pulls a controller down for her self and pushes buttons and laughs, just like she is playing right along with us.
• She loves books. Books are her favorite toy and she loves to turn the pages. Often I give her a book to play with to watch her turn the pages and babble out loud, reading to herself.
• She loves music. She is always banging things together and singing. The only time she holds still during church is the songs. She loves music and we have great expectations of her becoming some sort of musician.
  

One thing you probably do know about her is how much we love her. We are so glad we get to be her parents!

Monday Mornings

The Problem:Keys locked in the car

(no, we don't have a spare key)

The cheering crowd
(we have the cutest personal cheerleader)

The locksmith
(who was incredibly hot and got paid extra)

Weekend Review

This weekend was full of Christmas fun.

Friday we took Kirsten to Target for her 9 month pictures. They turned out so cute, we stood there for 20 minutes trying to decide which picture to her Grandma's would like more. Who knew we would have such an adorable daughter? We then came home and while Kirk did some work on the computer, I hung Christmas lights in our windows (3 of the 4 strands are now on the ground) and Kirsten crawled around the house at full speed. She has been pretty good about leaving the Christmas tree alone, but she decided it was time for her and the tree to get acquainted. She pulled off an ornament and then spent the next couple minutes trying to figure out how to put it back on the tree. She also opened her first present.

Saturday we went up to Salt Lake for Christmas activities. We went to the festival of trees, which was just really cool. We also saw my aunt Phyllis and family there which was fun. We then headed to Gardner Village where I fell in love with the quilting store. Kirsten wanted to touch every blanket I touched (I have great ambitions of us sewing together now...I'm so glad I have a girl!). After walking through all the shops and taking some pictures by the elves
I asked Kirk "can you see why my sisters and I like it here so much?"
to which he replied "yep, and I can see why you leave me at home"
After a not so great experience at the restaurant there we decided to not let it ruin our day and headed up to see the lights on temple square. But after driving around for an hour looking for parking with a very tired whiney baby in the backseat we headed home.
But Brett, being the awesome brother he is, came down to Provo with his "friend" Andrea to hang out with us, despite our ditching out on plans to hang out in SLC. We had a great time visiting and playing all sorts of fun games.

Now we are headed to church. Don't you just love this time of year at church, when all the kids are dressed so cute? (I mean beside the extra spiritual enlightenment of course!)

Christmastime at our house

We decided to put up the Christmas tree today. I knew Kirsten would be thrilled. Kirk put together our fake tree while I got out ornaments and lights. Kirsten crawled back and forth between us soo excited!!!
Not 5 minutes later she broke her first ornament (the ornament from our first Christmas together). The joy of children. Who am I kidding, I can't blame her. What did I think would happen when I let her play with a snow globe made out of glass (I didn't realize it was made out of glass to my credit). It's so hard not to let her play with everything...she's so adorable, I just can't say no!
We are super excited for Christmas now...we even did a little Christmas shopping today and Christmas music is in the background...ahh
Merry Christmas everyone!