Janna's First Christmas

This was Janna's First Christmas. It was much different then J's first Christmas because she is so young, and with J his first Christmas was all about him. This year it seemed to still be very focused on him because he is starting to understand much more. Once again this year he was not too excited about sitting with Santa, but he was very excited about the presents Santa brought. We started off our Christmas Celebrations the Friday before when we went to Grandpa Halls house, to have Christmas dinner, and gifts around the tree. Next we went Great Grandma Patricks house on Christmas eve. The whole family was there, J loves playing will his cousins. We had a great time together as a family. This year we figured out that J can reach the Candy table...so we had to keep a good eye on him! We ended that evening with the candlelight service at church. This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas, this year the kids were in service with us so that was also special :) Grammy, Papa, Great Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Linda, Uncle Paul, Johnny, and Danny all joined us! It was great to have everyone there.

Christmas Morning we woke up, and read the Christmas story as a family. This is a tradition that we wanted to start with our family. J loves reading so he was very excited about it. He was also very excited to read about "baby Jesus". He mentions Jesus a lot these days. We then opened stocking, and took turns with gifts. We also had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast. We started the traditional breakfast when we first got married, and we both really look forward to it. Grammy and Papa also stopped by to share in the giving, they really enjoyed watching the kids enjoy Christmas.
In the afternoon we went to Joshua's Grandmas house. We had a great time with his family, and we had a wonderful time opening gifts, and eating yummy food.
Joshua's sister Missy was also there it was nice to visit and celebrate. We finished our Christmas Celebration with the yearly Christmas Extravaganza at Julie's Moms house. We ate lots of food. Played a game called rob your neighbor that we play every year, and the Big Man Santa came to visit on his way back to the North Pole. Again it was a great time with family.

Baby Jahangard

Our Best friends Melissa and Shaheen are expecting their first Baby. They shared the excting news on Fathers day, and Julie was very moved. She has been kinda alone as a Mom. She was the first of her close friends to be married and then to have not one but two kids. Melissa is due at the end of January :) We are so excited to meet their little boy. We are also very excited to see Melissa and Shaheen in action as parents. We know that they will do great! We can't wait for J and Janna to meet him too!

In preparing for the Baby, Julie and our friend Christine gave Melissa a shower. It was a fun day of celebration. Melissas Mom Nancy helped too, she made some yummy food!

Melissa and her Mom Nancy

The Cake

She received many nice gifts.....everything was so cute!

Melissas belly is irresistable! She is such a cute pregnant Mommy! Christine and Julie could not resist they had to kiss the baby! They cant wait to meet the little guy!

Julie, Melissa, and Christine ~ Best Friends!

Preparing for Christmas!

Preparing for Christmas was pretty easy this year. We did not feel rushed one bit, that might of been because we did not do much shopping...it seemed very relaxing. J was really into Christmas. He was very excited about Christmas lights, and all the decorations he would see. He remembered Santa from last year, and he could not wait to get our Christmas tree. Him and Daddy picked out the perfect tree for our family, I know we say that every year...but thats just how it goes.

Here they are making the final decision

J being cute

J helping daddy get the tree in the stand

J was really proud of the tree, he was really good with the ornaments too! We only broke one and that was just because he bummed the tree when going by it.

J and Janna in front of the tree getting ready to go see Santa! They are so cute in their little outfits :)

Daddy hung all the lights, and J loves all the colors. You can kinda see them in this picture. The house looked great! Thanks Daddy!

Thanksgiving Camping Weekend!

This year on Friday after Thanksgiving we went camping with Mom, Dennis, Auntie Linda, and Uncle Paul. We went to a new place we had never been, its called Silverwood Lake. It was so beautiful, and the weather was great! We are pretty sure we will be returning there next year, it is a great place to camp during fall. As we were there we were reflecting on how thankful we are for the beautiful outdoors that God has created for us! This was a first for Janna! Her first time camping! She just went with the flow! We are pretty sure she is a natural at it!

This time we stayed in Mom and Dennis's tent trailer, but we set up J's tent inside. That way he would feel more comfortable about where he would be sleeping.

