Christmas...It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I know I haven't posted Christmas yet...but here it is...Finally! We had an amazing Christmas and we loved every second of it!

My best Christmas present ever...spending the season with these two loves of my life!

My bestfriends! (+Aimee)

Micah kissing Mommy's tummy!

Just the four of us...you were with us in spirit Acie! Love you!

(These are my sisters and brother. Kate is on the end, then Kimmi and Ryan! And Aimee is in Brazil!)

One of my very favorite things about Christmas are the traditions and my family has so many! I love it! But one of my favorite traditions is that on the 23rd, we all sleep under the Christmas tree as a family and talk and tell Christmas stories and Christmas Memories! (Mitch is a great sport!) It is a tradition that I will always keep with my growing family too! We look forward to it all year long!

Christmas Morning with the Lundquist's! We had so much fun and Micah and Jack loved opening presents...Micah has been walking around the house ever since saying, "opon pwesents"! (Every year we go over to the Lundquist's really early in the morning to do Christmas and then we go to the Devine's right after so we don't have to miss a thing...we are so lucky!)

Christmas morning with the Devine's! We had an amazing Christmas, it was so fun to be together and we also got to talk to my sister who is on a mission in Brazil right now...Miss you Ace...wish you were here!

Micah's Bapa gave him his very first mitt and baseball and as soon as Micah opened it, he knew exactly what to do...he put it right on his hand and started playing catch! Great gift Bapa!

He LOVES this new mitt and ball...And he sure LOVES his Bapa too!

Micah in his new adorable adidas suit, holding his new "iPod"!

Never a Dull Moment when Kiki is Babysitting!

My adorable sister, Kimmi was babysitting and we came home to see our Micah and this is what we got! She is way too much fun!

Micah loves his fun Auntie Kiki!

There's no one quite like Vic!

Just wanted to introduce my father in law! He cracks me up...this is typical Vic, with his Romney bobble head and his Hillary shirt! He keeps us all laughing!

My Baby turned 2...over a month ago!!!

I have been so bad at posting lately...Micah's birthday is December 10th and we celebrated alot, we just haven't posted about it...so here goes!

We started off the day by going to "I Love Bagels" in the morning as a family- it is kind of our Saturday family tradition but it was a special treat because it was Tuesday and Mitch came home in between his morning surf session and work- so we got to hang out a little bit in the morning...Micah loved it!

Then, his Gigi and Auntie Kate had decorated his house with a couple dozen balloons! He cannot get enough balloons- I swear he dreams about them! So, this was an exciting surprise!

Mitchy got off work early and we all went to Micah's favorite place...the park!


After the park, we went "out to dinner"- Micah's choice...his favorite...Taco Bell! He would eat a burrito for breakfast if I let him!

And we got this great shot because of Mitch...he is always there to teach Micah how to really act like a boy!

He got to get a ball out of the machine at Taco Bell! Very exciting!

Micah was a lucky boy and got two parties! This is the party at the Devine's!

Gigi and Bapa spoiled him like always and he got lots of fun toys including one of his favorite toys of all time..."Bida" or SpiderMan! See that look on his face! He was so excited!

Micah still loves his "Wahgos" or Penguins- and so when he got the movie Happy Feet- he had to give kisses to the wahgos!

Blowing out the candle with Bapa! (By the way- Micah hates cake- but he loves cookies- so that is why all his birthday cakes are cookies!)

The following pictures are a party at the Lundquist's!

A party with Mimi and Bapa Vic! It was there that he got to open one of the best presents ever...a new red bike that he couldn't be more excited about!!! Thank you Mimi and Bapa!

He had so much fun learning about pedaling from Bapa Vic!

He also loved his top...he loves to spin anything, so as you can tell by the look on his face...the top was a hit!

Like I said before- he doesn't like cake so I made some cupcakes with cookies on them so he could eat the cookies!

I can't believe he is already two! He is so much fun and I am seriously loving every moment!

A White Christmas

Micah's first time ever in the snow!!!

