Happy Christmas!

Like many families, we get new pajamas from "Mrs. Claus" on Christmas Eve.

I love this tradition, because I can make TJ wear clothes to match me!

This year, our Christmas pajamas were Buckeye-themed.

Our Christmas was fantastic and we are continuing to enjoy our vacation.
How can we not, when the weather on Christmas day was a warm 80*.
Some people might think this is too hot, but not me.

I will take warm and sunny over grey and icey/snowy any day!

In a few days were are headed to the Seattle area to spend time with our family up there.
More pictures and stories of our adventures will come once our vacation is over!

I am sure you will be waiting in anticipation!

Merry Christmas!

Walking!

I had to interrupt my blogging hiatus to share this:

Riker is starting to take his first steps!

He isn't the most stable yet,

but manages to take a couple steps before falling!
Pretty soon he will be running all around!

Confession:

I love completely useless gadgets.
I mean, I really LOVE gadgets!
You know, the things that are sold on infomercials.
My favorite gadget/infomercial is definitely the GT Express 101.

Cathy Mitchell is so excited to sell that thing!

Ooh, also the Magic Bullet.
But not the Magic Bullet Express…that thing is dumb.

Unfortunately, the rational side of me knows that these gadgets are pretty useless
(serving a limited purpose)
so I don’t actually own any of them.
I just can’t bring myself to order something off the TV.
BUT!…
I was walking through Macy’s yesterday when I saw this:

It’s a mini doughnut maker.
GAH!

But wait, it gets better:

It’s a mini waffle maker…
that makes waffles in the shape of circus animals.
GAHAH!!

Oh, but wait!
Just one more, I promise:

 

A mini cupcake maker!
GAHAHAH!!!

Now, the rational side of me knows that I do not need any of the products.
The rational side of me knows that these gadgets each serve one very specific purpose and would just take up space in my kitchen.
However, the irrational side of me really wanted to put all three in my cart.
The irrational side of me envisioned making mini foods all day long.

Luckily for my bank account, my rational side outweighs my irrational side.
And luckily for me, TJ promised that when we have our dream house
(you know, the one with the really big kitchen)
it will have a wall full of outlets dedicated to gadgets.
Yay!

Sweaters and Santa

Tonight was our ward Christmas party.
It was a “Merriest Christmas Sweater” party.
Which is really just a nice way of saying
”Ugly Christmas Sweater.”

Thanks to our local thrift store,
we all had something fantastic to wear.
TJ’s is a ladies sweatshirt.
In fact, most of the men at the party were in ladies sweatshirts.
Why don’t they make ugly Christmas sweaters for men?

 

Riker is celebrating his first Christmas,
which basically means he has no idea what it is.
But he’ll wear whatever I put on him,
so all is well.

Santa Claus himself even made an appearance.
Riker hasn’t reached the “stranger danger” stage
and was pretty fascinated by Santa’s beard.
Santa offered Riker a tube of play dough from his bag of gifts,
but I quickly decided that Riker doesn’t need to eat that.

Honestly,
I was slightly bummed that Riker’s first Santa experience wasn’t more traumatic.
But with 20 more days until Christmas,
I’m sure we can find another Santa to try to traumatize my child.
(I know, I’m mean.)   

It Snowed Today

and I didn’t take any pictures to document it.
It wasn’t really snow…
just some flurries that melted as they hit the ground.
Once it really snows,
expect pictures of Riker in his snowsuit.

In the meantime…

The end of the semester is fast approaching,
which means TJ is busy studying for finals,
which means Riker and I don’t see much of him,
which means our lives are pretty uneventful,
which means my camera is full of pictures of just Riker,
which means you get to see cute pictures of the cute baby!

See!? Completely adorable!

 

I know this one looks totally posed,
but it isn’t.
He was just chillin’ in the box, smiling away.
This boy certainly loves sitting in boxes.

Oh yeah, this is new.
Riker sometimes just throws his head backwards and stares at the ceiling.
I’m not gonna lie…
it’s both really weird and really funny.
Maybe it’s because I’ve dipped him upside down one too many time in an attempt to get a giggle.
Maybe.

Sidenote:
We are heading to AZ on December 14th!
(Squee!)
Then we are heading to WA on December 30th!
(Squee!)
We are SO excited to get to see all of our family!