...and a happy new year!

we wish you a merry christmas...

true. this is somewhat of a cop-out as far as christmas cards go, but to be frank i just didn't have the energy this year. however, we do not want the holiday season to pass without expressing to our friends and loved ones best wishes of the season. we love you and feel so blessed to have you in our lives!

jordan, maci,
& girls

...and also, new hats...

we are just loving the new hats the girls received from a friend of grandma stutz's. she made 4 total... tilly is sporting one of the models, and avery is in the other one. they turned out SO cute! thanks deanne!

we just love this shot of tilly. she looks like she is doing a fake laugh for a catalog ad or something...

thankful to be back in one piece!

weird. my computer is being funny, and is only showing all the crazy lettering when i download pictures, so i will just do a little commentary first since i have no way of knowing which pictures are which.
anyway.... we had a very fun thanksgiving. we decided to go to california for thanksgiving this year so that we didn't have to worry about the 4 hour, white-knuckle drive through donner summit over christmas (like we did last year). turns out it was a good choice what with all the snow we're getting! anyway, as always, it was such a fun trip--and the girls did surprisingly well on the drive. wednesday was our first full day there, so we took advantage of it by visiting a family favorite: apple hill. have you ever been in a situation where you go somewhere and they have so many delicious treats that you have a hard time deciding what to get? apple hill is one of those place... from the apple donuts, to the carmel apples, to the fresh cider, and mile-high apple pies...they have something that is sure to please every pallet or, as is the case with me, the same pallet over and over:)
in addition to all of the yummies, apple hill has a lot of fun places to explore too. one of our favorites is kids inc. a small, family owned apple farm that even has a few animals. tilly did NOT like the chickens... but warmed up to the goat and pig. avery was completely fearless when it came to the whole thing... no surprise there:) later that evening we had a fun game night with family and friends...my family LOVES games.
the next day we had a yummy thanksgiving feast at my mom's house. we stuffed ourselves to the rafters, and kept that afternoon lazy...just as thanksgiving should be:) later that evening we also went to my uncle rich's house and snagged some of his famous BBQ turkey... that turkey alone is worth the 12 hr. drive...mmm...
early friday morning my mom, sister, friend that's like a sister, and i decided to jump on the crazy train and go black friday shopping. although it wasn't the most relaxing experience, it really wasn't as bad as i imagined it would be. plus, i was able to get a bunch of shopping done in one shot, and at a steal. not to mention the company of those three girls can make the craziest shopping experience extremely fun anyway. that night we did one big erickson family (my mom's side) thanksgiving bash. it was so fun to reconnect with aunts, uncles, and cousins. we had such a fun time. thanks to everyone who planned that event!
on saturday we met our friends robert and lucie in galt (halfway between us) for some pizza. i served with both of them on my mission (and no, they were not apostate missionaries:) and both of them became very dear friends of mine. lucie is from france, and it is always fun to see her and listen to her beautiful accent. we also got to see their little boy jonas, and meet their baby girl, lou, for the first time. we then went to davis to visit chrissie and jason's new digs. jason is going to graduate school in davis, and we had such a nice visit with them--davis was lovely. that evening mom, lindsey, and i made a quick trip to h&m--always a must.
on sunday my entire immediate family got together for family pictures. i haven't seen much but what i have seen turned out really cute (i.e. the new blog-header pic). a family friend, jennifer, was kind enough to shoot us that afternoon at a nearby park. more pictures to follow, i am sure.
it was such a fun trip... though i never feel like it's long enough, and it wasn't fun that my brother and i and the girls came home sick:(. going home is always a good reminder for me of what i have to be grateful for though. closest to the surface after such a trip is my gratitude for good friends and loving family. one thing that is hard about going home is how much worse dad's condition is each time. this time he looked and sounded, well, crazy. he has many different uncontrollable behaviors that occur regularly, and when i look at him, my heart just breaks for him--and for my mom. yes, i am grateful for family, and grateful to know that we can be together eternally, as our BEST selves.

the obligatory halloween post...

we had such a fun halloween weekend this year! to kick things off, on friday the girls and i went to a cute little pumpkin patch in pleasant grove with our good friends rebecca and carlee and their little gentlemen. what's more, emlyn and millie came down to join us. despite the freezing cold temperature (and yes, it did snow on us), we had a fun time looking at animals and catching up with friends.
avery giving me the i-can't-believe-you-are-pushing-me-around-in-a stroller-when-it's-this-cold-outside look.

