"Valentimes" Day

If you think I accidentally misspelled the title, you are wrong. Lexie has been looking forward to Valentine's Day (or as she calls it "Valentimes" Day) since before Christmas. Why, you ask? Well, her favorite show right now is Clifford the Big Red Dog and they have a Valentine episode that she really loves. Plus, her favorite color is pink so a holiday that has pink decorations gets major points from her. I wasn't really into it this year for some reason, but I still made it fun for the kids even if we didn't do anything big or super romantic as a couple. For FHE the day before V-day we made our traditional heart sugar cookies.

We didn't go all out on decorations, but Lexie had tons of fun helping me make the cookies and frosting them. Here she is with a dog bone cookie...like I said she's really into Clifford and she pretends to be a dog quite often so she asked me if she could cut out some dog bones with the hearts. I have a huge set of cookie cutters and just happened to have a cute little dog bone so she was in luck!

Some good decorating skills going on there!

Hoyt didn't really want anything to do with decorating...he just wanted to eat the cookie. Who can blame him? SOOOO YUMMY!

I decided to be a little festive for the kids on actual Valentine's Day so I made some heart pancakes for breakfast. I think they turned out pretty good without a mold or anything.

My cute little Valentines!

Because it had finally snowed again, Lexie begged Bryan to let her eat a homemade "Sno Shack". The kids really loved them!

The main thing Lexie wanted was a pink balloon. While Hoyt was napping, Lexie and I went on some errands and stopped at the SUU Bookstore for some ballons and a fudge heart I had them make for Bryan. I let Lexie pick the ballons and she got everyone their favorite colors: Pink for her, Yellow for Hoyt (she insists it is his favorite color), Purple for Mom, and Blue for Dad. I thought it was super cute she thought of getting everyone their favorite.

They were excited to open their Valentine gifts!

I got them each a new book and Disney Pixar movie. They loved them!

For dinner we also wanted to go simple so we made heart pizzas and ate them with strawberries and Sparkling Cider. It was a major hit with their kids since it was some of their favorite foods!

Bryan and I went simple this year and didn't really give gifts. We are trying to save money for things we need like a new car and also pay off our house as quickly as possible so we are trying to be careful what we spend on. We did exchange cards (and Bryan wrote me a nice poem) and gave each other our favorite bag of chocolates. I also got the fudge heart from the Bookstore that said "We Love You Daddy, Lexie & Hoyt" which Bryan enjoyed. He loves chocolate!

The only thing I really wanted was dinner at Olive Garden and since V-day was on a Tuesday we decided to wait and go to St. George Friday night for our family dinner date. Olive Garden was delicious and it is one restaurant our kids will eat everything and really enjoy the food. I know Lexie really had a great "Valentimes" Day and I did too!

A Sunbeam!

New Year's Day brought changes at church, beginning with our new early time which is a little tough since our kids are late risers. Bryan and I got a new primary class full of rambunctious 6-year-olds which should be interesting as always. Hoyt got put in a new Nursery class with new teachers and so far he seems to like going. The biggest change though, was Lexie finally gets to go to primary and be a Sunbeam! She didn't want me to take her picture after church so this is the best I got. She really likes her teacher and here she is with her "I Am a Child of God" crown.

Lexie is most excited to be in primary so she can sit on the stand and sing for the primary program...she really wanted to participate last year. I am helping her learn The Articles of Faith and she has the first 3 completely memorized and is now learning #4. We are excited to have a cute little Sunbeam in our house to brighten our lives!

Happy New Year!

This year our New Year's Eve was really low-key and I didn't even take pictures of the kids. Because it was on a Saturday night and we started 9 a.m. church the next morning we didn't do anything too spectacular. We went out and had some burgers and fries for dinner and the kids went to bed at their regular 8 p.m. I think next year we will do a party and count down at 9 before they go to bed, but they were both super tired and not up to doing much this year.

Bryan and I stayed up and watched the ball drop in New York which was 10:00 p.m. our time so we had our sparkling grape juice...

...and our New Year's kiss!

We started watching a movie, but I fell asleep 1/2 way through. After it was over we brushed our teeth, said prayers, and fell into bed. As I was falling asleep it turned 12 because I heard fireworks going off outside. I'm glad I didn't stay up any later because church came plenty early the next morning. I'm excited for the new year and looking forward to the good things it can bring. I know I probably won't keep any big resolutions this year, but each year I just try to make myself better and try harder every day. Happy 2012!!!

2011 in Review

2011 was another crazy year for our family with plenty of changes and fun times. Luckily the stress of a job change and a new baby weren't in the mix this year; however, we did move again...this time back to our house in Cedar City. We love having our own place back that we can make into a home our family can enjoy for the next few years. The kids have responded really well, getting back into a much better routine and just loving the extra room to run around and play. Here are some family pictures from October 2011.

