Some Christmas pictures

I am way behind posting pictures from our vacation and we are turning around and going to my in-laws for News Years so this will just have to do for now. I will try to post more pictures from the past couple of weeks after we get back.

The boys are Christmas morning. Vance was ready to open presents!

Here is a picture of Vance and I that isn't too bad! Kind of hard to believe although some cropping needs to happen...Here I am with my brothers and sisters. Eric, Holly, Glen and Rosemary.Here's a picture of our family.We were all together for Christmas and that hasn't happened since before I got married so of course we needed to take a family picture together. You have to love self timers on cameras.

Vance's birthday pictures

Vance's birthday was yesterday. I can't believe he's three! I won't be able to blame his bad behavior on him being a "terrible two" anymore...darn... Here are some pictures from his big day.
Vance got a train set from Grandma and Grandpa Porter. Vance loves opening gifts!

My mom helped me make this Kung Fu Panda cake. I was pleased with how it turned out.
Vance blew candles out of this little cupcake so we wouldn't have to figure out where to put candles on the panda bear.

Black frosting equals black lips and a black mouth!

Headed to Washington

We are headed to Washington early tomorrow. I thought I would post this picture to tide you all over for the time being. We've been working away this week cleaning out all of our place and reorganizing. Here is a picture of the boys playing in the closet.
Wish us luck driving for 11 or so hours with two little boys. Fun times. This is our first LONG trip with Vance potty trained!

Mario Galaxy

Vance loves to play Mario Galaxy on the Wii with Stephen. This lovely woman, Rosalina is one of the characters from that game. Whenever she comes on the screen Vance calls her Mom. Even as I posted the picture I walked away to do something and Vance came over and said, "Mom." I guess this makes up for the fact that he thought I had a hurt eye the other day. She's a pretty cute lady. I don't mind being mistaken for her at all.

We are busy getting ready to leave on vacation in a couple of days so I may or may not have time to post more in the next couple of days. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! (although I'm sure I will post sometime before Christmas)

Vance's slideshow

Vance will be three next Monday. Oh my goodness! Here is the video I put together for his birthday. All of these pictures have been taken in the last year. I put it to Jack Johnson's song "Upside Down" from the Curious George soundtrack. Why? Because Vance is our very own Curious George. Just listen to the words of the song....

Early Christmas and Birthday

Stephen's parents were up for the weekend so we did some gift exchanges with them. We had a fun little Christmas party Friday night and then Vance opened some birthday gifts on Saturday and we had cupcakes. Here are some pictures.

Vance thinks he needs to help everyone open their gifts (beware those who will be around him on Christmas). Tanner seemed to enjoy the unwrapping himself.
Here are Vance, Tanner, and Luke all enjoying the little Thomas the Train set Vance got for his birthday.Tanner is showing off his new outfit from Grandma and Grandpa. He is also posing (as you can see) as he plays the Wii.

Vance showing off a cool gift from Mandy, Jake, and Luke.

Reindeer Puppets

I took several pictures of the boys with their reindeer puppets this morning and this was the only one where both of their faces were uncovered. Tanner looks mad, but he really wasn't. We are having a good time doing different Christmas activities and crafts.

Thanks Vance

Last night we had our tithing settlement so I put on a little eye make up as to not scare anyone. When I was bending down to help Vance put on his shoes he started to say, "Mom's eye is hurt." Then he pointed at my eyelid and then repeated himself several times over as he pointed at his own eye lid. I told him my eye was fine, but apparently he did not believe me. Now, from that reaction one might think that I never wear make up. True, when we are home all day I do not put make up on, but I do when we go out so it's not like I NEVER wear make up. Maybe it was just a bad make up day. Having your son think you have a black eye because of your make up is not a real confidence booster, I must say. So, thank you Vance, appreciate it...

P.S. where have all my commenters gone?

Gingerbread Fun

As usual, you can find out more about what we did today on my Mommy's Little Helper blog. I mentioned there that nothing we actually made was gingerbread, but hey you do what you have to. I wanted to do stuff that everyone would enjoy and would be easier on me. :)

Here is Vance helping make some gingerbread men with our sugar cookie dough. He loves to say, "Squish" and did so everytime he made a new gingerbread man.

Vance is checking out our graham cracker gingerbread house. He had fun decorating it, but he especially had fun eating the candy while he decorated.

Vance showing off his finished product and Tanner wanting to be part of the action too.

Tanner enjoyed a sugar cookie I gave him and yes you can clearly see it was a burned one. I gave him one that was burned because I knew he would eat it and like it...sue me! :)

Vance and Tanner both enoying their gingerbread men/babies.

Putting Up the Tree

Vance, Tanner, and I got the tree up this morning and started decorating. Since then they've both helped redecorate. It needs some more decorations, but it'll have to wait until we make some more. Here are some pictures of the boys enjoying the tree.

Christmas Tree Decorations

The boys and I are working away on decorations for our Christmas tree. I am planning on just putting homemade things on the tree (candy canes may be an exception). We'll see how it works out. Here are the boys having fun decorating our gingerbread ornaments. You can find out in more detail what is going on our tree by visiting Mommy's Litte Helper (my other blog).

More vacation pictures

Here are some more pictures from our vacation. Sean, Holly, Jillian, and Eric all came to my in-laws for Thanksgiving this year so that's why I have a picture of Sean and Jillian. Poor little thing was so tired and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a picture of her and her daddy looking so sweet.

I have tons more pictures so I'll probably post some more at some time.

Thanksgiving in Utah

We spent Thanksgiving with my in-laws in Utah. We had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures for our vacation.
The first picture is Tanner eating his Thanksgiving feast. He was actually in a bad mood and was sent to the crib for a nap immediately after eating.
Here is the rest of us. It is hard to get a good picture with one kid. We didn't even try both kids and us together.Christmas stuff was soon pulled out after Thanksgiving day. Here are some pictures of the boys enjoying the Santa hats that Grandma Jeppson has.I have a lot more pictures so I'll probably post them another day. Here is the finished list of things Vance is grateful for that we put on our count down turkey. They aren't in order (I didn't put them up in order so I don't remember when he said what).

Tanner
Dinosaurs
Snacks
Ducks
Dad
Apples
Mouths
Charlie Brown
Play Doh
Eyes
Vance (important to be grateful for yourself)
Hands
Outside
Wall-E
Mom
Little Einsteins
Monkeys
Cars
Dancing
Panda Bear
Popcorn
Nursery
Trains
Cats

And now you know what goes on in the mind of my soon to be three year old!