Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Kids are hilleriouse

Just yesterday Jim's family and us decided to go have a dinner a show at Mayan restorant. Some of Jim's family have never been there before. We had a wonderful time together enjoying the food and Divers. Kids were so excited about the show that it made it easy for them to sit and eat and watch it. Tasia was thrilled to see such a thing, she kept saying when i grow up I am going to dive too.

It is interesting to see how impressionable kids are, they think of the things they saw even durig privet moments of their life.
On one of the potty brakes (I am sorry for being graphic but it is the part of the story) right after she dropped a log she said : " My Poop splashes just like divers". And if you think of it it does.






Cousin Marissa and Tasia after being splashed by the divers



AJ is stuffing everything at once as usual.



Next time we saw divers we really had to have a picture of them and Tasia. If they would have only knew...
For me though every time i saw them I kept thinking of a splash that Tasia was talking about:)









Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Our Little princess is growing up!!!


My little girl is growing up. I love seeing her learn and do new things but I have a hard time letting go of the baby she ones was. On her birthday we did lot's of girly things that I love doing with Tasia: Hair, Tea Parties, Backing cupcakes and decorating them. Poor Little AJ had a hard time with the switch of attention, he did not like that a bit. In fact he really loved it when Daddy came home and he was his favorite parent that day.







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Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas is Here!!!

Merry Christmas to Everyone, what a wonderful time of the year to reflect on the Event of the Birth of Our Savior. We are so blessed to have such a loving Heavenly Father that provided everything we need for us to come back to Him- His Love, Mercy and His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ! I feel the love of Him as I think more of the Birth of Christ at this time of the year.

Our Family had a wonderful Christmas as we welcomes loved ones in our home.

Grand-ma and Grand-pa Linfields came to visit last Friday. What a joy we had spending some time with them and catching up.









On Christmas Eve we had a lot of things to do, our Traditions, and preparations for the big Day!
We had a wonderful dinner cooked by Jim ( I love it when he cooks, and he doe s a great job). I couldn't wait for a taste of French appetizers, baguette and brie. I think I filled up just munching on those one of my favorite things. Then e had mashed potatoes and ham.

As ususally we read the Nativity story and play it out with nativity peices. It went well for about 2 minutes, then AJ got frustrated that Tasia was not letting him play out his own story and they both started throwing the nativity pieces thought the house. That ended that attempt by putting AJ to bed. Then we decided to show Tasia a part in the movie "Nativity Story" when Jesus was born and the wise men and shepherds came to visit.
This part of Christmas Eve went better then the previous one:)

In the morning Tasia woke up as usual, walked to bed and just wanted to continue sleeping. Poor girl thought Sanata did not bring her percents, because she did not find them under her tree. Little did she know that Santa uses the big Family tree to leave the percents under, well and after you all know what happens....





Barbie Furniture from G-ma Lidiya



When AJ woke up and saw Tasia's pink guitar,



all he wanted to do is to string it nonstop. But when Daddy helped AJ open his hew remote controlled Car, he did let go of a guitar for a moment.




At about 9 am we had Jim's Parents and sister for Breakfast.(Jim cooked again, I am so blessed with such a helping husband). It is always a great "treat" for Tasia and AJ to have G-ma and G-pa come over.Tasia usually goes Bananas, trying to entertain grandps and AJ absolutely adores Grandpa Steeve. He does not let go of him even for a minute.


The One person that we did not get to see this Christmas was my Mom. I feel sad that she lives so far away, but the thoughts of her being here for the summer worm my heart and make me feel a LOT better. We Miss you Mom and can't wait to see you here with us for the summer.

And the Winner is...



Heather Warensky!!! Congratulations and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Our Little Vacation!!!

I had a cancellation on a photo shoot, so have some extra time, which I am very grateful for, so I decided to do a Las Vegas Post.


Jim and I have a hard time celebrating our anniversary in August, so we always do something extra in the winter to make up for that. This year we got tickets to go to a "Let's Make a Deal" in Las Vegas,



so we decided that we will leave the kids and have a little brake just the two of us. It was a BIG FIRST Getaway without our children. I always hesitated, but now I know how fun it is to feel FREE, just for a couple of days, and we definitely loved it.
I misses my baby the first day, but it got easier and easier to be without him when the time passed.



it was fun to see all the climate changes as we approached Nevada. Snow slowly dissapeared. The sun was higher up in the sky and a lot brighter.
It was shocking to turn on our air conditioning in the middle of December, but we surely enjoyed coat free weather of about 70 F.








While driving Jim and I listened to a Great Book on Parenting called : "Scream Free Parenting". I always feel that getaways produce better parents and this one definitely provided time for us to learn and reevaluate our parenting techniques.


