Knock, Knock! Oh, Merry Christmas!

We spent Thanksgiving in Ohio with our good friends, the Muhlesteins. Visiting them is one of our favorite things and I'm grateful they always allow us to stay with them in their home.

Christmas this year was an unusual event. My dad had a gallbladder surgery scheduled for the week before Christmas, but because of some complications spent the week of Christmas in the ICU and then the week of New Years in the hospital. It was so odd not to have our patriarch for all the family events, but he let us visit him often at the hospital. He is home now and finally healing. He can't return to work for a few weeks so Steven and I have been enjoying having a Papa at home all day who can't do projects and just has to sit and talk with us.

Christmas within our little Stoddard family was wonderful. Steven finally got the idea of Santa and was so excited when he ate our cookies and milk. We normally do well restraining ourselves while buying gifts, but Steven loved everything so much and was so excited, we just couldn't help ourselves. I loved seeing my aunts and uncles at all our family events. It was a great Christmas for family, contemplation, and giving.
So the weather has been unseasonably warm this year. Steven and Adam play outside together when it does snow. I decided I should start the expectation early that Adam would go out and play while I make hot chocolate. Best decision I have ever made. Steven loves the snow and just sits out the window for daddy to come home so he can go play in it. Because, of course, my job is to make hot chocolate (as previously mentioned).
Lacey/Tracy: I thought you should know that you make a debut on our Christmas tree every year. It is about the best Christmas tradition I could have thought of. Remember that one time we planned our weddings together?

Steven's World

Mom and Dad Stoddard came to visit for a whole week. We loved their visit. They took us to Greenfield Village, which was amazing. My favorite was to see the working farm. There was a man who worked as the shepherd and he knew each lamb by name. It was evident to see his love for each one when he would pick them up for us to pet and he would scratch their head and give them a kiss. Just wonderful.

We took mom and dad to the sand dunes where we flew a giant kite and climbed the hills.








Steven and Adam love to play outside together. We bought Adam a soccer ball for Christmas. Steven held the secret for about half an hour before getting it out and giving it to Adam stating it was for Christmas. But it is worth it because the boys have been outside playing most days. Steven just loves playing with his dad. This is the two of them reading our favorite book: Bee Bim Bop, by ('Inda Sue Park, as Steven says)






Steven has been swiping our camera lately and it turns out he can take a good picture every 20 tries. It is fun to see what he thinks is note worthy and how it looks from his height. Here is a fish we were watching.

Remember Freshman Year?

So I have been a bit nostalgic for freshman year lately. You see, I work in the Young Women's organization at church and we just sent out our oldest girls to college, one to BYU, my Alma Mater. I keep thinking about how nervous I was to make friends and how cool everyone was. That first week I kept thinking, "it can't really be this fun all the time." But it was. I remember staying up till 3 in the morning most days because my roommate Lindsay and I stayed up late playing and then stayed up even later to study. All my journal entries are "I'm so tired... I've never been so tired." P.S. This is my freshman floor. Please note our incredible RA (and even better friend) Sarah to my right.

And our trip to Vegas?! Amazing.

I finally learned to drive in crazy traffic and cut people off.










I'm kind of glad you can't see most of the pictures on the hot date wall. All though, all those dates are pretty memorable. Like when Sarah, Lindsay and I climbed the Y and some guy crashed into it. Or that time we went up to Salt Lake for a day long date with a bunch of guys (Walker?) and we soaked our feet in the tub and took glamor shots. Only to later realize we were standing in front of a BED in all our pictures. haha.





Martinelli party. Enough said. Every freshman does it.












So I truly miss my freshman friends. Luckily, they are all still my friends. Aren't we adorable?

A few lasting freshman memories:
Jerica's amazingly awesome laugh

Sarah's beautiful harp music

Esther's quality listening and stunning personality

Any time spent with Dani and Colette-I think I want to name a child after both of you

Lindsay's sticky notes and pictures of the brain covering our entire room

And of course, Blair. I love all of our thought provoking conversations!

