2014 Review

I have been looking at pictures, putting things together, and making goals for the new year.  Upon my reflection of the past year, I cannot help but think of how fast 2014 has gone for our little family and how many changes we have had as well.

A few of the highlights from 2014 include:
   * A family vacation to Florida
   * Jason's official graduation from Utah State
   * A new job for Jason
   * Moving to Idaho and buying our first house
   * And anticipating the arrival of baby #2

Many things have changed for our family in course of one year, and I feel so extremely blessed to have two boys that take such good care of me.

Christmas 2014

The Christmas celebrations were especially fun this year with Beckham. The whole idea of Santa was very exciting for our 2 year old and the magic of the season was unforgettable for our little family.

The Friday before Christmas, we went to Story Time at our library and met Santa.  It was very cute and the kids there had a great time.  It took the whole hour for Beckham to warm up to the idea of speaking to Santa.  Right before we left, I took Beckham to visit Santa.  He did not want to sit on Santa's knee at all and preferred to hide his face in my legs.  However when Santa asked if Beckham had been a good boy, Beckham quickly said, "Yes!"  He also told Santa that he would like the "Monster Book" (The Monster at the end of this Book) for Christmas.  Santa gave him a candy cane and the library lady gave Beckham a very nice new book for coming.  How fun!  And, that was our experience with Santa this year.

Before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve.  That day I told Beckham that Santa wouldn't come to a dirty house, so he willingly helped me clean the entire house - top to bottom.  We also made cookies for Santa and waited for our Daddy to come home from work to head to Bumpa and Nanna's house.  We read the story of the birth of baby Jesus, ate goodies, played with the dogs Dacie and Duke, and thoroughly enjoyed the company of everyone.  Beckham opened a few presents that night, and then we headed home in the icy windy weather.  Beckham fell asleep in the car and an hour later (wow!) we arrived home.  Thankfully, it was just in time for Santa to come!

The next morning was absolutely exciting and fun for our little boy.  He woke up right about 6:30 - his usual wake time.  He came down the stairs to see the presents Santa left.  His first focus was on the animals and fences.  A few seconds later, he saw his requested book, and then his kitchen, and then his stocking, and all the sudden he couldn't contain his excitement.  Beckham squealed with delight and did a little victory dance too cute for words.

We played for quite a while in our PJs and enjoyed our time together on Christmas morning in our own house.  Later that morning, we went back to Bumpa and Nanna's house to enjoy the rest of the day with our family.  Beckham loved opening more gifts there and was sure spoiled rotten.  He was so happy to play the rest of the day at his Bumpa and Nanna's house with new toys.

That weekend, we traveled to the Hall family Christmas party.  Everyone was able to be there, which is quite rare, and we loved every minute of it.  Grandma made some wonderful food and entertainment for the whole time we were there.  Beckham and Daddy braved the cold weather and went sledding.  They had so much fun.  I mean look at those faces.

We also did the annual children's nativity, which was fantastic this year.  Beckham was a little shepherd (and quite uncooperative I might add!).  The costume did not last at all.

Most of the nativity, he was terrorizing the other children or visiting with Grandpa.  He was just so happy to be around his cousins.  Hopefully, he will be more cooperative next year.

The gift exchange was highly anticipated by all of the kids and it was fun to have so many people to help him open even more presents.  In the past few days, this kid got more gifts than he could imagine and he loved every one.

Later we took one gigantic family picture with everyone and that night we left back to our home.

It was our best Christmas yet.  We particularly enjoyed spending time with our family and remembering the baby Jesus.  Mommy, Daddy, and Beckham are a little sad to see the season end and are looking forward to next Christmas.

a few things about Beckham

Our little boy is growing up right before our eyes, and there are about a million things that I want to remember about him - right here, right now.  Maybe it is the fact that baby #2 is well on their way here, but the thought of this cute boy growing up so fast is making me a little sad.  I have been reminded over and over again that this moment in time will never happen again.  I am a stay at home mommy with ONE child to think about, play with, and focus on.  This time will be a sweet memory to me and I love every little piece of this boy.

Due to my broken camera (I'm weeping. Seriously!), I have had to rely on other means of photos.  My niece, Rachel, is a wonderful photographer, and all of the cute photos in this post are credited to her.

Here are a few things I love about Beckham at 2 years and 3 months old

*Beckham adores his dad. When Dad gets home, you can bet that Beckham is his little shadow. At night, Daddy puts Beckham to bed, and if he wakes in the middle of the night, the first word out of Beckham's mouth is, "Daddy." Beckham even likes to pretend to lift weights (or in his case dough rolling pins) just like Dad.  Dad has a really big impression on this boy.  He learns a lot from him. It is sometimes very difficult for this boy to say goodbye to Dad when he goes to work. He pretends to be Daddy all day long - wearing hats and talking on a phone (He tells me that he's working). Simply said, Beckham loves Dad and I don't blame him. Dad is pretty cool!

*Puzzles and blocks are this kid's forte. Beckham is really good at them and quite enjoys playing with them. 

