The first piano recital. . .

Nicholas and Lucy had their first piano recital today. They both did really good! I'm so proud of them. And I love that they LOVE to play, I hope they stick with it forever.

(I really wish that I had taken lessons when I was younger but I guess I was always too busy playing sports.)

This is Niko before the recital, he looks excited doesn't he?

Lucy showed a little more enthusiasm.

Here are the videos:

Yahooo!

This Little Girl is Potty Trained!!!!

(Caution:  potty talk ahead!)

I never thought I would say that potty training is fun, but with Brooklyn, it was!  She was hilarious!  While sitting on the potty she would sing songs, that she made up, for example: "it's coming out my bootie, it's coming out my bootie!" (sung in an upbeat, kind of nanner-nanner tune), or play games on my iPhone, or look at books.

If I put her on the potty and she didn't need to go, she would tell me, "My pee-pee's are sleeping, I'll try again later."   And then when she needed to go she would yell, "My pee-pee's are waking up! My pee-pee's are waking up!"

It only took her about 2 days to get the hang of it and is even making it through the nights with no accidents.  Now that we've gotten rid of the diapers, I guess its time to go after this. . . .

(but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.)

Christmas (By Annie)

My Sister Annie posted this on her blog and I figured if I just cut and paste her post it would save me about an hours worth of time.  So thanks, Annie, hope you don't mind!

Okay - so I don't think I'm going to give you a play by play of Christmas because that would just take way way too long, but here are some highlights... There was 26 people at my parents' house and 24 for the week following and it was just chaos - in a completely fun way.  There was always something going on, even if that something was sitting around talking.  There was lots of eating done (as my waist can testify) - and lots of good ole fashion family time.  It was so great to see everyone and to share Christmas with everyone, I love this time of year!

Christmas Eve we did a nativity with Sierra and Noah as Mary and Joseph

What Nativity would be complete without a little bit of antics?  A shepherd (Kaymbri) decided part way through the nativity that baby Jesus was hers (which in reality it was her doll) - and was not amused by someone else holding it.

Our religious songs got a bit... boistorous... toward the end of the nativity.   "Star of Wonder..."

Everyone that was there for Christmas Eve - minus the little ones, Joyce and Owen who were asleep by this time.

"Before"

"After"  It was insane to try to fit all 26 of us in my parents living room with all of our parents AND do our tradition of taking turns opening presents, youngest to oldest.  The kids ended up checking out early to go play with their gifts...

Opening presents... Next to me is Qiujie, Scott's office mate and my good friend who came with us to brave the crazy of my parents house to experience a "real" Christmas.  She loved it - she loved having so much family around, she loved the games, she loved the presents and she loved shopping for everyone.  We loved having her there - it was fun to see Christmas with new eyes.  One of her favorite things was that we gave actual gifts instead of money - in China for their big festival all the kids just get cash - and she loved getting toys and fun things for the kids and recieving fun presents too.

My big present from my parents was a sewing machine!  wahoo!  My big present from Scott was an Ikea gift certificate, which is so cool - because half the fun for me about IKEA is shopping there!

Scott wiped out after present opening

Mom made the younger kids knit sweaters.  This is Joyce's - there is an adorable little hat that goes with it.

The girls (there's four that were born within a year of each other) all got matching sweaters from Grandma and matching dresses from Wendy - they looked so cute together - but we never did get a picture with them all because after all - they are all 2-3 years old.

One day we all went to the temple and did family names - so fun to have everyone at the temple for a reason other than a wedding!

One night we did Crepes - this year I did a Philly Cheese Steak crepe with garlic cheese sauce, a buffalo chicken one, and an chicken artichoke one... plus any you could make ala carte.  Super good!

Fondue - also a favorite - this year there were so many of us we had to do it in shifts!

The girls performing for M&Ms - one of the rare times when one of them wasn't upset at the other one for something!

Chocolate Fondue - Yum!

I {heart} faces: My Best Face!

This week I {heart} Faces is celebrating their birthday and the theme is "Best Face Photo."  The picture has to have been taken in Dec. '09 or Jan. '10.  This picture was taken in early December when I caught my 2 year old eating Oreos by the computer, a definite "No-No!"  But after she gave me this face it was a little hard to punish her.

She is obviously in Heaven!  (And of course she only licked out the white part!)

Merry Christmas

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.  We did.  We spent a whole 8 days at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  My parents had 5 of their 6 kids in town. (2 live there) We had a great time hanging out and playing games with everyone.  With 8 kids in the house (three 2-year olds and two infants) it was a noisy place (and that's not even counting when my sister, who lives in town, was there with her 6 kids,) but it was so much fun!  I'm sure you are expecting lots of fun pictures but one of the things my parents gave me was a gift certificate to "Kaleidoscope" which is website that sells textures and overlays for editing photos. I really love her stuff.  I've spent the last couple hours playing around with my new "toys."  So, these pictures are from Christmas but I'm also showing the before and after of my pictures.  The first one is the straight out of camera (SOOC) shot and the 2nd is with the textures and stuff.  Anyways, let me know what you think.

My attempt at a christmas picture (sorry about not sending out cards this year)

Noah waiting, not so happily, to go upstairs on Christmas Morning

Brooklyn after she got caught getting into Lucy's make-up kit.

Brooklyn ready to ride her new bike.