MY AMAZING, WONDERFUL, FAVORITE CHRISTMAS PRESENT!! -made by my Caseo

Casey for weeks has been telling me that I will love my present, that he made it, and that I didn't ask for it. All these things combined made me a little nervous, but still very excited! I was going through all kinds of different possibilities in my head of what it could be. I was guessing he was making nightstands because I've been wanting matching ones for a long time.

Well, I never would have guessed this!!



I honestly had no idea that he could make a bed set! He once explained to me that he could and how he would go about doing it, but I still didn't believe him. The only thing I'd seen him make was my shelf so this completely amazed me. He is so talented!! I love it!!!

And I need to apologize to him for getting annoyed with him "working" so much. He was actually making my present! I felt horrible when I realized this. So the next time he tells me he's got to work more I'm going to be expecting something. :-)

Christmas Eve

My family has a couple Christmas Eve traditions that we never miss. One is reading the nativity story before bed. I love reading of our Savior's birth. He is what Christmas is really about.
The other tradition is this:

Here we are eating at none other than chuck-a-rama. We like to prove that it's not just for old people.

We made a short visit to the Egbert side on Christmas Eve and this is what happened:

Ryan, Dad E., and Casey all wrestling. This was funny because for a little while the boys were actually beating Dad E! Only for a little bit though, he ended up pinning them both.

9 Months!

She's growing up! Yesterday Jocey turned 9 months old. She is constantly learning new things and figuring out how to get her way by throwing little tantrums that are still pretty cute.

She now drinks out of a cup all by herself.

She loves to play with the soccer ball.

She loves the Christmas tree! She talks to it all the time. It's so cute!

This is the new face she makes when we are feeding her. She scrunches up her nose and squints her eyes, then sniffs in and out. We think it's pretty funny. We laugh hard.
It may look like we are the worst parents by letting her drink out of a glass cup, play with plugged in Christmas lights, and play with glass ornaments, but don't worry. No accidents... yet

Gingerbread Houses

Last week we made gingerbread houses with Casey's family. I love this tradition and look forward to it every year. Casey really wanted to do his own this year, so I did mine with my sister, Mariah. Casey says I'm too slow at deciding what to do. He is right. In fact, Mariah and I never completely finished ours because we were taking so long. But we did do some cute things like a chimney, a wreath, steps up to the door, and pots of flowers beside the door.

The beginning. You need to make sure your foundation is sturdy using lots of frosting. You don't want the roof to cave in.

Sam and Jess (Casey younger siblings) in the process of decorating. They are seriously some of the funnest people I know! Love them!

So, Ryan (Casey's younger brother) doesn't know how to make a normal gingerbread house. Only Mexican gingerbread houses, or a redneck gingerbread trailer last year. I guess I'll give him credit for being creative. Besides this might be his last year without a girl (friend, fiance, or wife??). Kyle, the oldest brother, figured it out for the rest that it doesn't work to try out anything other than a cute gingerbread house when you are working on it with your wife. His Jamaican jail was anything but cute. But this year, Erica was Ryan's partner and she was a good sport. :-)

Casey with his completed house! I love it! I'm kinda jealous that I can't say I helped on this one because it is possibly my favorite so far. He was brilliant and used wheat thins to make the shingles on the roof. (You can see mine and Mariah's house in the background, not even close to looking done but I think we stopped there.)

We now have a guest room

Jocelyn is moved into our room and we've made her room into a "guest" room for my sister who has been staying with us for the past couple weeks. She'll only be here until January, but we all have been loving it! Jocelyn gets so excited when Mariah gets home from work. Casey has been Mariah's personal comedian/tease. Mariah and I have been coming up with fun dinner ideas, making Christmas presents, and staying up late talking. We absolutely love having her here!

Jocelyn loves her Auntie M

Casey made this shelf for me

I have been looking for a big shelf to go above our "new" (Casey's family's old) TV, since after cutting off the whole top part of our entertainment center I've had no where to put decorations. Casey surprised me one day and made this shelf for me. It is exactly what I wanted. He's the best!

Finished!

This semester I took two online classes. Being the procrastinator that I am, I didn't even start one of the classes until the end of November. It was hard fitting in time to watch 34 hours of my class online, do homework, and take 8 tests in the last few weeks, but I did it! Thursday, I took my last test ever (or at least a few years)! Yesterday, I submitted my last bit of homework. And today, I finally have time to clean my house, play with Jocelyn, make dinner, do a little Christmas shopping, maybe watch our netflix movie that we've had for 3 weeks, and catchup this blog. I am just so happy to be done! I want to go back to "just" being a mom all day- no more of this school stuff. All I have left is preschool teaching next semester (hopefully), then I'm really done.

I hope she gets used to this

Jocelyn's hair is curly. It's so cute and I love it! I "do" her hair by spraying it with water, then putting baby lotion in it as a gel. She's to the point that when she sees the spray bottle she ducks her head and starts to blink funny. I think it's hilarious. And she loves to drink the water in the spray bottle. Today when I was giving her a bath I noticed her hair is getting longer and floats around in the tub. I decided it was a good day to try out pigtails. It was a success! She will be wearing pigtails alot more often! Yahoo!

Then we went to Walmart. She's a good little shopper and loves to see everything. We went down the toy aisle and she went nuts. Talking and screaming at all the bright toys. And I was talking to her and playing as if no one was around. (Which of course there were lots of people around. We were at Walmart afterall.) We were probably pretty entertaining to see.

Look at the little pigtails! I loved how her hair curled over them!

I took a billion pictures- I just couldn't help myself.

Little update (Sorry if these get boring- they are mostly so I have it written down): Jocelyn is a little over 8 months. She now claps, waves bye bye, stands up against furniture and tries so hard to pull herself up, says dada (I think she knows now what she is saying), and she wears size 12 months! She has us wrapped around her little finger. No crawling or teeth yet- we're okay with this. She's such a happy baby and we love her.

A girls gotta have her shoe collection, even at 8 months old

I have a love for baby shoes. Before Jocey was born she already had 4 pair of shoes. The problem is Jocelyn's feet are not the average chunky brick-like baby feet. They are long and skinny. They've been that way since she was born. In fact it was one of the first things that I noticed and thought looked really funny on my "perfect" little newborn. Three of the four pairs of shoes I bought Jocelyn have been too fat for her feet. The other day I tried on these ones and ta-da, they fit! After my discovery of them fitting we went to Target and tried on at least 5 more pairs of shoes. You can bet she'll be getting at least one pair for Christmas.

Apparently they also taste good. :o)

I was brave and tried again

We had a great weekend/Thanksgiving! We were so lucky to have 3 Thanksgivings in a row. On Thanksgiving we were with the Egbert family up at the cabin and had a huge feast including 2 turkeys and a ham! Then Friday Jessica, Erica, and I did some shopping. I have been wanting to try out skinny jeans so Jess and I went on the biggest shopping day of the year and bought ourselves some for only $15! Now I just need to get my courage up to wear them. :) After shopping we went to the Finch (Casey's mom's family) Thanksgiving. And to finish up the week we went to my family's Thanksgiving on Saturday. I have to admit there is something about my own mom's cooking that made me like it the best of all three. Shh... don't tell.

And, drum roll please, my Pie turned out!! However, not without another spill all over the car seats. I guess I'm just not supposed to make pie. Anyways, here it is all done and ready to eat. Casey wants it to be his birthday "cake" every year, so I better get good at making it without spills.