The end. Please don't judge me for being so sentimental.

Oh How We Love the Summertime!

Our big trip this summer was to the Ohio to visit our friends, Dave and Megan. They have two darling little ones who are right around Steven's age. Harry and Wyatt were nice enough to share their toys and bedrooms for a whole weekend. We went mini-golfing, boating, made fancy Italian pizzas, and walked around the temple. The entire trip was absolutely wonderful. Thank you to our gracious hosts!
Here are our boys all lined up watching a movie about trucks. Notice their lovely locks of blond hair.
GONE! We lined all those darling baby faces up and shaved their hair clean off. Sure they look happy now, but there were tears all around while the shaving was going. My mom thought Steven looked "terrible" with no hair.
So Steven is addicted to bike rides and I am afraid that I am also sold on it. We ride pretty much every day either to my parents or the library. He loves his helmet so much he sneaked into the garage and brought it in the house so he could wear it during reading time.
Adam celebrated a birthday this month. I am now married to a very old man. Since he is in love with angry birds, we decided he needed a cake devoted to it. I thought it turned out pretty well.

I have become a little addicted to making fun cakes. I've been doing Steven's cakes and this year added Adam's angry birds. But my friend Annie wanted help with her daughter's cupcakes to take to school so we did butterflies, sunflowers and something else I have forgotten. Then my niece asked me to make her birthday cake. My lovely mother-in-law suggested I put jello in the cake for a pond (it was a swim party). My mom made little fish and frogs to put under the jello. It turned out to be a ton of fun and me and Steven got all sugared up!
Steven getting reading for our Fourth of July bike ride out at Papa and Bubba's farm.
Steven and cousin Asher loved swimming at the farm. Steven can now swim with the best of them (with a life jacket on of course). He swam way out to climb on the floating dock with the older kids. It is way more fun to swim with a kid you don't have to hold the whole time. Seriously, best ever.

Happy Birthday, Little Bear!

Steven turned two this weekend. I held back most of the tears, but he is so grown up! It was a really fun weekend. He received this water table from his Grandma Di and Grandpa Scott. Steven and his cousin couldn't get enough!
We made Steven a train cake for the big party. He thought it was okay, but his cousins couldn't get over the fact that there was candy on the cake. We are so lucky to have so many fun cousins nearby and far away.
Steven with his cousins.

Steven's new favorite thing is riding the "tractor" with Papa. The other day I found him in my parent's shed, just sitting on the tractor, hoping for a ride.

We are so grateful for our little guy! I can't imagine a more wonderful child and blessing in our family.

Easter

We had a marvelous Easter this year. My parents hosted an egg hunt on Saturday. The little kids had their hunt first. Steven didn't quite get the idea and kind of zoned out once he found a sucker. But the big kids had a great time. My parents did an awesome job of having candy and hard boiled eggs along with a few toys.

On Sunday we hosted the big family dinner at our house. Everyone brought a dish so there wasn't much for us to do besides set the tables up. Sarah Jane brought some really neat crafts for the kids. You can see in the picture above that they were pretty darn proud of themselves.

I am very grateful we were able to celebrate the holiday with family and with our church ward. I feel like I have come to know the Savior more this year and have tried to apply His atonement more in my life. I am thankful for His sacrifice.
And here is my honey making some ham. Adam was in charge of the ham and did a marvelous job. Kudos, honey.
And finally, Steven tried using the potty last week. I don't think he'll really potty train for another 6 months or so, but he is definitely interested and likes giving it a try. He has been such a good boy. He has started speaking in sentences and loves to play, especially with Adam.

First comes love

My mixer has a new love...

My new blender. It is red and shiny and lovely.

Even Steven is shocked at how well it blended our wheat. I am so ridiculously excited. Our grain mill died a few weeks back and I've been itchin' for a new one. My sister has this blender so I've already been "needing" it since visiting her last fall.

Things in our house that cost less than our new blender:
Our bed
Couch
Piano
Steven (just kidding...)

That's it. I was just geeked out about the blender.