Christmas Cheer and In-Betweens

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! This Christmas Season has been one of my favorites. The girl's and I have been baking and crafting for weeks now and our home has a permanent scent of cinnamon as a result:) We have gone hunting for Santa's sleigh and reindeer (Brooke saw them in the sky once). The girls saw Santa. Ella asked for a trampoline along with a million other toys and Brooke sat on my lap next to Santa and didn't talk to him. Christmas songs are a favorite (Rob's version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is brilliant). We also have been reading a novel each night as we cuddle up by the fire.


This year both Ella and Brooke were able to be a part of the Christmas Program at their school. Ella was so excited but Brooke was terrified. So I gave her one of my necklaces and she had "put my love" into it so she could be brave. Cute. Ella also got one:) After the program Brooke told Rob that she wouldn't ever do that again. Ella quickly piped up and said that she loved it!


I have been busy baking in our new kitchen and Rob swears he washes at least one
cookie sheet every day. I also put together a church Christmas Program and had a blast with everyone! Thanks to all who participated! Now we can get excited for an Easter Program :)

As we close out this year here are some of my favorite pics from some of the in-between moments that I haven't posted. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Smiling in her sleep:)

Story time!

Caught with a pen!

My Squish

Apparently they ran out of gas mid-play...

their everyday clothes

Fall Holidays

Here's some pics from Halloween and Thanksgiving:) Ella and I were ballerinas. Brooke was Rapunzel. Claire was a kangaroo. Kristie was a super-dog. Rob was a beach bum but I don't have any pictures:(We went to the Blodgett Canyon ward party where some friends and I did a little mock-mom's-life-ballet. Then we ran over to our ward for a trunk or treat. And of course you can't beat trick-or-treating in the crazy Halloween Mecca of 3rd and 4th street. Seriously, it is something to behold.

This was our first ever Thanksgiving by ourselves so we decided to be completely unconventional and have a seafood dinner. I don't like turkey anyway. We went to a little cabin just out of town that had a little pond. The girls thought it was amazing. It was really quite small but they had so much fun. We played games and played outside. We had dinner on Friday instead of Thursday since we were at the cabin. Saturday was our big Christmas decorating day ( I LOVE this day!!!)

NEW KITCHEN!!! (finally)

Okay friends! Here it is! The kitchen:)


Some accessories...

And last but not least my Anthropologie board. The knobs are from Anthropologie, and the plants are air plants. My third plant froze so all we have left is the tiny seedling but another is on it's way:) I actually cut the board myself which is a big deal because I hate loud power tools. Yes, I used power tools. I guess you can teach old dogs new tricks.

Happy Harvest!

I LOVE this time of the year! I love the colors, I love cuddling under blankets, I love the HARVEST! It is also Ella's birthday. This year our house was still slightly unfinished from our kitchen fiasco so Ella's "BUGS AND BUTTERFLIES" party was moved to the park. Five is a monumental age for a little one and it was a good day:) Thanks Mom for helping with the cake!

What do we do when we aren't throwing birthday parties? We harvest! These pumpkins are from our garden. The apples are from our tress (I am so mad I didn't get pics of the kids picking them!)The geese are even from the field! Rob saw them land during dinner and got his gun, walked outside and shot the geese! I need to just say that it made me sad and I even cried a little bit. The geese didn't taste very good either. Ashten (The best canning buddy in the world) and I canned apple pie filling, jalapeno pickles, bread and butter pickles, jalapeno jam, and raspberry jam. This was my first year canning and as weird as it sounds...it was addicting. My breakfast now consists of homemade toast and jam! SO MUCH HAPPINESS!!! While we were in the kitchen the girls were stacking wood with dad or painting pumpkins :)


We can't forget the traditional Halloween crafts. This year we made pumpkin sun-catchers, spiders, and ghosts. The kids didn't want to put their ghosts up but ran around the house "scaring" everyone.

We spend most of our day in the kitchen. Right here Claire is playing in the sink while the girls and I are making granola bars. I will always picture my counters covered with children in dress ups and ingredients.

This time of year also brought around CLAIRE"S FIRST FEEDING. The pictures explain it all.

HAPPY HARVEST TO ALL!!!

ROLO PRINCESSES!

I enjoy my sleep. Rob enjoys NOT waking me from my sleep. But sometimes he has to. Like when our kitchen is flooded. Rob had to rush off to work which left me with a very wet mess. Luckily we know a guy. The guy told us that the kitchen and mud room is ruined and will be gutted and renovated. My initial reaction was PURE JOY!!! Christmas came early this year! I would LOVE to design my own kitchen!! Rob on the other hand.....not so excited. The bad news was that the girls and I would be gone for another 3-4weeks.

Sweet little Ella loves her daddy. This particular day was supposed to be a "Let's-surprise-Dad-just-because-we-love-him-day". We had some great plans made and when we couldn't do them anymore Ella got so sad. So we brainstormed and came up with a craft that we will probably do every time we take a trip while Rob stays home. ROLO PRINCESSES (naturally)! All that is needed is some white copy paper, some markers, scissors, Rolos, and a couple adorable girls with big imaginations. We initially wanted to make individual wrappers and wrap Rolos and leave them for Rob so that every time he opened on he would think of the girls. After they were wrapped Brooke's Rolos that were wrapped were clearly more beautiful than the ones that weren't and those became princesses. The others became bad guys. Oh the battle that ensued!! The bad guys won. This was one of the cutest craft ideas we have ever done:) A tradition has been born!

So we went to Utah and had another fabulous trip! So much to do. I thought 3-4 weeks would be a ton of time but it was JAM PACKED! We ran out of time! So here are some pics of a few things we did:) Love and miss you all!



P.S. New kitchen pictures will be coming later. I am waiting to finish a project using some goods from ANTRHOPOLOGIE...