Our little girl is growin' up

Here's Lexi with less hair and less teeth! It's ironic that just as she's losing her front teeth, Colton is getting his. He's a lot less happy about the situation than Lexi is though.
I have to brag for a minute about Lexi and how brave she is. She's always been willing to try something new and pretty independent and confident (with a lot of things anyway). She's pretty good at "picking herself up and dusting herself off" after she falls (as they say). Well, when it comes time to pull a tooth out she's EXCITED for me to do it (can't say the same for her daddy). Anyway, this last one was really loose I thought, but ended up being quite stubborn and not coming out. After trying a lot of techniques (all of which I know were very uncomfortable for Lexi) I said maybe let's wait another day and try again. But no, Lexi said "No mom, please just do it now, you can do it!" So I ( and she) persevered and .... success. She whimpered a bit during this whole process, but no crying or screaming or flailing etc. (at least not from her). I really appreciate her attitude about those things.
During these last few days she's also developed a suspicious rash (you might be able to tell a little on her face in the picture) that we just found out today is fifth's disease. Luckily it seems to be a mild case in the fact that it's not itching her too bad. The Dr. gave her the OK to go back to school and the second we left the doctor's office Lexi was begging to go back. I know a lot of kids have been giving her a hard time about the way she her face looks lately and making fun of her, but she's just brushing it off. I can't say I'd have handled all of this that well at her age (I'm sure my parents can attest to that).
Anyway just felt like expressing my gratitude for my little girl - who's not so little anymore. She's a pretty cool chick!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...

SANTA BABY!!

Tyler and Lexi anxiously await digging into the presents on Christmas morningI had a really hard time getting a picture of his new teeth, but if you look closely you can see one on the bottom

Colton enjoying some Grandpa Lincoln time

Tyler and his cousins Jonah and Simon in thier new Batman jammies

Lots of the little cousins relaxing and enjoying a movie

In Utah this year it was definitely a white Christmas, you could often find Nate and bro out shoveling

This might appear like sibling love, but really this was a precursor to a wrestling match. Also notice Lexi fashioning all the hairbows I made for her for Christmas at once.

"while visions of sugar plums danced in their wee little heads..." (all the younger cousins snuggled together after a long day of playing)

This was our "attempt" at a live nativity. Lexi is Mary onth couch and we actually had a real newborn baby (our nephew Colin) this year playing baby Jesus. Tyler was a shepherd I think and Colton there on the floor is a wiseman. Instead of gold, frankincense and myrh (sp?) there were gifts given such as Buzz lightyear and basketballs etc.

Colton with Grandma Sherry

Ok so this post has been a long time coming, sorry. Here is a little more about our Christmas this year - you already got an idea with the pictures (I was trying to put this text before the pictures, but I still haven't figured out how all this works apparently). As you could guess with the title, Colton finally (although I was in no hurry) got his front 2 teeth - now 4 - just in time for Christmas. No biting yet, knock on wood... He also started crawling (well army crawling) on Christmas day and is also standing for long periods of time as long as he's holding onto something. He is actually 8 months old TODAY- yikes!

We went to Utah (Saratoga Springs) to spend Christmas with Nate's family. Both of Nate's siblings and their families were able to stay there as well. It was slightly chaotic with 11 kids (8 under the age of 5) and 8 adults, but lots of fun. Right after we arrived, Nate took off to Vegas to go to a bowl game with his brother and our brother-in-law. It was U of A playing BYU (Nate's alma mater vs. his brother's alma mater). They enjoyed a huge buffet before hand and apparently had a great time (Nate had a little better time than his brother with Uof A's victory). Go Wildcats!!

We had a ton of snow so we didn't venture out of the house a lot, but the kids didn't seem to mind. As we were there Tyler proved to be quite the accident prone kid, bleeding and bruising every few minutes it seemed. The worst of the accidents were Ty slicing his thumb with a knife, and gashing his chin, not once but twice. Fortunatly he was able to avoid stitches thanks to the miracles of super glue (and a lot of it) :).

The kids seemed very pleased with their presents. Tyler was most excited with his set of two light sabors, which he promptly lost the next day. We searched every inch of that house and we still couldn't find them so we promised a reward to anyone who finds them. Still no luck!

We were also able to get family pictures taken while we were there since there has been 3 additions to the family since the last picture was taken. They turned out pretty good, although we felt bad for the poor photographer trying to wrangle in 19 people and pose them (most of them having a bad case of ants in their pants- me included). Nate and I also celebrated our 9th anniversary while we were there. We can't believe it's already been that long. It's sure been a blessed 9 years and we can only look forward to the next 9 and next 9 etc...... Overall it was a great end of 2008. We're excited for what 2009 brings!