Ballet Beauties

Look at this face! Can you stand her? I swear I did not pose her. My shy Elizabeth did this all on her own!





Anyway, here she is learning to plie.

And working on balance.


And look at these three little ballet princess cousins all in a row. If there's anything more endearing than your little girl's first ballet class, it's watching her share it with her tiny cousins.

Halloween

Here's a recap of our halloween activities.

First, the Trunk or Treat. Elizabeth was Abby Cadabby (from Sesame Street.)

It was cold that night so Natalie was a flamingo. (And she would NOT let me take a decent picture of her!)


The girls got WAY too much candy.

On Halloween, Elizabeth and I carved her pumpkin from the pumpkin patch and made her first Jack-O-Lantern. She picked the face out all by herself from a bunch of samples on the internet.


We went trick or treating at the outlet mall by our house that afternoon with Elizabeth's 3 quasi brothers. She liked being Abby so much she wanted to do it again.


That day was unseasonably warm so Natalie was Tinkerbell.

And she was still not interested in letting me take a decent picture of her.

Here's Elizabeth and her entourage. Do you love the mario and luigi costumes because I did.

Elizabeth did not want to take her nap on Halloween so I didn't make her...and this is what she looked like on the way home from the outlets. It was only 5:30 pm.

She woke up in time for dinner and decided she wanted to trick or treat at the neighbor's house and like 5 others. It worked out great. That was plenty for Natalie's attention span. Evidently she was over being told what a cute Tinkerbell she was.

Hope yours was great too!

What a lucky summer evening...

So there we were, chillin at the park watching Adam's rec league softball game when cutest ever Nikki Morris turns around with a camera in hand. The next thing I knew I see Elizabeth and Natalie smiling from ear to ear while actually LOOKING AT THE CAMERA! What? Who knew that was actually possible! Anyone who knows me knows that I am INCAPABLE of getting my children to look at the camera which is clear evidence to me that Nikki has some kind of super power. She claims to be a novice, but I think you'll agree with me that these pictures don't look like the work of a rookie.








The softball games are such fun. The team is made up of a bunch of guys Adam really likes. And the wives are girls I just love to be around so it's a good chance for us to visit while we watch Dad show off his mad baseball skillz. Fingers crossed for another season of baseball!

Natalie had been running a pretty high random fever. I was taking her temp and Elizabeth was watching. I was trying to keep her from bugging Natalie or from catching whatever Natalie had.

E:"Mom, what are you doing?"
Mom: "I'm taking Natalie's temperature to see if she's sick."
E:"Mom, is Natalie sick?"
Mom:"She's got a fever. I'm not sure if she's sick though so please don't touch her."

Enter Dad.

E: "Dad, don't touch Natalie. She's got a beaver."

After baths we were putting lotion on Elizabeth. She saw a freckle on her ankle and in a super whiny, I'm just about to cry voice she starts to panic.

E: MOM! I've got an owie!
M: Silly, that's not an owie. It's a freckle. Freckles don't hurt!

In a super happy, perky voice and while pointing at her freckle:

E. MOM! Look at my pickle!

Last night we were reading scriptures and talking about the wicked king Noah. We were talking about how he had all his wicked priests replace all the righteous ones. Elizabeth in her super emphatic way puts both hands out, palms up,and shouts "oh no! That's horbidle" then when Adam was able to hold a straight face, we told her how they were going to kill abinadi. Elizabeth strikes the same pose as before. This time she says "dad, that's diculous!" a la la la!

During prayers this morning, we were helping Elizabeth. I told her to say "help me not to hit." Elizabeth said "help me to spit." ah, what a difference a letter makes. :)

And Natalie got a top tooth today! Who told that squishy little angel she could get bigger?

A day in the life...

The scene:
Elizabeth is in the back yard playing with her little friend Camden. I'm sitting in the frame of the back door watching the kids. Elizabeth runs inside past me and quickly turns around and heads back outside.

E: "Eckoos me, mom. I need to run an errand."
M: "Oh, sorry. Am I in your way? Here, I'll scoot over."
E: "Thanks, Mom. I have to run an errand, ok Mom?"
Pause
E: "OK Mom?"
M: It dawns on me that she's waiting until I say ok. "OK honey. Have a good trip."
E: running toward her little play house. "I'll be right back, Mom."

E opens the door to her play house and shouts "Erin? Erin!"

Oh...THAT kind of errand. (We know an adorable little girl named Erin)

LATER THAT DAY, driving in the car home.

E: MOM! I need a drink!
M: Say "please," honey.
E: (Completely sincerely and in the most earnest tone): Please honey.

Careful what you say. They're listening!

