Cooking Companion

I have great little helpers whenever it's time to start cooking. Hunter loves to help but usually he's too busy playing. Kora on the other hand is always the first one to move her little stool over to help me cook. A few months ago I made her a little apron that she just loves to put on. She is always so excited to help me in any way she can. I have to often find little things for her to do so she doesn't get burned or hurt. Her favorite thing to do is stir or mix. I have a feeling she'll be quite the cook when she's old enough to do it on her own. It always amazes me how intently she watches me and asks me what I'm doing and why.

Mylie is just itching to help out too but she is still too little to help just yet. She'll get upset when she sees her big sister helping and she can't. I try to let her help me in other ways. She is my best little helper when it comes time to put things in the dishwasher away. The spoons and forks may just be thrown in the drawer but she is proud and happy when she can help. She also loves to help me wrap up my vaccum cord. That has become her permanent job. If her brother or sister offers to take over she wont hesitate to put them in their place. My next little project is to make aprons for my other 2 little helpers. I love that they love to help out.

A Little Snack

Last Sunday, right before they started passing the sacrament, Hunter came and sat on my lap and announces "It's time for the snack now!" I guess I never realized that the passing of the bread and water would be viewed to a child as a snack. I had to then try to explain to him what it all meant. I am not sure if he fully understood but hopefully he realizes it's not "just" a snack. It did however put a smile on my face regardless.

Hippopotamus

Hunter and Kora have found a new fascination in Hippos. I guess this isn't too new because they first became interested when we went to Disneyland back in August after riding on the Jungle Cruise. Hunter was scared of the hippos when they came out of the water wiggling their ears. He was also impressed at how large they were. Now, whenever something is big he calls it "Hippo-ca-ma-mus". Kora has now adopted the term but pronounces hers as "Hippo-ca-ta-mus". I find it funny that each child pronounces it differently. After we got a Christmas Tree last month, Hunter told me we got a "Hippo-ca-ma-mus tree". Kora also told me that we don't have a little dog, we have a "Hippo-ca-ta-mus dog".

A New Year!

The month of December has flown by. With many intentions of posting on our blog, things were just too crazy to sit down and type. As a result we have what has become a standard catch-up post to summarize the last month.

Something I also meant to do for the month of December was make Christmas cards. The photo above was the picture I meant to use. My goal #1 for 2010 is make my Christmas cards early this year so all we have to do is address them and mail them.

December was actually pretty eventful. Earlier in the month my brother and his wife asked us if we wanted to go to Mission Inn to see Christmas lights. We had never been there before so we thought we would check it out. The lights were beautiful and it was a fun evening.

2 Days before Christmas we found out that Kelly's sister, Jodie and her family were down for a little over a week. We spent a fabulous Christmas Eve at Kelly's parents house visiting with his parents, grandfather and the Hendricks and enjoying each others company. The kids had a great time with their cousins. Hunter's highlight was tracking Santa's progress as he delivered presents. There is a site online that shows exactly where he is delivering presents and how soon he'll be in your area. All day Hunter had to drag someone over to the computer to show us that he has moved along. Very cute!

Christmas was a fun day. Santa had made his famous visit. Kora helped me make cookies the day before and it took some convincing that only 3 cookies were meant to be for Santa. For some reason Kora insisted the entire batch was for him. Hunter got a stern scolding from Kora after he tried to swipe one of "Santa's" cookies. On Christmas Day We went over to Papa Spuds house to spend time with him. He was all alone for Christmas and we thought a visit from the kids would cheer him up. After the visit we headed home and my family came over to spend Christmas with us. It was a fun day with family, good food and games.

When the Hendricks come in to town we plan a date night sans kids. This has been the 2nd year we have done this and as always we had a great time. One of Kelly's old friends happened to be in town with his girlfriend and they came along as well. We went out to dinner and spend about 2 hours just talking and reminiscing....I did more listening than reminiscing...but I enjoyed the stories.

For New Years we drove on up to Arizona to spend 2 nights with Kelly's Brother and family. We had such a great time we ended up spending a third day. Going up to AZ New Years weekend has become a tradition of ours for the past 3 years. We always have such a great time and really enjoy their company and wish we didn't live so far apart. On the right the kids are in their swim suits getting ready to leave for the heated pool. Yes, a heated pool. It was wonderful. If only all pools were heated in the winter time I think they would get more use.

We saw our newest little niece for the 2nd time and boy is she beautiful. We can't wait to see them again. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family and are excited to see what the new year will bring. Goal #2 for 2010, keep up on our blog. Happy New Year to all!