Merry Christmas!

We hope yours was happy too! Jopes took our video from Christmas morning and made a shorter video of the highlights. My favorite is that families are forever... "YEAH!!" And Joseph finding the camera. And the gorilla. And his "HO HO HO"s and "Merry Christmas!" Oh, and the picture at the very end. Okay, so it's all favorite. Enjoy.

And P.S. I watched it before posting this with Everlit on my lap and she watched her brother just like she does in real life. I love and am so grateful for how much they love each other!

No More Binki

Really?? Yes. No more binki. Joseph has managed just this week to lose not only his binki, but his sister's as well! Okay so, Everlit had two and we lost her first one at the dedication of the BYUI center. Then Joseph lost her second one. Now all the binkis are gone, and we're not buying any more! As exciting as that sounds, it's kind of bad news. At least until Joseph learns to sleep without one. He keeps waking up all sorts of upset. And since the binki used to be all he needed to go right back to sleep, I find myself in all sorts of trouble in the middle of the night. BUT. It's okay. I'm positive that it'll only take a little while for us all to get the hang of this and then we'll be golden!

Tonight is Christmas Eve. Jopes is not quite home from work yet, but he should be soon. Joseph is asleep on my bed because he had one of those waking-up-upset episodes and so I laid down on my bed with him and sang him Christmas songs until he fell asleep. Everlit is asleep in her bed. We finally caught her laughing on video today. It's a little hard to tell when she's laughing and not her brother, but here it is:

Tomorrow is Christmas day and I can not WAIT to see my kids' cute little faces tomorrow morning. I love my family. I love my Savior. And I love this time of year. Merry Christmas everyone!

My Wish List

Once Upon A Time {November 2010}, I told my husband that what I wanted for my birthday was a day to clean. For him to take the kids for a few hours so that I could really clean the house and make some sort of dent in my someday I'm gonna get that done list. He laughed. He thought I was kidding. "If anything, I should make you leave so I can clean the house for you for your birthday." Don't get me wrong, that's very sweet of him. BUT. Seriously, I have this mental list of things that would make my heart SO happy to get done. And I think my home would feel happy too. So here it is. My new wish list.

Dear Santa,

For Christmas and New Years and Valentines Day and St. Patrick's Day and Easter and Summer Vacation and the 4th of July and Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas next year etc., I would like time and MOTIVATION to get these things done {in no particular order}:

1. File all those papers that are stuffed on the top of my bookcases

2. Organize the random junk in all the drawers of my house

3. Purge my closet of all the clothes I never wear because they are the wrong size, or I don't like them, or they make me feel boring and frumpy {my husband says I'm not allowed to use that word regarding myself, but it's just true-so don't tell him}

4. Scrub and scrub and scrub the bathroom floor. About a million times, because I know that one section can be cleaner than it gets when I just mop it {Ugh}

5. Take things to D.I.

6. Decorate my kids' room and make Everlit's sheets for her crib

7. Go through the kids' clothes and put away the ones that are too small

8. Move the TV to our bedroom so my son will stop asking for a movie EVERY minute of EVERY day

9. Deep clean everything

10. Get my hair permed so I can have non-frumpy hair {4 hours, 30 bucks, and a prayer that the student I get does a good job-Blah}

To sum things up, Santa, if you'll just make me NOT LAZY so I can be a better wife and mother, I think I can handle the rest.

Thanks,

Elizabeth

It's beginning to look a lot like...

WINTER!!

And it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, too!

And that is something like a 360 degree tour of our front room. We're staying here for Christmas and doing our own thing... whatever that may be. Ha! We're actually really excited to have our own little Christmas. We want to blend traditions from both our families, as well as start some of our own. It'll be interesting to see what we come up with in the end. I'm sure it'll change a little each year. But honestly, the part I'm most excited for is focusing solely on spending quality time with these beautiful persons...

What are you looking forward to this Christmas season?

Really, I wanna know! ;)

A little like heaven...

Unfortunately, this was not today. Nope! Today, Everlit didn't want anything to do with a nap, and Joseph's nap was less than an hour! *sigh*

Maybe tomorrow will be more like this...

and if not, we'll survive. But it's so nice when they get good naps!!

Everyday a Birthday Kind of Day!

Yesterday was my birthday. I had such a great day.

It started with presents in the morning...

Everlit gave me some beautiful flowers.

Joseph gave me pictures to fill the empty frames on my walls.

Jopes gave me a new key for our car,

(our old one was so worn, it sometimes wouldn't turn! I got stranded at the store for at least a half hour, just trying to turn it, and in the end, Jopes had our neighbor bring him down to help me!)

and he got me a new vacuum!!

(our old one got melted last winter, so it doesn't work very well at all. But our new one works great!!)

I got 3 delicious birthday meals, and a yummy chocolate birthday cake!

Joseph helped me blow out my candles, and then he kept wanting to blow them out! Instead of eating his piece of cake, he blew on it, like he was blowing out an imaginary candle over and over! We might have to get him one of those "trick" candles for his birthday!

