Christmas Recap- Part II

We hosted Christmas dinner this year. I LOVED it. I LOVE having people over, I LOVE the hectic day and the chaos, I LOVE entertaining and I LOVE food. We had our good friend and neighbors The Schreiners, our friends The Harmons, two sets of missionaries, Tj's parents and ourselves over for dinner. We had turkey and Honey Baked Ham, three kinds of potatoes, Rhodes rolls, salad and half a dozen kinds of pies. The kids played well and the adults all got to visit. It was a nice ending to a nice holiday.

Tj and I after dinner.
(Notice the stocking hanger that I personally painted and am proud of.)

Alicia and Josh
We love having good neighbors for friends!

Dave and Amy
Cute couple and just found out they're going to be parents!

Tj and his mommy!

Kiss the cooks!

Joel and Elle
Such funny playmates.

Baby Beck- he'll be 30 years old and we'll
all think of him as Baby Beck.

Our Canadian Missionary

Our American Missionaries.

Christmas Recap- Part I

We hope that everyone had a really great Christmas! Here is a recap of our Christmas in pictures.

Santa brought the boys matching Buzz Lightyears.

Opening my stocking.
I think I'm the only morning person in the family.

Joel casing the tree trying to find his presents.

Action shot of Vance.

This is one of Vance's favorite books called "No, David!"
We check it out from the library ALL the time.
Now he can read it whenever he wants!

Nama found this AWESOME scooters for the boys.
Joel has mastered it and can go SO fast.
This was him trying it out (and the only time he's ridden it w/o a helmet).

Vance got one too. He's pretty good at it too.

Tj modeling his steal of a deal.
This is a Calvin Klein 100% Cashmere coat.
The outlet mall was having a HUGE sale and Tj's parents got this
for him at basically 1/4 of the original price.
He's got some work in the DC area in the near future
and this will come in handy.

Christmas is coming!

I love this time of year! I love the lights and the songs, the smell of the trees and the cooler (it's ALL relative) temperatures. But I think the thing I love most of all is the opportunity that I have to focus on the birth of my Savior. To use this time to share with my children the story of the Son of God coming to earth for each of us. I love that this time of year makes me want to serve more diligently and be a better person. And I love that as I spend the time teaching my children the true meaning of Christmas, serving and focusing on my Savior I can feel the stirrings of the spirit whisper to my heart that Jesus is the Son of God and my personal Redeemer. I LOVE this time of year!

Merry Christmas from the Rosens

Sea World, Thanksgiving & funnies

So last week Tj's dad took us all to Sea World. It was a really fun couple of days except he had to work for part of it. That was kind of a bummer but the boys had a really great time and LOVED watching the shows and seeing the animals.
We made the trek to Orlando Monday morning. We put the boys in their seats and turned on the portable DVD player (which has unanimously won the "best" purchase ever to save a parent's sanity award) with the first Toy Story movie. Roughly 90 minutes later we changed movies to Toy Story 2 and basically didn't hear a thing from them until we pulled into the outskirts of Orlando. We made a quick potty/lunch stop and added mom to our car. Then the 5 of us headed to Sea World while dad headed to the hotel to work. We watched the Shamu "Believe" show, the Sea Lion & Otter Show, saw the sharks, and did a lot of walking. By the end of the day we were beat. After a quick dinner it was off to the hotel and crashed for the night.
Tuesday we were up and ready to head back to the park. I was feeling a little under the weather and Tj's dad needed to finish up some work so Tj and his mom took the boys to the park in the morning and then we met up with them later. We watched the "bird show" which is actually the dolphin show but the boys call it the bird show, the Shamu show again and rode the Polar Express to see Santa. Pa and Nama also bought the boys their very own Shamu's and the boys are seldom seen without those stuffed toys. It really is SO fun to see the boys really enjoy these experiences and makes it even more fun as a parent. We spend Wednesday driving home. The boys did really well in the car minus Vance the last hour. But overall it was fun.

Thursday we got up and watched the Macy's Day parade. Okay, I watched the Macy's Day Parade and the boys caught bits and pieces. We had dinner at Tj's parents with some friends of ours. Tj's dad had heated the pool and the men and kids swam before dinner. CRAZY! How many other places can you swim on Thanksgiving?! It was a delicious dinner with great company.

