Christmas Day

Christmas day was so much fun. We started the morning opening presents with the Godfrey's. Jack had the time of his life opening presents and playing with new toys.

Santa left coal in Sean's stocking...well charcoal.

Ava, Amy, and Jon Christmas morning

Sean, Jack, Sarah Christmas morning

Kirk and Callie

Megan and Justin at the Martin Family Lunch

Jack playing with his new remote control car

Grandpa Martin and Andrew

After spending the afternoon opening presents and eating lunch with the Martin's, we had a little more family time with the Flander's, Sean's extended family. It was a great day!!!

Christmas Eve

This year we spent Christmas Eve with the Godfrey's. Shopping, eating, playing games, it was fun to be together.

Jack and Sean playing with a puppet.

Dad reading the Christmas Story

Jack trying to be quiet while grandpa reads the story.

Jon, Amy and Ava

Sugar Cookies

Making sugar cookies for Christmas has been a tradition since before I can remember. So my mom and I spent an afternoon making my favorite cookies. It is always sad when the cookies are gone.

Family Party

We decided to have a little get together right before Chirstmas since we all could not be together on Chirstmas day. We exchanged a few presents and had some yummy food. Fun times!!

Mom, Jack and Sean

Grandma and Grandpa Christensen

Melissa and her new cookie jar (from me!)

My new quilt that Melissa made for me!!

Little Ava

Jon stuck doing dishes, everyone loved the apron!!

Gingerbread Houses

Lights at Temple Square

Jack LOVED going to see the lights!! He just kept saying wow over and over again. He ran from one tree to the next. Then when he discovered the water features we had a hard time keeping him out of the water.

Playing in the Snow

When the snow started falling Jack sat and watched from the window. I could see how much he wanted to go out and play in it so I decided to bundle him up as best as I could and let him at it. Since his first encounter I have purchased winter wear for him.

Knee deep in fluff

Ahhh

Trying to catch the snow

Helping dad shovel

Godfrey Family Christmas Party

Our annual Godfrey Family Christmas Party this year included a visit from Santa Claus!! The little ones were so surprised and excited. Jack is still a little confused about Santa but he was excited to receive a little present.

T.J., Cannon, Jack and Maddie

Grandpa

Jack feeding me a roll.

Some of the family

Jack's 2nd Birthday

Jack turned 2 years of age today. Here are some fun pictures that we took of the small gathering we had.
If Jack's blowing out a candle would be talking, it would be considered a whisper. Look at the delicious little cakes that Sarah created!
Fortunately/Unfortunately Jack is a very cautious and well mannered eater. We were hoping to get some good pictures of his face completely covered in frosting but instead you get to see a dainty bite and the "blue plate special" plate.
Sarah gave Jack a box of cars for his birthday. He was so excited to receive them that as soon as the wrapping paper was off and he could see the cars in the box he repeatedly said,"Uh Oh!" Then ran to Uncle Justin to have him rip open the box. Jack was sad that the cars were trapped. They need to be free.
Last present of the night, I had blown up (manually) 50 or so balloons. On the count of 3 we dumped them on Jack and watched his reaction. Laughing, jumping, throwing, hitting. He can't ever get enough balloons in his life.
Overall the party was a huge success. Sarah did a wonderful job planning and executing to make sure that our little boy doesn't have to share his birthday with Christmas.

