Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was pretty laid back, except for the fact that that is when I started wrapping presents! I made the yummy Cafe Rio salad for dinner and we played with the kids for the evening.
Dan had Lynden smiling up a storm, but of course when the red light on the camera went on she stopped!
Love, Love, Love my family!
Love my Joe bo bear!
Here we are in our Christmas jammies. Joe was such a good sport, maybe next year I won't let him pick out his presents so that he might be surprised!
All of us in our Christmas jammies ready for Santa to come!
We did have a Santa sighting, it was so fun! Uncle Dan and Joe were running through the house under tables and over sofas. We could hear Santa saying HO HO HO and Joe was getting so excited and he and Uncle Dan would go around with the flashlight trying to get a better look. Joe knew that if Santa saw that he was still awake he might skip Grandpa and Grandma's house. It got us all so excited for the morning to come, thanks Uncle Dan for getting the party started!

Pre Christmas!

Joe, Lynden and I drove to Valencia December 19th and surprised everyone. Chelsea and Ben knew but my mom, dad, JK and Ben were shocked! Before Christmas we watched a lot of movies...Hung out with the family...Chelsea made a delicious meal for the whole family on Sunday. I was extremely proud of her. Here we are...Joe, Grandma, Grace, me, Lynden (I promise she is enjoying tummy time), Chels, Maddie, Emily, Sammy, Max.
Lynden got to meet Grace for the first time, who was wonderful at keeping her asleep
Maddie for the first time who helped a ton with the belly ache, I'm officially off chocolate!
Lynden got tons of kisses from everyone and lots of bouncing from Aunt Chels who now has the buffest biceps because of this girl!
Here are the guys minus my poor hubby who had to work a little bit longer. Joe LOVES being the center of attention, especially if Chelsea is the one who is giving the attention. (Notice how he is right in front of her husband)
I asked Joe a couple of days ago for a side kiss, he replied, "I only give my Chelsea side kisses, not you." And that was it, quite frankly put his mom in her place!
He loved every minute with her. Why wouldn't he? She NEVER says NO! And she offers a great place to hide when mom is coming.
Uncle Ben and Aunt Chelsea took 415 pictures over the 2 weeks. Joe was in about 395 of them and thinks he is quite the model so you have been warned that this might be a Joe overloaded holiday!
Joe and Max showing off their big muscles. Joe was completely dressed when everyone got there and little by little he took off everything and influenced Max to do the exact same.
There was a lot of tennis playing this trip. Thanks everyone for playing with Joe also and making him feel like a big kid!
The group after the first day of playing. I forget who won, but I love that my sister has a classy, elegant way of dressing and has her husband dress that way too! She and my dad love the white on white for tennis.
Hey, guys why do I have to stay outside the white lines?
I guess I will be patient (for 2 seconds) and wait my turn.
Now Uncle Ben took Joe over to play in the pool area and take a few dozen pictures of him...Uncle Ben it looks like everyone is going inside
I guess I can smile without looking at the camera if that means I can follow Chelsea
Uncle Ben, Chelsea is leaving me...
OK one look at the camera, are we done yet?
Uncle Ben can be pretty hilarious
OK, OK, I know I'm cute one last picture and I'm going to Aunt Chelsea!
We had fun right before Christmas and I would have to say my favorite memory is going to look at Christmas lights with the family. In my dad's Aspen we piled, dad and mom in the front, Dan, Ben, JK and Ben in the middle, and Chelsea, Joe, Lynden, me and some girl Ben Tyler invited in the back. Yes, I'm a bad mom no carseats for the quick drive around but I wanted everyone to be able to enjoy it together. My brother, Dan, is always funny, but he was on one that night! I couldn't stop laughing. We were singing Christmas songs together, love songs, and trying to embarrass Ben which he surprisingly reacted really well too. We went to Golden Spoon and drove around aimlessly trying to look at lights. The best house we saw was the Cannon's and that was the 1st house we saw and we should have stopped there, but it was a great night that I'm sure Steve was glad he missed out on!