The kids are growing up so fast and we are trying to enjoy every minute of them!

A few highlights from 2011:

Hoyt has grown tremendously in 2011. He turned 1 in May, then 18 months in November and started Nursery!

Lexie turned 3 in August; she enjoys learning everything, can now write her name, and is starting to figure out how to read.

Angie turned 30 in July and loves staying home where she is kept on her toes by both kids every day.

Bryan now works from home full-time and goes up north once a month to work in his office.

Bryan and Angie celebrated 5 years of marriage in August and were able to go on a much-needed Anniversary trip to San Diego! We teach a CTR 6 class in primary together.

We have been so blessed in 2011 and thanks to Bryan's awesome job, have met a lot of our financial goals. We have built our 6-8 month emergency fund, fully-funded our HSA, started a Roth IRA, and one of the biggest accomplishments was paying off Bryan's student loan making us debt free except for the house--and that's next! We were also able to purchase something I've been wanting for a long time. Here is my main Christmas gift that we got about a month early...a digital piano! I'm so excited to start playing again and the kids are excited too!

Here's to another fantastic year in 2012!

Christmas 2011

This year we were excited to have Christmas Eve & morning in our own home. Everything was ready for the big day so Friday I cleaned the house so Saturday we could just relax and enjoy. For dinner we had ham and potatoes and I even made some pumpkin pie. We also got a special treat--some sparkling grape juice which Lexie wasn't so sure of, but Hoyt kept asking for more.

After dinner we read the bible account of the birth of Christ and watched "Joy to the World" which has songs by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and shows the story of the First Christmas. We then put all the Christmas presents under the tree.

Lexie really wanted to make cookies for Santa so we made chocolate chip cookies and put them on our "Cookies for Santa" plate (thanks Kirsten). She was super excited! I love having little kids because they were in bed asleep by 9:00.

Here is our house Christmas morning...

I woke up at 7:30 and took a shower and about 8:00 Hoyt woke up and I woke up Lexie so we would have enough time to open gifts and get ready to go to church. The kids were way excited about their Santa gifts. Lexie has been talking about her "Pink Princess Laptop" for months and Hoyt got a "Talk & Teach Turtle". Santa was really nice and the kids loved their gifts.

Here they are playing with their new toys.

Lexie was also excited to get a candy cane full of candy in her stocking. Here are the kids with their loot from their stockings.

Hoyt enjoyed getting some fun new toys. Books to read and new cars!

He was especially fascinated with this big present which ended up being more Mega Bloks which has been one of his favorite things to play with recently.

Lexie had fun opening presents. Christmas books from her friend Britton, and princess hair accessories from Hoyt.

Grandpa & Grandma Lyman gave the kids this dog to bounce on and they have had fun with him.

Lexie was excited to get all 3 Toy Story movies! And she had fun taking pictures of everyone with her new camera.

Hoyt's race track was a hit with both kids!

Here are a couple videos we took. I missed when Lexie first got to her laptop, but she was still waking up so the reaction was pretty subdued. Hoyt was having a great time with his new toys.

I think I spoiled Bryan more than the kids this year, but he deserves a little spoiling. One of his favorite things I got for him was a Mythbusters t-shirt and matching mugs. That is by far his favorite show so he was excited. He also likes to collect hardback books from his favorite authors so I got him the full hardback set of Fablehaven.

We both got new slippers which are so nice and comfy!

We both got DVDs of TV series we enjoy. Bryan got "The King of Queens" and I got "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman".

I love this picture with my stocking because David Archuleta was in the background singing. That concert was awesome when we went live last year, and I enjoyed watching it on DVD this year! I was also excited to get a new baking set with nice pans and a cooling rack which I haven't even had since I've been married.

This picture of the kids eating breakfast was the last picture I took on Christmas and for the rest of the week. We should have gotten pictures before church, but we had to hurry out the door to be on time. I absolutely loved going to church on Christmas! I've heard other people say this, but I wish we could go celebrate Christ and take the sacrament every Christmas Day!

After we got home from church, we finished packing up and headed to spend a few days with my family. I wish I would have gotten pictures of the kids opening presents from my parents. Hoyt got a new truck with cars and Lexie got a trunk of dress-ups which she loves and wears most of the time now! We had fun visiting with everyone and going to my Grandma Hoyt's house Christmas evening and seeing all the family. The kids had fun playing for a few days and we headed back home on Tuesday. I'm really excited to be able to have Christmas as our little family, and I enjoy being able to spend time with the rest of the family during the holidays as well.

Merry Christmas 2011 from the Lymans!