We had such a wonderful Christmas and I am finally catching up to write about it! My parents went snowmobiling at Brianhead for Christmas, so we had a family party with them and my brother's family on Sunday. It is always so fun to be around loved ones during this time of year! And it was just beautiful up in the mountains and my parents have these gorgeous ice sicles that hang all around their house. It looks like they hung each one, but they are all natural!! Sadly, I didn't get pictures of them b/c by the time I realized I wanted a picture, it was dark out. Next time I'm there I'll have to get a shot. Here is a slideshow of the family. (We also had a Dixon Family party--that's my mom's side of the family--and I'll include those pictures in here). We did the nativity and Lukas was a shepard. Which I'm so surprised he dressed up and actually participated! He's usually so stubborn. We had a great time with the Marshall fam, as always!
Pat's family has different traditions...Every year we go to Jessica's house in Eagle Mountain and have a nice dinner and visit then wait 'til midnight and open all our gifts to each other. It's fun, but really tiring and hard with young kids. Every year I say I'm going to switch the clocks ahead two hours. No one will go for it! The kids had fun and were wore out by the end. As soon as we put them in the car they were asleep! We had fun hanging out and being silly.
And finally, a Christmas at home! We were all pretty tired from the festivities in Eagle Mountain, so we slept in until about 9 (Pat was up first wanting the rest of us to get up to open gifts...) but we waited until Lukas finally woke up around 10. The kids were so excited and it was so fun watching them open their gifts and being so happy! I realized that I wouldn't have cared if I didn't get any gifts because it was so joyful to watch the kids! We got to rest and relax all day and had a nice dinner at Aunt Lecia's house in Riverton. It was a wonderful and merry Christmas!!!
I have a little notebook that I write in for the boys when they reach a milestone or do something cute/funny. I haven't gotten to it lately and since blogging is way more fun than writing, I'll just post it here so I remember it later.
Max is 13 months now and SO cute. He is also very busy and into everything. The entire bottom half of our Christmas tree is bare b/c he has taken all the ornaments and decorations off. He has the cutest walk and he'll run away in delight if you chase or growl at him. He still falls a lot, but just bends in half and gets back up. He can say a few words "ba ba" for bottle, "pu pu" for a stinky diaper, "mama" and "dada" of course, "nana" & "papa" too. He does the baby sign for milk. He will also say "ah gah" for all gone and when he sees anything that resembles a phone he holds it to his ear and says, "aaahh" like he's trying to say hi. I guess we talk on the phone a little too much! :) If he sees a doll or baby, he'll hug it although he has yet to learn what "soft" means. (He made two kids at church cry b/c he hit or took their toy...) He likes to head-butt things, especially the couch and will stomp his feet in place when he's happy or being silly. He sees a dog and says, "woof woof" or "ga ga". He loves to play peek-a-boo and will try to cover his eyes, but it's usually his nose. Lukas constantly says, "no no no Max" so Max walks around saying "no no no no". And if he puts something in his mouth that he's not supposed to and I get after him he'll say, "yucka". He is the CUTEST! Of course I can say that b/c I'm his mom!
Max weighs about 25 pounds and is solid. He is tough to pack around. Luckily he can walk, but doesn't always want to go where we're going. He likes to eat whatever we're eating and his favorite is gogurts (frozen). He loves his milk, too. He is learning to go down the stairs backwards and loves to climb up them. He and Lukas can have growling wars until we can't stand it anymore. In Pat's family, we give kisses a lot, so Max gives the cutest kisses, if he's in the mood. If you are laying on the ground, Max will come at you full speed and tackle you. It's funny to see Max take down Lukas!
Lukas is 3 years and 2 months. He is very independent and territorial. He has knocked Max over countless times b/c Max got into Lukas' area. Poor Max. I keep hoping someday they will be friends and want to play together. I guess I just need to give it time. Lukas loves playing with play-doh and will use the cookie cutters to make shapes. Sometimes he pretends he's making cookies. He went through a phase where he had to cut everytihng up to look like a puzzle and then insist I help him put it together. He could watch "Go Diego Go" all day. He thinks every meal is lunch and could eat cereal each time. He thinks when we go to the store he gets a treat! Ahhh! I hate going to the store lately. And he knows how to throw a fit, too. He goes to preschool and has fun, but sometimes he'll come home and say, "I was mean today Mommy. I took Tommy's toy." He loves pizza and pepsi (uh oh). He takes care of Max's binkies and when the house is too quiet I look around to find Lukas in a corner being sneaky with the binkies. I think if I let him, he'd still want one. He is great at cleaning up and likes to line up all his toys. He gets really hyper when he's tired and it's a nightmare trying to get him to sit still. He loves to repeat whatever we say when it's prayer time and says the cutest prayers on his own. He likes to hear bedtime stories (like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty). What can I say, he likes Princesses! But he knows it's for girls, like at the store when we look at toys he'll say, "that toy is for girls". Whew! Lukas is a picky eater and I wonder if he'll ever weigh more than 30 pounds. He could live off of milk and popsicles.