*However, he still LOVES his superheros and animals.  We line them up every single morning and talk to them like best friends.

*In his playing, I find that he is playing more and more pretend games with himself.  It shows me what he sees us doing and trying to imitate those actions.  He is really good at cooking, going to work, and putting his stuffed animals to bed.  And, I am happy that those are the things that he is learning from us.

*Reading is this boy's happy place.  He loves to sit in our bean bag chair and have someone read to him.  He is quickly growing out of the simple board books and prefers to listen to longer stories.  He also enjoys reading them to himself and his toys.  I love to listen to him jabber away at the pictures and repeat phrases that I say in the books.  I am so glad that this boy loves to read. 

*Although I am considerably bias, I must say, Beckham is smart! He has his colors down.  Well, the basics.  He knows his numbers very well and is learning the alphabet right now. I am really impressed how well he knows his shapes too.  Beckham understands things quite quickly and he always amazes me with all the new knowledge he picks up.

*Beckham loves to play ninja, wrestling, jumping, running, and dancing.  He is an active boy, and I thank the heavens every day that he has Jason to play those things with.  I'm not too much of a wrestler, you know!

*Beckham says some of the funniest things! He definitely understands more than we think, and to prove it, Beckham will show me all the new words and phrases he has learned. Some of them are: "Oh me gosh!", "Fruitcake!", "Uh-oh spagettios!", "Dan' it", "Yeah. K!", "Pure awesomeness!", and "Stop 'at!"

*His response to, "I love you" is simply, "too."  It makes me smile.

*Beckham plays pretty well with other kids. He is quick to make friends and is getting really good at sharing toys. This makes his Mom's heart happy.

*Our boy loves to sing. He is a very good singer and likes to grace us with I am a Child of God and I Love to see the Temple. He knows all the lyrics to those ones. However, he also likes to sing along to the radio (head bobbing - mind you!) with Jason and me. Those favorite songs include: Home by Phillip Phillips, Upside Down by Jack Johnson, and Ho Hey by The Lumineers.

*We have a tease on our hands.  He finds laughter in teasing Mom and Dad and we quite enjoy that playful side of Beckham. Every time he teases and plays, he shows it in his eyes. He rolls his eyes or looks upward and smirks. He knows he is being silly and a tease. It makes us laugh. 

*Beckham has a kind heart. He is one of the first ones to notice a sad child and sometimes can't help but give that poor kid a hug no matter where we are. He expresses thanks for just about anything. Sometimes when his heart is just full and ready to burst, he hugs someone or gives them a kiss. Beckham really is a sweetheart. 

*He also has a bit if a tender heart. When he does something wrong, he sometimes  sits down and cries out of sheer embarrassment. We will tell him that it's okay because it was an accident, but he just wants so much to be a good boy. For him, nothing is worse than disappointment from Mom or Dad; it just makes his little heart break.

*Beckham throws the worst tantrums right now.  He really is a good boy, but when his world ends, the tantrums are huge.  It makes me sad, because no one can help him when he is out of control.  Most times, he actually puts himself in time out to help him calm down.   This is something that I am looking forward to outgrowing, but it has taught me quite a bit about myself.  Truth be told, we have some special memories together in that quiet moment after the tantrum when Beckham only wants me, and we can talk together.

*I love that Beckham knows about Jesus.  He tells me every day something about Jesus and that, "I 'ike 'im."  It simply melts my heart.  As of recently, he REALLY wants to be baptized like his cousins because that is what Jesus wants us to do.  He also tells me that, "Jesus wants keep commandments."  His current bed time story that only Daddy tells is David and Goliath.  Daddy talks to him about how Jesus is our friend and wants us to be good.  All through the day, Beckham retells me and his toys the story.  He also likes to inform me that he is a child of God and so is Mom and Dad.  He is a sweet boy that is always teaching us about our Savior. I love that he knows Him. 

I love having Beckham in my life.  He brings a lot of happiness to our little family, and we count our lucky stars everyday that this boy is ours.

Thanksgiving 2014

 Thanksgiving was spent in Lewiston this year with some of the Hall family.  As we expected, it was a fun filled weekend and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Beckham was reunited with cousins and Grandma & Grandpa, which is all a boy can ask for!  Really.

I am now just realizing that I do not have one single photo of the Thanksgiving feast, but it was delicious.  Here are few highlights from our holiday.

The reunion of Beckham and his cousins was simply wonderful to watch.  He loves each one so much.  He can't wait to be like the big kids and all sleep together on the floor in the family room.  Until now, he had to sleep with Mom and Dad.

Story time is something Beckham loves and story time at Grandma's house is significantly better.  I don't blame him.  I mean she is a pretty good story teller.  It was treat to snuggle up with Grandma and a few cousins (everyone want to be right next to her!) and read a book.

 Better yet, Grandma has some storybooks on her Ipad, which is truly a treat.  I cannot tell you how many time Beckham has requested that we drive all the way back to Grandma's house and read her special "Monster books" (sesame street) on her Ipad.  What fun!

