Our kids in early December 2011

December came so quickly this year.  Where did it come from? (And where did it go?)  Maybe part of my lack of keeping up with my blogging has been that I spend a little too much time in a certain room of our house.  Here’s a picture to illustrate my point:

 

We are totally not at the point of trained or close but she will randomly announce she needs to “go, go, go” and then run into the bathroom and go.  It’s not at all consistent but along with all this has been a surge in “Strip wars” where Vivian strips down to nothing and I have to chase her around to get dressed and then she’s undressed shortly after I dress her again.  I’ve been surprised by the agility in which she can slip out of her clothes.  I’ve found that the best way to get her to stop is to let her run around in the buff for a while and just ignore her until she starts trying to get dressed again…at least in boots.  Luckily it has been cold on and off here which has kept the clothes on more frequently as of late.

Another thing that has changed in our house this month is that because my parents brought my grandma’s television from Utah, we put our old TV in our room.  Now our kids favorite place to be is in our bed watching TV. 

Vivian has learned how to operate the DVD player so one thing I have to monitor is how often she turns on movies she’s decided she wants to watch…we’ve have a lot of tantrums because of this TV thing.  The sad thing is, when she chews me out in her own little “language”  it’s so cute and feisty looking that I usually end up laughing so I have to leave the room laughing as quietly as I can while she’s throwing a fit.

One evening in December, we met up with our friends Claudia and Burke and their little boy Greyson and went to dinner at Café Rio (where a bunch of our previous ward’s members magically showed up at too) and then went to the Mesa Temple to look at lights.

Vivian LOVED holding Greyson’s hand and kept saying “baby” the funny thing is that he’s her same size and 11-months younger than her. 

Doesn’t he just have the best smile?!

Here’s a photo of Claudia and I that Jared took while we were looking at Burke taking a picture of us.

This is a random photo of Jared with the kids on their way to bed after family prayers.  Both of our kids are always wanting to be held by the same parent.  If I’m cuddling Christian, Vivian thinks I should be holding her.  If Christian changes places and goes to cuddle Jared instead, Vivian screams and thinks Jared should be holding her.  It can be quiet annoying at times (unless I’m trying to get things done. )  It also makes me wonder what will ever happen if we had more kids…

This is a funny photo of Vivian’s first attempt and getting her clothes back on!  I was so excited that I had to take a photo…even if she resembles a fish a bit…at least it’s not a naked little mermaid! She was so proud I couldn’t have been happier.