Tessa and Family Pictures

Christmas Adventures

Happy New Year!

We're home! It was a fun trip, but we're glad to be home - all except Cory. This is what's known as Black January, and it's looking pretty gloomy already. Lots of tests and it's time to kick the Boards studying up a notch. Hopefully we'll make it through! This is the official invitation to come and visit us, the girls and I would love the company and extra help during the next few months.
I've been trying to unpack and clean. It's sort-of difficult with a baby that is spoiled from being held so much over the last few weeks and a little girl that wants me to play with her and all her new toys! But we're semi-clean and unpacked and Christmas decorations are down, much to Emory's dismay. "Where are my Christmas Trees!!!"
We had a great trip and did a lot of fun stuff. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at my house. Emory had tons of fun opening presents and playing. We zoomed up to Logan for the Hulse Family Party and it was nice to see some of Cory's family that we hadn't seen for a while. We stayed in Logan till the 29th and loved spending time with all our Grandmas and Grandpas. Emory went skiing for the first time and true to Maughan form, was a pro! She loved it so much she didn't want to quit. She actually fell asleep while skiing!
We went back to finish our trip in Salt Lake. We went sledding, had a party with the Radfords, and played a ton of Wii and Rock Band. I am officially addicted to drumming! It is so fun!
Thanks to all our family and friends and the good time that we had, and all the spoiling you did!

Santa Picture!

Emory is super proud of this picture, and because Mrs. Claus is holding her, she thinks that Mrs. Claus is the one in charge of presents etc. I think she's probably right about who's REALLY in charge of all the North Pole shenanigans and making sure that Christmas turns out okay!

Emory's Back!

My sweet little Emory is, well, sort-of back! She's still a two year old but she's being a lot better lately. I have a few stories that I want to share that made Cory and I pee our pants with laughter:
The Wise Men
As I was setting up our nativity of course my little helper/hurter, Emory, wanted to be right in the middle of it. While we were putting everything in it's place, I was telling her the story of Christ's birth. When I got to the wise men and told her they were bringing presents to baby Jesus for his birthday, she looked at the wise men (who are holding various containers, one looking like a pitcher) she said, and pointed to the guy holding the pitcher, "He's bringing Jesus 'spicy'!" Spicy around our house is also known as soda pop!

Super Why
If you haven't heard yet, my daughter is obsessed with Super Why. It's a PBS program that teaches kids their letters etc. I can't say enough good about it as Emory knows all her letters and most of the sounds that they make. Anyways, she has named everyone in our family a character from the show: Cory - Super Why, Rachel - Alpha Pig, Emory - Wonder Red, and Tessa - Princess Presto. She might call me mom one minute, the next she calls me Alpha Pig without any hesitation! A couple days ago, she runs into our room and yells "We have a super big problem . . . Super Why is missing!!" She knew he was at school, and still she launched a full investigation. We searched the whole house, checked the garage, looked outside, and then finally called him to see where he was. She made every movement just like the show! We even sang the "Hip-Hip Hooray" Song when we solved the problem! I was dying the whole time!

The true meaning of Christmas
Last Saturday we went to our Ward Christmas Party. They had a huge delicious breakfast and games and Santa came. As we were getting ready to go to the party, I told her that we were going to the church for a party and that she was going to get to sit on Santa's lap to tell him what she wanted for Christmas (semi-preparing her so she wouldn't freak). She looked over at me and said "No, mom, no . . . Jesus first!" It brought tears to my eyes, and made me feel like maybe I'm doing alright, as a mother.
PS She did great on Santa's lap, and we'll post the pictures soon.

Isn't this the most beautiful picture of the Salt Lake Temple that you've ever seen?!?! I may be biased since I'm from Salt Lake and that's where I was married, but . . . I've been wanting this forever and Cory brought it home last week as an early Christmas present. I LOVE IT! It's super big too, this little picture doesn't do it justice.

Anyways, life continues to be hectic around here. I bore my testimony in Sacrament Meeting last week and I guess I said something along the lines of "loving my children, but often times wanting to throw them out the window!" The next morning my visiting teacher came and took Emory away for the morning and then Emory went to her best friend Seneca's house today, while Tessa and I got some Christmas shopping done. So if your sick of your kids, threaten harm upon them in front of a congregation of 350 people and you'll get some relief! It's been nice for her to get out and do her own thing. Cory's been practicing for the 1st year vs 2nd year annual football game and is getting pretty excited about it. It's supposed to rain again this weekend so the girls and I might not get to go. Sad!

Skim boarding

Well, we had a ton of rain the last day and a half so our park across the street filled up with water. Since we moved here, Cory's wanted to skim board over there and finally he got to! The other videos are of Em and Tess singing and playing in Emory's bed.

I also forgot to say in the last blog that when I took them to the doctor last week, Em was underweight as usual, but Tessa weighed over 11 lbs.! I was in such shock I didn't pay attention to the ounce part. I'm so surprised because she's been a really fussy eater lately. She also started smiling back before Thanksgiving, and we're loving it! It's all she wants to do, sit up, look around, and cheese-it all day long!