Some December happenings

Early in the month we went to see the Mesa Temple lights with Jess, Jason, Kiera, Dorian and some of their friends. They were BEAUTIFUL! Although when we went up to the manger and were explaining to Joe about baby Jesus, he looked at us and seriously said, "This is a little bit weird." I'm obviously lacking in the mother department. Whenever we talk about Jesus I haven't really differentiated between baby Jesus and grown up Jesus. It was a cute not rude statement though and opened my eyes to know how specific I need to be.
Joe at the temple doors asking if he could go meet Jesus (the grown up one)
These camels and wisemen were so cool! Here is how simple it is to get Joe to look at a camera these days :)
He found something he loved, A TUNNEL, but still no looking at the camera. Thanks guys for the fun night of Cafe Rio, temple lights, and ice cream!
We also went to the train park to see those lights also with our friends the Mishlers. They go all out for Christmas. We went the night after the lights went on and it was so crowded so we went back on a weeknight and got to ride it twice.
Here is Joe ignoring the camera again
I bribed him with treats to get this smile by the enormous Christmas tree. I love our little family!
I walked in one day and Joe is strumming Steve's golf club like a guitar. Normally he knows not to touch dad's golf clubs, but I guess he thought that since he wasn't swinging them this would be ok. He has on a hat that Grandma Bev gave him from Disneyland that he has grown out of, hence, the slick backed hair. He is such a cutie and this is a normal attire for the day, but the shirt is a bonus because usually it's just underwear. Love you buddy!
Here is our little princess just being mellow. She is a pretty good baby. She loves to smile, especially at Joe. She can scream though, usually when I'm getting her dressed. She loves her bouncy chair, being rocked, watching me make dinner, and watching anything Joe is doing. Maybe soon he will be more interested in her :)

Lynden Sue's blessing

Lynden Sue was blessed November 29, 2009 in Steve's parents ward in St George. I love her little shoes because they were my blessing shoes and she got to wear them also
I am too lazy to change the order of the pictures so here is the last picture of the day...no more blessing outfit or headband :) Me and my cute friend Kathryn...Luckily for me she is married to Steve's friend Jake so I get to hang out with her, rarely, but she is a sassy person just like me so I love it when we get to hang out.
Daddy and his princess, love how sexy he looks in this picture!
Grandpa Joe & Grandma Sue...one last picture before the long drive home
Grandpa Steve & Grandma Bev with their 1st granddaughter
Uncle Bruce, Aunt Susan, Carly, Savannah, Harrison and us
Lynden's wonderful grandmas
My cousin Jess was in town to visit her in laws for Thanksgiving and she helped fill the void of my sista sista who was in Washington with her in laws
I didn't want anyone to move Lynden so I could eat and she could get a good nap so if anyone wanted a picture they had to bend to her! Yeah, I'm a little crazy but I was hungry and I actually think Bev didn't want to wake her up either!
Our little 3 generation picture with the princess waking up
The Jurca family that was able to come
Jason, Jess, Kiera, and Dorian and my family
My family minus Chelsea and Ben
Our family (notice Joe with a bag of Skittles to look at the camera)
Running outside to get to church on time
Me and my girl
All ready and sleeping in her dress
Since my sister couldn't be at the blessing I had her help pick out Lynden's dress. I absolutely LOVE it! The place only had a size 9 month left and I knew I could find something else but I had my heart set on this one and had to have it. Lynden was excellent for the blessing. I guess she was just looking around at everyone in the circle. My husband gave a very sweet heartfelt blessing and we were so lucky to have family in town to be in her circle. Every 5th Sunday in Steve's home ward the parents that have missionaries out give a report on how they are doing. Steve got to give the report on how Mike was doing. I was very impressed. He said the sweetest things about his little brother and I know Mike would have been proud. Steve & Bev made a yummy lunch afterward. It was really nice and overall it was a very great day for our family! Thanks to everyone who came! I am so thankful to have a husband who honors his Priesthood!