(And yes, he is wearing Brielle's pink-lined, fur jacket...but it was all we had- give him a break!)

We went up to Utah to visit some of our best friends (The Rueckerts- Chris, Tiff, Brielle and new baby Dean) a couple weekends ago. We had so much fun and we miss them all the time! Micah and Brielle played together beautifully- (so did Mitch and Chris) And I think Micah had the time of his life- he just loves Brielle or as he calls her- "BeeO".
Thanks guys for everything- we had a blast!

Micah and the adorable Brielle!

Micah loves to give kisses and I love to get them!


Mitch and Chris decided to build the biggest snowman ever! I think Chris is like 6'7" or something- so this was a big snowman to make Chris look small! The only way to get the mid section up on top was for Chris to lay on the ground- Mitch to roll the ball on top of him and then with all his strength push it up on his back! Yep- they are a little crazy!

The Final Product!

Elise came over to play in the snow and we also all went out to dinner together! Isn't she adorable in this picture? We love you Elise or "Eseese"- can't wait for you to come home soon!

Micah and Mommy!

Daddy and Micah playing in the snow!

Micah loved taking a hot bath after playing in the snow! He kept saying "cold, cold" the whole time he was in the snow!

"The Cage"

This story is two-fold:
First, I have told many people that Micah has been climbing out of his crib for a while now- actually, more like "diving head first" out of his crib. He started doing that like 9 months ago and so we were forced to cage him in! It looks so mean- we put him in there and zip him in! So, finally, here is the picture of his cage I have been promising for so long!

Second, This is a recent picture of him in there- I have a previous entry about a month or so ago where he climbed into the bassinet all by himself...well now he is moving up! He climbs into his crib all by himself- not only that- he zips it up now too! He laughs and thinks he is so big! (He stops laughing if I leave him in too long!) Thank goodness he has not yet figured out how to unzip it from inside or I would be at square one all over again!

Penguins, wahgos...sounds pretty close, right?

Micah has a new "obsession" every month- and this month it is all about penguins!!! He has a new penguin movie called "Surf's Up" and he loves it! He will actually sit down and watch it for about 30 minutes at a time...which is a small miracle for this active kid!

Micah has really great pronunciation of most words, but for some reason he cannot say penguins for anything! He can say his "P's" just fine, but he always calls penguins..."Wahgos"! Even when we emphasize the P...he says it really slow copying us..."W-A-H-G-O-S!" It is the funniest thing and so now...Mitch and I call them that too!

The United Nations of Sugar Cookies!

Mitch was in charge of this really neat Missionary activity for the young men...which meant that I was in charge of refreshments! The activity was so great...they had all the young men and their fathers and about 7 different fathers or leaders speak about their missions and missionary experiences. Anyway- the night went really well!

So- about the cookies! I decided that it would be fun to do the flags of the areas that they would be talking about that night and the areas that some of the fathers and leaders had served. My mom and I made cookies and decorated all morning long! We had so much fun! We always have fun when baking is involved! Love you mom!

(By the way- My mom has the best sugar cookie recipe! Let me know if you want it!)

Happy 27th Mitchy!

On November 14th, my Love had his 27th birthday! We had so much fun celebrating! Mitchy got off work a little early and we went to Newport beach and rented beach cruisers and rode a long the boardwalk until sunset...we had so much fun and Micah was in heaven! Then after, we went to dinner at this cute Italian family-owned place on Lido Island called, Sabatino's. There was a man singing Sinatra songs and we were outside on a candle lit patio...it was so fun!

We also celebrated with my family the night before...we had a party at home and my mom made Gourmet Cheeseburgers, fries and milkshakes...because those are Mitchy's all-time favorites! We had a blast!

Also, for one of his gift's, I got him a massage...(I know he would love it but he has never had one) However, he INSISTED that we do a "couples massage" and that that would be way more fun...so I couldn't argue...we are schedualed for this Saturday, because it didn't work out on his actual birthday! So...I will post about that later...I can't wait!!!! Happy Birthday to me too I guess! ( One of the many reasons why I love him so much!)

