Briggs Christmas 2008

This was our first year spending Christmas away from our families. It was a little weird not being together. We missed the traditions and being with them of coarse, but it was actually kind of nice to have a quiet Christmas at home with our little family this year.

The kids had a fun time helping me decorate. Corbin reminded me to turn the Christmas lights on each day.


Tressa and I made a gingerbread house this year. Corbin kept trying to eat all the candy, so we had to banish him from the project.


Tressa learned some new Christmas songs at school and got to perform them for us at their "Christmas Praise" concert. She was so excited to be on the stage! She was beaming at us and waving between songs. It was really cute.


We went to see the lights at RHEMA with the Carneys and they were kind enough to take our family's picture. The kids had a blast running around and pointing out their favorite colors, except for Corbin who was fussy because I wouldn't hold him the whole time. (He's been super clingy lately...maybe in anticipation of the baby's upcoming arrival....but we've actually seen some improvement in that department lately....thank goodness!)


Christmas Day was really laid back this year since we didn't have to do any running around to visit family. It was really nice to let the kids open presents at their own pace. They spent the whole day playing with everything they got. This was the first year that they were both old enough to know what was going on and be excited. It made it more fun for me and Jason too.

They loved finding all the little treasures in their stockings and they were both pretty exuberant unwrappers this year.







They were just as excited to watch Mom and Dad open presents. Here's Daddy giving them hugs to say thank you for his new wireless Rock Band guitar.


Here's Corbin with a motorcycle he'd been eying in the store for weeks and a new remote control train.




The one item Tressa consistently asked for this year was, of all the things you could want, a bath robe. I'm not sure why she wanted it so bad, but she was sure excited to get it. She ran to try it on immediately.


Corbin's main gift this year was a train table. He is VERY into trains right now. We found a couple stores in town that have display train tracks set up for customers to play with...we were getting a little tired of taking him there every day...it's all he wanted to do. We were expecting a big reaction from him when he walked into his room and saw it all set up. It was kind of funny because he didn't have an immediate reaction. He just went straight to playing with it as if he was afraid it would suddenly disappear. After a few minutes it finally sunk in and he got really excited...he was practically skipping around the table. It was hard to get a good picture of him because he was so focused on playing. This is the best I could do.



Tressa's main gift was a wooden doll house. It's big enough for Barbie dolls to fit in and the furniture is so cute. She has been loving it! Even Corbin likes to play with it sometimes. I wish I'd had one when I was little. They make the best toys now.


They also got a school bus tent from Santa which they love to play in together. I had to get a shot of Tressa's staticky hair after hours of play.


That evening we had some friends over for dinner and games. It turned out to be a really nice Christmas.

Tressa is 4!

Tressa turned 4 a few weeks ago. We had quite the celebration this year. She had a family party while we were in Utah, then we took treats to her preschool and celebrated with her classmates and she also had her first friend party. She LOVED being the birthday girl!

We had both sides of the family over for her birthday party in Utah. It was fun having everyone together. I was getting frustrated at Tressa though because she was being so grumpy and just not acting like herself...I thought maybe it was because she had just gotten up from her nap or was maybe a little overwhelmed by all the attention, but found out later that she just wasn't feeling very well. She held it together until almost everyone had left and then she spent the next several hours throwing up! Poor thing...I felt bad for being upset at her.

It really was a fun party and I think she still enjoyed it despite her upset tummy. We did a Barbie Princess theme. My Mom found some cute decorations and a pinata and I got her a Barbie Princess cake with huge roses on it (roses were part of Tressa's criteria for "the most beautiful cake of ever"). She got some really nice gifts and felt really special having everyone there.

Here's Tressa and cousin Rachel (who didn't leave her side) by the cake.


Tressa's cousins were all eager to help her open her presents and see what she got.


Tressa wanted her piece of cake to have a rose on it. I should have clued in that she wasn't feeling well when she hardly touched it. She's wearing a special birthday crown in this picture that Rachel made for her.


Uncle Jordan held the pinata (he was glad it was the kind where you just pull the strings to make the candy fall out).


At the end of the party Tressa wanted to try on her new Sleeping Beauty clothes that the Pemberton's gave her. She came down the stairs looking like this.


It was literally less than 5 minutes later that we were in the bathroom over the toilet. I barely got her dress off in time. Luckily it only lasted that one night and she was happy and healthy for the rest of our trip.

She had school the day after we got home and wanted to bring treats to share with her class. We made sugar cookies and decorated them with different kinds of sprinkles.


Tressa loved having me and Corbin come to her classroom. She was being really cute about showing her little brother around and telling him all about what she does at school. I brought her a crown/headband that said "Birthday Queen". Her teachers lit some candles for her to blow out and all the kids sang Happy Birthday to her. She felt pretty special having her moment in the spotlight at school.


It was really fun watching her with all her classmates.


Round three of Tressa's Birthday marathon was a Kindermusik birthday party with all her friends. This was her first year having a friend party and she was so excited about it. She helped me make the invitations and put together the party favors, which we tied to balloons in the colors she picked out (pink for the girls and green for the boys).


