Newman's News: January 2012

Newman's 2011 Review

2011 was a wonderful year. We've been so blessed... Scott and I have been able to travel the world together, without the kids :)... He surprised me with a trip to New York City in June and for our 7th year anniversary we went on a Mediterranean Cruise, my first time traveling to Europe. It was amazing. The one thing that excites us the most is our soon to be addition to our family. We will be welcoming another sweet baby girl to our family sometime this April.

Scott....

Finished his first year at Juniper Networks, working from home.
Released from Primary and now is the 2nd Counselor in the Elder's Quorum.
Continues with his passion of taking pictures and going to new places with his camera always in hand.
Loves to BBQ, especially using his charcoal BBQ.

Melissa...

Joined the gym and got in shape!
6 months along with a new little bundle of joy... Above is a pic of me right before I got pregnant...
Released from Young Women's and right back into Primary as a teacher...
Traveled to many new places this year including: NYC, Italy, Monte Carlo and Spain.

Ethan....

Learned to ride a scooter... and his bike without training wheels.
Turned 5 years old!
Started his last year of preschool with Mini Explorer Preschool.
Now sleeps in his own bunk bed.
Learning to read and write and can't wait to start Kindergarten in the Fall.
Is an awesome big brother to Emma and can't wait to meet his new little sister.

Emma....

Turned 2 years old!
Finally has hair and loves to be all dolled up!
Loves to run, climb, jump and play with Bubba (Ethan)!
Learned to petal her tricycle.
Now sleeps in a Big Girl Bed.

Christmas 2011

Having kids makes Christmas a lot more fun. This year especially. This year Ethan was very much into Christmas and Emma was riding on Ethan's excitement. Santa must have been very impressed with these kids because there was a ton of present ready to be opened!

I buckled down and made the kids a photo book... this was Emma's 1st year book...

Since I was very behind on Ethan's he got a book called "The Early Years" there was no way I could have caught up and this worked out perfectly.

Evidence that Santa was here!

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Christmas at the Newman's...

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Christmas at the Riddle's...

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It was a long day... Presents, church, Newman's, and then to the Riddle's and finally home... poor kids didn't get a chance to play with their toys until the next day.

Emma in her new dress up clothes...

Ethan got a Tag reading system and don't ask me why he is sitting on the table.

Holiday Fun!

This year I tried to do some fun things with the kids for the holidays. They are getting older and Ethan, especially was totally in the Christmas spirit. So it was my responsibility, as a mom to do something about it. I really could have done better, but I felt like I did pretty good considering my "condition"...

This year I wanted to make an advent calendar for the kids. Ethan was very into counting down to Christmas and someone sent me a good idea about making trees and each day the kids would open one and find a special surprise. On Thanksgiving, while the guys did the clean up, the girls went to work and helped Becky and I make these cute trees... It was a lot of more work then I anticipated, but worth it. The kids loved these trees and unfortunately it got the kids, especially Ethan, wired from day one! It was a LONG month!

I totally forgot to get a picture of my trees when I first set them up... we started with 24 trees and here we were down to 5!

In the trees I included treats and sometimes an activity... One activity was to build a snowman. Since we didn't have snow, we build edible snowmen... It was an interesting experience that Ethan and Emma loved and wanted to go it again.

Of course what would the holidays be without gingerbread houses. Ethan begged and begged to make one. He saw one at his friend's house and so I caved and we did it! Here is Ethan very proud of his little house.

I think Scott decorated more of Emma's then she did...she really discovered treats and sugar this Christmas and has been on a sugar high since!

Another activity we did was ice skating... Since I'm not brave to really take the kids ice skating and since I'm really a bit top heavy I pulled out some paper plates and the kids went wild. It was a hit!

Ethan performing for me!

Sugar cookies aren't my favorite cookie, but the kids loved making and decorating them for Santa. Here is Emma's cookie... kinda got carried away with the sprinkles!