Merry Christmas!

I Love this moment before the room gets attacked-- all the beautiful packages from Santa and family, glowing lights, and the feeling of excitement in the air!

My little munchkins in their Christmas jammies!

Somebody likes legos!

We looooove Christmas!

Will is trying to guess what's in this package.

Ella is modeling her new dress-up dresses!

I made some of these flower bows for Ella's hair. This one is just perfect with her new Belle dress! Such a pretty princess.

Christmas was so nice and laid back this year. We opened all of Santa's presents and then waited awhile to get to the family gifts. We even managed to wait until Alex woke up at 8:30 to get to most of it!

Alex saw this book of dinosaurs and screamed out, giggling and shaking back and forth. Such a cutie!

Alex is so cute bringing us presents. Such a little helper.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve at Grandma's house. Ella was being really shy all night. Uncle Doug promised her $5 if she would give him a hug. Somehow she got the $5 without giving the hug! All of our encouragement was in vain until . . .



Uncle Adam got Ella her favorite thing, dress-up! And with wings no less! She immediately ran and gave Adam a hug. I guess her love and gratitude were overflowing because she then ran over to surprise Uncle Doug with a great big hug!

Sweet Moments

Will was super patient all night waiting for his turn to open presents. He loves this activity book from Grandma and spent over an hour working on it that night. He also got a Playmobil Pirate ship from Uncle Adam!

When Alex saw this present he squealed "McQueen! McQueen!"

This dinosaur was a little scary, but Alex loves it. After he pushes the button he screams and runs back from it.

This was another favorite for Alex. The doggy barks and walks with the remote. Alex kept standing over it and barking with it. So cute!

Playing Around

Alex has been totally enthralled with Will's Thomas Train sets lately. The tracks often run through the living room and kitchen. One night, Kimball even set them up to go from Will's room out in the hall, to Ella's room, and back again. I was cracking up when I saw Alex making a tunnel with his legs and hands.

This train was actually long enough to pass under Ella and Alex at the same time. So cute.

I took Alex to get his 2 year pics done the other day and the woman there happened to have a small steel train that she handed to him. Alex gasped and said in excited, reverant tones, "Oh yeeaaahhh!" and "Thaaaank you." She couldn't stop giggling at his enthusiasm.

Alex had so much fun taking his pictures. He kept giggling and high-fiving the photographer. It was the best photo shoot we've ever had. Afterwards, Ella said, "Mom I wanted them to take my picture, too. I give such good smiles." She really does. I told her next time we'll do both of them. Love the self-confidence, though.

Speaking of funny things the kids say. The other day, Will lay his head on my stomach and got some kicks on his cheek. He giggled and was so excited. Then came the question, "How did it get in there anyway?" He then hypothesized, "Do you just hurt really bad for like 30 days and then everything you eat turns into a head and then grows a body?" I think he's interpretting morning sickness, but he wasn't too far off! He sure got me giggling.

Caroling Party

We had our annual Caroling Concert at Aunt Erika's house. Will played Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells. Cousins Matti, Merri, Dallin and Cameron also played songs. They did amazing! I can't believe how talented everyone is!

I thought this was a good picture of the layout while between songs. Doesn't everyone look comfy?

This would be the peanut gallery. Love the backup singing, but the Twelve Days of Christmas felt more like 99!

I should've gotten a picture of the yummy desserts that followed. That's the real reason I came this year. What can I say? I have a sweet tooth!

Playing in the Snow

We had a great snowfall the other day and I thought it would be fun for the kids to take some pictures and play around a bit.

They had a lot of fun throwing snowballs at each other!

Will's concert

Will had a concert at school where he sang two songs. The first I didn't recognize, but the kids did a great job going from loud to soft. The second was Jolly Old Saint Nicholas and they did great! He's hard to see, but he's between the two boys in maroon shirts to the right of the choir teacher.

Reader of the Month

Will got Reader of the Month for November! He read 890 minutes! Wow! His favorite books have been Pokemon, Horrible Harry, and The Magic Treehouse. Did I mention he lost one of his front teeth? It's hard to see in this picture, but the other one isn't too far behind. He might be asking for his two front teeth for Christmas!