Mitchy, I am so glad you were born!

Micah was not too fond of the helmet at first, but as soon as Mitch started pedaling...he forgot all about it!

I made Mitch a Cookies N Cream Ice Cream Cake!

Mitchy making a wish!

Mitchy and Micah showing off their smilers!

I'm It...I got tagged!

I got tagged by Melissa and Elise Lundquist and so here I go...

1. I absolutely love to travel. It is one of my favorite things to do. I love the culture, the architecture, the food and the memories. Mitchell gave me one of the best gifts ever for our honeymoon...my first trip to Europe. We spent most of the time all over Italy and then we went to Paris for a couple days too. It was fun, romantic and just like a dream! They are some of my favorite memories! Thanks love! And the next place I want to travel is to Argentina and the reason is because of number 2.

2. I am in the process of writing a novel right now. I took a break during my first trimester because I was so sick, but I am back now and loving it! It is something that most likely I will never get published but I am doing it for myself and because I think the story deserves to be told. The story takes place in Argentina and deals with human rights, politics, love, family and hope!

3. I majored in International Politics in college and loved it! My focus was on Intelligence and also Human Rights. So, naturally I am still really interested in those areas and in politics in general. I also always wanted to be in the CIA until I was given a small opportunity to do an internship there and declined because I realized that that is not at all what I wanted, because I couldn't really be the kind of wife and mother I wanted to be. But I sure love spy movies!

4. I have a very serious phobia of snakes! I can hardly write about them, let's just say I am considering going to a hypnotherapist because it is so ridiculous!

5. I am the pickiest eater that you'll probably ever know! I don't like most things that people like and I always, always change around orders at restaurants! I don't know if I have ever just ordered something straight off the menu without asking for a few adjustments! Mitch thinks I'm crazy, but I think he likes it because it is "so me"!

6. I've always dreamed of being a really great artist...I tried doing some oil painting and pastel work...but it turns out that I am really bad and no matter how much I love it, it is never gonna happen... I can't even paint a semi-good abstract!

Now, You're It!
So, now I am going to tag everyone on my list of friends who has not done it...(is that allowed?) So, please do it and if you don't then I'll have to start naming names! So everyone reading this...you have just been tagged! (Oh, and what you are supposed to do is just write six things about yourself and then tag six other people!)

Halloween x2

This is pretty funny:

We kind of celebrated Halloween with two costumes for Micah...he really wanted to be Spiderman, (if you have seen my previous blog entry, you know why- it's his new obsession)! But he also loves Mickey Mouse so much! He carries around Mickey like all day- so I decided that he should be Mickey like two months ago. So I got the costume and took all the tags off, and he hated it! He hated wearing it and never let me put it on him!
Mitch was probably secretly coaching him because when he saw him in the costume- He said that he looked so girlie and dorky! But I thought, he looked cute, he loves Mickey and he is not even two years old! He can be Mickey for Halloween! Well, can I say that Mitch and Micah were soooo right!!! Every house we went to was like, "oh, how sweet, Minnie Mouse" or, "oh is this her first Halloween?" "How old is she?" We answered everyone like he was a she because we didn't want to explain! And Mitch just kept giving me "the look"! It was pretty hysterical! Mommy learned her lesson!

P.S. When Micah's Mickey hat fell off, we even had someone say, "Oh what a sweet little lady bug!"

Micah was Spiderman for Mitch's work party, because he refused to be Mickey! In the end, I am glad though, since we don't want his whole office to think we have a little girl!

Aunt Tinkerbell, Micah, Cousin Jack Sparrow and Auntie Pirate Melis

Micah and his Uncle Blake, the "dead football player"!

The Grandpa's and their Boys! That is Micah's cousin, Jack
aka Captain Jack Sparrow!

Micah was clearly not too thrilled about being Mickey!!!

Mickey Hands!

Full Dorky Body Shot!

Melis and Jack were adorable pirates together!