spring things

We have been doing some things that are getting us so excited for spring...and as I write this, there is snow falling outside. What?! Oh well. We have been keeping busy by....

...going to the park with great friends!

Look at these cuties!

My poor child is going through a time when he forgets

how to smile when I ask him to for the camera.

Hahaha...really? Is that a smile my dear son? It kinda looks like you are in pain. .

He is still the cutest boy on the planet so it all works out alright I guess. I need tips on getting him to smile normal though.

We planted wheat grass to hopefully watch it grow.

We had a young women's activity where we learned about floral arranging and got to make our own. Very fun.

And.... I am now selling these headbands. The flower is attached to a clip that you can place wherever on the the two chains, or wear alone...or on a cardigan...or on a bag...or anywhere you see fit. :) Sweet! A headband you can wear to school! (The larger thick banded ones were apparently banned from school.) I can do any color you want, I think they are pretty darn cute for summer. Let me know if you are interested. jessicaleighrussell{at}gmail{dot}com.

Thank you to my very UNwilling but adorable model, Abbey.

the big yellow slide

Happiness is... the first run of the season today.

Dare I say it? It's getting warm! Yay!

Oh, Hi.

Remember that one time when I used to blog? Yeah. Good times. We Russells are still alive. Things have been good lately. We've just been living life. We celebrated Valentine's day by going to see Avatar (we loved Sherlock Holmes more) and I was surprised with lovely red roses. We also recently celebrated our 4th anniversary. Whaaaa? That is a while. But it also feels like that is about accurate. We've been through a lot together. We celebrated that day by heading out to Youth Conference with the youth in our ward. Woo doggy!! Soooo romantic. :) Randon still scored some points though by giving me a nice framed picture of Christ, which I love. The first night of youth conference (our anniversary) the bishop came up to us and asked if it was truly our anniversary and thanked us for coming and said he would love it if we would stay in the room upstairs together. (None of the other married couples there were sleeping together.) Well, suuuure! Haha...it was kind of funny. But we had a great time there. At the youth conference. Not in the room. Hahaha. Anyway.... What else is new....

I'm so excited for Randon. He worked really hard to be accepted for this scholarship/grant that the church awards. They are paying for his flight training to become current again. I'm just so excited! He is going to be super busy heading straight to the airport after work, but I'm so glad its for something he loves. I've never been flying with him. It's so weird to think that I haven't seen him do something that was such a big part of his life. I can't wait. Actually to be honest, I've had a few nightmares about flying with him. Haha. I really hope thats not an indication of things to come.

Easton. Oh, little Easton. I don't even know what to say about that love of mine. He has refined the talent of being naughty. On purpose. With an evil little smirk. And then he'll come up and say, "Sorry mama, I didn't mean to!" Um, yes. Actually I'm pretty sure you purposely whacked my knee with that block and smeared yogurt all over yourself and the counter. The things he says are just so random and funny. "I just need to use that for while." Okay then. I love that he says "yes" instead of "yeah". Did you make that mess? "Yes." Are you poopy? "Yes." Get down! You can't play with those! "YESSSS!" He LOVES the TV show Phineas and Ferb. We aren't really sure why as it is a show aimed for older children. It's actually pretty funny. Easton loves to grab the "rock and roll" (the rock band guitar) and sing all about Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb. I love him. He still has the ability to make me smile in any situation. Aside from the moments of naughtiness, he is a very sweet, loving boy. He has come up with his own special names for the fam..."Dammy Dams" for grandma, "Pappy Poo" for grandpa, "Bobes" for Braiden "Mad" for Madison and "Ab" for Abbey. The rest of us get normal names. We are ready for warm weather!!

As for me, I've been keeping my hands busy with crocheting. I sort of LOVE it.

Oh and I broke my baby toe. OUCH.

Lately

I've been trying really hard to like January. It's a little depressing isn't it? Or am I the only one? I thought I'd try to be like every other person on the planet and make some goals to work on to better myself. I thought I would try to learn to crochet/knit and maybe start practicing the piano more often until I am confident to accompany someone. And serve a vegetable every night with dinner. Well the first one was easy. I have the world's best mentor right at my fingertips. And ta da.... my first crocheted project!

Thanks to my mom, I think I kind of have the hang of it. It pretty much means anybody can do it if I can. I'm a little obsessed now. I've made 5 flowers...I might need to have a baby girl. No, no. Not anytime soon.

Other thoughts:

* It's that time again. Time to register the vehicles. And guess what. The windshield is cracked. Again.