Thankful

There are a ton of things to be thankful for this year. Some are big ones like a healthy family, a warm house, and happy, smart kids. Others are smaller and more subtle and those are the ones I'd like to mention:

Ella's sweet smile up at me when we went with Will to see the high school theatre production of The Wizard of Oz. She loved seeing real people sing and dance with so much energy. They did a really great job.

When Alex gets really angry he growls "Noooooo!" real loud and points his finger at you. Cracks me up.

Will doing a great impression of a sloth during charades on family night.

Ella crawling down the stairs on her tummy.

Will creating a whole pop-up book on the different zones in the ocean and the animals in them.

Alex requesting before and after each nap to have his "neigh neigh" and "baket".

Will and Ella both discussing the pilgrims and indians during Thanksgiving.

Alex playing with Thomas trains and saying "woo hoo hoo" with a giggle as he watches them go around. Then, he meticulously straightened the track, adjusted the buildings, and kept the trains from colliding.

Will saying he loves playing violin because it's fun. I love watching him get so good at playing the songs.

Listening to Alex sing Will's scales and songs on key.

Ella hiding all of Mimi's toys in hard to reach places: the top of the closet, on the computer desk, behind the tv, etc. She tortures that dog. Mimi comes over and jumps and cries and wimpers until we figure out what's going on.

Alex coming over and after listening to me complain and say "I'm miserable" he says, "uh owies?" How did he figure that out?

At meal time after Will says the prayer, Alex says "I wan sayit too." And we repeat the process.

Ella getting frustrated that her friend won't stop playing so she could finish explaining something. The explanation would have to take less than 10 minutes I'm assuming....

Alex requesting to dance with me when music is playing.

I've also enjoying watching Lord of the Rings lately and anything that involves getting away and taking a break! I'm especially grateful for such a giving husband who doesn't mind taking over once in a while.

Shave and a Haircut

Well, she's still with us. Mimi is pretty good at putting up with the kids' constant torture, but I think her haircut the other day wiped her out! It took about 2 and a half hours, but doesn't she look cute!

Turkey-lurkey

Ella got to make this Turkey in Preschool. She decided on a "Rapunzel" turkey with pajamas and slippers. We had fun making it together. Complete with eyelashes of course. Happy Thanksgiving!

Baby Shower

My little sister is having a baby girl in a few months. We enjoy perusing a little site called "Cake Wrecks" every now and then and I decided I would take on a fondant cake for "humor's sake." (I didn't even know what fondant was the week I decided this.) I was so excited for her first baby shower and had a ton of fun making this cake (with Kimball's help) . . . granted, it is pretty lumpy and didn't taste very good, but it definitely added to the festivities! Not quite a cake wreck thank goodness, but I definitely appreciate those cake decorating professionals more than ever now!

Halloween

Ella decided to be a unicorn again this year. She is quite an excellent unicorn I must say.

I had to bribe Alex with a few M&Ms to pose for this picture. The outfit wasn't too comfortable. So, he went trick-or-treating as a little bat instead.

This is all of the kids' cousins on my side. Quite a dashing bunch!

The little ones needed a little reassurance from their dads.

Trick or Treat!!!

They look so much bigger this year! Will is a Jedi, complete with Lightsaber.

I was surprised they only lasted about half an hour this time. Will was getting over the flu so I think he was eager to come back inside where it was warm and cozy.

Fall Fun

Ella went to HeeHaw farm for her preschool field trip. We had so much fun.

This is Ella's friend Megan. They had fun petting the sheep.

Alex loved seeing the animals up close and personal, too.
He even got brave enough to touch the little pigs.

I tried to help Alex pet the donkey and it freaked him out. He kept going back to see it, though.

We took a hayride to pick out some pumpkins.

Look at those cute little pumpkins! ;)

Alex was so cute with his pumpkin. It had a little hook on the stem which he hung off his index finger. He walked all over with it swinging alongside him.

Ella was so brave going down the slide! She went so fast I could barely get a picture!

Look closely at those headlights. Surprise!

Jumping in the hay. They sure had fun. It was a perfect day, too.

Who knew fall was such a great time of year?