Paying a babysitter

I won tickets to the Christmas with the Choir performance at the Conference Center. I say won because the way they choose the recipients is through a lottery. Getting tickets is a hard thing to do, when you don't have any connections. So I was thrilled when we found out that we got four tickets for the Thursday performance. My parents came with us, so that left Grandma and Grandpa Martin as the option for babysitters. When we found out that they had other plans we were stumped. We have never had a non-relative for a babysitter in the two years that Jack has been around. I felt so grown up calling my neighbor to see if her 13 year old daughter could babysit. She agreed to the hours and everything was set. I spent all day preparing everything I could think of. Distractions for when Jack freaks out because he realized he was with a stranger, special treats like popcorn to make this a fun night for him to. When the babysitter arrived I went over all of the things she needed to do with Jack, bedtime, sippy cups, where his binky's are, how he wants his blankets when he sleeps. She also requested quite excitedly the use of our theater, so I gave her a crash course in the workings of that. Finally I had said my all. So I left. Got in the car with my parents and we went to meet Sean downtown. When the first half an hour went by with out a call I started to relax. Then when the concert started I was actual able to pay attention and enjoy myself. The concert was a lot of fun. Edward Herrman (the grandpa on Gillmore Girls) was my favorite part, he recited a Christmas story as well as the verses from Luke 2. It was great. Then as we left and started to trek back to the car, we bumped into a relative who invited us into his house for few minutes. Finally 4 hours after we left, we arrived back home. We could see the glow from the projector outside, so I knew that things couldn't be that bad if she got it work ok. When we came in the first thing she said was, "he didn't cry." To which I responded "at all?" Slightly sad that my little guy didn't even notice I had left, I kept asking questions. Did he go to sleep ok? Yes. Etc..... So all in all it was a successful evening. Jack had fun, we had fun, plus now I know that I can call her to come over anytime. The only downside is that we have to actual pay her.

Yummy Desserts

Today I made some yummy cookies to share with the Miller's, who were coming over for dinner. I got the recipe during Food Networks 12 Days of Christmas Cookies. I thought that they looked absolutely delicious, so I gave it a try. They are Giada's Peppermint Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, and yes they were worth it. Although I made one change (in case you decide to make them) instead of chunks of candy canes on top, I used chunks of candy cane Kisses, much softer.

This conversation happened right before I took the picture below.

Jack: Cooie (Cookie)
With lots of jumping up and down and pushing mommy, plus a little whining

Mom: No, not 'til you have had dinner.

I made these black and white cupcakes for Lucy's blessing. I was so happy that they turned out exactly like the ones I saw on TV. I made them from scratch and would have been so mad if they didn't work. I didn't get to try one, but Sean said they were a little dry. Probably because I forgot to put them in an airtight container overnight. Oh well, there is always next time.

If you would like either of the recipes let me know and I can direct you to the websites.

Two Baby Blessings in One Day

Two sacrament meetings in one day does not sound like such a task, but throw in a (soon to be) two-year old and it makes for an interesting day. Our good friends the Hale's were blessing little Lucy in the morning and my brother was blessing baby Ava in the afternoon. Both blessings were wonderful, and the babies both behaved beautifully. It was a fun day! My only regret is that with all of the people there I didn't get to hold either one!

Lucy Kate Hale

Ava Mae Godfrey
(she was very sleepy)

Andrew turns 1

In celebration of Andrew's first birthday we all got together to eat some yummy food and a huge ding dong. Jack and Andrew devoured the frosting and had fun tearing the wrapping paper off the presents.

Where do they learn this stuff....

Yesterday Jack turned Sean's new tripod into a microphone. He walked around the house talking into it. So I decided to grab the camera and catch a small amount of footage. It is short because I had to be sneaky and film when Jack wasn't paying attention. So the second he sees me filming he walks away. :(

Then of course it made it into the crib for nap time.

Jack & I

It was just Jack and I tonight. (Sarah went to the rec center to get hit on by high school boys, and test out the treadmills). Jack is such an active little man that we have a calming routine at night. The last activity we do before the calming is reading scriptures and family prayer. Jack interprets this time as terrible-two-tantrum-time. After that we let him pick a movie, he then crawls up into his chair with his blanket and waits for his milk. He is so calm and serene when watching movies that I decided to test the new camera a little more. (New camera story for another day). Here is my favorite photo of the night. After 15 minutes of the movie, it's a kiss goodnight and off to bed he goes.