All I want for Christmas...

This year was our first year celebrating Christmas just as a family. We celebrated Christmas with Blake's family and my family prior. No in-laws/family, no friends, just us on Christmas morning. We really didn't know what to do...

 It was a fun five minutes!

Knowing before hand that we would have Christmas to ourselves we said this would be a practice year. Practicing to see what traditions we wanted to keep or add additional. Christmas dinner on Christmas eve with the reenactment of Luke 2 was a must for Blake, we spent it this year with Chris and Amy and all the little cousins. Christmas morning was pretty much the same for the both of us growing up so that'll stay the same; open stockings, eat breakfast, then to the presents, opening one at a time around the circle. Breakfast being Russell Goulash, Blake's version. I want to do presents a little different. Growing up we would have a Christ centered devotional type thing Christmas eve but once I woke up Christ was not on my mind for the duration of the Christmas season. I had heard of this idea wear Santa brings you 3 gifts to remind you of Christ and the reason why we get gifts, because Christ received gifts when he was born. One of the gifts would represent Gold, one represent Myrrh, and one represent Frankincense.

Gifts of Gold. Gold was a gift fit for a king. A great symbol it was for Jesus to receive such an offering from the wise men, as he is indeed the King of kings. The gift the is received as the "gold" gift should be something that is of great importance to suggest how valuable your child is to your family. Something the child would really value.

Gifts of Frankincense. In Exodus, God specifically requests that frankincense be used as a sacred incense in His temples. The gift that is received as the "frankincense" gift should be something spiritual or along those lines. Example, scriptures, journal, church music, church clothes, etc.

Gifts of Myrrh. In ancient times, myrrh was used to scent oils, perfumes and embalming liquids. Jesus being born that He would die for us. John 19:39-40, Nicodemus anointed Jesus with myrrh as part of his burial preparation. The gift that is received as the "myrrh" gift should be something for their body.

I think this is a cool idea but we haven't decided what we should do for our family.

I'm probably making Christmas too hard. I just never want to hear my children cry or whine because they didn't get what they wanted or it wasn't exactly what they wanted. I don't want Christmas to be centered around the gifts. I want Christ to be the focal point but I do want it to be fun. 

How do you make Christmas Christ centered and fun??

On with our Christmas, Russell tradition we eat out at a Chinese restaurant. This is Blake's favorite Russell tradition and insisted that we keep it. 

We also went to the Temple Square so Elsa could see the lights.It being freezing, she still loved it!

Elsa also loved opening presents, well she loved playing with the wrapping paper and curled ribbon. She now loves playing with the toys she got. It was fun sharing this time with her and Blake.
We had a wonderful Christmas!!
Thanks everybody!! We love you!!

The article that I found that explain each of the gifts I found in a forum at Babycenter.com so you have to scroll down a bit to find it or you can also find it  here . It's called Begging for Myrrh by Trina Conner Schaetz.

Who does Elsa look like?

I saw this picture last night and I could not believe my eyes...

Elsa with red hair...

Blake was a pretty cute little boy and I'm fine with Elsa looking like him then 

but the ending product... 

I love my Blake!!

9 Months

Elsa is nine months and still such a perfect baby.
We really have had nothing to complain about.

This last month has been busy...

At the beginning of the month we took a road trip to visit family for Thanksgiving, here's the run down of the trip:

Friday - left early in the morning and drove 10 hours to Pheonix, AR

Blake has a friend that lives there and was getting married,
Blake was the best man.

Checked in to our hotel, ate and hung out with Blake's friends.

Saturday - Wedding... I've never been to a wedding were the bride said "Woot-Woot" and "Word" during the cerimony... lol, to each her own I guess...

Elsa and I left the reception early (9pm) for bed time, in the van. Blake was done "partying" around 11pm and we headed off to MO. After switching every 2-3 hours we made it through the night!!!

Sunday - We/Blake drove and drove, etc.

Here's Elsa in Kansas about 13 hours in...

 

 

20 hours of driving we made it to Grandpa Thackeray's house in Lenexa, KS that night. Elsa did such an awesome job!! She didn't fuss at all!! Besides the normal hungry or sleepy cues she was wonderful!!! Amazingly she even took normal naps. The trip just confirmed Elsa is the perfect baby!!

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the rest of the vacation. I'm hoping I can steal some from the better parents that were there.

