Merry Christmas!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas! Ours was a busy one, but so fun. We did Christmas Eve dinner with Troy's family. Chistmas day we went to his parents' to open gifts. My family came over to our house later in the afternoon to open gifts with us and then we all went to my aunt's for dinner. Whew, it was a day full of wrapping paper. It was a great two days.

The girls were so excited to wear their Christmas dresses out to dinner on Christmas Eve. That is a tradition of Troy's family. The four of us came home afterwards and opened Christmas jammies and "attempted" to do a little story about Christ's birth. As you can see, they (my 3 kids) were all a little giddy with excitement. I don't know that they heard any of it. Isn't that the way it always goes?
A Christmas hug for Daddy.

Cute jammies huh?

Santa brought them both Barbie Maraposa. She was a big hit.

Isn't she a beautiful barbie?

Britt was so excited to get Cinderella chapstick in her stocking. She put in on for a good minute.

Yep, there's a lot of shine on those lips. What a sparkling smile!

We Love Snow!

With just days before Christmas, we were excited to have a good day to play in the snow. After twenty minutes of finding out gear, going potty, and getting bundlged up, we stomped out int the snow. The girls threw snow in the air, pretended to be snow spies and of course, made snow angels. I think I made a good angel myself. It was fun being out their with them. When we were cold enough, we came in for hot chocolate and marshmallows...a must in out house. It was a great day!

Satna Clause is Coming to Town

I am always wishing their were cooler festivites around Christmas time for us to do. When I found out Village Pointe (Shopping Center) does a Santa Parade and Tree-lighting ceremony Troy new he was in for a cold night. It started with a kids' holiday concert in the amphitheatre and then a parade down the strip.

Brittney fell asleep on the way there. She slept through almost the whole concert.
The String Beans (like the Wiggles, but not so freaky) did a kids concert. Braedyn danced for the whole hour. They served hot cider and cookies to keep us warm.

Santa was a little late. "He had a little sleigh trouble over Vancouver." Brittney was freezing at this point.
The parade was worth the wait. Rudolph, the Grinch, Santa's Elves all lead the parade with Santa following in a lighted Cinderella carriage. That really got the girls excited. When Santa turned the switch to light up the Christmas tree, their faces lit up right with it. It was a great family night. I am glad my mom could be there too.

"Gobble, Gobble, Gobble"

So I got this great idea to "help" the kids make Turkey hats to wear on Thanksgiving. It seemed like a quick project, but it really consisted of me cutting turkey heads, beaks, eyes, and headbands for an hour. The kids were great at cutting out the feathers. I guess that is the way most projects go. They wore them all of 20 minutes on Thanksgiving, but they were excited about them.

We heard "Cockadoodledoo" all throughout the house. Braedyn couldn't remember what a Turkey said.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. My girls are just the right age to be excited to Trick-or-Treat, yet too young to have a Candy Quota for the night. We went with their cousin, Daniel, and both Grandma's. Grandma Jill had a costume for each of her three dogs. Troy stayed home to man the door. Braedyn was a "ballerina kitty cat." Brittney was Cinderella...as she is most days.

Girls' Weekend

My friends, Jennifer, Lauren, and I surprised Erica by flying down to Mesa to visit her. We were all close friends when we all lived in Omaha. It was so fun to be there for the luncheon that that her sister gave Erica before she had her baby. It was a great excuse to reunite as friends and have a quick girls' weekend.

Erica is always so beautiful when she is pregnant. It was good to see her so close to her due date. We got to feel her little girl kicking and pushing her mommy's tummy all around. It was fun to help her mom and sister decorate for the shower. Everything came together just perfectly.

Everyone wore white for the luncheon. We all looked great with the beautiful decorations. I loved getting to see Alan and Erica's family. They make me feel like family.
Here we are at Tia Rosa's. We loved this restaurant so much we went there twice while we were there. Fantastic Mango Chicken Salads!!

I appreciated the chance to be with my three girls again. After almost two years apart, we played and laughed like there has been no distance at all. We are lucky to have each other.

Please give me S'more

We finally managed to go on a family camping trip this weekend. The girls have never been before and we knew they would love it. Jadie and Jenny decided to come with us too. We found a great spot right by the river. A family trip to Wal-Mart had us coming home with pink sleeping bags and pink "roly-poly" lanterns for Braedyn and Britt, and a new LED flashlight for Troy (he just can't resist any kind of "necessary" gadget), and nice warm sleeping bag for me. We had a roaring fire, made S'mores, played with Glo Sticks, played ball with the kids, and drank lots of warm cider and hot chocolate. It was such a great night. We want to go again soon and even invite some more of our friends to come next time. Too bad it is October already. We might have to wait until spring.

My husband is a master camper. He had everything set up in no time. Thank you Boy Scouts.

They loved the tent and their pink beds so much that they spent the first half hour playing house in the tent. Bedtime was no issue. They hopped right in and went right to sleep.

The Men of the Camp.

Mmmmm! Gotta love those S'mores!! Did you know they are really good with peanut butter on them?

We had to do some dorky pictures. I love my buddy, Jenny.

Here is my master camper pouring the hot apple cider that he just warmed up on his camp stove.

I loved hanging snuggling with my hubby by the fire.

Jadie had gotten a nice fire going for us before we even woke up. The girls were thrilled to have Hot Chocolate with Breakfast.

Braedyn busied herself by making leaf piles to jump in.

I thought this was a sweet picture of Brittney. She nestled down on her blanket and "read" to herself while we made breakfast.

Our kids are the classic boy and girls. Mine played house in the tent while Kimball wanted to play with the fire. He was quick to get something in there when we weren't looking. He found every stick, leaf, and even paper cup to drop in there.

I love this picture of Fleagle. She is a good little camper. Nemo got to have a slumber party with Grandma Jill's dogs.

My adorable little family. I loved getting out in nature with them.