We also enjoyed a beautiful scenic drive through Arizona and Nevada.




It was exciting to see the big city and stay for a week-end but we would never live there.




We checked into a MGM Grand, which ended up to be better then we thought














We were lucky to be in Vegas that week-end, they had the cheapest prices of the year and great discounts on expensive food.





Then he had reservations at a brand new Fancy Restraint "Sage" where we spent $150 on a dinner. Good thing $100 was a gift from the hotel. The food was delicious, small but delicious. I thought Jim was going to be starving after the dinner and that we would have to go feed him at Arbeys, but, apparently the food was filling nevertheless.


After the dinner we went to Las Vegas Temple. It is just Gorgeous from inside and out. We barely made it for a last session, and not like in Utah, there was only 5 of us there. I have never seen last Friday night session be so empty in Utah, people is Vegas must be early temple goers, not last minute like we are here.

On the way to the temple you see all kinds of billboards, but I was proud of some people who are crying out from the majority of the Sin City











Next day was our show day. We went to get a spot at 8 am and waited for about 5 hours to get to the show, it was long, but fun to see different people dressed up as bunnies, cupcakes, bees and what not.

We made it twice to the show, unfortunately we did not win anything. But we were SO close. The guys who was sitting next to us, dressed as a popcorn won a Car, Bummer, but, we figured if we would have won it, we would have to sell both of our cars just to pay taxes on a $20.000 car, so we are good with what we have got.


After all day of show we finally made it to a Buffet. MMMM... it was good. When a relaxing last night without kids.

I left my camera in the car a couple of times when I wanted to take more pics. So some of these were just taken on our way out. I thought the Christmas decor was beautiful. These guys were on the way, but you the the picture.






Some photos from our drive back.



I loved seing the contrast of the big city of Las Vegas and quiet rural areas just 30 min away in Arizona. All the of the pictures I took were from the car. Jim is not one of those who will stop for taking pictures. I had a BIG talk to him about it. I think he will think twice from now on to say NO, when his wife the photographer wants top stop for some shots, right babe?







I don't know if you know but I am a Vacation Freak, I LOVE going places, seeing new things. Just as we were leaving I told Jim that next time we need to go to New Caledonia, California, Zion's Park and Disney Land.
he was a little overwhelmed with the plans but I want to go see all these places. I guess we have to pick and choose ...


Tasia and AJ enjoyed their stay at Grandma's house. This is what Tasia and Grandma made while we were away.


Thursday, December 17, 2009

Merry Christmas!!!

Couple of days ago I had a busy day of taking care of kids, shopping for Christmas, running around from one store to another looking for the best deal. I felt like I had too much to do, Life is too crazy and that i never have enough time to do anything!

I came home exhasted, made some dinner, worked on the computer and at the end of the night my husband and I decided to watch "Nativity Story" to finish up our day. After thinking more of the simplicity of the Savior's birth, of the miracle that is was I started realizing that I need to teach my children that Christmas is a season for service. A season of giving the things we need (Spiritual Gifts) the gifts that help us remember Him and His Birth.


Merry Christmas!!!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

It is almost Christmas

And finally there is snow on the ground. I am so excited. I love doing Photography in the snow. It is my favorite. I love when the subject that I am photographing is wearing bright colors on the white background... it is the best. I can't wait for more white, soft, crystallized water and as soon as it comes I will be outside my house making my kids look at me and do all sorts of crazy stuff with them.


it was BRRRRR freezing today, but as long as I played " I am gonna get ya " with my daughter she forgot about how cold it was.






















































Fun with cousins


A week ago for Grandma's Birthday, kids had a lot of fun. Tasia and Sierra usually make it fun for all of us. This time older cousin Marissa joined in the fun. AJ was a part of the group as well.















My personal Favorite, my boy has a cute bum...






What happened to the Care Bear

Last Friday I was getting ready for the Ward Christmas Party, I was on the phone all day long, kids were being on their worst behavior (isn't it ironic that they have to do it at the most stressful times) then after AJ fell asleep it was quiet for a while and I decided it would be wise to find what Tasia was up to. Good thing it was not anything bad, but this...




well and ofcorse all the bandaid paper everywhere. I asked Tasia "What happened to your Care bare?" She siad : " it had awees". Then I thought that that is how Tasia reflected on her burn that she got on her finger.


P.S. Panties and a swim diaper represent swimming suit, apparently:)

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Jungle Jims

We have been waiting for this week-end for a while. It was so nice to have 4 day off. We got a lot done. And Had a lot of fun with the family at Jungle Jim's. Tasia had tons of fun on the swings and cars. Aj on the other hand had enough after a couple of rounds.