The rest of the trip went like this:

Monday - Left Gpa Thackeray's and drove 45min to Liberty to hang out with my sister, Micah. My sister, Micah, is so wonderful she went Thanksgiving shopping with me (Tiffany was but her sweet little babies were sick). Two shopping carts full later we made it alive!! Did I mention it was for 30 people? And that doesn't include 20 pies that were bought the day of (Did Doug end up eating them all?)

Tuesday - Hung out with Micah some more, we were in a Quiet Book group and had a page exchange party that morning (if you know what a Quiet Book is you know it's a task to try to make one yourself, so we got together with 9 ladies total, each making two different pages and making them 9 times, by the end everyone has 18 different pages and only had to think about 2 of them, it's cheaper too!)... and waited for my mom, Evan and Tyre to get home from visiting my aunt in Nauvoo... they made it!! My mom, Tyre and I spent the rest of the day brainstorming and  shopping for decorations for the big Thackeray event. Hint: Don't buy Fall decorations at Thanksgiving time - they don't exist. Thank goodness my mom had a lot of it already!! I love planning stuff like this with my mom, its so much fun and it's something she's super good at. It's fun to see her work her magic.

Wednesday - Woke up early to do some last minute errands and headed up to the lodge in Lawson to decorate and set up. Grandma Thackeray was having an important birthday this year so all of the family (kids, their spouses, grandkids) got together to surprise her for this birthday.

It was a grand surprise!! We had great fun being with each other and celebrating this great time of her life!!
Thursday - Thanksgiving!! Great food and wonderful company, what more can you ask for? I am so grateful that Blake's family let my mom, Evan and Tyre spend Thanksgiving with us too!!
Friday - People started throwing up... it's was aunt Neesha's day off and since we hadn't been able to see her yet we decided to visit her. So much fun!!! Back at the lodge more people were getting sick so we decided to stay the night with my mom(Grandma Dee).
Saturday - We head back to the lodge... I spend most of the day over the toilet... everyone decides to check out of the lodge early... the few of us out-of-towners left stay at Grandpa Thackeray's place.
Good thing the sickness that was going around was just a 24 hour thing so by the time we headed back to Utah the next morning I was feeling close to great! Elsa was such a good sport and she didn't get sick!! I feel so sorry for the little babies that did.
Sunday - Left early, drove the 15 hours to Utah with great weather until we hit the mountains and even then it wasn't that bad until 20 minutes from home. It always seems to happen like that, the last stretch takes longer than the rest of the trip. We made it home and happy!!
It was so great to see everyone and meet little Eliza and Sawyer!! I really wish I had gotten a picture of all six of the babies together. It really was great to be with everyone!!
  Elsa couldn't have been any better, she took great naps, she woke up more at night than usual but who doesn't when they are not in their own bed, her first tooth even popped out while we were there. She was so happy to be with other babies! Something she doesn't get a lot of at home. Over all it was a fantastic trip!! Thanks everyone for making it unforgettable!!!

Since we've been home Elsa has gotten other tooth...
we've just had a few cranky days and rough nights but Elsa is doing well with getting teeth. When they are easier to see Ill put up a picture of her Goonie smile.
(Babies getting teeth always reminds me of Sloth from the movie Goonies)

As for crawling Elsa doesn't have a clue... she can shimmy on her bum if it's just out of reach but it's seems impossible for her if it's any further. She loves to stand if your holding her fingers, other than that she really doesn't know what to do with her legs.

Elsa also had her first hair cut! Not much but a little off the back. She would get some nasty knots after sleeping. Although it didn't eliminate all the knots it's more manageable and I don't have to be the mean mommy that makes the tears.

We always have so much fun together!!
Papa and Elsa built their first fort together!
 Elsa loved it!

 

We might have enjoyed it more than she did...

Elsa loves to rock on her little rocking cow. 

It's so cute to watch her go to town on it.

Elsa likes to help her papa study for finals!!

I can't believe another semester is soon to be over.

  

This was such a good month!! I couldn't imagine anything else that would have made it better. 

Catching Up

Things have been super busy the last couple of weeks and blogging has not been a top priority. I never got around to post Elsa's eight month post so you'll get just a little one to catch up.

This is also mainly for Blake because I never got this video up and he is so proud of it!!

 

A familiar picture... papa in his chair... after a long hard day at school of course.

Elsa still loves to play and chill with him as he winds down from his day.

 Elsa is such a good sitter! She doesn't need anymore help.

Elsa loves to drink from cups... no matter how big they are and how wet she gets.

Trick or Treat!

