Every year we have a big dinner with the extended family on Josh's mom's side. The turkey dinner was wonderful. We always do a couple of pinatas afterwards. Brayden had a fever all day and wasn't feeling good, but was very excited to hit the pinata. Since he is the youngest, he got to go first. Unfortunately, one of the adults took the bat from him just playing around and he got very upset. So he never got to hit the pinata b/c it was too scary after the adult was pretending to hit it. :( He was even too timid to get the candy after the pinata broke open.

After the party we headed home where the kids got to open new pajamas. Brayden still had a fever and wasn't feeling good, so we gave him some medicine and put him to bed. Who knew we were in for one long night...

On Sunday, Dec 21, we got together with the Ericson extended family. We brought food to donate to the food bank, had a yummy soup dinner, tied quilts to donate, and enjoyed the evening talking and spending time with each other. It was a lot of fun and we got some great family pictures.

I can't believe our little Brooklyn is already 4 months old! We feel so blessed to have her sweet spirit in our home. She is full of love and joy and reminds us daily what is important in life. She loves to smile, laugh, and watch her crazy brother bounce off the walls. She loves to roll over and play on her tummy. She holds her head well and has already started trying to scoot herself across the floor. She loves playing in our exersaucer and on her play mat. She eats well, sleeps wonderfully, and is so much fun to play with.

This is the second year we have hosted a christmas party for some friends in our ward. We had 8 adults and 7 kids under 4. We had lasagna for dinner, ice cream pies for dessert, and then we had a white elephant exchange. The kids had a lot of fun playing together, let's just say it's a good thing we have hundreds of balls because each kid wanted to carry around atleast 3 for themselves. It was a fun night, and although we might all end up moving this year, we hope to get together again next Christmas!

2 weeks ago we had quite the week. All 4 of us had the same yucky cold, Brayden got an ear infection, both kids had pink eye, and to top it off Brayden had an allergic reaction to the medicine and broke out in hives. Not a fun week! On the bright side, however, we are doing much better just in time for Christmas.

We put up our tree the week before Thanksgiving, but I didn't buy the ornament until a the beginning of December. Brayden picked out the ornaments, hence all the blue "balls." We had a lot of fun decorating the tree. He loves to lay under it and look up at all the lights.

A few weeks ago we went up to Kaysville to visit my friend Monica and her little girl Elise. While there we frosted sugar cookies. It was Brayden's first time and he loved it. Thanks Monica for a fun day!

On Sunday we spent the evening at the Ericson's. Josh and I were at the piano practicing a song for our Christmas program when we heard Brayden on the couch behind us saying, "Money! I found moneys!" We didn't think much of it since he is always finding money and putting it in his pocket. Next thing we know he is running around saying, "I chewed the moneys! I chewed the moneys!" Josh's mom said as she was coming around the corner she saw him hack once or twice before exclaiming that he chewed the moneys.

We weren't sure if he really did swallow coins, so I decided to take on the fun task of checking for it. I read online that it takes about 24-48 hours for coins to pass, and sure enough! I found them both! I won't include all the fun details, but I was shocked to see how they changed in color. No more moneys Brayden!!!

(The first pic is of the penny. We, obviously, found the one on the left. It is now a multi-colored penny. The second picture is of the dime. Click the pictures to enlarge them - it is fascinating. I still can't believe the dime turned gold! I wonder how much a gold dime is worth...)

I finally have started taking Brayden back to Gymcats. My goal is to take him every other week through the winter. He loves it. Amy Trimble brought her 2 little kids and Brayden had a lot of fun with Jaxon. Eventhough 80% of the time Brayden jumped on the trampoline, we all had a great time. He is getting a lot more coordinated and is starting to do more on the other other equipment.

Last Thursday we went with my friend Kim and her 2 boys to the Festival of Trees. We had a wonderful time. Brooklyn loved looking at all the lights and Brayden loved seeing all the different trees. He especially loved that there were so many BYU and Jazz trees. He was very quick to point those out to me. Towards the end he got a little hard to handle when he found the soccer ball tree and tried to pull off the balls and play with them. Thanks Kim, Garrett, & Zach for spending the morning with us!

"Mom come here." (I follow him into the kitchen.)

"What is it Brayden?"

"Mom sit in the chair."

"Ok. Now what Brayden?"

"Mom watch Brayden eat."

I'm not sure why he wanted me to watch him eat, but he was so cute I had to sit and watch him eat!