Christmas Trip to Utah 2010

Ah ha! It is the 23rd of January.
I had a goal to blog about Christmas before January was over, and I did it!
It seemed so overwhelming, but I just sat down and the computer and powered through it in one go.
Way to go me.

That's one thing to check off the list.
Now, I have a whole list more.

I feel so crazy right now. I have been playing a serious game of catch up since I got back, and feel like I am losing big time. I just can't complete everything.

Whoo. Now that that is off my chest... He he. Sorry for the complaining.

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday. Despite what others may think of me, I am just going to say it loud and clear
I love spending Christmas in Utah with my family.
I simply wouldn't {couldn't} have it any other way.
I love seeing my parents spend time with their grandchildren.
Oh, how they love them. It would be a lonely Christmas for all of us without each other.
Nothing makes me happier than family.

So, enjoy the next 10 posts.
:)
(if you even bother reading them, it may take you a few days. Just sayin.)


And welcome back to real life, Hayley.

Sawyer Bean

Well before I even got to Utah, my sister asked me to babysit her little boy Sawyer.
(Wouldn't it be great if we could do that for each other all the time Beddy Sue?)
I was a bit nervous because sometimes handling my two is crazy enough...
But we did it. And we had a good time!
I even got him to nap. I am a miracle worker.
Brinks loves Sawyer and enjoyed tickling him very much.

The lighting was so good in the house that day, I couldn't help but snap some pictures of the kids.
Sawyer knows just what to do for the camera.
I also tried getting pictures of all three kids. That was just a joke. Not a good picture in the bunch. Oh well. They still made me smile when I was sorting through them. Some of them even made me laugh out loud.

Sawyer looks like "come on girls, just sit still for the camera like me. No more funny faces, you two."

Brinkley still adores her lion. She is putting him to sleep in this picture.
So, the night I was packing to come home, we couldn't find lion anywhere. Seriously.
My dad and I looked for probably two hours.
We checked all the little hiding places we could think of (by the marshmallows... hee hee). I even dug through the big black garbage can. Twice. Ewe, sick.
He was nowhere to be found.
I finally just came to the conclusion that he was a lost toy and we gave up.
Two days later, on the phone with my mom she informs me that she found him!
Not in a place that you would even think he would fit. In the room I sleep in, there is a cedar chest. On the very bottom of the cedar chest is a skinny two inch tall drawer. Lion was shoved in there. What?!? I would love to see inside Brinkley's head sometimes.
Lion is in the mail now, headed back to Pittsburgh snail mail.
Though, Brinkley has gotten by pretty good without him. She finally took to the spare lion we had (she got him for Christmas last year) and has been sleeping with him. But she doesn't absolutely need him either. She may have accidentally weaned herself from her lovey. I'm okay with that. Josh is kinda sad about it.

Oh, how I love these little girls. More than anything else in the whole world.

Grandma Becky and Jude

Josh's mom, Becky, took Brinks, Darcy, me and Jude to dinner.
She did twice actually. Once to Olive Garden (oh my delicious) and the other time to Red Robin (I should have gotten one of their chocolate shakes - oh the regrets).
It was so sweet of her to treat us so we could spend time together. Just the girls!

Brinkley and Judith love each other so much.
They are super cute together.
On the way home from the restaurant they would just look at each other and just start giggling.
Then they started yelping at each other. That's the best word I can think to describe it. Whatever it was, it was noisy and they loved every minute of it.
So fun to be with cousins. Wish it was all the time.
And they have something in common - their love of princesses.
Princess anything will do.