Now, what I wanted more than anything was to just spend time with my family, having fun. And I got that, too! The most fun, was playing in the snow before Jopes had to go to school.

Joseph's friend, Nora, has a little sled that they shared yesterday. They loved it!

Later that day, we got one for Joseph and he loves it-even in the house!

But the BEST part of my birthday, was realizing that besides the presents, my wonderful birthday day was not much different than any other day! Yes, I have frustrating days and moments, and my life is far from perfect. However, I get to be with my family every day, and that makes it perfect to me. I am so grateful for my many blessings, and I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father for helping me to see so many of them.

Thanks for all your birthday wishes, everyone!

Thankful for Family

I just want to say how thankful I am for my family. I was born to amazing parents. I have wonderful siblings and those who are married have married wonderful people. I have extremely cute nieces and nephews. I have terrific in-laws. But best of all, I have my own family, and I love them with all my heart.

Joseph {Jopes} is my #1 best friend. He makes me smile every day, if not laugh ridiculously. He's handsome, intelligent, and very athletically talented. He's an honest and righteous man, and I can always look to him for anything. He is a spectacular father, and an even better husband.

Our Joseph is so much fun. He is so smart, too! He knows how to do things that we would never expect him to be able to figure out at his young age. He has the best laughs and smiles. His "cheese" is great. He is a loving big brother. He is small for his age, yet such a little man at heart and in attitude.

Everlit is beautiful. She has a smile that just lights up your heart. She loves to be held and loves to be talked to. She handles her brother's "playfulness" so well. Sometimes, we're even sure that she's looking around for him. She's got strong legs and a strong grip. She is ticklish. And she is so pretty.

I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such great, loving family.

Halloween 2010

Our ward did a trunk-or-treat, which was really more of a chair-or-treat. Our ward doesn't have many kids, and the ones we do have, are pretty young. So, we had our trunk-or-treat indoors. The candy passer-outers sat in a circle of chairs, and the kids just went around to get their candy. It was pretty easy, which was nice since the kids were so little. :)

Joseph has been watching Tarzan a lot, so when my sister, Lora, offered to send up her elephant costume, we decided to be Tarzan (Jopes), Jane (Elizabeth), Tantar (Joseph), and Turk (Everlit). Thanks, Lora and Mama! We were not the most impressive versions of each, but we did our best. ;)

My little sister joined us at our ward party and took a couple pictures for us, but she either didn't notice that they were blurry, or didn't feel the need to mention it to us. Lesson learned-always check family pictures taken by someone else. :D

This is the best one we have:

Jane, Tantar, Tarzan and Turk

Aunt Anna and Joseph

Joseph and his cute black cat friend, Nora.

Tired little Tantar.

Since She Came

Here are the pictures we have since Everlit joined our family. Unfortunately, all the cutest ones have been taken on our phones since we don't dare take time to find the camera for fear of missing the moment. So, we'll have to figure out how to get them from phone->computer->blog, next. :) For now, enjoy!

NOTE: Some you may have seen here or on Facebook already.

Hospital Pictures!

Hope You Enjoy!

We're a family of FOUR!

Everlit Ann Free

So, when I said to look for pictures and such "next week," I apparently meant NEXT MONTH. It's a long story, but we didn't have internet for the whole month of August. But it's back! Whoohoo! Now it's time to play catch-up...

Like I said before, our sweet little Everlit Ann came on August 2, 2010. She was 5lbs 5oz, 18 3/4" long, and healthy as can be. She's grown a lot already, but she's still tiny and just absolutely adorable. She's perfect. She eats well, sleeps well, and ALWAYS wants to be held. :)

Joseph is the greatest big brother ever. He's so good with her. The first words out of his mouth when he wakes up in the mornings and from his naps are "Baby? Baby?" So we take him to her and he points out her facial features, "No!" (nose), "Eye," etc. Then, he holds his hands out and says, "UH!" Which means he wants to hold her. He calls her "Evi" or "Baby." When he's tired, he lets us know that he wants mom to hold him and not Everlit by saying, "Baby," then pointing at either her swing, the couch, or daddy, and saying, "Uh." Which means he wants someone or something other than mom to hold her so that I can hold him and he can play with my hair.

Here's the video of when they first met. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect reaction. Enjoy!

She's Here!

Look for pictures and more next week sometime, but I just wanted to let you know our little Everlit Ann Free came 10 days early! She was born Monday, August 2nd at 7:17PM. 5lbs 5oz and 18 3/4 inches long. She's tiny and beautiful and healthy. We're so happy to have her here with us! Little Joseph loves her. He's the cutest big brother ever.

We are a happy family! :)

Update on Our Little Joseph

Joseph is just about 16 months old.

