Three days of fun fun fun!

We had a fabulous Christmas this year!!! Here are a few of the highlights...

~~~Christmas Eve @ Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house~~~

Ready for the Christmas festivities to start...


Look who showed up at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house after dinner!


About 2 weeks before Christmas, Avery decided she wanted a Turtle. I thought she'd just forget about it in a couple of days and start saying she wanted something else. Well, that didn't happen. I then saw how serious she was about the whole turtle thing so I told her that Santa Claus doesn't bring live animals because he doesn't have anywhere to put them on his sleigh. That's was an okay answer right? Anyway, then she started to say that she wanted a stuffed turtle. And that's what she told Santa when she sat on his knee...


The look on Quinn's face in this picture is CLASSIC!!! He sat there the entire time just like that! Santa tried to talk to him, ask him question, turn his chin, basically tried to do anything to get his attention. Quinn refused to look at him, or respond to anything Santa would say, or anyone else for that matter, he just sat there just like that! But I must say, I'm pretty proud of my little guy, he actually sat on Santa's lap which is more than I was expecting him to do!!! :)


Of course Santa brought each of the kids a present, plus they got to open a present from the cousin that picked their name...



We had a great time! At the end of the night we got our little kidlets into their new Christmas jammies and headed home to set out our stockings and cookies and milk for Santa.

~~~Christmas morning @ our house~~~

The kids were so excited to see that Santa had eaten all the cookies and drank all the milk they left for him. It was so cute to see them so excited!

Avery with her beloved stuffed turtle! After we searched high and low at several different stores, Justin FINALLY found a stuffed turtle at the Quilted Bear (of all places) on Christmas Eve on his lunch break. Phew! Just in the nick of time!


Quinney got this big wheel...


Plus this cool Geo Trax motorized airplane. He loves it, can you tell?...


Here's Avery with her Baby Alive and she's also sporting her new apron that I made her. It turned out so cute! I'm pretty proud of myself :)...


I made Quinn an apron too, I used a denim looking material and a paisley blue bandanna material for the apron and straps and then I put leather fringe along the neck and along the top of the pockets. It turned out really cute, he looks like a little cowboy! I'll have to get a picture of him wearing it one of these times and post it!

~~~Christmas Day @ Grandma and Grandpa Thompson's house~~~

For the Nativity Story this year, Avery was Mary and Quinn was Joseph.



A talent show, exchanging name presents, plus snacking on scrumptious food were also part of the festivities!

Next came a surprise from Grandma and Grandpa, they made each of the grandkids a quilt! Here's Quinn opening his, he loves it, he calls it his "bed".



Avery's turn. As soon as Grandma and Grandpa spreaded out her quilt her and Quinn had to flop all over it, she loves hers too, can you tell?



Perhaps one of the most exciting things about Christmas night was that we got snowed in at my parents house and had to sleepover. I don't know, call me nerdy, but for some reason I think that sort of thing is exciting! There was so much snow, it was crazy!

~~~The day after Christmas @ Grandma and Grandpa Thompson's house~~~

That morning I took some shots of the snow from my parents kitchen and dining room windows. Can you believe the snow, there was a ton!



Since we didn't have our snow clothes we stayed inside and the kids played a tricky game of Twister...



We had a great time! Later that evening we headed for home. Although it was a very scary, snowy, icey mess, we made it home safe and sound.

Another fabulous Christmas to remember!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

...from our house to yours!




Sorry, I couldn't pick just one picture! (you understand, right?) In fact, here are a few more...

Quinney Guy, my little GQ man!!! What a STUD!!!



And here is Mrs. Pringle, cute as a button!!! (don't ask me why I call her that, cause quite frankly, I don't know!) :)



Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!!!

Holiday Fun

Making Christmas cookies.....




I just think these pictures are so cute! Quinn was making such a mess with the flour, it was all over the counter, the floor, and his clothes! We had fun!

Making a snowman.....



The other day, Avery, Quinn and I went outside to shovel the driveway and play in the snow. I wasn't out there shoveling too long before one of our nice neighbors showed up with his snow blower. He finished our driveway and the sidewalks around our house. We live in such a great neighborhood, we love it! Anyway, since the work was done for us, we had more time to play in the snow and build this lovely snowman. Avery named it Rocky. :)

Avery's question.....

"Guess what's happening to my Mom in June?"


*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*


"She's gonna have a baby! That's in six months!!"