I love Halloween! Growing up my family would always dress in themes and my mother would make our fabulous costumes, wither we wanted them or not. I love the tradition (well, now I do and appreciate all that my mom did!) and want to bring it into my own family, but with an open mind that public school and "maturing" can be hard and be sensitive to those feelings. I spent all summer trying to talk Blake into dressing up with Elsa... he finally said yes! I have the most wonderful husband that spoils us so much! I was so excited to dress Elsa up! The more I thought about it I realized that our church wasn't having any kind of Halloween party, Elsa won't remember anything/can't really go trick-or-treating, Blake really didn't want to dress up and just said yes to make me happy, and I already had so much to get done in the next few weeks.  I really didn't have any good reason to the whole costume thing, so I decided not to do anything. Halloween got closer... and closer... a week to go and I couldn't take it! Elsa has to dress up for her first Halloween! 

 Saturday, we dressed up and went trick-or-treating. We walked around to the front of the house and knocked on Jim and Ramona's door, Elsa's first trick-or-treat!! Next we went to Blake's girlfriend next door, an older lady that he dose a lot of handy work for and always seems to be gone to her place. She just loves Elsa!! She thought I was a turkey (I'm a flower if you couldn't guess) I didn't wear my headband the rest of the night. Then we went and visited Grandpa Russell and Blake's sister, her family and her in-laws. Elsa was such a good sport and was a happy girl even way past her bed time. Sunday, we had a party with all the Thackerays and Elsa dressed up for that too! We had such a fun Halloween!!

   

 My pretty little Bumble Bee!

 Because Elsa was such a good girl Papa decided to reward her with all sorts of Halloween treats. Her favorite was the mini lollipop.

Let it SNOW?

We had a surprise when we woke up this morning...

still in our jammies we put on our hat and boots...

 and ventured out into the white wonderland!

Our view is so pretty when it snows!! The whole valley is white!

 Elsa wasn't so sure about the cold white stuff mommy calls snow.

 The snow didn't last long, all four inches melted by lunch time.

I'm not sure if I'm ready for winter...

Rollin' rollin' rollin'

Elsa learned that she can now get to anything she wants!!

This milestone is making me feel more sad than happy. This is only the beginning for my little baby... she's not a little baby any more. I don't know if am ready for her to be able to run away from me but it'll be great when she can run to me! The happies out weigh the sad for sure!!

Seven months

 Elsa turned seven months old just as fast as summer turned to fall. 

It was sad packing all of the cute summer clothes away, but new adventures a wait us in the new season.

Elsa can stand all by herself!

 

Just joking, but she loves to roll around! 

Elsa figured out that she can roll on to her tummy and that she likes it!!

She loves to go back and forth, watching how the scenery changes and seeing where she can end up.

Elsa found her tongue!! My very own lizard!! 

It's so cute to to see her wag it around as she makes her little talking noises.

She's taken an interest in my tongue as well and can't seem to keep her little fingers out of my mouth.

Eating big girl food is always a blast with Elsa.

We introduced her to those puffy snacks and since she didn't really know how to handle the tiny things, she had to improvise.

Since then she has mastered picking them up with her hands and getting them into her mouth. Elsa's favorite foods are peas and squash. Got any ideas on other types of finger foods for her age?

 We are having to be more careful as to what's around her, I underestimate her reach. It always seems to length with the desire to consume.

Elsa loves it when her daddy comes home from school. She shouts for joy and climbs upon his knee!

Daddy lets her help play video games.

Elsa amazes us everyday with the new things she is learning. It so fun to watch her little fingers find a new toy or fiddle with the tags on a new toy, which is her favorite! She loves stuffed animals to chew on and furry soft blankets to snuggle with. 

We love our little Elsa Louise!!

Joys of being a Mommie

Isn't it sad that you spend every minute of every day with the cutest little girl in the world and only have 2 pictures of the two of you together? The first you look like crap because you just gave birth to her and the second a family picture.
This week I decided to change that!

Who wouldn't want to spend every minute with this face?

For the time being Elsa is MY little girl.
This past week she has done something everyday to melt my heart.
One day I went grocery shopping, when I got home arms full of groceries I passed through the living room saying hi to my sweet baby and husband being careful not to drop anything. When I vanished from sight Elsa started crying. I couldn't go any farther. I dropped everything and cuddled my little princess.
Another day I was doing dishes and Blake walked in the kitchen with Elsa. I leaned in to give her a kiss and she reached for me!! I had to hold back the tears because I knew Blake was a little jealous and I didn't want to rub it in.

