Deciembre

 The first day we arrived in Utah it rained and melted the snow.  Alexis was undeterred and determined to build a snowman.  So my Mom help her scrape up snow from all over the yard to make this fantastic snowman.  What a good Grandma. 

 Christmas party at Grandpa and Sue's. Candace, Uncle Doug, Dad and Ty.

 Kevin, me, Grandpa and Sue.  Yummy food and really fun party.

 Clint and Tracy.

 Christmas Morning.  We got to sleep in til 8:00 since we stayed up so late the night before. The hit of the day was the gift Shane gave to Blake. 

 Amy, Uncle Dan and Elisa

 Elisa, Amy and Alexis made a Ginger Bread House.

 We stopped by the temple on our way to the airport home. 

The beautiful old tabernacle.

Small World

We have the missionaries over for dinner every other week.  It is really a blessing having them in our home and we always enjoy it.  A couple of weeks ago we had Elder Mortenson in our home for the first time.  Come to find out he is from Arizona but his family is from my home town River Heights, UT.  His grandparents the Mikelson's and Aunt live in my home ward growing up.  His Aunt, Maryann Grover was my piano teacher, young woman leader and lives 3 houses up from my parents.  I know his cousins, Tom, Marie, Scott, Mikey and Cathryn really well.  Also his other cousins Brad, Rich and Ryan Clark.    He used to come stay summers at his grandparents house every year and his Mom lives in Nibley (parents divorced)  If that wasn't enough his paternal grandfather, Neal Mortenson was my Mom's OBGYN and delivered both Clint and I.  It was fun to chat about all these coincidences.  Small World.

 Blake, Elder Mortenson, Alexis and Elder Manning.

Happy Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving.  Food, family and fun and soooo much to be thankful for.  David organized for a football game in the morning,  He made flyers and everything.  The boys had a blast playing.  Kelly flew in from New York arriving about 1:00.  Mom and I got to cook and it was fun.  Everything was very yummy.  We also got to see the movie Tangled- so cute. 

I got really domestic and did some things from scratch that I normally wouldn't.  Homemade fresh cranberries are one of the greatest things ever.  Backstory,  my Grandma and Grandpa Dickson always have the ultimate Thanksgiving feast.  The tables are always set so beautiful, complete with Madonna Inn Goblets.  They always make fresh cranberries through an old hand cranked meat grinder.

As a child I remember quite a few times helping with one of my favorite dishes- Monkey bread.  It's small dough pieces rolled in cinnamon and sugar, placed in a bundt cake mold, drizzled with brown sugar melted in butter and then baked.  Delicious.  After so many years of calling it Monkey bread my grandma decided she didn't like that name and renamed it Holiday Bread.  I still like to tease her and call it monkey bread but it just doesn't sound distinguished enough for her.

Anyway I made homemade cranberries, I didn't have and old hand cranked meat grinder so I used my food processor.  To make fresh cranberries you used one bag of fresh cranberries, 1 whole orange, sugar to taste, and walnuts- optional.  I also made monkey bread, homemade pumpkin pie and key lime pie.  Yummy.

  Kelly and Alexis ready for the feast.  The turkey looked gorgeous and tasted even better. Mom brined it for a couple of days and it was delicious.

 Kelly came with an appetite.

 David showing off his mad skills.

 Mom was so proud that she got it to balance this year.

 Blake loved his meal.

Cute Kelly and Chance.

Blake

 

'B' is for busy Blake boy.  He just turned 17 months this last week and lets just say that boys are so much different than girls.  If this little man is awake he is into something, and at lightning speeds.

  He has a few words now.. ball, no, yuck and Dad.  The word ball-because he looooves balls.  We where walking through the mall tonight and there was a really tall Christmas tree covered in round ornaments.  If he knew what the lottery was he would have thought that he won it, he looked at it in wonder and amazement with his hand raised saying baallll.  

No and yuck he says because I think he probably hears them a thousand times a day and has full understanding of what they mean and will tell you in loud volumes when you try to change his clothes(heaven forbid) or make him do anything he doesn't want to do.  