Yes, this time it's true! If you remember one of my previous posts, Avery asked me if I was having a baby "cause your tummy's gettin' real big!" she said. Well, now when she wonders why my tummy's starting to get "real big" I have an excuse! haha! :)

We are so excited for our little one's arrival in June! I'm going to try my VERY hardest not to find out what we are having, (Justin's request) but only time will tell if I can handle not knowing I guess! :)

gindgerbread, trees and snow!

Last week in preschool Avery made a fun gingerbread house. She was so excited and told me all about it in the car on the way home. "And I made a door Mom, and some windows just like a regelar [regular] house!" I love that she put the gingerbread man next to the front door and Rudolph on top of the roof, so cute!



Justin's Mom has been collecting all different kinds of fun ornaments over the years. Last year she came up with this great idea to use her collectibles and decorate a small Christmas tree for each of the grand kids. Then each year she will just rotate the trees so Avery and Quinn will have a different themed tree each year. Anyway, I think it is a wonderful tradition that she started and Avery and Quinn absolutely LOVE having their own little Christmas tree in their rooms.

Avery's tree this year is a Princess tree. The first time she saw it at Grandma's house she said, "is this for me?" "I love it!" When you push the button on the Cinderella (sitting on the floor next to the tree) it plays music and she dances around and the little snow globe lights up and has flurry's of snow flying around inside it. It is really cute and it gets pushed about 88+ times a day! :)


Don't mind the half painted wall in her room, it's waiting for bead board.....and has been since we painted her room shortly after we moved here almost 2 years ago!...ugh!!! And the great part about it, is that we've also had the bead board sitting in the garage since shortly after we moved in.....double ugh! Maybe that's what I'll tell Santa Claus I want for Christmas this year! ;) he he! Too bad Santa Claus doesn't look at our blog!!!

Quinney got a Sesame Street tree this year and he LOVES it! It also has two Elmo's and a fun Sesame Street ABC learning toy that sits around the bottom of the tree so Quinn can play with them instead of the ornaments, smart Grandma!! The toy is not pictured with the tree because it was downstairs of course, Quinn loves pushing the buttons and dancing along to the ABC song that it plays!



This isn't the best picture, I had to shut the blinds behind it so it wasn't so bright. Anyway, it looks so cute in person and Quinn loves it! He says good-night to his tree, as well as good-night to the moon every night! :)

SNOW FUN! We had a great time this past Saturday playing outside in the snow. We shoveled the sidewalks and driveway, had a snow ball fight, Justin white washed Ruby, GOOD TIMES!







I wish I would have gotten a picture of Justin white washing Ruby, pretty funny!!! Don't worry, she liked it! HA HA!!!

For Carolyn :) ...and everyone else too!

The decorating is done! Here are a few pics of some of my favorite Christmas decorations, per Carolyn's request! And just a warning, I heart snowmen!!!

The family room. I LOVE this tree!



And I love packing my tables with all sorts of cutesy things! :)







I started collecting snowmen ornaments the first Christmas Justin and I were married. Every year I find one ornament for each member of our family. I can't wait until this little tree is full of snowmen!



The living room. The tree skirt looks blue in this picture but it's actually green...weird!





LOVE LOVE LOVE these two things! I actually created the cute snowman ornament frame on the bottom. I got an old barn wood frame, nailed some nails into it, then hung those cute snowmen ornaments on the nails and wa-la, a fabulous 3D picture frame! It really is one of my very favorite Christmas decorations, I just think it turned out so cute!



And last but not least, these cute presents that my friend Lyndee made me for Christmas a few years back. They're made out of old chunky wood. I LOVE THEM!



And there you have it!

One thing that is missing from my Christmas decor is a manger scene. I would really like one but I haven't found one that I absolutely love yet. One of these years...

Notice there aren't any presents under the tree??? Yeah, I guess I'd better get crakin' on my Christmas shopping. You know, Christmas is in 17 days! Wowzers!!!

Christmas is in the air!

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my sister Carrie and my niece Taysia came to sleepover. Carrie stayed with the kids while Justin and I went out to dinner with some friends to the Spaghetti Factory. We were also planning on heading over the Temple Square to see the lights but scratched that plan when dinner lasted almost 3 hours! And we even had reservations at 6:00! Oh well, after all, there were 20 of us, plus it was a Saturday night, poor restaurant was so busy! We are planning on taking our kids down to see the lights at Temple Square anyway, so it was okay that we didn't get to see them. When we got home, Carrie and I worked on our advent calendars while Avery and Taysia had a sleepover on the living room floor under the Christmas tree. Look how cute they are sleeping away with their arms flopped on each other.....