*I love the new TV show, Modern Family. I think I cry from laughing so hard every time I watch it. It's now a household favorite. (I'm also ashamed to admit, that after avoiding every previous season, this time, I haven't missed an episode of the Bachelor. What the heck. The program is absolutely ridiculous. A terrible guilty pleasure.)

*Easton calls my mom "Damma". He will sing a little grandma song that goes "Dam Dam Dam Dammy!!!" It is awesome.

*He also was telling us the other day that an O and a zero are not the same because an O is a circle and a zero is an oval. What the? He is a smart little kiddo.

*I need some input. I've been asked to help all of the youth in our ward to learn a song and possibly sing it in sacrament meeting. Has anyone heard an amazing song from a choir lately? I feel like I've been out of the loop for a while and don't really have any good resources for finding a great song for them. Any ideas? Anyone? Anyone?

Our Christmas

It's about time I get around to posting about Christmas. It was so great. Having Easton brings so much magic to the whole thing! Bring on the pictures! (Can someone tell me why my clear pictures are uploaded to look all grainy and crappy? Thank you.) So. Christmas Eve we headed over to my Aunt's house to spend time with my Dad's family. Easton had heard the big man was coming to visit and he was telling everyone he was going to sit on Santa's lap and tell him that he wanted "baby presents". Yeah right. All talk, I thought. He had never seen Santa up close and judging from his shy disposition, I figured he would never sit alone on a big cheery stranger's lap. Well he came, and Easton saw everyone excited and actually went up with Grandma. A little cautious...

And....success!! No big smiles, but no crying or flailing!

I was blown away!

He was so excited... he even got a candy cane!

That night we came home and opened jammies. (Easton matched all of the big boys, so cute.) Easton went to bed after leaving cookies and egg nog for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. The next morning, I think I was more excited than Easton was. Well I know I was more excited, he didn't really know what was going on.

Oh! Can't forget the family Christmas picture on the stairs!

Randon's favorite thing if you can't tell.

Oh, wait! Lets get another one with the whole fam! Yes!

He quickly caught on that all of this fun stuff was for him. He seriously is the best child to have when you need a little reassurance that he likes something. Every little thing he would show me and say something like, "Look Momma! A jumpin rope! I love it!"

Lookin at his loot...

Wait, lets get a close up of these bad boys.

Why? Because I made them, thats why. Tent and all.

Thats a story for another post.

He also got a big play tent(thankyou IKEA, $10!!, but I hate you for selling PERMANENT CHILDREN's whiteboard markers, Crayola makes washable ones! Step it up!)

...so he had a "big" tent and a "baby" tent. (It's a whole thing over here.)

I was kindly invited to enter the tent with him.

And was promptly left to fend for myself.

This was possibly the funniest moment of the day.

He reeeeally wanted to be inside the baby tent.

Got a little stuck.

We came up with something better...baby tent inside the big tent.

He was loving the fact he got to open some of the presents that had been forbidden for so long.

What? Grandma got me a Yo Gabba Gabba plate, cup and bowl? She is the coolest. Ever.

Christmas afternoon we made preparations to head down to Sanpete county to spend the night with Randon's family. We stayed the night in a lodge and ate food, exchanged gifts and had lots of fun! The next morning Randon and Easton headed outside for some sledding.

Thumbs up for a great Christmas!

We hope you all had a great holiday!

The Perfect Cup of Hot Chocolate

Is there anything better than a good cup of hot chocolate? Well, probably, but on a cozy, snowy day, hot chocolate makes it perfect. My mom first showed me this little way of preparing it, and I love it.

Start off by filling your mug with half water and half milk. Heat in the microwave to your liking. Add a generous helping of hot chocolate powder. Any 'just add water' powder will do, just be generous. Stir, then add a dash of cinnamon and a couple drops of vanilla extract. Stir and enjoy!

Let it Snow!

I was thinking about how I wanted to have a white Christmas, and remembered the first snow we had this year. Most of it came down while Easton was down for a nap, and his awesome Grandpa said he needed a snowman. So out he went. With bare hands. He created a masterpiece.

Easton was pretty excited to get out there and see it.

He loved it but then informed us that there needed to be a baby snowman. Easton is going through this phase where everything has to have a miniature version. He loves anything small. So it was Dad to the rescue.

The finished product. Matching cowboy hats and all.

Oh wait...he needed a few more buttons.

Much better.

It's almost Christmas!! Yipee!