Word four, Dad.  Simply put he loves his Daddy.  Usually the kids are in the bath about the time David gets home at night.  The second he hears David come in he calls Dad and it's all I can do to keep him in the bath after that.  Despite that he is still a momma's boy.  Secretly I love it.  He is such a joy in our home.  We love Blake.   

The pictures below tell a fun story.  We have church at 12:30 on Sundays.  We put Blake down for a morning nap before we go to church.  Last Sunday, about 10 minutes before we were to leave for church we were surprised that he hadn't woken up from his nap yet and decided we'd better go wake him up.  

David went up to get him and laughing through the monitor told me to come up and bring the camera.  I was thinking the worst, once I had gotten him up from a nap and he painted his poop all over.  I was not up for that.   

Some how he had gotten a hold of some vaseline and smeared it all over himself and his bed.  He knew he was in trouble but I think he had a lot of fun doing it.  I washed his hair 3 times, it was still a little greasy but we had to get to church.  The thing is we don't really know where he got it from.

Alexis

Recently I was taking Alexis to school and while we were waiting to go in a little boy asked her what her name was. She responded "Alexis".  To which the little boy responded "That's not a name, that's a car." 

Are we complete failures at naming our child.  I remember when we were deciding on her name we rhymed it with everything, considered initials, made sure it would be distinguished when she was older and cute as a little girl.

Alexis just looked at the little boy like, what are you talking about. 

Seriously what are you talking about.  How does a 4 year old little boy already know that a 'Lexus' is a car anyway.

Fight On!

Saturday night we were able to go to the USC vs. Arizona St. game at the Coliseum. (Thank you Kirk and Steve)  It is quite an experience to go to a USC game with Baker's.  You know the crazy fans yelling at the coach, ref, players, etc, we have a couple of those.  We had a lot of fun. Oh, and USC won. Fight on!

 David and I at the Coliseum.

 Alexis and Cousin Becca

 Alexis and I.  I got pretty cold by the end.

Missing little Blake.  He stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa.

Happy Halloween

 Our annual trip to Underwood Family Farms.  So much fun.

 I could eat that face!

 Underwood Family Farms.

 Uncle Nick

 Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Nick

 The first of Alexis' many costumes for the week.

 Alexis the ballerina for her pre-school parade.

 Carving pumkins with the Sullivans.

 Daddy helping Alexis with the skull and crossbones that she picked.

 The finished pumkins.  I kept it simple on the right.  ; )

 Alexis as Tinkerbell at Underwood for friend Liv's birthday party.

 Royalty of the hay stack pyramid.

 Blake sitting next to a goat at Underwood Family farms.

 How Alexis measured up this fall.  Too big.

 The best of a series of like 10 shots.  It is so hard to get everyone looking and smiling.

 David and Chef Grammy (so cute Mom!)

 Crazy Hawaiian tourist family at the Trunk or Treat.

 Blake the Giraffe.

Alexis in her 2nd ballerina outfit with a borrowed wig from the Neff's. 

Blake 1 Year to Present

July 2010 Blake, Alexis and Cruise taking pictures in
Grandma and Grandpa's Lavender field. So beautiful and smells heavenly.

July 2010 Having a blast emptying the paper shredder.


July 2010 He always turns into a ham for the camera. I took about
10 pictures of him just being silly like this.


July 2010 Blake and Liam playing the the little pool.


August 2010 Sailboating with the Maynard family out of Ventura.
It was so fun and relaxing, although we all got sea sick towards the end.

Aug 2010 On the sailboat.

Aug 2010 With Grammy at seafood place in Malibu.

Aug 2010 Home Depot center in LA watching LA Galaxy play the
Kansas City Wizards play soccer. Go Chance!!!

Sept 2010 Labor Day Weekend at Silverstrand Beach. Sooo much fun.

Sept 2010 Silverstrand Beach

Sept 2010 David, Blake, Nick, Alexis and Grandpa

Sept 2010 Blake fell asleep holding Alexis' hand on the

way home from the beach. So cute. Such a good big sister.

Sept 2010 David getting the kids all nice and calm before bed. Actually I must say that it is my favorite part of the day watching them play with their Daddy. They have the best Dad.