Here is my finished advent calendar, well almost, I don't have the numbers on the squares yet but I will soon. Thanks Keesha for the great idea, it turned out so cute! Avery and Quinn get so excited to see what the surprise is for the day, from the moment Avery wakes up she is asking me if it's time to open the square!


We've had our Christmas tree in the living room set up and decorated since Saturday. But finally last night, I got all my Thanksgiving/Fall decorations put away and Justin hauled up all my Christmas stuff from the basement that I've been collecting over the years, including another tree for our family room. I'm pretty sure I could decorate a small 3rd world country with all my Christmas decor! What do you think???.....


I know I already have A LOT, but I can hardly resist a cute snowman decor (snowmen are my favorite) or a jolly old Santa decor. However, I am proud to say that this year I have not purchased one Christmas decor item, and I don't plan too. (well, except the cute wooden snowman wall hanging that I made for Super Saturday) :) Justin said to me last night while he was taking several trips up and down the stairs, "where are we going to put all this stuff?" My reply was, "well it fit last year, so I suppose we can make it fit again." he he!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a few Christmas decorations to put up!!!

I'm Stuffed!

Thanksgiving dinner was oh so yummy, the smorgasbord of pies for dessert were even better, and being surrounded by my family for two straight days was the best blessing of all!

Of course I forgot my dippy camera or you know there'd be plenty of pictures of the delicious homemade pies on here! :) I ate way too much (just as it should be on Thanksgiving), sat around way too often and enjoyed enormous amounts of leftovers!

Now let the Christmas festivities begin!!!

Yeah, Disney on Ice

We had such a fun time last Saturday! Avery and I went to Disney on Ice, and Justin and Quinn went to the Discovery Gateway Museum. We didn't think Quinn would sit there that long so Justin opted to take him to the Museum instead. :) Justin did take pictures of their little outing but he used the film camera so they are in the process of getting developed, when I get them back I will share them too. He said that every time he got the big ole' camera out to take a picture, people would stare at him like he was in the dark ages or something, have people already forgotten those camera's? :) He said it was pretty funny!

Disney on Ice!!!

Before we went down to find our seats we stopped off at the consession stand to get us a drink and a big old bucket of popcorn! Here is cute Avery in her seat anxiously awaiting the skating to start.


Just the two of us!


It was such a cute and exciting show! We saw tons of different Disney characters from Lion King to Pinocchio to Toy Story to Beauty and the Beast to the Incredibles. Here are a few pictures of some of the many fun characters that we saw. Let the skating begin!

The Mickey Mouse gang


Marlin, Dory and Bruce


Belle running from the nasty Beast


Avery loved this part, they had all the princesses and their princes come out one at a time to skate and then they all did a skating number together. See if you can find which one is which in the picture. There's Ariel and Prince Eric, Belle and the (transformed) Beast, Pocahontis and John Smith, Snow White and Prince Charming, Cinderella and her Prince and Jasmine and Aladdin. SO fun! We had great seats too!


Sorry some of these pictures are so dark, but this is Ponocchio. You can also see Jimminey Cricket in the shadows at the bottom of the picture.


Here's Mulan and that fabulous dragon! It looked so neat skating around on the ice, I wonder how many people were under there skating it around!?!


Next came the Lion King. Pumbaa was so stinkin cute!!! He skated on all fours and he would bounce around along the ice, it was so cute to watch!


Timon, Pumbaa, Nala and Simba. Hey how'd you like to wear that Simba costume??? Pretty tight!!! :)


At the end, all the characters came back out for the grand finale!


It was such a fun show!!! I'm so glad I got to take Avery! We LOVED it!!! When Justin asked Avery if she liked it she said, while throwing her arms up into the air, "it was awesome!"

After the show and the Museum, we stopped off at Firehouse Pizzera for a little dinner. YUM-O!!! I am so happy they opened one of these down here now, we have been missing it!


I have to laugh at this picture of myself! If you zoom in on it you'll notice I have a big old somethin somethin stored away for later in the middle of my front teeth! ha ha! And it wasn't even on purpose! (one of my favorite past times is to put something in my teeth on purpose and then talk and smile to the waitress and anyone who walks by!...pretty nerdy I know, but oh so fun!!!)


After dinner, we stopped off at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house for a visit! What a fun filled family day we had! I loved every minute of it!!! :)