Christmas Eve and Morning

We were at the Davis house Christmas Eve and had lots of fun with everyone except Brad and Kori. We had yummy food - a sparkly pickle game - and the boys always have a blast being the center of attention amongst all their adult relatives! We got home with enough time to leave out milk, cookies, and a carrot for Santa and Rudolph. Joshua has been adorable these Christmas days. I can't wait for next year when he understands even more. Here is Lukey with Uncle Haws. Yes my son will crawl!!! My children are seriously delayed on the whole crawling thing. But I think that it's going to happen soon for Luke. Joshua started crawling and walking the same week. There's no way Luke is going to walk as early as Joshua did, but I think he just might beat him on the crawl age.Oh my cuteness Luke! The boys in front of Nana's tree.Our Christmas tree on Christmas morning. I was the first person in my house to awaken Christmas morning - which is nothing new. I've been the first person to wake up Christmas morning my entire life - which has led to the entire Bendheim family opening gifts at 4:00am. This year I was awake at 6:30am and took a shower - by 6:45 Luke was up too, so we could wake Joshua and Daddy up. We opened gifts, played a while - then were at Grammie and Bops house by 9:30. We had a yummy breakfast there and opened more gifts - Spent the day with the day with my family - took Joshua to the Movement (or Snoopy house as others call it) - and had a yummy dinner.Joshua and Daddy opening gifts Christmas morning. Joshua wanted every gift to be a puzzle.
Luke reading his new books.
Opening gifts at the Bendheims. Lukey and Aunt Robin
Uncles Redge and Tanner bringing in their gifts to Luke and Joshua.

Our Week

So this has been the craziest week for me. Or I should say craziest last 10 days. I feel like I haven't had a moment to sit. The end is near, and by Monday afternoon I'm hoping life will once again calm down. The worst part about the last 7 days is I haven't slept 4 of the nights. Luke has been sick and just keeping us up. After a few good days, last night I was up with him again from 1:30am to 4:00am. He's down right now though - and I think it's going to be a good night. I was driving home from Toys R Us today and honestly didn't know that I'd make it home before falling asleep. Here's the cutie pie before the flu hit!So I got Ruby when John and I just started dating. When I was pregnant with Joshua I honestly didn't think I could love him as much as I loved Ruby. The poor dog has since taken two steps down in the house and just doesn't get my attention like she used to. This is her begging for attention as I'm taking the above picture of Luke.
Thursday morning John says to me as I get home from an early morning Organ practice "I tried to call you a couple of times but your phone just went straight to voice mail." I think what is he talking about.... "when did you try and call me?" "Well yesterday and two weeks ago.... Today is the potluck at the dealership and I signed up to bring something." So there goes Thursday morning - off to the grocery store I went to get some ingredients, spent the morning cooking and getting the kids ready to go to the dealership. Got there at noon (because John said that's when I should get there.) Waited around - ate food - and got home around 2pm. My day was shot - only time for naps, dinner, and bed. Joshua did have tons of fun though at daddy's work. He hung out most of the time with Bop. That's the best part about going to see daddy at work - we also get to see Bop and Uncle Brad.... and lets not forget the popcorn.Uncle Brad and Joshua.
So this picture is out of order - but anyway - some fun.... Making Gingerbread houses!
Luke redeems himself with awesome smiles for Aunt Robin.


Oh - we can't talk about this week without mentioning the fact that Joshua had his first big time fall. Barb took Joshua for me so I didn't have to deal with sick Luke and active Joshua. Two hours after she picks him up - I get the call - Joshua's fallen on the fireplace and I think he needs stitches. Luckily John was able to leave work and take Joshua to the doctor. There was no way I would have been able to do it with Luke feeling the way he was. Joshua is fine - and I'm sure there will be a scar... but it will give him character right?!
And finally last night - we had dinner and a game night with my family. I had tons of fun. Here are Joshua and Bop making popcorn. We played cranium after the kids went to bed. I love that game. John pointed out that I'm probably not getting enough adult interaction when my guess for Robins drawing of the action "licking" was "being a silly goose".
Luke in his deep bath. We just switched him from laying down in the bath to sitting up and he loves it! Of course right after this picture, while John was trying to figure out the video camera Luke flung himself backwards and went under.

Yo, Ho

So on Sunday, John is at the doctors with Luke, and it's just Joshua and I in Sacrament Meeting. He is surprisingly good the entire meeting - even when I leave him with another couple so I can accompany the choir. The closing hymn comes and the congregation starts singing. I look of at Joshua, who standing in the pew next to me, and notice that he too is singing the closing hymn. I lean in to hear him singing and this is what I hear - "Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirates life for me. Da da da dadada da da da da da da da da da. Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirates life for me."

Catching up

So I'm a bit behind on blogging our family fun.... So here's something to catch you up. Starting with last Friday night we went to the Christmas Party at my parents ward. Joshua and Luke both did surprisingly well with Santa. We were one of the first people there, so we could take as much time as we needed to slowly approach Santa.

Following Santa, still at the party, they had a marionette puppet show. Joshua LOVED it. He was dancing around to the music the whole time.
Saturday, as you've hopefully all seen in the video, was my piano recital. Joshua did a little number and was adorable. Here is his forced smile (which is 99% of the time with closed eyes).
My cousin Jennifer and kids came into town from Idaho for 2 days - so we hit Fashion Island and Disneyland with the Kids. Her little ones are Reagan and Tanner (who's 6 months younger than Joshua).

So here we are arriving at Disneyland. We had so many layers on Luke because it was freezing - at least for California standards. We had tons of fun - but the boys were pretty tired at the end of the afternoon - so we skipped out on the parade.

Joshua super cute by Santa's reindeer.

Bop Peter and Grammie met us there as well. It's so much easier with all the extra hands!

Joshuas First Piano Recital

My students had their piano recital yesterday, and Joshua was the first performer. His piece was titled "Middle C, High Note, Low Note". Watch this video and enjoy the amazing musician my son is!

So Proud

Joshua lined all his animals up in a row and was so proud of himself. I asked him if he wanted me to take a picture and he was so excited - he jumped in front of his animals and flashed his best smile. If only I could get him to smile during other pictures.Also notice the organ in the background. My mom gave me her organ to use - so it's our new playroom accessory. I'm loving it and it's saving me from going to the church at 6am!

Thanksgiving

Here are a couple of pictures from thanksgiving last week. We went over real early to try and get the boys down for afternoon naps there, but both boys just wouldn't sleep among all the excitement. Luke finally went down just before dinner and Joshua took a little nap after dinner. We were at the Davis' house this year. Here are the boys with Aunt Dana.

Joshua couldn't get enough of the little weenies!The Davis women - and a tag along.
Johnny is the designated Turkey carver.