Our crazy, busy Christmas

This post is a little backwards but that is how I uploaded the photos and I don't want to rearrange them. We had a very busy holiday season but loved every minute of it. Luke turned 1 on the 30th so we threw him a little party. Beau's family gives me a hard time about throwing parties for my kids so I really tried to keep it simple this time. With all the family in town and it being December we decided to do it a our church's gym. I walked in and almost died. There were balloons everywhere. Like lots and lots of balloons. They were hanging in clumps from the ceiling and on all the walls etc. I guess there was an activity that night in the Spanish branch and I just got lucky. We let everyone think we spent the whole night putting up all those balloons for a while but then let them know I'm not really that crazy. We did have a little bounce house thanks to Dave and Candice. (I didn't get any good pics of the balloons but you can see some of them- and yes the tablecloths are for round tables and our church had none!)

Luke LOVED his cake! He really went to town on it which was fun because Anna would hardly touch hers. He looked like he had an orange spray tan after I washed it off and I had to throw away the onesie but it was worth it.

My birthday is the 29th and I had so much fun going up to the Grand America with my mom and sisters for "tea" and than Beau took me out to dinner and a movie.

The 27th Beau's brother Taylor got married. It was such a fun day. We were up at my parents the day before and left Anna and Luke there for the night (thanks mom and dad) so Beau and I got to sleep in and than go to the wedding breakfast. They were married in the Salt Lake temple in the same room as Beau and I so that was really fun too. There reception was at the Joseph Smith Building and was beautiful. We are sooo excited to have Melissa in the family!

So last but not least is Christmas. We started by having breakfast at Kade and Megans on Christmas Eve and then going to Puss in Boots. Christmas Eve dinner was at Beau's parents and they outdid themselves. Everything was set beautifully and we had clam chowder, salad, crab and artichokes.

Christmas morning was so much fun with Anna. This girl doesn't lack in enthusiasm. She was so excited for every little thing and would say Oh its just what I wanted, I love it, It's perfect, beautiful etc and then yell Thank you Santa really loud so he could hear.

We hurried and got ready for church and rushed up to my parents ward so we could squeeze everything in. After that we went back to their house and opened presents but I don't have any pics for some reason. They totally spoiled us. Anna was so cute with Luke too- she was just as excited for him to get something.

After that we went back down to Beau's family for presents where we were spoiled again. And than we went to his brothers house for dinner. It was pretty non stop but it is so fun to be with family and we are so thankful we were able to do it all. The week continued the same way- with the wedding, my birthday, Luke's birthday, our nephew Oaks' baptism (he has the same birthday as Luke) and than we spent New Year's Eve day playing with all Beau's family at a church- went to dinner with the adults and games that night. New Year's Day our niece Lilly Eve (Brock and Dezi's new baby) was blessed and than we had a birthday dinner with my family for Dave before they left for Arizona. We all got sick and crashed on Monday!

Christmas Festivities

We've done a few things for Christmas this year and it has been so fun with Anna. She is so excited about everything that has to do with Christmas and lights and Santa etc. We went up to the Hogle Zoo for there zoo lights and although it was freezing cold we had a good time. We went with my mom and dad and Caitlyn too.

Not a lot of the animals were out but we saw some monkeys, all the reptiles (which I usually opt out of seeing because that building smells so bad- but the cold was too much for me this time!) and the tigers. The tigers were really active and fun to watch. Anna has a little scratch on her leg and she has been telling everyone that a tiger looked right at her and the glass was gone and he jumped right at her and bit her leg. What an imagination- where does she come up with this stuff?

For our wedding we were given two really cute stockings but I have never been able to find anything that matches. Although I don't really want to admit this, this is Anna's 4th Christmas and she's never really had a stocking. I saw this idea on a blog of using old sweaters and luckily I already had 2 in a D.I. bag so I went for it. Anna is a little disappointed hers isn't pink but at least she has one now, right!

We have seen Santa a few times and she has asked him for something different everytime. So does that mean I need to get all of those things or that she will be happy with anything? I think I'll go with the latter (esp since one of them is pink ice skates and what would she do with those?) The first time she saw Santa she asked him for Tiana (princess and the frog), as we walked away I looked at her little face and she looked crushed and started breaking down in tears. I asked her what was wrong and she said "He didn't give me Tiana." I had to explain the whole waiting until Christmas, being good for the elves and they will make it for you thing. Someone that had gone right over her head!

We went up to Temple Square right after Thanksgiving also. It was beautiful as always. This is the best time of the year!

Halloween

Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion- for a minute I thought I'd be the Wicked Witch and Beau could be the Scarecrow or Tin Man- but that thought lasted literally only one minute.

These holidays get so much more fun the older Anna gets. She loved her costume and I thought this might be the last year I get to choose so I'll force her into it even if it isn't pink or a princess. But luckily it had sequins and twirled really big so we were good. Plus long hair has always been a dream of hers- one day Anna!

I babysat my cousins 4 girls the weekend before Halloween so we all went to Gardner Village to see the witches. I dressed my kids up because we weren't coming back up on Halloween and Grandma and Grandpa needed to see them.

We had a pizza party and rented the movie Witches too. I kind of forgot how scary it might be for little kids and Anna clung to me for most of it while I constantly reminded her its all pretend. But there were no nightmares and she hasn't brought it up since so I'd say it was a success!