The evening time was very cold, but we stayed warm by the camp fire. Uncle Paul always seems to have the best fires that give off the most heat. Here are the ladies! Julie, Janna Rose, Auntie Linda, and Mom. Papa and J staying warm!Julie with her little guy snuggly warm! Grammy and the Grandkids! Joshua and J fell asleep by the fire...as you can see J grew out of his gloves from last year, so he is wearing socks on his hand :)

We went on a hike that was so beautiful! We found a bunch of leaves. J sure had fun in the leaves. Here is big brother Joshua Wayne and little sister Janna Rose!

Janna so cute!

Even Grammy joined in on the fun! Where is Grammy and J? Here we are, we don't get many pictures by oursleves these days. The background is the lake that we hiked around. It was so beautiful! We had a very nice time.

What a great trip!

Day at disneyland Boys only!

We were recently blessed with a Disney pass again. We use to have them and they expired, but it was nice to receive them as a gift again :) J loves Disneyland, and he loves the characters. He talks of them often. Joshua and J had a special day at Disneyland and California Adventure with our friends Andrew and Jordan. Jordan and J have been friends since Jordan was 3 weeks old. He is only 3 weeks older than J.

Jordan and J being silly boys

Daddy and J ready to go 3D

Andrew and the Boys going on the adventure of the Rope Bridge

Theres our Boy. He sure does Love it there! Can you tell ?

Daddy and J :) What a fun day!

Recently we took Janna's 2 month old pictures. Time sure is flying by. It seems like just yestereday when we were ooing and awing over her in the hospital room. We always like to wait till about two months to get the professional pictures done. That way we can get smiles! It was sure worth the wait! We believe we got some great ones! We hope you enjoy them!

Since we were there we also had Janna take pictures with Big Brother. J really enjoyed it. These days he is such a HAM. He really did a great job holding Janna, he is such a big boy!

We planned on all matching! It was a fun experience. I really enjoy taking pictures, especially when the kids are happy and also enjoying it. Our photographer was great and he had no problem getting Janna to smile.

We had a coupon for a free enhanced photo so here's the one we picked!

Hike to Millard Canyon Falls

Joshua had the day off...so we decided to spend it in one of our favorite places ...outdoors! The last few years we have really enjoyed going hiking, and now with the kids we love it even more. Joshua Wayne loves to be outside. So far Janna Rose is also enjoying it. As she is becoming more aware, she is really enjoying looking around. This time we hiked up to Millard Canyon Falls. J loves hiking,especailly when it ends up at a water fall :) This one is a pretty easy one about 1.4 beautiful miles.
Since this one was an easy hike we decided to invite Great Grandma Taflinger. She loves to do things with us and the kids. She was so excited to see how much J loves the Falls! As soon as we got to the Falls J got completely wet, thats what we expected, he does it every time but he does not mind a bit. Great Grandma and J spent about an hour just tossing stones into the water, they had a blast. Janna was looking so very cute in her Hat. She is getting so big.
It was such a beautiful day to be out hiking. We really enjoyed our time. It is so great to stop and reflect on the Gods creation.

Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween. This year was a really fun Halloween. Joshua Wayne started talking about it weeks before, he went through his list of what he wanted to be. His idea for a great costume was changing every day :) It was also a special one for Janna Rose. Her first Halloween! She is only two months, and slept through most of it, but I am sure she will enjoy looking back at pictures as she grows older. We love Holidays and Tradition! Below you will see how we celebrated!

Here is Joshua and Joshua Wayne carving their pumpkin. Joshua Wayne was so happy to get his fingers dirty with all the seeds!

Here is our little Donald Duck. Watching him walk from behind was so cute because he has a little tail that wobbles.
Great Grandma Taflinger enjoyed watching Donald Duck enjoy his Halloween!
Here we are..the Taflingers all ready to go trick or treating! Janna Rose is nice and warm on her 1st HalloweenThis year we went dressed as Grandma and Papa Patrick as young square dancers
Grandma Patrick went as Julie the highschool water polo player..it was pretty funny.
J's Grammy and Papa went as thing 1 and thing 2 from one of his favorite books, Cat in the Hat by Dr. Suess. J was a little scared at first but then he enjoyed it.