Layton Lights

So, this was fun.
My mom, who is always full of good ideas, had this plan to go to the Layton lights one night.
They pull you around on a hayride with their big trucks
(you don't see many big trucks in Pittsburgh).
So, we bundled up and took a tour of their lights.
It was really fun!
It probably only took 20 minutes, which is perfect for a cold 2 year old.
She would point and say "Christmas Lights! Look!"
And she recognized all the little displays.
"Santa!" "Dinosaur!" "Star!"
She was sad when it was over. She wanted more lights.
Darcy, who is the best baby on the planet, slept the whole time. Perfect.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is one of my most very favorite days of the year!
I love the anticipation of Christmas day.
We started the day off by going to Jason, Julie, Jude and Ian's house.
We had a yummy breakfast and then the kids opened their presents.
It was hard getting Brinkley to stop playing with Jude's toys to open gifts.
Why open gifts when there is already stuff to play with, right?
What a funny kid.

In the afternoon, we headed to the Barn.
Oh, how I love the barn.
And do you know what makes me so happy? That my kids love the barn as much as I do. The whole rest of our trip, Brinkley kept asking to go play in the barn.
"Barn, pweaaaassse?"
I can't tell you the joy that brings to my heart.
The barn is just so full of memories and tradition.
I love the Beazer family. I love the food we eat there. I love everything about it.
I will admit, it was tough going in there. It was my first time since my Gramps died over a year ago. And weird enough, the thing that made me cry was seeing his chair at the head of the table.
I missed him a lot. But we still had a great time.
My aunt Sandi, who always thinks of the best gifts in the world, made her mom, sisters and brother quilts made from Gramp's old clothes. Another interesting tidbit, Brinkley climbed right in the box with the blanket and cuddled right into it. She wanted to cuddle in that beautiful warm blanket all the time (when she wasn't running around like a little crazy person, that is).

Brinkley loves Santa Clause. She was still hesitant to sit on his lap, but she did it.
While we were in Utah, my mom would usually put Brinkley to bed (love it).
She read her "The Night Before Christmas" one night, and then they had to read it every single night. Even after Christmas.
She had the book memorized. She knows that Santa has a nose like a... 'cherry'
and a bowl full of... 'jelly'
So, in that light,
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good... 'night'

Christmas Day 2010

Christmas Day was nice. We did the usual.
Woke up, went through the stockings. Ate breakfast (pillsbury cherry turnovers and orange rolls - yum!)
Then we opened gifts.
We all spoiled the kiddos. It is just so much fun.
Brinkley was pretty into it it this year. Darcy liked the paper.
We got Brinks a princess castle and dress up clothes. She loves it.
It's totally tacky, but I couldn't help myself. It's just so cute to see her play in it and walk around in her plastic high heels.
We got Darcy a lovey (we're hoping it will be like Brinkley's lion, only we were more prepared this time and got two right off the bat). We also got her a little boom box (that sounds so 80's). She loves music, so I'm going to upload the primary children songs onto it... one of these days.

My family went to my Aunt Sandi's for Christmas dinner and we headed over to Josh's family party (and I didn't get pictures. I think that is 2 years in a row. What's wrong with me?)
It was a pretty laid back day. Kind of nice after such a busy week.

Darcy's Blessing

Darcy was blessed on December 26th, 2010
(the best birthday present ever!)

Her father blessed her and in the circle was my dad, Steven Johnson, Josh's dad, Paul McBride, our grandfathers, Richard Johnson and John Irwin, and Becky's husband, Rocky Johnson.

Josh gave her a beautiful blessing. And she looked so so pretty.
Actually, as I was going through the pictures, Brinkley came up to the computer and said "Darcy Pretty. Pretty dress!"
Oh, and then she threw a tantrum because she wanted to wear the pretty dress. But that is besides the point.

I couldn't decide what pictures to choose. So, I just chose like a thousand of my favorites.

She quite enjoyed wearing her dress. It may need to be dry cleaned or something, because it's absolutely covered in baby drool.

26 on the 26th

I would usually skip posting about my birthday, but it was cool.
I turned 26 on the 26th!
I believe that is called your golden birthday. At least in my family it is.
My birthday was on a Sunday, so we couldn't do what I always want to do (shop and eat) but we did that on Monday instead. I got to celebrate my birthday twice people. Lucky me.
I got spoiled, of course.