 At Grandma's house, everyone congregates in the kitchen.  Grandma has wonderful food and caters to the grand kids.  They are pretty darn lucky.

 It was fantastic weather, which gave the kids the opportunity to play outside.  Beckham thought the trampoline was very cool and loved jumping for a long time on it with his cousins.  Thank goodness for all of his good cousins that helped him jump and played with him outside.  

We didn't get any pictures of it, but Beckham also went to the swimming pool while there.  Grandma and Grandpa bought an extra room at a hotel - there are a lot of us! - and that means the kids could all go swimming.  How fun is that?!  Beckham was a little fish and had absolutely no fear of the water.  He was ready to take off with his cousins and not look back.  One day.  It was a very fun way to end Thanksgiving day, and something Beckham still talks about.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and we were so happy to be with our family in Lewiston.   Thank goodness for a super Grandma and all her fun planning.  This weekend was one for the books!

Halloween Festivities 2014

Well.  Halloween has never really been my thing and last year I really did not do much with the holiday because of it.  Since then I have felt bad that my son missed out on some of the festivities, so this year I put together a simple advent calendar for our family during the month of October.  Even though I don't particularly like Halloween, Beckham deserves to make fun childhood memories during the holiday.  Throughout the month, we enjoyed traditional fall activities and I actually had fun with the Halloween activities as well.  Here are a few of the activities we enjoyed during beautiful October.

*First on the list was prepare for General Conference.  It's kind of a big deal to me and I love everything about listening to the prophet.  We made our traditional Cinnamon Twist and ate it much to fast.  Beckham colored pictures of the prophet in preparation for the event and we talked about how much we love having President Monson talk to us.  It was a good day for our family.

*I also celebrated my 26th birthday and Jason gave me the best gift of all.  We made a trip to see Cache Valley for a few days.  The weather was beautiful and it was the perfect time to enjoy fall.  We went up to the canyon with Grandma and Grandpa to see the pretty leaves.

*While we were there Beckham had his first every sleep over by himself.  He slept over at his cousins' house.  He loves them so much. To be honest, he could have cared less if we stayed with him or not.  Beckham waved goodbye to Jason and me like it was no big deal for him.  His first sleep over was a major success.

 *We put up Halloween decorations around the house and unloaded Beckham's trick-or-treat bucket.  He promptly put it on his head like this and explained that it looked like the helmet Captain America wears.  See he even has his shield too...

*Jason's work put on a Harvest Festival.  It was full of fun.  There was endless train rides for Beckham, painting pumpkins, and goodies.  Beckham thoroughly enjoyed himself and was sad when it was time to leave.  Notice Beckham's pumpkin has no paint on it, because it was much too messy for our boy.  Also at the event was a dunking machine and a mechanical bull.  Jason was dunked a few times by a few of his employees and took a spin on the bull.  Fun was had by all.

*We carved pumpkins.  More accurately, Beckham and I watched Daddy carve a scary face on our pumpkin.  The whole idea of gutting a pumpkin was disgusting to Beckham.

*Beckham went with me to the store and picked out his very own costume.  Spider-Man.  We quickly tried it on when we got home and had a difficult time convincing Beckham to take it off.

*Not pictured was our Doughnut Day (in total we made 80 doughnuts), making sugar cookies (turns out Beckham only likes the frosting), and learning out first Halloween song.

*Two days before Halloween, our ward put on the cutest Halloween carnival.  Beckham was thrilled to dress up and run around with other kids.  He got so excited to see Hulk, Cap, and Iron Man....too bad they were just other kids dressed up.  Beckham couldn't tell the difference!  We participated in a truck-or-treat after the party.  Beckham got quite a bit of candy and was pleased, but I think he enjoyed socializing with the other kids more than anything.

 Also, he didn't want to take the costume off for bed.  It took a few minutes of talking from Dad to let us pry off the beloved Spider-Man costume.

*On Halloween Day, we visited the library for the first time.  It was so fun for my little bookworm!  There was a cute story time, songs, and a craft for Halloween.  I really think this was like Christmas day for Beckham.  He l-o-v-e-s to read and look at books.  Plus some of his little friends were there too.  Afterword, we picked out a few stories to take home.  We read them over and over and over again each and every day.  We love the library.

*That night, we went to Bumpa and Nanna's house to celebrate.  It was good thing we did, because they know how to celebrate Halloween.  We had delicious scones, Halloween dancing, and trick-or-treat fun.

 In total we probably visited 5 houses.  After the last house, we had a bit of a melt down.  Beckham laid flat on the Burley road.  He was done with the whole Trick-or-Treating idea.  And that was it.  We ended our night on this note.  Grumpy and tired.  Hopefully he will enjoy running from house to house next year.

All in all, we had a pretty fun October and enjoy the anticipation of Halloween.  And now, I am trying to help this child understand that the festivities are over for a full 365 days.  He is still requesting to sing Halloween songs and get candy dressed up as Spider-Man.  Oh dear.

Big news

We are very excited to announce that another baby will be coming to our house!