Thank goodness for little children who leave us reminders of what the Christmas season is really about. I found this set up of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus being surrounded by the kid's animals today on the table.

The other day I was watching Austin play with a manger scene. He really gushes over the Baby Jesus and gives him lots of kisses. Austin kisses every picture of Jesus that he comes into contact with, he always has. While watching him this time with Baby Jesus it dawned on me, when Austin was really young we would show him pictures of Jesus so he would recognize him, but the love (ie. Kisses) Austin has for Jesus is something he came up with on his own. Austin only kisses pictures of family and Jesus. I really believe Austin knows exactly who Jesus is and it’s not because I taught him but instead because he remembers. I believe little children are still very close to our Heavenly Father and Jesus. I am so grateful for my little ones.

Visiting Cousins

The day after Christmas we went to Aaron and Joylyn's for dinner and games. The kids had so much fun together. Austin LOVED baby Thayne. He kept trying to hug and kiss him. It was a lot of fun.

Christmas

This was a really weird Christmas. Every year since I can remember I have gotten up on Christmas at 3 am sharp and all the presents are open by 6 am. This year, my internal clock once again woke me up right at 3 but this time I decided I would let everyone sleep in. We had church at 9:30 am and the kids slept in way too late for us to open presents before then. So, we really just got to see that Santa did get the kids change of address form. Santa brought Elaina a new princess bike and then we got the trike out for Austin to prevent any fighting. Grandpa Twitchell had tithing work to do after church so we had to then wait on him to open the presents. We didn't start opening presents until like 1 in the afternoon. It was so weird to have the sun up!

This year Austin was all about cars and the only thing Elaina asked for was a elephant pillow pet, but she was really excited about the bike.

After presents we got to skype Avram from Brazil. It was great seeing him!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve finally made it!

Live Nativity Scene

Tonight we were able to go see a live set up of Bethlehem and see a reenactment of the Baby Jesus story and it was really nice. They had the angel that visits the Shepherds and he was like 30 feet off the ground. Elaina was so amazed by him. The highlight of the evening for Elaina was Baby Jesus. When they were reenacting the manger scene we watched, but because of the crowd we couldn’t see very well. When it was over we took the kids over to see the live camel they had there and mean while Elaina was just throwing a fit because she wanted to see Baby Jesus. She didn’t even care about the camel a couple of feet in front of her. She had her priorities straight.

Where there's water, you'll find my kids.

Utah Trip / Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, the kids, Grandma Twitchell, Autumn and I drove out to Utah. We went to see Alicia and her Adam because they were moving soon to Tennessee. As an added bonus, my Adam made the drive from Fort Huachuca to see us. It was a full week of visiting family, Thanksgiving and see the Temple Square lights. It was a lot fun and the time with Adam went to quick, as usual. Austin was Adam's little shadow the whole week. He's missed his daddy.

Oakland Zoo

Adam is leaving soon for Fort Huachuca, so we decided to go on a family outing to the Oakland Zoo. It was a really nice zoo. Elaina discovered that her favorite animal is a zebra and Austin liked the giant orange frogs the most. Elaina also got to see the "Lion King" and then told us all about his baby Simba and the mean lion, Scar. It was a good time.

Moving... Again

Moving... again. Moving is something our little family is very accustom to, I figured it out and in the five years Adam and I have been married we have moved 12 times and since Elaina (who is 3) was born we've changed locations 10 times. Our longest at a location was 15 months and our shortest was 3 months. 3 of our moves, Adam has lived in a separate state as the kids and I. (I do not count his moves as separate from ours.)

This last place, Thorneberry Apartments, has been the first time that we have lived in our own place since Elaina was born. We really enjoyed it! We made some great friends and really enjoyed the ward and our apartment. Now it's off to California for the kids and I, and Adam is off to Fort Huachuca in Arizona to go through military intelligence school. We are really hoping our move after this one will be a little more permanent.

Austin was not too keen on the whole packing thing. He did not like me packing things up and many boxes had to be packed multiple times because he would undo them. Often Austin would disappear and I would find him in an empty box or the cupboard. Silly little boy!


Moving... again.

Halloween!!!

Halloween... what a day! Our lease was up that day and we were off to California the next. So the whole day was full of scrubbing and cleaning and running around town trying to make sure we could leave for California the next day. But I love Halloween and trick or treating, so we still made sure that the kids got dressed up and went out soliciting for candy. Austin was a cow this year, and Elaina was Rapunzel. Grandma Glenn made Elaina's costume. She did an amazing job! Don't be fooled by the pictures, though. They were taken at Grandma/pa Glenn's Halloween party earlier in the week. No, on Halloween we were not nearly as put together. Oh, well.

Elaina loves to dress up. Here's another great look.

Family Pictures - October 2011

Here are our family pictures for 2011. Adam Sink took them and he did a great job! I was really happy with how many good ones we got. Our location was maybe too exciting for the kids because all they wanted to do was explore. So it was hard to get them to sit still and smile, but they are cute anyway.

Austin would not stop sqwirming so I just held him upside down. It was the only smile he gave us the whole time.

D'Agostini Family Picnic

Today we went to Liberty Park for a D'Agostini Family Picnic. Liberty Park has a lot of fun things to do, but this weekend it was packed with a lot of hoodlums, so we mainly stuck around the picnic area. It was still a good time to see the extended family. Lucky for Elaina, Tyler found this fuzzy yellow caterpillar. Unfortunately, this caterpillar soon met the same fate that so many of Elaina's "best friends" meet. He was smothered with her love, but Elaina and her new friend Katie gave it a proper burial.

HeeHaw Farms

Tonight we went to HeeHaw Farms with some of Adam's family and had a ton of fun!

Our kids loved the cute little petting area. This little lamb was 4 hours old! Soooo cute!

We rode on the animal train which was fun.Elaina got to ride on a pony. She was a natural!

Elaina and some of the adults had a lot of fun on the little tractors. Here's Elaina pushing her friend Kinley.

And Austin had a lot of fun doing what he does best, getting dirty.