We went to the doctor today and here are his stats:

Age: 1 year 3 months

Height: 30.5 inches ~ 26%

Weight: 19.4 pounds ~ 1%

Word Count: 10ish ~ not sure if I've forgotten any

Ma-ma ~ he says this for me, and just about anything else, including his dad

Da-da ~ sometimes Dad-dy

Hi ~ most times it's just a wave, but he's said it when pretending to talk on the phone

Ba-ba ~ bye-bye, with a cute wave of his hand

Ow ~ said very carefully, almost like an Oh

Uh-Oh! ~ usually after throwing/dumping his food or crayons or something all over

Whoo-hoo! ~ with his arms up in the air

Uh-huh ~ an excited noise and shaking of his fists when he's saying yes

No ~ accompanied by the shaking of his head a whole bunch of times

Wow ~ sounds like his Ow, but with the W in front

More ~ especially used at mealtimes

Mwah ~ when blowing or giving kisses

Monkey noise ~ points at his chest with his fingers and says, "ee-ee!"

Lion noise ~ whispered "ah"

Cow noise ~ "boo"

Snake noise ~ "ssss"

His version of sign language isn't quite ASL, but he signs:

Hi ~ waves his hand

Bye-bye ~ waves his hand

Blows kisses ~ moves one hand away from mouth

Thank you ~ very similar to blowing kisses

Please ~ rubs his two hands together as if brushing them off

More ~ either the same as please, or he claps his fingertips together

Drink ~ rubs his index finger on his thumb

Yay ~ claps his hands

Come here, or Give it to me ~ opens and closes his hand like he's beckoning you

Come with me ~ he pulls on your finger and guides you to what he wants

Where is it? ~ shrugs with two hands in the air

Tickle ~ he swipes your neck with his hand and sniggers

High five ~ gives a high five

Knuckles ~ winds up and punches your knuckles with his little fist

All done ~ two hands in the air

Amen ~ same as 'all done'

Overall, our baby boy is healthy and happy!

He went from having 5 teeth to 10 in just a week, and he is still popping out some more, poor kid. The Monday before we went out of town, he got a 104 fever. He was so sad, hot, and miserable. Finally, he started feeling better Thursday afternoon.

One of his favorite big boy things to do is to feed himself... he's getting better, but we've had quite our share of mealtime messes, as you can see below:

Pudding! YUM!

This is fresh corn on the cob... just shucked, not cooked at all. He polished it off, though! He loves corn on the cob.

Joseph LOVES ice-cream! This was during our Utah trip. Everyone was having sundaes, and he ate 3 bowls of ice-cream. They were Joseph-sized bowls, (so just a couple spoonfuls) but still!

He helped me make cookies the other night... sort of. This is his version of helping:

'They're gonna be good, mom!'

I know what you're thinking... we feed our child so healthy... he DOES eat fruits and veggies and all that good stuff, I promise!

Time to clean up!

He usually gets a bath to clean up, but this time we used the sink. To him it doesn't matter, as long as he gets to play in the water!

Joseph loves other kids. He has some cute, fun friends that he likes to play with. He's his father's son, in that he loves frisbees and balls. He thinks he has rights to any and all of them. He also enjoys water and rocks-either together or separate, he can play forever. He never took a binki much as a baby, but once he started teething again (after his first 4 teeth) he found it comforting. So, he loves his binki now, but still only needs it when he's tired for the most part. He finds my hair very comforting as well. When he's tired, you know it because he'll suddenly want to hold your hair. He recognizes the scriptures, Jesus, and prayer. And he likes for mom and dad to sing to him before bed, followed by a kiss from each of us. Yes, I walk out of his room each night almost in tears because he's so precious and sweet. We love our little Joseph and are so happy to be his parents. I think there is no joy greater than that of being a parent.

Green Thumb??!

So, you might say I've gotten a green thumb all of a sudden. I've just had this urge to plant and grow things! So, right before Memorial Day, Jopes and I planted some...

Gladiolus

This is what ours look like right now:

We also planted some Peas!

There are 15 little sprouts that look something like this:

And, we planted some Liliums.

Sadly, this pot was sitting furthest from the house and kind of drowned in all the rain we got. So there is only one sprouting up so far, out of five... but at least there is one!

BUT APPARENTLY THAT WASN'T ENOUGH...

for yesterday, we planted a 5' sunflower for Joseph in his own little pot.

And Jopes planted a whole bunch of Mammoth Sunflowers back behind our apartment, along the canal side of the fence. He's hoping for something nicer to look at back there than the current gas station billboard.

AND THEN LAST NIGHT,

we planted Strawberries.

All our other plants started as either seeds or bulbs, but these, as you can see, were already started for us. Let's hope we can keep them alive! We all love strawberries. Joseph eats them faster than you can cut the green thing out of them! (Seriously, he shoved a good sized strawberry into his mouth, green stem and all, and devoured it clean).

Oh, and here's our little guy, who is 100% boy.

And can I tell you that we learned...

he loves dirt.

I took his pajama shirt off to put some clothes on, but before I could slip a shirt over his head, he threw a handful of dirt over his shoulder, which of course went right down his diaper (also notice the dirt smeared all down his arm). So he played this way until we were all done with the dirt and was so very happy. :) I sure do love my little boy!