A Crockett Christmas

So confession time. I have a serious problem. I seriously can't wait until Christmas to open presents. Well really it's no secret. I especially enjoy having my family open early the gifts I get for them.

And so a couple weeks before Christmas I convinced Wesley to open the gift I got for him. And so for the second year in a row, Wesley got his presents early. (I imagine there will be many more years just like it). And I just have to say, opening gifts early totally doesn't spoil the fun...for me.

In order to convince Wesley (who would prefer to wait until Christmas morning) to open his gifts, I had the kids open their Christmas ornaments at the same time.


Here they are, my family. So cute.



The kids especially enjoyed the fact that Wesley's gift came in a diaper box. We all had a good laugh.


(No Jared wasn't the present)

Sadie's First Ornament


Right before we left for Oregon for our Christmas vacation Jared lost his first tooth. A totally cool experience for both him and us.



At my dad's.




This is a typical scene at my mom's house.

The boys playing Wii and the girls beating up on Papa Larry.

So this is totally childish, I know. But it was also so much fun to run around in hundreds of circles laughing at the sheer fact that this was so dumb. Yes my brother did get video taped wrapped for Christmas.



And I just love walking into the room to things like this. Sadie is definitely her daddy's daughter.


Back at my dad's we decided to go for a walk on his property.


Sadie is excited to be outside.


Then about an hour later.

Look at those Crows Feet! Yikes I'm getting old!


Isn't she cute!


FINALLY, Christmas morning!



We did hold out and we decided not to open some of our presents. But you can definitely bet they were shaken and rattled. :)

Sadie was so tired from all the excitement of presents (really I'm not sure if she was aware of what was going on) or enchanted by the Christmas lights that she promptly fell asleep by the tree.



On the way home from Oregon we went to the Hagerman National Fossil Beds. Well just the visitor center.





Then we came home to discover Santa had come.



He even brought Sadie baby food.



Novalee's "Easy Baker" :)



Jared's Rocket


Awww Christmas!



Not that this post isn't already long enough.

Today the kids built this.



Which turned into this.


I guess that is just what happens when it's too cold to go outside.

Now That Christmas Is Over

Now I can post some photos of things I made recently. Some of them were Christmas presents so I had to wait.


First a nursing bib. I love making these. They are so easy.


Then I made this apron which I was super excited about because I just made it without a pattern.



But I thought is was a little plan, so I added a little fun. My first attempt ever. It was a little intimidating but it turned out okay.


I'm actually excited to make another one. :)


Then I had this extra tulle from Novalee's Halloween costume and I kept thinking that I would never use it and I should just throw it away. (The only reason I kept choosing to keep it was because I thought I would eventually make a barbie dress from it.) Well as my dad would say, long story short, I'm glad I kept it.

Because Jared's stuffed animals were driving me crazy. Well at least picking them up off the floor everyday.



Jared likes it.

Plus now I just tell him that if he wants to play with his stuffed animals, he needs to put them back in the net. Which I think he kind of likes doing.



When we drove to Oregon at Thanksgiving the weather was bad, really BAD.

It reach 2 degrees outside and Meala our dog had to hang out in the back of the truck. Which worried us and so at the 2 degrees point she ended up hanging out in the cab with all of us. Which was very uncomfortable.

So I made her this for the trip at Christmas.


Which is cute. But she hates it and we never needed to use it. Oh well.

While in Oregon I learned how to crochet infant hats.

Here's number one.



And 2, 3, 4, and 5,


Wesley asked me on about the third one if this was going to be my new "THING."

I'm not sure how to take that, :)

What My Kitchen Looked Like Today

That's all. :)

What I Did Yesterday

After a whole week of not sewing anything. I took out all of my fabric and sorted through it. Though you would have never been able to guess, it was organized. :)


I went to Make It and Love It blog to this tutorial and made this:





And one for crayons:





And one thing I've been wanting to make again, for a long time, was my plastic garbage bag holder. At one point we owned a gerbil (biggest pain of a pet ever) who chewed holes threw my old one.



The new one I like a lot more because it has elastic on the bottom unlike the old one that had lace. Also it has a larger opening on the top of this one, to make it easier for stuffing in bags.



And just for fun I thought I would try and make a donut (brand name, Boppy) for Sadie.



Sadie sure does like it.







I have more plans for today but since it is already noon, I probably won't get to them today.

What Do You Lose When You Stand Up?

Well if you went to elementary school you would know the answer.

For those that didn't go (I hope everyone did) the answer is: your lap. :)

Tonight I was thinking about my lap and wanted to remember my thoughts, thus a blog post.

I'm at a stage in my life where my lap seems to be continuously filled with a child.

The majority of the time it is filled with our sweet three month old Sadie, who demands a lot of physical contact. I love holding her, smelling her sweet baby scent (even if most of the time she smells a little sour from spit up) and I love feeling her soft cheeks on my neck where she loves to rest her face.

