Lead me, Guide me

Eliza has been singing to her dolls lately. It is so cute. I will hear:

"Lead me, Guide me, Walk beside me, Help me all the way.... Lead me, Guide me, Walk beside me, Help me all the way..."

As soon as I hear that, I know she is swinging her baby doll in the carrier that Grandma Walker gave her. It's really cute.

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I know she will be such a little Mommy to our baby boy. Whenever she sees a baby, she tells me, "Mommy! a baby!" and "Mommy holding a baby." She will follow the mother around asking to hold the baby, with her arms outstretched. :)

When we were around a little baby today, she was sitting next to me and we had a long conversation about the baby... Eliza said things like, "Baby cute!" and "Baby crying". She was very excited when the baby was looking at her and told me multiple times, "Baby looking at me!" and when the baby smiled at her, Eliza was so happy and giggly! "Baby smile at me!" :)

....and I'm a little bad sometimes....

Yesterday I was explaining to Benjamin what it means to be named after someone. It started because Benjamin always thinks that Eliza's middle name is Carabell instead of Carol. (so funny!) I told him that her middle name is Carol, and she is named after Grandma Sterzer, whose middle name is also Carol. I explained to him that we gave her the same name as Grandma Sterzer so that she could always remember what a wonderful person Grandma Sterzer is and try to be like her. Then I told him that his middle name is named after Daddy, because that is Daddy's middle name. He can be just like Daddy because they share a name. And that his first name is named after King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon, and that will help him remember to be just like King Benjamin, who was a wonderful, righteous prophet.

Anyway, he thought about that for awhile. Then after a few minutes, he said:

"But Mom, I'm not like King Benjamin. Because I didn't stand on a tower. I'm not dressed like him .......And I'm a little bad sometimes. ...And I didn't live in the scriptures."

Eliza happened to giggle about something right then and Benjamin turned to her and said, "It's not funny."

snow play

A few days after Christmas, we got some great snow. We bundled up the kids and played in the front yard for a while.

Jed pulled them around on the sleds.... That's a workout!

Ben was loving it.

As for Eliza... Is this the face of pure enjoyment or what?! :)

In the picture to the right, Eliza isn't kneeling. Those big marshmallow pants make it look like that, though. :)

We kept getting lots of snow, and so the kids and I went out a few different times to shovel the walks and walk around in the snow. It was fun!

Christmas Day 2009

Christmas morning! Lined up at the top of the stairs, as is tradition!Seeing what Santa brought us!

Santa brought Eliza a pack of plastic bracelets, Grandma Sterzer gave her a pink fairy skirt, crown, and wand, Grandma Walker gave her a silver purse with a flower on it, and Aunt Melanie gave her a blue Cinderella purse, necklace and gloves...

... She loved it all! Here she is decked out in all her feminine glory!

Grandma Walker gave Eliza this grocery cart for Christmas, and it was so funny how Benjamin was super

excited to fill it up with all our produce, pretending they were at the grocery store. Here he is enthusiastically raiding our refrigerator. haha!

Benjamin and Jed had a blast playing with the Basketball hoop from Grandma Walker. Every time Ben made a basket, Jed would run over, whooping and cheering, and lift him up to touch the ceiling. Ben loved it. :)

Here are a few cute pictures of Eliza playing with her teaset.

This gift was a BIG hit!

At the close of Christmas Day, we watched the 5 minute Nativity video produced by the LDS Church. It is wonderful! It was nice to end the day with a reminder of the incredible birth of our Savior, and what a precious gift He was to all the world.

The kids sat in their new seats (Santa's matching gifts to them) and thoroughly enjoyed watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing a few songs afterward.

We had a wonderful day. It was relaxing and fun, and it reminded me of what a blessing this cute little family is to me!

Christmas Eve 2009

For Christmas Eve we went over to our friends' house and enjoyed the evening together. Since we weren't able to be with family this Christmas, I was very thankful that we could spend this special evening with good friends.

We had a yummy dinner of Clam Chowder and french bread, and then we went down to the Christmas tree and reenacted the Nativity Story, played a fun little 'Pass-the-Gift' game, read The Polar Express, sang carols, read Christmas stories, and snacked from the homemade candy I brought to share. (My mom always has multiple trays of homemade Christmas candy and shortbread cookies sitting around during our Christmas Eve program. I couldn't help but bring some to our little party. :) )

For the reenactment of the Nativity Story, Benjamin and Eliza were designated to be Joseph and Mary.

Here is Mary giving her baby a hug. She was so funny during the reenactment - she kept wandering around while the Angel was trying to prophesy to her, and so the Angel (Kaly) kept having to follow her around. :)

One of our friend's traditions is to listen to the audio storytelling of The Polar Express, while we all look at the pictures. As you can tell from below, Benjamin was absolutely ENTHRALLED. It was so cute! I didn't even know the story of The Polar Express, and it was fun to listen to it while the kids were all entranced. At the end, the children all got to ring their bells if they believed, and it was so fun! The week after Christmas I was at Pier 1 Imports and bought eight cute jingle bells and then the other day I ordered our own copy of The Polar Express and audio cd. Benjamin loved it so much that I thought this would be a tradition we will keep!

Before bedtime, we took a picture of the kids in front of our Christmas tree. Doing this two years in a row makes it an official tradition. :)