Being mommie you have first row seats to all the latest tricks and new finds.
Nothin' but fun!
 
Because papa is too prickly I'm the only one that can get kisses.
Well, she really only does it when she's hungry and she knows papa doesn't have anything for her but I'm the mommie I can call them whatever I want.

Elsa also loves to blow raspberries. It's so cute when she mimics you.

Elsa gets a little silly when she gets sleepy.

She's still a little wobbly but is starting to get the hang of sitting up.

Elsa loves to be outside! Whither it's going on a walk or just playing in the grass.

Elsa loves the feeling of grass in her toes and loves the feel of it on her fingers. In Utah we don't have to worry about chiggers!!

Pretty Princess!!

I love spending everyday with Elsa. Each day holds new adventures!! I'm amazed that such a tiny little person can fill our home with so much love and joy.
I know one day soon Elsa won't be able to get enough of her papa and want nothing to do with her mommie so I'm enjoying all the hugs and kisses I can get now.
I love being a mommie!!

* I know mommie is spelled wrong. It's a GrandMommie Russell thing.

6 months!!

Children really can measure time in how much they have grown.
So much happens in such a short amount of time.
Elsa is half way to being a one year old :(
Hopefully the next 6 months won't go by so fast but we will still cherish every moment!

Elsa is really turning into such a big little girl. If that makes any sense...
It seems like there is so many new things happening at this time in her life, it feels like she is such a big girl.

Can I say how much we enjoy and love our little Elsa enough?
She is the brightest star in our lives, her smile melts my heart every time!

Its amazing to watch her become stronger everyday.
Look what I can do with out any help!!

Do worry we don't leave her unattended on the bed.

Elsa has taken over her Papa's heart... and his chair.
We sit her down in the chair but she would rather lay down and relax.

It is so cute to listen to all her sounds!!
She started talking real baby babble it is so cute and it's so soft, as if she is talking to herself.
She loves to scream as loud as she can... as high as she can.
It's so funny to listen to Blake try to mimic her and it is such a blast to spend all day having screaming wars. Is it bad to say she already gives me headaches?

Our little punkin had her first cold and fever :(
She was not letting it get the best of her. She tried so hard to play and be herself but you could tell she did not feel very well. After snuggling and resting with mama she would attempt to play again. We tried to put her in her jumperoo to cheer her up but she would just lay her head down as if it weighed a ton.

She was even trying to play with the toys.
My poor baby. It was so sad to see her so down.

Like I said Elsa is starting a lot of big girl things this month.
She got a high chair! Still a little too small for it and can't quite sit up by herself.

Why does she need a high chair?
Because she started eating baby food!

Besides getting it in her hair and all over her face, she's doing pretty well.
She doesn't enjoy the spoon very much but she'll drink it just fine.
She's not liking the jarred fruits but is doing pretty well with cereal.

And for dessert...
Blake loves to share his otter pops with her, only if she promises not to be a sugar brat when she gets older. I guess I'm the one that will have to be the mean parent when it comes to that.

Elsa truly has Blake wrapped around her little finger. It is so adorable to watch Blake choose an outfit for her, fix her hair, pick out accessories, and then pick a matching outfit for himself. He's better at it than I am.

I love my little family!
I love where we are in life and I know it will continue to get better!!
I am so blessed!

Summertime Softball

This past summer Blake played softball for a couple different leagues.

It's so fun to see him doing something he really enjoys
and that he's very talented at.
It was so amazing to see him diving through the air to catch a fly ball and to watch him smack the balls out of the park.

Elsa loved cheering for her papa!!

Blake and I also played for the ward softball team and
we won the tournament!

Happy Birthday Blake and Duncan!!!

September 4th!!
This is one of my favorite days. On this day we celebrate the birth of two very important men in my life... Blake, my amazing husband, and Duncan, my sweet baby boy.
Duncan, two years ago blessed our lives with his arrival into our family. Although we didn't get to keep him very long on earth we know we will be able to spend eternity with him and are so blessed with the love and joy he left with us.


Blake turned 26 and still as handsome as ever!! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband! He works so hard for our family, in fact he worked on his birthday. He is always willing to help anyone and everyone and we are so blessed he is so smart. He can do anything!
For his special day we went to a friend's house to watch the BYU football game. BYU won!
Elsa modeling her BYU ribbon skirt!

Blake blowing out the candles on his birthday cake!

Thanks to years and years of working at Baskin Robbins I was able to pull off this all ice cream cake (cookies'n cream, blake's fav).