and a Merry Christmas too!

I just decided to do this in two posts, so see below for our Christmas Eve affairs.

Christmas is such a magical time. This year was the best Christmas so far because I got to watch the joy in Cannon's eyes as he was surrounded by people that love him. It was surreal as I helped my baby open presents. He is such a blessing and the best present a mom could ask for.

Cannon was absolutely spoiled this year. He barely even knows what's going on, but he sure loved seeing all the pretty packages. He especially loved chewing up the wrapping paper and bows.

Grandma and Grandpa Stewart got this Exersaucer (aka baby paradise) that he could spend all day in if we let him. He loves it. He can jump and spin and it sings and rattles and does all kinds of amazing things.

Grandma and Grandpa Becar got him a TJ Bearytales bear that talks and moves and tells stories. Cannon thinks he's a little friend to play with and pokes him and yanks on him a lot. It's cute. Guess you had to be there. He also got a little ball popper thing that throws balls into the air and then they roll down a little slide thingy. It's cool. He likes that a lot too.

Here they are with Cannon.

It was fun to be with both of our families on Christmas. We kind of shuffled back and forth all day. We loved spending time with everyone we love. Through all the craziness of having visitors and trying to juggle presents and events, we just feel so blessed and lucky to have such supportive friends and family. I can't think of a better way to spend a day than lounging in my pjs and laughing, celebrating, eating, giving, joking and just BEing with family.
Here's one of the three of us on Christmas morning. Jarom held the camera and I pushed the button. :)

I don't want to forget that the purpose of the Christmas season is to celebrate the birth of Christ. He has given me everything and for that I am eternally grateful.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve

Christmas is over. I have taken down my digital Christmas decor and I'm ready to get back to reality. But, first I will tell you about our Christmas holiday.

Jarom's family came from Cali. and stayed with the Becar's in Taylorsville. We were so glad to spend some time with them. We started out Christmas Eve by taking the Cali Becar's snowboarding up at Sundance. My brother and dad joined them. They did GREAT for first-timers and Dawn Noel was a sport. :)

From l-r Brady, Dad, Dawn Noel, Ammon, Jordan

Cannon had to get in on the action and we let him watch them come down the hill. He was so cold but stayed in a good mood long enough to get a picture.


He had a minor tantrum right after this which resulted in our speedy trip down the mountain to the Stewart's for Christmas Eve dinner. It was SO yummy. Grandma W made this soup that was amazing. It was some sort of chicken with white beans and lots of basil. The Davis family (my mom's sister) was there so we had a blending of Christmas Eve traditions. We usually have fondue for dinner, but that was switched for the Davis soup tradition. We also usually read the Christmas story from the bible. That was modified for a reenactment of the Nativity. Cannon got to be baby Jesus and Jocey made an ADORABLE Mary.

Then, we opened our traditional Christmas Eve pjs. Ummm... Cannon had some too. He just wasn't in a pj mood. For some reason, he HATES getting into his pajamas. Then we had baklava for dessert and watched Christmas movies like the Grinch before going to bed.

Rise and Shout!

I watched from home as Jarom cheered on the cougars to a narrow victory against UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl. He got to fly down to be with his family. His little bro. wore a Santa suit and was in a lot of newspapers and on TV about 5 times (we counted). In this picture, which was the front of the sports section in the Deseret News, you can see Ammon (in the suit) and Jarom in the bottom left-hand corner. Yay honey! I was so excited because I did see Jarom on TV once. They had GREAT seats on the 4th row and it sounds like the had a blast. Jarom came home without a voice if that gives you any indicator his level of excitement. :) What a game!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Half Birthday, Cannon!

I had a little party on Sunday with just my parents, siblings and family. I know some of you may consider it not a major thing, for some reason I am SO excited for 6 months. We are half-way to a year and why not celebrate?

I made my very first non-sheet cake. I'm a bit proud of it if I do say so. It was a canolli cake. Canolli is an Italian pastry tube filled with creamy goodness, it's also a little nickname we have for Cannon. I thought it was fitting... also it was yummy.

We ate baked potatoes and homemade chili. Very good and perfect for a cold day. We also had a crisp salad and rolls.

My parents even brought gifts... a big teddy bear and Cannon's stocking that my mom and I were working on. Okay, she mostly worked on it. I ironed! Have I mentioned my mom is amazing? For some reason I didn't get a picture of Megan. SORRY MEG! I put together a little slide show in iphoto. It was kind of long and I tried to upload it to youtube to no avail. I'll keep trying because I really worked hard on it and I'd love to share it. Maybe you'll get the condensed version. :)

We really had a lot of fun. It was just nice to share my excitement with my whole family. They were excited too and didn't think a half-birthday party was weird at all. That's why I love them.

Happy Half Birthday Big Boy!

Hair

One thing I've always loved to do is hair. I always wanted to go to beauty school and I just never did. Maybe someday I'll do it, but then again, who knows. My favorite thing to do is fancy hairdos for special occasions. I did my SIL's hair for her wedding, Haley's for a pageant, and a couple of other things here and there.

Whitney had Preference on Saturday and asked me to do her hair. I had a blast doing it and it turned out so pretty. It doesn't hurt that Whit's a beautiful girl to start with. She looked so gorgeous for her dance and she said she had fun. I'd just like to share how she looked. Isn't she GORGEOUS???

6 Months!

He's not actually 6 months until Sunday. I just wanted to do this post before the weekend, because we have a lot to do before then. I took these yesterday morning. Every morning we get to snuggle in my bed for about an hour before it's time to wake up. It's my favorite part of the day. Here are a few things he's doing these days:

*Rolls all over the place.
*Squeals and says "BABABA"
*Gets up on his hands and knees and lunges for things.
*Gives "kisses".
*Laughs when he hears my voice.
*Smiles at daddy.
*Sits on his own.
*Stands with help.
*Tries to pull himself up.
*Sticks his tongue out ALL the time.
*Tries to grab everything in front of him.
*Loves to hear stories before bed.

Anthony & Duncan

I got to do a little photo shoot with Erica's boys. Anthony is 3 and Duncan is 7 months. They were SO cute and that little Duncan is so smiley. I hope she finds some good ones to use for their Christmas cards. This was my first official photo shoot for someone else. So fun! Click on the picture to see it bigger. They turned out small. There were SO many cute ones, but I didn't want to overload it. :) Speaking of photo shoots, Cannon turns 6 months on Sunday. I've got to get some cute ones of him this week. Maybe I'll just give it up and go to Sears. :)

p.s. I tried to do some in color, but for some reason when I brought the pictures onto the blank page for a collage, they ALL turned B&W. Hmmm... just another kink I need to figure out in photoshop. :)

This is a test.

I'm just playing with my new toy. I've had a lot of fun and figured out some new tricks. I have a LOT to learn still.

Merry Christmas to ME!

Santa came a little bit early this year. Well, actually Jarom just couldn't contain his excitement and called me not five minutes after he bought it to tell me that he had. He used to be really good at keeping secrets.

Photoshop Elements is the dumbed down version of photoshop. I actually have regular photoshop on my PC desktop. However, I LOVE my Macbook and I needed something for it. In fact, I don't think I have downloaded my pictures to my desktop in MONTHS. I'm SO excited to start playing with it. Jarom wanted to wrap it up and make me wait until Christmas! I informed him that if he was going to spoil the surprise, then I get it now. Hehe... I'm such a brat sometimes.

I had planned on getting the rest of our Christmas shopping done today. But, I just know that as soon as I put the disk in, I'll be consumed for the better part of a day. ;)