On Halloween we went to the ward Trunk or Treat but I forgot my camera. Then we went around to a few houses including Grandmerry and Papa's with Kade, Megan, Brock and Dezi.

We had a great time. Halloween is a lot more fun with kids! But we are already moving onto Christmas in our house. Anna can't stop talking about it and the Elves are keeping her very well-behaved. I wish we could use that trick all year long- but I'm actually hoping the novelty will at least get us through December.

Catch up

Time flies. . . I really have no excuse about my lack of posting. I'm not really sure if anyone still even reads this but if so- here is a little catch up. I uploaded the pics wrong so its going from most recent first. We have been out of town almost the entire month of October. Our last trip was to Newport Beach where we took some family pictures on the beach. We don't have very good luck with family pictures and this was no exception. For anyone that may have witnessed us this day I will throw out a public apology. We were with most of my family and my mom wanted grandkid pics so we took the five grandkids down close to the water and had Anna and Cole (2) holding Luke's hands so he could stand and Addie (4) holding Isaac (2 months). When the first wave washed on shore Anna and Cole let go of Luke who fell back into the sand and water and the rest bolted. I wish I had the pictures of that but they are on my sisters camera. What were we thinking? We don't know. But it didn't get much better from there. These are probably the best we got.

I'm pretty sure he is thinking 'What are you doing to me?'

Anna turned 3 while we were there so we had a princess party and she got her favorite princess dress up straight from Disneyland-which is where we spent the previous 2 days. If you visit my house you will most likely find her in this these days. And if you look closely she does have fake hair on which she fell in love with and it is brown so it doesn't even match but the blonde had blue ribbons in it and the brunette one had pink so if you know Anna that is enough said.

Disneyland- the Happiest Place on Earth! Anna's jaw dropped when she saw the castle. I don't have any pictures of her with the princesses they are also on my sisters camera but she was in heaven. And when I get them I will put them up.

We wore them out and this was only the first day.

Anna didn't love the ocean like she loved Disneyland. But Beau tried really hard to get her too!

The first week of October we went to Sacramento and stayed with Beau's sister Hayley and her family. We had so much fun there. We went and visited one of the Redwood forests and it was incredible. We couldn't believe they were even real trees.

Anna loved being with her cousins Dolly, Sophie and Tucker.

We also got to see my brother Justin who is in law school out there and he took us to Old Sacramento. We had so much fun out there and it was so good to see everyone.

The first week of September we went up to Aspen Grove for the Cutler Family Reunion. This kid has me wrapped around his finger.

The annual Cornhole Tournament- which got turned into like 3 different ones this year. Cutler's aren't competitive at all! And Beau fits right in- he already can't wait until next years for a little redemption! Sorry Beau and Zach.

I know I haven't posted Halloween yet but I'm tired so maybe next week- but no promises.

Summer

Luke is now 7 months old. I kind of missed the 6 month mark. In my defense I did try to post a few weeks ago but my computer froze in the middle of uploading pictures and I gave up. So here is a recap of our summer so far. I have to say Luke is the cutest little boy I've ever met. He has a permanent smile on his face and will laugh at just about anything. He is as big as ever although his percentages did go down a tiny bit at his 6 month apt. He weighed 20lbs 12oz and was 28 1/4 inches tall. I don't remember what that is but they were both still in the 90's. I thought he would be a little slower than Anna as far as crawling etc because he has been so mellow since he was born but I was wrong. He started crawling right at 6 months, it was somewhat like a worm for the first couple of weeks but he is now all over the place and fast. He went up the stairs this week for the first time and almost gave me a heart attack when I saw him 5 stairs up.


As big as he is you would think he loved to eat-- but you would be wrong. Not only does he not nurse as often as Anna did he also HATES baby food. This picture is from a month or so ago so he has gotten a little better but he usually gags, turns his head and clenches his mouth closed when we try to feed him. So far bananas are the only thing he eats willingly.

My little princess has really become independent lately. She wants to pick out everything herself including her shoes. Here she is in my heels. She made it down the porch stairs and into the car all by herself in these things. Although this was cute there have been some not so cute moments. I am already gearing up for her teenage years. I think we are in trouble.

These two are the cutest little buddies. Anna is such a good big sister. They are now in the same room together and when we go in in the morning she has usually climbed in the crib with him. We have popcorn ceilings with little sparkly things in them and she says they are looking at the stars. (That was the only time I have liked having popcorn ceilings!)
I came out of the kitchen to find this bed that Anna made for Luke and laid him down on.

It is so fun to have family in town during the summer. Candice was here in July and we went to lunch with Amber for her birthday. Anna has so much fun with her cousins.

We also went to the animal farm at Thanksgiving Point.

We had a Hendershot family reunion. Here are all the cousins at the Parade while the disney princesses came by.

Here is Anna after the princesses kept going past and she couldn't go with them.

Although none of the Hendershots are big campers we went for a night and had so much fun- although not much sleep! It was worth it though esp for all the kids.

We have spent a lot of time at the pool this summer too. Anna and Luke both love it.

We also went to Arizona a couple of months ago. This was Luke's first swimming experience. Do you see his big tummy hanging over his swimsuit? Why is this only cute on babies?!