Friends Forever!

We got to watch "the cousins" Mack and Whitman while their parents had a quick trip to the happiest place on earth. (We will soon be taking advantage of the trade.) We had lots of fun with the cousins. Including but not limited to....

Dress up masks

Eating popcorn (It's better off the grass)

 (Unless there isn't enough, then you have to go in deep.)

Mowing the lawn and making squish faces

Pushing the shopping cart as a team. Lookout supermarket sweep.

Or maybe solo.

A few days later I caught them in daddy's flower box where they definitely know they are not supposed to be. You can tell they know they are not supposed to be there based on the smiles. 

In all fairness to Raegan, she wasn't breaking the rules initially, but jumped in when she saw how much attention Weston was getting. Attention for misbehavior? That's just bad parenting right there. 

This is a typical shot. It shows how whenever I am sitting down they like to come over and pounce on me until I move and they can usurp my spot. They are the worst! But oh so cute. 

Long Time Coming

I'm really slacking on the whole blog thing lately. I am really semi-certain that even the few people who read my blog could really care less whether or not I post. BUT I got a hair cut from my high school friend and her mother was there getting her hair cut at the same time and I found out she reads my blog. So I dedicate this post to you Sophie. :) 

Here are just a few out of order pics from my last post through Valentine's Day.

Carolyn had a party for some of her favorite little people for Valentine's Day. (I always want to shorten it to V-day, but that is a different holiday and I don't want people to get confused.)

 One of the prizes Raegan got was this giant pencil, which she loved for all it's short life.

 Just chillaxin gansta style (aka no shirts)

On the aforementioned holiday, the AZ museum for youth had a curious george party, including cookie  decorating, a fire truck and curious george himself. I like that Raegan was feeding Weston yogurt. Sometimes she is a good big sister... sometimes.

The kids were bananas about this fire truck. They seriously did not want to get out. I will only post a couple pics, but I took about a thousand because they were so into it.

 Love the blurry pics.

This is back to the Val party.

Different day- Raegan making homemade pretzels with her cuz Jonas.

Playing in leaves

Hanging with the other cuzes and swinging on their front porch swing. Mack is so GQ.

More to come.... someday?

I ordered a canvas print. It was some kind of online limited time facebook offer thing. I had to fill the order by Dec 31 and I realized I didn't have any pictures that I wanted to blow up that big. So I tried to take a good picture. Fail. But luckily my sis-in-law Lauren was willing to do some face swapping for me and I was able to get this one. Except why didn't I notice his crazy hair before I blew it up life-size? Oh well. At least the smiles are cute. 

This was another try. I like the green grass,  but they were not enjoying their moment, so it didn't work.

For my Christmas present, MIchael decided to take me on a much needed weekend away. Tracy and Cody watched the kids (and then got sick from them, sorry) and we went to stay at the semi new Talking Stick resort. We got a really great room at the tip top of the hotel with the most amazing views you've ever seen. We were surrounded by golf courses. Pictures of course don't do it justice. Oh and please ignore the super ugly girl in the picture.

 Here is a panoramic shot. One whole wall of the room opened up. Floor to ceiling window/doors. Amazing. It was so nice to get away. Even though we were sick. Have I mentioned that the whole family has been sick since Jan 1st? But it was still nice. We ate a TON! We went in the hot tub. We saw the Hobbit. We went to a dueling pianos show. It was lots of fun.

And here are the kids enjoying a little iPad time together. Love angry birds. :)

Christmas Morning

If you thought the pics in the last post were blurry, prepare to be amazed. It's my own fault for not using the live view. Anyway.... Here are the photos that capture Christmas morning. It was fun and magical as it should be. One of the few benefits of having children. This year was especially fun because it was the first year Raegan really "got it". She loved everything Christmas and knew all the songs and whether or not they were "church" Christmas songs or not. She watched all the Christmas movies repeatedly, especially the Nutcracker, which I've already mentioned. Anyway.... she was very excited for Santa. But I was happy because she only asked santa for "presents" and didn't get more specific than that. Good thing. She also loved opening presents and wanted to help everyone open their presents. She got just as excited for everyone else's presents as she did for her own. There was much jumping up and down. Weston was just along for the gravy train. 

Holiday pictures are always the best because of the "just woke up" look. Not sure how she even saw her presents. Here she is helping Weston to open his presents.

Confession: I actually returned some of the things I bought them after I had given them. I wanted their stockings to be full and for them to have lots of new exciting things to look at. But after everything was all over I took some of the stupider toys (see tambourine above) and "moved them". When the kids didn't notice they were gone, I decided to return them. Don't judge!!! We have way too much crap as it is! And it wasn't anything exciting.

Here I am piecing together my present from Michael. He printed a picture of the hotel he was taking me to and cut the pieces into a puzzle (very intricate pieces I might add, which were rolled up and wouldn't lay flat) and put those pieces in balloons and blew the balloons up and scattered them across the room. I had to pop all the balloons and put together this puzzle. This is not the first Christmas he has used this tactic on me. He is a man of mystery and wrapping presents is just not good enough. :)

Weston got this truck from Nonnie. He LOVES it. So does Raegan. It's still an inside toy.

Santa got him this popping toy thing. (Not sure what it's called) And don't think I didn't contemplate returning this monster! But I think they would have noticed. Plus he likes it, so what can I do?

Happy boy

Happy girl

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Card Pics

Every year we have to get the whole Dickerson family together for the Christmas Card picture. It is a day no one looks forward to, but it's always nice to have the pictures afterward. The blurry pictures here were taken by yours truly. The in focus ones were taken by someone with a brain, apparently. But I'm including the blurry pictures because they are cute anyway.

She sure loves her uncle Tyler!

 I love her face in this one. Something was hysterical!

And this was the best one of just our little family. I'm not including the picture of the whole family.

Christmas Hodge Podge

Raegan discovered the nutcracker. The actual ballet on DVD (we borrowed it from Grandma). She loves it and dances around to the whole thing. It's adorable. 

Terrible horrible picture. But for documentation purposes... Michael and I went to his work Christmas party at the Buttes. It was great. Always fun to have an excuse to get dressed up. The skirt even has a fun train. My friend Janae did my hair.

Raegan and Weston were snuggling and watching some Christmas cartoons. It was adorable.

My ward made these trees for an activity day thingy. The kids had lots of fun decorating it. But mostly Weston just pulls everything off.

Christmas PJ's. My kids love taking pictures with a flash, can you tell?

The annual Shumway family Christmas party. Weston was a sheep and Raegan was an angel. It was adorable!