The boys have said some really funny things lately. I'm terrible at writing them down though. Hopefully I can remember enough to make this part of the post worth it.

While at Sea World we were looking at the polar bear. I told Joel, "Do you see the Polar Bear? It's just like you, Jolar Polar Bear." Vance heard this exchange and excitedly said "It's just like Joel." As we were leaving that exhibit he told me, "Mommy, now lets go see the Vancer Pants." :)

Joel is getting such a funny sense of humor. He loves to tell jokes and has about 2 or 3 memorized that he tells all the time. But every once in awhile he "misses" a joke. So awhile back I told him the banana and orange joke (knock, knock- who's there?- banana- banana who?- knock knock- who's there?-banana- banana who?- knock knock- who's there?- orange- orange who?- Orange you glad I didn't say banana?) So his favorite thing lately is to tell the joke but he'll use random objects- for instance: Knock knock, who's there?, Christmas tree, Christmas tree who?, I guess I didn't say wall.

I know there are more. And as soon as I post this I'll remember them. But anyway. Things here are fun. We're getting into the Christmas spirit and this is going to be a fun year with the kids! Now if I can just keep them out of the Christmas tree! :)

A visit, a wedding, Fall, and other Misc. stuff

October was a busy month for us. We had the wedding of one of our college friends which also gave us a good excuse to see some of our friends in the Daytona area. Our AC went out when FL was setting records for unseasonably high temperatures which led to the temporary relocation to Nama and Pa's house. LOTS of mail from Nama and Pa as they were in ID visiting family. There was a homemade Pumpkin Pie made entirely from scratch- by Tj! As well as library times, Joel's preschool and playdates with the neighbors.

The boys being boys and our friends' cute daughter.
Thank you Rob and Norma for your hospitality!
It was SO nice to see you again.

Our family during the cocktail hour at the wedding.

Vance rocking the faux-hawk.
I have to admit I LOVE this look on him!

The boys eating snacks. They were so good at the wedding.

Tj and the groom.
Congratulations Darren and Alyse!

So Vance will probably KILL me one day for posting this picture. But I LOVE it! He was playing with the neighbor girl one day and was some how conned into wearing just about every accessory she owned. I do have to say that purple is a ravishing color on him!

Vancina. :)

Joel found his laptop at Nama's and spent
TONS of time playing on it.
Technology must be in his genes.

At one of the local churches they were selling pumpkins
and had these cut outs around. Us as the "lizard of Oz"
characters. We did not carve a pumpkin but we did
purchase one for the pumpkin pie that Tj made.

Joel discovered the joy of swimming around with your
face in the water with the help of this mask.
He had a blast swimming around when he didn't have
to worry about water in his eyes and up his nose.

One of the mail calls while Nama and Pa were gone.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

It has been very blustery lately around here. So the other day Tj had the great idea to take the kites (that had been purchased almost a year ago but still were unopened and stashed in my room) and go fly them. We have a soccer field near our house and so off we went. The boys had a really fun time, although Vance's attention waned after awhile and he became more interested in the goal posts than the kite. But Joel turned out to be a pretty good kite flyer.

Daddy getting the kites ready to fly.

Tj showing Joel how's it's done.

I think this look tells a lot about how Vance feels about flying the kite.

Joel's kite was WAY up there.

S to the B

So a few weeks ago I was able to fly out to Santa Barbara, CA to see my sister RiKenna graduate from college. I am SO proud of her. She is so talented! She graduated from Brooks Institute with a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Photography. I think it was one of the coolest graduations I've been to. The showed a brief showcase of each of the students' work as they received their diplomas. It was like an art show and graduation rolled into one. It was also REALLY great spending time with her and the rest of my family. Here are some of the highlights.

Sisters. I love this chickie!

The Group
Sam, RiKenna, Me, Brody, Sandy and Corbin

This is my nephew Corbin
aka Brody's Mini-Me.

Hanging out on the SB Pier

Lunch after the graduation.
love, love, love these girls!

So while I was living the high life in SB Tj was holding down the fort with the boys. I'm really lucky to have such a supportive husband. (THANK YOU again Tee!) It was a great trip and many a memory was made. I literally gave my abs a work out just from laughing so hard with some of the funniest people I know- love you guys! But it was good to come home!

