December is Off to a Great Start!

It's the most wonderful time of the year and we are just loving all the fun and magic that comes with kids and Christmas.

Grandma Jan started the fun on Thanksgiving night by giving the kids a cute Christmas countdown calendar for the kids. They love putting a magnet on the fridge every day and look forward to it every day!

You haven't lived until you've had the pleasure of constructing a gingerbread house with a man who builds houses for a living. Notice the hot glue gun...the icing just wasn't a good enough hold for Greg and we had to bring out the big guns.

Garrett and Abby-Belle loved decorating it. I'm pretty sure they ate more candy than they put on the house, but that's the best part of it, right?

A highlight every Christmas is getting out the play Nativity. I came in one day to find the kids had lined up all the animals and people so they were worshiping the baby Jesus. I thought it was so sweet and it made me smile. Garrett and Abby are at perfect ages for Christmas this year. They are excited about Santa Claus, but they also love talking about the baby Jesus and hearing the story of His birth.

We had another nice visit with the Jolly Old Elf this year. Abby asked for a whole bunch of princess stuff (not a surprise) and Garrett is really hoping for a robot, a real rocket he can launch into the sky, and maybe some Legos. We'll see what Santa delivers. I hope he's not too disappointed.

We made the trek into the hills again to cut down our Christmas tree. This is starting to be one of my favorite Christmas traditions and something I love doing with our little family. Our good friends Lea, Lisa, and Camden came with us this year and we had so much fun!

Lisa helped Garrett cut down his very own little Christmas tree to keep in his room. He was so excited!

Another favorite Christmas tradition is taking the kids to a live Nativity with my cousins. My sweet cousin, Jan, planned a special night and even sent the kids their own invitations in the mail. They were so excited and we had such a fun night. It was FREEZING (like seriously 5 degrees outside), but we bundled up and braved it and were so glad we did.

Something about seeing the Christmas story presented while sitting on straw bales in a freezing cold barn really puts everything in perspective. Abby was completely mesmerized and we watched the performance twice and then had to go back and watch it one more time before we left.

We went back to Jan's house after for soup and hot chocolate.

We put the little tree up in the kids' room and they got to choose a new ornament this year for their tree. We started doing this last year and I think it will be a fun thing for them to have as they get older.

Garrett chose Hermie to go alone with the Snowmonster he got last year. He's working on the entire collection and is already trying to decide which "Rudolph" character he is going to choose next year.

Abby chose Belle. She chose a princess ornament last year and is also trying to decide which princess she wants next year.

Their little tree turned out so cute and we had such a fun time decorating it. Greg was working out of town all week, so we haven't gotten our big tree set up yet, but the plan is to do it this weekend and we are so excited!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is such a great holiday! I love the opportunity to share a special day with family remembering all the good things we have in our lives. 

Our kids are at such fun ages right now for holidays. They get so excited about everything and seem to measure time by what holiday is coming next. Abby calls them "the fun days" and we have to go through the line-up quite frequently (after Halloween is Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, and then New Year's...etc.)

Of course, we had to do the classic "Thankful Turkey." November just wouldn't be complete without it!

This little gal is getting so big! She smiles, coos, laughs and is such a joy. She had her 4 month check-up this week and is doing great! She is in about the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head which makes her still the smallest of our babies. She's chunking right out and is a sweet 14 pounds...she has great little cheeks just perfect for kissing!

Abby just loves preschool and was so excited for her pilgrim hat and turkey puppet.

Check out these cute little turkeys! Garrett's friend came to play the day they made these cute little hats in kindergarten and wanted to be in the picture.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with Greg's family in Salt Lake. It was a bit of a tough day for me with my parents being gone and I really missed them, but I feel so blessed to have the BEST in-laws ever. I love them all so much and hit the jackpot when I married into Greg's family.

Abby loves to get her hair done "fancy" and is always grateful for anybody more talented than her deficient mother. I try, but I'm just not that great at styling hair. She was thrilled when Aunt Sandy braided her hair just like a real princess.

Love these girls!

Not only does she love to get her hair done, but Abby also really likes to do hair. Doesn't Mal look so pretty in pink?

I was lame and only took a few pictures, but we had a great crew there and had such a fun time! I'm so grateful for all the good things I have in my life, but I would have to say our families are definitely at the top of the list. We are so blessed!

Happy Halloween!

I just love Halloween! It is such a fun time with the kids and is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. 

Aunt Paula started off the Fall fun by making caramel apples with the kids while we were in Park City for UEA. 

We had a fun Halloween Family Night which consisted of pizza-making and pumpkin carving.

Mal and David had a fun little Halloween party. I'm all about getting maximum bang for the buck and love every chance to dress the kids up in their costumes.

Cutest little skeleton.

Oh, this just kills me! Garrett wanted his face painted and this is how he wanted it done. Pretty scary vampire, huh? I was pretty excited when he said he wanted to be a vampire. The world's easiest costume: church clothes he already had with a $5 cape. Score!!!

You may notice Abby is wearing a different costume in basically every picture we have. She loves to play dress-up and has a nice collection of princess dresses, so we just brought her box of dress-ups and she changed throughout the night. Every day is Halloween in Abby's world!

David got a set of Lincoln Logs to have at their house for when the kids visit. Garrett loved it and they had a fun time building all sorts of marvelous creations.

We had another successful Witches' Story Time fundraiser for the library again this year. The only problem with having a great idea is you have to be in charge of it and make it happen. It's a lot of work to pull it off, but the kids love it and it's totally worth it.

Halloween Day was so much fun! Garrett got to dress up for school and he was so excited. I made a rookie mom mistake and sent him in his nice white shirt. Let's just say kindergartners painting pumpkins in Church shirts isn't probably the best idea. We won't try that again. He had to become a skeleton vampire and wasn't thrilled about it to start with, but he quickly got over it when the candy started rolling in. Abby decided to be a witch for trick-or-treating and we borrowed this darling witch costume from Emily. Oh, and Reese was the cutest little pumpkin you could ever imagine.

Garrett was being silly and put this witch hat on for pictures. Such a little goof!

Speaking of goofs...

We had the best time trick-or-treating. I love living in a small town where we know our neighbors and can enjoy going door-to-door. Garrett and Abby LOVED it and were so excited and so much fun. They were so cute running from house to house holding hands with their little capes blowing in the wind. After their buckets were full, we came home for bed and then the fun really began for Greg and I as we inspected their loot and took our candy tax.

This cute little pumpkin wore herself right out. Check out those sweet little hands! I think it's safe to say her first Halloween was a success!

Halloween was on a Thursday this year, so Ric and Paula had their annual Halloween party the next day. As always, the chili and cinnamon twists were divine! The kids loved making Witches' Brew with Jan and had fun making potions. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives who do so much to make fun memories and traditions with our kids.