To Nana, Papas, Grandma and Grandpa with Love

As promised, a complete pictoral play by play of Christmas morning. Hope it's as fun for you to watch as it was for us to be a part of! We had SUCH fun. All day we watched Christmas movies (How the Grinch Stole Christmas and a Muppet Christmas Carol among my favorites) and read Christmas books. We snuggled and lounged and dressed in pretty greens and reds. Here's Natalie showing off her Christmas Eve attire. We made homemade pizza and ate dinner by candlelight. The girls thought that was pretty great.

We read the Christmas story and acted it out with our Little People Nativity. We baked 7 layer cookies for Santa (because that's what Santa wanted to eat!) We opened our first present of Christmas on Christmas Eve which was a brand new pair of pajamas for everyone. We sang our favorite Chrismas carols and got all ready for bed in our new pjs. Then we let the little ones join us in a little watching of Home Alone and we even let them stay up past bed time.

And then...CHRISTMAS MORNING! Natalie woke up first so we got to play with her for a bit before Elizabeth decided to roll out. Yep. That's right. On Christmas morning, my two year old decided to sleep in for maybe the second time ever in her life. EVER! She didn't get up until 8:30! Lazy bones!

Here's Elizabeth with her Christmas treats already all over her face!


And of course our smiley girl just beaming in her Christmas jammies too...


Elizabeth couldn't contain herself. She was so excited she just had to hug someone. Good thing Natalie is such a good sport.


She was kind enough to pause and let us get a picture of the two of them in front of some of their Christmas loot.

She couldn't wait long though. Look at the anticipation on this face!


Elizabeth loved the presents that were too big or awkwardly shaped to wrap once they had been put together. So much so, however, that she refused to open the ones that were wrapped. She got finished opening her stocking and then she didn't want to open any more presents. This was perhaps her most distracting gift in her stocking. :)


We had to beg her to open a crucial few more and then she just left the rest under the tree.




Natalie angelically slept through the first round of present opening.


She woke up after Elizabeth had lost interest and Natalie then opened (read: tried to eat) her presents. It looks like she approved though, given that she gummed them each in turn. She's no respecter of presents.





We played with toys, ate cinnamon rolls and drank yummy cider and generally just revelled in having Dad home with us. Christmas comes right at the end of his busy season so this is certainly the most we've seen him since the end of September.

Eventually we got dressed


and headed over to Mark and Carrie's for dinner. Carrie made the most delectable dishes (no offense, Dale. I'm told the rolls were great but one just can't compete with bavarian.) The kids at their table, the grown ups at their table



and the squishy one sleeping sweetly under the tree. What a great present she is! Have I mentioned that I love this baby? Squishy, good natured and adorable. L.O.V.E.


Just as a side note, here are a few other memories from the Christmas season this year.
Mark and Carrie tipped us off to the cutest little outdoor Santa's village. We met them there one evening. It was freezing but as you can see, the cousins didn't care.

The lights were beautiful and Adam even got out of work early enough to be able to meet us there for which we were thrilled.

Mrs. Claus gave the girlies cookies and they were so cute eating them. And that was after the girls got to ride reindeer (or saddles on bales of hay, but let's not get hung up on details)

And natalie and I met Frosty the Snowman. He's kinda cute, right?


I was trying to take pictures of the girls in their dresses they wore to church the Sunday before Christmas. (Please take note of the traditional sunday mess in the background that is borne of a mad scramble to get to church on time with the appropriate amount of toys, books and snacks to keep children happy). Natalie was cooperative as usual.

Elizabeth...not so much.

Until I agreed to photograph her in what she wanted to be wearing. Her diaper, her necklaces, her bracelets and her heels. I'd like to add that she has matching pairs of both the pink and blue heels, but she insists that she wear one pink and one blue. Don't ask me. It's been a year and half since I could tell that girl what to do! :)



Our FHE activity last week was building gingerbread houses. We had quite the time putting them together and we're pretty sure we've got a future in gingerbread house making!


But seriously, look at this masterpiece!

Our cute friends tried to argue that they even approximated our mad gingerbread house making skills, but alas. Not so much. Celeste is, however, a champ at getting Natalie to fall asleep so we'll keep her around anyway. And Donovan was wearing a t-shirt that said "10 things you didn't know about Chuck Norris." If that isn't a reason to keep these two around, I don't know what is.


And finally, this is for Nana. They say hello and that they miss you. We got to feed them the day before Christmas because it was 85 degrees.


For all you haters out there, keep in mind how awesome Texas is that you can cruise out to the pond in your flip flops in December. I could get used to this life!

We hope you all had as merry of a Christmas as we did and that you had an opportunity feel the true spirit of Christmas. What a magical time of year!