tilly trying to keep warm...
i absolutely LOVE this little shot i snapped of these two pals, john-o and reid, near the rabbit cage

cute little millie donned her fairy princess costume on our little outing...
these goats seemed very desperate for food... they are probably eye-ing the babies in this shot as a potential meal.
that night we went to our ward's annual halloween party/ chili cook-off. we have such clever people in our ward-- the costumes were a hoot! and the chili buffet never disappoints! we went with a doctor seuss theme this year. jordan was mr. brown, i was a star-bellied sneetch, and the girls were, of course, thing 1 and thing 2...our little ladies ended up winning the "funniest costume" award at the party which could be considered a feat, if you had seen the other set of twins in our ward who made the most adorable mario and luigi. unfortunately, i cannot take credit for coming up with this costume idea however... it was inspired by these fun onesies the girls received from their aunt jana on their birthday...saturday we had a busy day, packed with fun. in the early evening we went to jeremy & emlyn's house in slc where the girls got to take place in a parade of costumes. it was so neat-- the police blocked off the neighborhood streets, and a city fire engine led the parade while the neighborhood kids and parents followed--in addition to this, all of the neighbors sit along the street to pass out candy making it a very fun and effective way to trick-or-treat. too bad the girls are still too young for candy:(

we got lots of cute shots of the girls that night-- the weather was GORGEOUS!

to top off the night, we went to grandma & grandpa stutz's to see all of the cousins in their costumes. whatta great weekend it was!

a real daddy's girl...

this is the response i get every time i solicit a "mama" from tilly. avery does throw her old mom a bone by attempting it every now and then. ah well... in time...

updates, updates, updates...

okay, so i am not the best or most consistent blogger in the world, but you'll just have to pardon me. the girls have hit such a fun stage that it is near impossible for me to take my eyes off of them lately, and can you really get mad at me for that? both girls are crawling around like crazy, following us around like puppies, and just cracking us up altogether.

some funnies:

avery absolutely loves to sit on things. she will spot something in the room, and then go give it her best shot at making it her new place of rest. for example, the other day our family-sized book of mormon was on the floor, and well, you guessed it, she crawled over and set herself atop of it. the look on her face after she accomplishes such a feat is quite hilarious. she looks at us like "hey guys, look at me way up here!" I have even caught her swinging a leg at times, as though her feet aren't touching the floor anymore.
more recently she has been our furniture climber. if we are sitting on the couch she will come over, climb to standing, and then whimper until we take her the rest of the way. what makes it funny is when she climbs to standing on a piece of furniture she can't see the top of, like our bed for example. she looks like she is holding on for dear life, and she will not let go until she sees what is on the top of that mountain. if i hear a whine coming from our room, chances are it's avery, and she's stuck:) she also loves to do this pretty funny little shoulder shrug--and lots -of them, right in a row. avery also makes us laugh during feeding time--when i put a spoon of something up to her mouth, she will give it a lick before opening up her trap to fully receive it. she's a girl who knows what she likes.

tilly is loving the crawling thing now that she has it down. for a while she was doing the army crawl, which we were fine with, but she would get so frustrated when avery would just leave her in the dust. tilly cracks us up with her "funny face" where she scrunches her nose and shows all her teeth (they both have two on bottom, and fangs on top--can't wait for those two front teeth to get here, maybe for christmas?).
tilly also throws quite the tantrums--i know, already?! she just turned one! anyway, it is pretty funny nonetheless. if avery takes something away from her, instead of taking it back, she will flap her arms and make a noise that sounds like a motorcycle revving its engine. she looks at us with the crabbiest, most pitiful face like "did you see what she just did? help me out here!" we usually do, which doesn't make a bit of difference to avery, but means all the world to tilly:). tilly also has the cutest smirk you ever did see. she will smile at us and try not to show her teeth at times, as if she is challenging us to do something really silly so we can see them. another funny thing tilly does is ram her head repeatedly into our legs if we are sitting on the couch and she wants our attention. funny girl.

we have also been giving the girls more table foods which they love! the other day we gave them a taste of a pickle, which was pretty funny.
tilly & avery making pickle faces in their cute china-wear from grandma stutz. also, here is the requested video of them dancing. avery was not so much in the groove, but tilly busted a few variations of their moves...

and, not that this is anywhere near as exciting as what the girls are doing, but we celebrated our 3rd anniversary on the 6th. jordan planned a much needed mini-vacation to slc and we had a wonderful time. however, since our actual anniversary was on a tuesday, i had these delivered to me by someone special, as a teaser:)
it was a good lead into our fun weekend...


you can never go wrong dining at the roof...who doesn't like a gourmet restaurant that's all you can eat? see that couple behind jordan, they got engaged while we were there, i witnessed the whole thing from my seat. it was pretty neat, except the guy didn't even get down on one knee. i thought that was a bit odd...oh well...
we also stayed at the anniversary inn on 5th south... it was so charming, and our room was really neat-- go here to check it out. they have a bunch of fun, themed rooms, but some were a little too adventurous for my taste--we just went for luxury, and the anniversary inn did not disappoint.
the next morning we had breakfast delivered to our door--we enjoyed this cinnamon roll the size of our faces, among other yummy breakfast foods. i would classify our weekend as delicious, fun, and a great way to have spent time with my best friend. these 3 years have been wonderful, but not quite long enough, so we're thinking we'll go for another bazillion....
p.s. a big THANK YOU to mom stutz for watching the rug rats--we love you!