Cats

Sunny is somewhat obsessed with cats--all cats are of great interest to her, but especially our cat Hermione. She and Hermione have a special relationship--they talk all the time. I mean, like, they meow to each other. And Sunny is very thoughtful--she always translates the conversation for us--like, whether we want to hear about it or not. She also talks to other neighborhood cats. When asked at school to write an essay on her hero, she wrote it about Hermione. When we spent a few days during the Christmas season recording some of our "tender mercies" from Heavenly Father in a family journal, Sunny wrote 3 out of 4 times about Hermione.

Yep, I'd say she's a little obsessed.
And tonight was the topper.

She was having a hard time going to sleep so she stayed up with me for a little while talking, but she seemed much more interested in "talking" to our cat outside and translating for me. Well, when she finally went to bed she was walking into her room and she started to randomly meow at me. I was pretty taken aback and asked, "Sunny, what are you doing? Hermione is outside and can't even hear you."
"Oh, sorry Mom, " she responded, "it's just an instinct."
Should I be worried?

Christmas Goodies

This year we enjoyed lots of goody making before Christmas.  First we went to a gingerbread house party at Jack’s uncle’s house the Thurbers.  Lots of fun, games, food, kids, and family!

  

Then we made some of our own goodies for our neighbors.  Jennie, I tried some of your recipes from your cookie party and sooooooo many people have asked for the recipe for the caramel puff corn.  Our next door neighbors gave us an entire plate of homemade tamales in exchange for another bag of it!

Then we went to my cousin Tami’s house for her sugar cookie making party—way fun!  She uses her great grandmother’s recipe for the cookies and the frosting, she has aprons, special knives, cute bowls, hot cocoa, apple cider, lots of cookies and TONS of different sprinkles and toppings.  We had so many cookies we had to give more away, and people must have been very impressed because they were just beautiful!

My sister Melanie and I are both pregnant together—she is due in March though.

Yep, we’ve had our fill of the sweets over here—and some great memories too.  I’ll post more of Christmas Eve and Day later—hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

It’s a Girl!

We found out last week that we are having a little baby girl!  Jack was totally right because that’s what he had said all along.  I’m so glad that I kept all of Ella’s baby clothes and have them all organized—can’t wait to get those cute little things out again.  Well, actually, I can wait because I want to feel more ready and organized before we welcome this little one.  But still, we are excited!  Here I am at about 17 weeks or so I think:

Kind of a weird picture with my hand I know, but I don’t know what the proper pregnant lady stance is when posing for a belly shot—hopefully I’ll figure it out next time! 

Here’s a few Christmasy pics for good measure:

We used our fake tree this year because it was SNOWING in Eagar over Thanksgiving and Jack was not up to tracking through it to get a tree.

The perfect spot….

Making candy cane cookies for our shepherd night—these were VERY sticky and hard to do, so Mom did most of the baking, but I made the kids each make one for posterity sake of course.  Ella “stuck” with it to the end though (pun intended) and was quite a happy mess!

Santa at the ward party—Ella told him she wants a “jingle bell” for Christmas and Conner was not having it—finally we have a classic “kid scared of Santa” pic!

More ward party pics:

Look—it’s us together in a picture!!!

Can’t believe Christmas is so close!  We’re Christmas crazy around here so we’re trying to squeeze it all in before the big day—stories, cookies, songs, lights, traditions, gifts—it’s sort-of crazy, but I love it because it’s only like this once a year, and then it’s over!  Merry Celebrations!

P.S.  Ella’s birthday was December 12th—she’s THREE!  And I want to put up her party, but my Mom took the only pics on her camera, so it will coming soon!