She also picked out her own cake. I let her choose whatever she wanted in the catalogue at Albertson's. She chose a castle princess cake with figurines that she could keep. It even came with a sash and tiara!


Everyone seemed to really enjoy the party. They got to play instruments, sing, dance, hear a story and even play with a giant parachute.




After the cake all the kids swarmed around Tressa as she opened her presents. It was funny to watch them inch closer and closer with each present she opened. They were all so excited...it was really cute.


Tressa is such a good girl - she really deserved every minute of the week-long celebration. She has always been my little helper and is so thoughtful and responsible. She tries really hard to choose the right and she loves being a good friend and big sister. She amazes me. We love you so much Sweetie!

Turkey Day Trip

The kids and I went to Utah this year for Thanksgiving to spend time with family (poor Jason couldn't take enough time off work so he stayed home). The past couple years we've gone to Utah for Christmas, but we knew I'd be in my third trimester at Christmas time this year, so we opted to visit at Thanksgiving instead. It's always nice to be with my family. They absolutely spoil us when we're there. My Mom always goes out of her way to make us feel at home. She had our room all set up, toys for the kids to play with, their favorite foods in the cupboard and she volunteered to babysit several times. I got a much needed break.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house where we enjoyed all of our family's traditional festivities.

My mom and sister, Emily were wonderful chef's...


Zeke (nephew) helped too...


My dad carved the turkey, it smelled delicious...


Tressa snitched the olives and put them on her fingers (just like we did when we were kids)...


Corbin was thoroughly entertained by uncle Tony (my youngest bro) and the cool train set he brought over...


After dinner the kids were a little restless so uncle Tony took them outside for a quick game of football. It was pretty cold, but they needed to get out and run around.



Later when things calmed down a little Grandma read a few books to the grand kids

and we played a rousing game of BINGO...with prizes and everything. BINGO is a tradition in my Mom's family and we really get a kick out of it. We call out all the cheesy jokes as the numbers are called..."B4"...."and after" (hee, hee, hee)....same jokes every year. And everyone reminisces about prizes we won in previous years...like the 5 lbs. Hershey's bar I got one year when I was a kid. My mom finally chopped it up and put it in cookies because I was never going to finish it! This is the first year Tressa was big enough to have her own card and actually understand the game. She doesn't look it in this picture, but she was thrilled to play the game and she loved her prizes.

Another highlight was the beautiful Christmas dresses that my Grandma Spratt sent for Alie, Tressa, and Rachel. They tried them on right away and danced and twirled all around the house.


Later that evening we stopped over at Grandma and Grandpa Briggs' house to visit.


Tressa enjoyed playing the memory game with her cousin Becky. I remember playing the same game with Becky when she was about Tressa's age. It was really cute to see them play together...Becky is so sweet to Tressa.



Later they went downstairs and danced while her cousin Brandon played Guitar Hero.


Highlights for Corbin were playing blocks with Grandma (she was so patient to keep building towers for him to knock down with his cars),

and rough-housing with uncle Jordan (Jason's youngest brother).


And of coarse they loved playing with the dogs (except for when Maxx tackled Corbin and tried to bite his ears)! Here they are with Sadie...she's the calmer of the two dogs and the kids love petting her and snuggling up with her.

It was a wonderful holiday - all except for the fact that Jason wasn't with us. In fact, the poor thing was sick to his stomach on the couch all day and couldn't even stomach a bite of the pumpkin pie I left for him. I figured at least he probably got his fill of football, but he must have been REALLY ill because he said he hardly watched any. I felt bad that we were so far away and couldn't take care of him.

A couple days later we went back to the Briggs' house to celebrate Nanny's 90th birthday! (Nanny is Jason's Grandma) What a remarkable woman.



We spent the rest of the trip doing fun things with both sides of the family....Chuck E Cheese with the Briggs Family, the children's museum with Emily, Sarah, and our kids, and since most of my family had to go back to work after Thanksgiving I got tons of quality time with my big sis, Emily.

Doesn't she look awesome! She recently lost some weight and is looking so skinny and beautiful. Since I'm in the process of getting more and more hugely pregnant I didn't want to stand next to her! Actually I loved every minute together...even though she looks way better than me. We went shopping, saw the twilight movie (and both decided to read the books), did some fun things with our kids, and she even treated me to pedicure and massage as an early birthday present. She's the best! We both dream about living closer to each other so that we can spend more time together. Her daughter Rachel is about 16 months older than Tressa (same age difference between me and Em) and they are the best of friends too. They loved spending as much time as possible with each other and even got to have a sleepover one night at Grandma's.



Before it was time to go home, we snuck in a trip to temple square with Grandma, Grandpa and uncle Tony to see the lights. Afterward we had hot chocolate at Tony's new house.






That was probably the last time we'll be traveling for a while since the baby's coming in March. I'm so thankful we were able to go....we miss you guys already!