Halloween 2009

So Halloween has come and gone. Here are some of the highlights from this year. I do have to say that I was quite proud:
Thomas the Train costume handed down from cousin.......... $0.00
Dinosaur costume handed down from brother........................ $0.00
Knowing you didn't pay a dime on costumes........................... Priceless

Joel with our neighbor at the church Halloween party.

Saturday morning Pa called to see if he could take the boys to the park because it was such a beautiful day. What he meant was that it was about 8:30 in the morning and it was 90 degrees yet. Unfortunately by the time we got ready and he made it to the house it was about 9:30 and the beautiful day had passed and it was a billion degrees outside. Luckily there was a breeze and so we walked over to a neighborhood park and played for a little while.

The boys with their Pa.

Vance climbing on "the cheese".

I think Joel got his daddy's rock climbing gene.

Here are pictures of Halloween night. We were fortunate to be invited to trick or treat with some friends who have a really great neighborhood for trick or treating. While we only made it about 1/2 a block the boys got their fill of trick or treating, were scared by some older boys' costumes, were brave at facing said scary costumes and got WAY too much candy. We then headed over to Nama's house where the boys went on a treasure hunt for their treat from Nama and Pa. It was a fun night.

Joel, Mommy and Vance

Just for fun here's a flashback photo to Halloween 2007 when the dinosaur costume made it's premier.

The boys with Pa and his BSU attire. :)

October Update

So life continues to move forward. Nothing super exciting has been going on here which is why I think I have such a hard time remembering to post. While most of my friends and family are getting to enjoy the pleasures of Fall (cooler weather, soup, sweaters and did I mention cooler weather?!) we are still living in the land of eternal summer. Life for us consists of going to the gym, making/eating cheese sandwiches and/or hot dogs, playing with friends, Friday playdates, Tuesday school, Thursday library days, Nama days, and other miscellaneous every day activities. Not that I'm complaining. I know that one day I'll look back on our lazy days and wish to have them back.

Pa had a job at the University of Arizona (yeah I was SUPER jealous!!!) and sent the boys these shirts. The boys were SO excited to get mail- which was even addressed to THEM! They call these shirts their wild cat shirts. It was about a billion degrees here (okay maybe just lower 90's) but Joel INSISTED that he wear his wild cat shirt. LOVE IT! You can take the girl out of Arizona but you can't take the wild cat out of the girl.

Joel is at such a fun age. He REMEMBERS! He always tells me "Mom remember when...." and I have to take a minute and then sure enough whatever it is he's reminding me of happened. Sometimes it was a LONG time ago too. Our favorite song lately has been "Airstream Driver" by Gomez. Joel loves the drum solo in the middle and always tells me "Mommy here comes my favorite part!" He's also a bit of a TV-aholic. He loves Noggin (or Nick Jr now), Disney morning programing and PBS. He continues to get himself dressed including picking out his own clothes. (Some day I'll do a post on his outfits.) He's such a good friend and is so kind to his friends. He is also usually pretty kind to Vance although they have started fighting which makes me sad. But I guess brothers fighting is part of life. He's growing out of his nap which makes me sad too. I have LOVED my afternoon naps the last year. He LOVES cheesy sandwiches and would eat one for every meal every day if I let him. It's nice that he's so easy to please.
Vance. I don't even know where to start with Vance. He is just Mr. Personality. He is funny and stubborn and SMART. We bought honey nut cheerios and there were jokes on the side of the box. (Why is the bee's hair so sticky? Because he used his honey comb.) Vance GOT it. And loves to tell that joke again and again. He can be so cute but can be SUCH a pill. The other day we were playing with the neighbor girl across the street. He was wearing this purple necklace and she wanted it SO bad. But Vance REFUSED to give it up. She begged, she bribed, she threw a fit but Vance would NOT budge. Finally she gave up. And then Vance promptly left the necklace lying on the floor. He is so petite (weighs about 23 pound and wears size 18 months at age 2) but talks up a storm. Our friends all laugh at how funny and VERBAL Vance is. He likes hot dogs and would eat them EVERY day. When I think about that it kind of grosses me out, but he LOVES them. He continues to LOVE books. He really likes the David books. We love Vance and the excitement he brings to our family.