A little less often but still often enough my little Novalee crawls onto my lap and cuddles up. She is so cute. Many times she just wants to pretend to be a baby so that I will give her some of my attention that she now has to share with her little sister. There are even times when both girls are cuddled up on my lap at the same time. :)

And on a very rare occasion even my six year old will climb up onto my lap and gently put his arms around me, softly say, "Mom, I love you" and he will stay there while I rock back and forth as if he were a little child again. I know that as time passes he will want to be on my lap less and less. But for the time being, I love the gentle and calm moments with him.

I hope I have many more years filled with little children climbing onto my lap.

Motherhood truly is a blessing.

Sadie's Three Months Old

Yesterday Sadie turned three months old. She celebrated the day by being super fussy and needy. Yay for Mommy! :)

She spent the majority of the day demanding to be held.




During a moment when she didn't scream in protest when I put her down, I took these photos of her.





She loves holding onto a blanket. She just realized she could pull things to her face and mouth. Great for her. A little worrisome for her parents.



On Monday this week, she decided it was high time she rolled over and surprised us all at the beginning of Family Home Evening by rolling over for the first time.

Don't believe me. Here's proof.










Now if you would like to see the video of her rolling over, that is totally fine. But I WARN you, you will want your mute button on. My high pitched squeals in the background are more than annoying for you and EMBARRASSING for me. :)





Note to self: NEVER, EVER talk again during a video recording. :) Seriously

Now she does it like a pro and holds her head up so high!



Check out her crazy/cool hair!



Yesterday we also went to the Gateway mall to see Santa. While there we checked out the light show outside. Overall Sadie had a pretty cool 3 month celebration! :)

Before going to the mall to talk to Santa, Jared and Novalee roll played the experience. Here Novalee is telling "Santa" she wants a dolly for Christmas. So Sweet!

Happy Three Months dear Sadie. We love you and can't stop kissing your chubby cheeks. As Daddy always says, "We hope you like kisses because you get them a lot!" :)

Wishing You a Merry Chirstmas From the Crockett Family

Dear Family and Friends,

We wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas.

Christmas season is a great time of year for so many reasons.

The number one reason is our Saviors birth and what it means for all mankind.

During the Christmas season there is a special feeling in the air. A feeling of Love and Peace. Feelings given to us by the Holy Ghost testifying that our Savior, Jesus Christ, was born at this time of year, long ago. He came to set the perfect example for us and to sacrifice His life so that we can all live with Him and Heavenly Father again.

The Christmas season also gives us the opportunity to reflect on the experiences we had throughout the year.

As is typical of a family Christmas letter, we wanted to share with you some of the things that we did this year.

Here is our year in 12 bullets:

1.On December 29th 2009 (two days before the turn of the year) we found out that we were pregnant! We were so excited, thrilled, nervous and a whole bunch of other emotions that come with news like that.

Showing off my baby bump. Which would get much, MUCH bigger!

2. Novalee celebrated her third birthday.

She likes chocolate. :)

3.Wesley studied diligently for Part 1 of the National Boards of Optometry and PASSED!


4. We found out we were having a girl! I had been secretly hoping for a girl. Wes and I actually made a bet on if it was going to be a boy or a girl. As usual, I won. Not that it was a competition but if it had been, I would have won. ;)


5.In May Wesley began his 4th and final year in Optometry school and began his clinical rotations.

This is all I had to represent this. This was taken after Wesley's 2nd year. :)

6.In June Jared graduated from preschool, stating his goals for the future were to become a magician. :)


8. July 2nd we added Meala, our black lab, to our family. For the most part we complain that she is a pain but we secretly like her.


9. In August, at 38 weeks pregnant, we packed up our things and drove and drove and drove. Our destination, Tucson, Arizona where Wesley worked on his 2nd clinical rotation and we lived for three fantasic months.



Things we did while there:
a)Had our car broken into and our tire slashed. :) Seriously, it happened.
b)Visited the Saguaro National Park
c)Visited Pima Air and Space Museum
d)Had a baby (See Number 10 on this list)
e)Went inside the Colossal Caves
f)I got stung by a wasp (several times)
g)We all got poked at least once by a catus.
h)Got friendly with preserved animals at the International Wildlife Museum
i)Loved the Reid Park Zoo
j)Blessed a baby
k)Wes shot a deer from 408 yards away.

10. September 9th one of the greatest moments of the year came with the arrival of our dear Sadie LuAnn Crockett. We can't seem to get enough of her.


11. November 9th, once again we packed up our things and drove. This time the trip was shorter. We arrived in Bountiful, Utah where we will be staying for the next six months. We love it here. We love the mountains, our apartment, and just about everything else.


12. For Thanksgiving we got the opportunity to visit family in Oregon. After driving 18 and a half hours through a blizzard we arrived safely there. We loved spending time with our extended family. While there Wesley took Part 2 of the National Boards...let's hope he passed. We will find out in about a month and a half. Also Jared celebrated his 6th birthday in Oregon. 6! Can you believe it?


We had a great and amazing year! We have had so much fun and so many new adventures. We feel we have been so blessed this last year. We feel grateful to have such a happy and healthy little family. We hope you had a great year too.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and the best the New Year can bring you!

The "Kissing" photo.

Why? Because we're Crockett's and it's tradition. :)

Wesley, Brandy, Jared, Novalee, and Sadie baby.