It's the most wonderul time of the year!

.

Conner is obsessed with sledding. He got a new sled and was laying on it in the house for days. Here he is getting ready for church.

 My mom arranged for us to go to this really cool free Christmas activity called Stringtowns Polar express (or something like that). We were all blown away by it. A bunch of families have come together and made this little train that goes through all their yards and fields. It's a small thing (as seen below) but it was still cool none the less. The first half of the ride was the polar express journeying to the North Pole. Once you get to the North Pole you go into a cottage where Santa and some of his elves are. Santa gives each kid a candy cane and bell. Then he does this little presentation on Jesus being the true meaning of Christmas. After the North Pole you get back on the train and the second half of the journey is spiritual. It starts with the manger then has pictures blown up of the Savior as he got older and then eventually his death and resurrection. The whole time there is music playing and it was really quite an experience. I hope to be able to do it every year.

I wouldn't say Conner was thrilled to sit on Santas lap but at least he didn't cry.

 

We did Christmas with Mark's family the weekend before Christmas and it was really fun. I'm kind of a Christmas Nazi so I had a schedule for us of all the different stuff we were going to do.

The best Christmas picture we could get.

 Christmas Eve we celebrated Christmas at my parents house. Conner does better when he can watch and mimic Carson and Audrey. Sadly I didn't get many pictures from the night

 Then we had our own little Christmas morning at our house.

Mark does awesome wrapping :)

The day after Christmas we went up to my Grandparents cabin in Island Park. Despite the fact that Conner got a horrible case of the flu it was pretty fun. I have to say that as a mother that has been one of the saddest/scariest things I've seen him go through. He didn't eat anything solid for 4 days!! I was freaking out! After several phone calls to the doctor we just focused on him drinking pedia sure and resting. He threw up SO MANY TIMES! A toddler throwing up is definitely no fun because he wasn't the best at communicating when or where he would throw up. Despite the flu we managed to go sledding a bunch and play TONS of games. Due to all the little children we've taken up playing our board games on the ipad. Ticket to Ride was the most played. Due to Conner being sick I didn't take very many pictures. Luckily Con was able to sled one day.

Thanksgiving in California

 

For Thanksgiving this year we went to California with Mark's family. Mark's parents run a beach condo business in Oceanside so we were able to stay in a couple of those on the beach and it was AWESOME!

I was a little nervous about Conner flying. This was only the second time he's flown but the first was when he was 2 months old and he was a cinch then. The thing that worked the best was watching a movie on our portable DVD player. I've had the DVD player since I was 16 and let me tell you that was the smartest investment EVER! I Jimmy rig that thing up in the car on road trips and I take it with me everywhere. People were laughing in the plane because Conner had these huge head phones on (see the pic above) and he was just watching away. The flight and excitement wore him out and he fell asleep in my arms waiting for the baggage. At first I thought it was awesome because he NEVER falls asleep like that, but then the shuttle was taking F.O.R.E.V.E.R  and my arms were killing me.

Conner was in heaven chasing the seagulls.  There were a few times that I was scared they were going to attack him.

Family Pic 2012

The view right off our back porch

 Mom and Dad Warr treated all us kids to a day at Disneyland/California Adventure. They stayed home with the grandkids while we all went. I felt a little guilty not having Conner because he LOVES the movie Cars and they have a whole Cars land but the guilt was fleeting as he couldn't have gone on many rides and I know that him and lines would not have meshed well.

There was no way I was buying the picture they took so I just snapped a pic of the screen :)

My photo bombing sisters-in-law in the back :)

We spent most of our day at California Adventure but my sis in law Chelsea and I really wanted to go on Splash Mountain so we ran over. We were disheartened when the wait was 2 hours until we snuck in the back as singles and got on in 5 min!!! It was so worth it. Some guy even gave me his poncho. Funny thing was the family I rode in the log with totally threw up gang signs during the picture and actually bought it after they got off and I was in the back with my poncho hahaha!

 We also spent a lot of time in the pool! My friend Jayni lent me her sons floaties and Conner was loving the freedom.

Conner was chasing and running from the waves and I'm afraid he lost the race. 

Winter Fun!

Conner is in LOVE  with the snow. Really, he just loves anything outdoors and the new dimension of eating snow, throwing snowballs, and racing down a hill on a sled just makes it that much more enjoyable!

It's really convenient that we can jump in the hot tub at my parents after sledding down the hill on the side of their house!

Thoughts on marriage and children...

After Conner was born I got to thinking about how interesting the love process is with him versus Mark. With Mark it has been a process of falling in love as we got to know each other and then through marriage and time together, but with Conner it was an immediate all- encompassing love. It's funny people always say that having a child is a strain on marriage but in my case I think it's been the opposite. I feel like it has united us more as parents and cemented our family unit.

Let's just start of by reaffirming what many of you already know and that it that I am a dreamer and a romantic. Mark, while dreamily attractive, is a realist and loves good ol' hard work. This combination is probably not the easiest and requires work and compromise.

I would be lying if I said that the first year of marriage was honeymoon bliss, because it wasn't. I think I read one too many LDS romance books and watched one two many Disney channel specials about these perfect love stories and happy endings as a teenager. This distorted my perception of marriage and how every day love is. Don't get me wrong Mark does have his days every once and a while when he forces himself to think like me and be romantic or spontaneous and I love those days. But, in that first year I wondered why Mark didn't send me loving texts every day and surprise me with gifts and large romantic gestures. I didn't understand why he worried about money and our future...didn't he understand that love is all you need ;) Well over the past three years we've both grown and understood each other more and more and learned how to compromise. I think that the real turning point was when we went to El Salvador and both served the children together there. It's funny how service really does bring love, wisdom, and perspective. (You think I would have understood this on my mission).

The second year of marriage was another one of service only this time much more on Mark's part than mine. I think it's no secret that pregnancy was extremely difficult on me. Mark said he liked it because it made me show my vulnerable side and admit that I couldn't do everything myself. I am kind of a stubborn girl :) It also allowed me to see a side of Mark that I appreciated much more than gifts and that was unconditional love, sacrifice, and service. I needed him and he was my rock.

This third year of marriage has been one of the best for me. I'm not sick, I feel back to myself again and I love spending time as a family of 3. It makes me feel legit :) We've learned the importance of making time for us as well as Conner. Luckily Conner goes to bed early so it makes this easier. I don't know how people do it who's kids don't go to sleep till 10!It also makes me love him so much more to see how he interacts with Conner and plays. Seeing how much Mark loves Conner makes me love him all the more.

I'm excited to see how the ensuing years will be. Love you babe!

Murder Mystery Dinner

To break in our new house and in honor of Halloween I decided to host a murder mystery dinner. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! I am lucky to have a LOT of cousins that live near by. As you can tell from the picture below there are a lot of us...There are even quite a few that are "of age" and not pictured (meaning in college or older). I love having a fun/nerdy family that will get in to anything

The theme of the murder mystery dinner was a costume ball so everyone got assigned characters and costumes to be.

Mark was a roman dictator and I was an Egyptian... 

 Brenton was a snake charmer...We were all a bit repulsed by his outfit. He ended up getting murdered as pictured above. The funny this was I was supposed to put together a kit for the person being murdered and have it ready under the sink. I should have read the instructions fully more than 1 hour before the party began because it told me to have crime scene tape and white face paint to make them a ghost. Luckily I had bought crime scene stuff to decorate for the party but unfortunately I did not have white face paint! So I put flour in a plastic bag and put it under the sink. The funny thing is I put the little bag next to the comet so when Brenton (my brother) took his cue to get murdered he thought he was putting comet on his face but did it anyway! What a goob