I sure love my little guys!
Well, it was Pat's birthday on Sunday and so I thought I'd make a little tribute to him. What can I say? I married a 12-year-old who just turned 28! He is a kid at heart, but he makes things fun. He is an awesome father and the boys love him. He works hard and plays hard and is a joker all the way through. Some things you might want to know about Pat...He loves sour things (sour patch kids, lime popsicles). He can fall asleep in about 1/2 a second, anywhere, if he's tired or watching a movie. He can solve the rubix cube (and loves to teach anyone who wants to learn). For being a food lover, he is quite picky. He could play basketball every day of his life and wakes up at 5 on Tuesdays to play ball with the guys. (Recently he told me how he wants to take a class on getting his vertical jump higher. I thought he was kidding, but oh no, he was quite serious). He knows every word to any Wu Tang song. He loves magic tricks or card tricks and will show anyone who will listen his tricks. He loves to read and does so for at least 30-45 minutes every morning. Just ask him where he reads... He has a lot of determination and self-motivation which is why he works from home successfully! He wants to try out for American Idol and will practice while driving in the car. That's my Pat and I sure love him! Happy Birthday Patricio! XOXOXO (Just look at this picture! The way he struts his stuff. Not much has changed!)
Here we are...the Mendoza's! We went and took a group picture to give to Sonia (my mother-in-law) for her birthday/Christmas. Pretty amazing that we are all looking and mostly smiling with 5 kids (note they are all BOYS!!!). Anyway, kudos to the photographer.
What can I say? Lukas put the Christmas decorations to good use (and Pat dressed him that day and is wearing Max's shirt by accident). Max is just as cute as can be in his red hoodie. Gotta love my boys!
Our neighbors dog just had puppies and we've been talking about getting a dog for quite some time now. It so tempting to get one. We got to play with one of the puppies for a little bit and I can see we're not quite ready. Max man handles it and Lukas is afraid to hold it too long. It's a Westie. Pat is really sensitive to dog hair and so we have to get a dog that doesn't shed. This is one of them. Awwww, she's so cute! But NO, we're not getting a dog. Yet. But when we do, Lukas has the perfect name picked out. You'll just have to wait to find out...
I went and spent a couple of days at my parent's place. It's like a mountain retreat. The view is just gorgeous and you can see Provo. My parents just got a hot tub and we got to enjoy it! It was snowing outside and we were nice and warm in the hot tub! (Excuse the white legs). The snow was so bad we had a hard time driving home. I was swerving all over the place. I think next time I'll just stay longer.
Lukas started preschool this year, as you may already know. It's a neighborhood thing...a lot of people call it JOY school (I don't know much about that) but there are 7 kids and each mom takes a turn being the teacher. So every seven weeks I have preschool at my house and we rotate houses. It's worked out pretty good and Lukas loves it. However it is quite stressful having seven 3-4 year olds running around PLUS Max, but I survived our turn. We made play-doh and reviewed all the letters we've learned so far. The kids are funny. One kid sort of wanders off and does his own thing, one likes to talk, but takes F O R E V E R to get his point across, none of them can sit still and one peed their pants. It keeps me on my toes. The first time I tried to be so elaborate and do all these cool things, but this time I learned to just be flexible and go with the flow. It turned out fine. And now I can rest for seven weeks. Whew! And Lukas will be in Sunbeams in January. I'm totally freaking out b/c he has such a hard time sitting still and following directions. Today at church they had to come get Pat (I was home with Max who has a cold) and they said Lukas didn't want to participate in Singing Time. I think I am going to struggle with him. I feel bad for his teacher. What should I do? And he is STILL not potty trained. Although he tells people that he is and that he wears underwear. The poor kid is living in denial. I think I've tried everything (prizes, the potty watch, bribery, money, candy, toys) and he is just not into it. He'll do it once and then he thinks that's it. Any moms out there that have tips or advice, I'm all ears.
Finally! Here are the pictures of our trip to Albany (where my sister lives). We did so many fun things in Cali! We went to the zoo, rode on the Bart to get downtown, played at fun parks, went shopping, jelly belly factory, went to see the lights at the Oakland temple, visited an old hotel where my Grandpa Dixon proposed to my Grandma, saw every color of house you could imagine and just spent quality time with my sister and her family! Mindy is the best hostess...we loved staying with her. Thanksgiving dinner was amazing! As was every meal that she made. Lukas and Karsten fought the entire time, and now Lukas asks "Where's Karsten?" every day. If you notice, there are no pictures of them together... How sad! They are three months apart, and I'm sure as we give it time, they'll be best buddies. I was so sad to leave. I love the time that I have with Mindy and can't wait until we can do it again!