And on Monday we at Chinese. NOT my typical birthday dinner. I don't usually like Chinese food, but I have been craving it since I was pregnant. So, we went and ate us some Chinese.
And I liked it.
We even played "in bed" with our fortune cookies. Ha!

Here's everyone eating Chinese on my {second day} birthday:

Oh, and here's the birthday girl!

Welcome 2011!

For New Year's Eve, we celebrated by doing our annual bowling at the Syracuse City Family Fun Center!
I am LOVING this new tradition.
It's loud and fun and everyone loves it.
Even when you bowl like crap.
At least I do.

I didn't even look at my ending score. Though I'm fairly positive it was somewhere in the low fifties. Ah well. If I don't remember, no one else does either, right?

I don't know what it is about bowling. I love it. Even though I can't bowl worth beans.
I love the shoes. I love finding the one 9 pound ball in the whole place. I love watching my mom and dad make strikes the whole time. I love watching Brinkley dance around and letting her push the ball down the lane on my turn (cause let's face it, she can only help my score go up!). I even love being terrible, it's just part of the fun for me. I wouldn't know how to respond if I suddenly got good at bowling. It might ruin the tradition, so we'll just leave it as it is.

It was a great way to ring in the new year... At 8:00 p.m.
We've got kids, come on!

Everyone else went to bed, but Josh and I did actually stay up until 1:00 a.m. on New Years. We even kissed at midnight, we had to put the Wii on pause to do it, but we did kiss.
Happy New Year.

Tim Tam Slams

Josh and I love us a Tim Tam Slam.
A friend of ours from Pittsburgh introduced us back in October.
(We will love you forever Aaron)

We think we will make a tradition of these delectable treats to enjoy every holiday season in the many years to come. Forget dieting. Enjoy a Tim Tam Slam instead!

Here's how it goes.
You buy Tim Tam cookies.
They are seasonal only and not every store sells them. Tricky huh? I found them at Target, and who doesn't love going there, right?
Make up a nice hot batch of hot chocolate.
Put the cocoa in a cup that is wide enough at the top that you can stick your face down in it.
Also, make sure the cocoa fills the cup up, otherwise it's tough to drink your hot chocolate.
Bite off a corner of your Tim Tam.
Bite off the opposite corner on the other end.
Now, stick your Tim Tam in your chocolate and use it like a straw to suck up the cocoa.
It will start to melt your cookie.
That's when you eat the cookie. All gooey and melted and insanely delicious.
It is a mess.
And it is fun.

This is how it looks when you pose:

This is how it really looks:

Don't let them embarrassment of shoving your face into a cup stop you from trying this. I'm serious. It is one of the best things I have ever eaten/drank. Two cookies is plenty to make you feel like you're going to die from a sugar overload.

6 Months

This is definitely outdated, because Darcy is a good 7+ months now, but I will update you on her 6 month milestones.

Weight: 16 lbs

At about 6 months, she started going up into a plank position - you know - on her hands and toes. :)
Pretty impressive.
She really started liking little baby toys.
She babbles a lot. She loves to say "ba ba ba"
Santa gave her a giraffe for Christmas, so she has started taking to that.

And since that time, Darcy has started crawling, and is sitting up pretty well.
She loves putting anything and everything in her mouth (including a stink bug the other day - gross!).
And she is now eating baby food at dinnertime with us (she loves green stuff- peas and green beans).
She loves Brinkley and giggles at her a lot.
She just started pulling herself up to things (one of my least favorite stages).
She backtracked in her sleeping and now wakes up two or three times a night. Ahhhh! What a Nightmare! We even tried crying it out. She cried every night for two weeks. TWO WEEKS.
We thought that was inconsiderate to the neighbors, so we have given up and will try again in a little while. Hopefully it works.
Otherwise, she is a happy baby, with a calm disposition that looks just like Brinkley did at this age.
She still likes to be held, but her new ability to get around keeps her entertained for longer periods of time.