Christmas 2011

We had a very festive house this year, especially thanks to Mark. I've always wanted to hang up colorful lights inside and I told Mark about it and one morning he surprised me by putting them up all around the main floor. I got some bows to go with them and it's been a fun addition to our decorations.

 

 

 

Here's our Christmas tree this year with presents underneath.

 

This one big present didn't fit under the tree. Daddy spent a few hours building it on Christmas Eve, I've always wanted a train table and wooden train set for our kids and I found a great deal this year so we got one. We got some Thomas engines to go with it, so that makes it even more fun.

 

This is a beautiful flower arrangement Mark got me last week. It smells like a fresh Christmas tree (without all the hassle) and I've loved it.

 

Here's the family room after "Santa" came.

 

The girls are enchanted by their big Christmas present. Yay for Santa! Joy didn't open any other presents because she just wanted to play with the train table. If we tried to hand her a present to open she would say "don't like presents". It was very funny (we opened her presents for her).

 

So much fun, they've played with it all day!

 

A new cuddly friend for Grace.

 

We had a lovely Christmas day. We started with a devotional in our room before we went downstairs. We were able to bear our testimonies and share the Christmas story from Luke and other scriptures from Isaiah. Then we got a fun surprise. Mom and Dad had been downstairs making breakfast for us and it was almost all ready when we came down to open presents. We opened presents with them and then had a wonderful breakfast all together. I love my family and I love living here in Boise. I'm so grateful for my Savior and for the Gospel. I love my sweet husband and dear children. I hope you all had a beautiful day too.

Love,
Aubrey

December

We've had a fun month this last month and before I get to posting some Christmas pictures, I thought I'd post some other pictures from the last month.

 

I thought this picture of Grace was adorable. My kids love olives!

 

The girls got to decorate a gingerbread house at Nana and Papa's house and they used some nice candy (like chocolate orange sticks). So we decided that this house would be an eating house and we put it on the kitchen table to pick at for awhile. It didn't take Joy long to discover the house and start sampling. :)

 

 

 

She liked the house a little too much, so we didn't leave it there for long.

 

This year, the girls got their own 5-foot tree to decorate with colorful ornaments and lights. That way I can have my nice tree and they can have their fun tree. Although with two puppies and a two-year-old, my tree didn't look very nice most of the month :)

 

BethAnne had her first clogging performance at the Festival of Trees, right before Thanksgiving. Here she is in her cute outfit. She is doing pretty well with clogging and she's really enjoying it. I'm glad we stuck with it and I think we'll continue for awhile.

Hi All My Sweethearts!

It was fun to get excited phone calls - and hugs - from my wonderful grandkids - and their wonderful mothers! I had such fun making the pillow cases! We're having a really nice holiday season - not too rushed, and just cozy! Here are some pictures I took of the girls when they helped me rake leaves a few weeks ago. Love you all! and hope you love the season!

Kid Comedy

Grace- My school shoes are too small for me
Me- Really? (we just got new shoes a few months ago)
Grace- Yes, I am too big for my tennis shoes
Me- So, you need new shoes?
Grace- Yes...shoes that light up.

Have a happy week!
Love,
Aubrey

Portraits 2011

We weren't going to do portraits this year, but I got an amazing deal, so we decided to get some of just the girls. I'm not posting the main one we're using for our Christmas card, but here are the others. I wasn't thrilled with the photographer (she zoomed in too close a lot of the time), but it was super cheap, so I guess I can't complain. Here are my favorite shots. I love my beautiful girls! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
Love,
Aubrey

P.S. We have the CD and copyright of the pictures, so any of you can print any you want. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween in Logan!

We went to the "haunted" corn maze a few weeks ago. It was REALLY scary - Adam lasted about 3 minutes, and then we spent the next 30 minutes begging the scary guys to show us the way out. Big Brian took Tyler and Brian through the entire maze and they seemed to have a great time (even though little Bri was caught chanting to himself "don't hurt me, don't hurt me, don't hurt me" hoping to repel the scary guys while trying to look brave).

Happy Halloween! We got lucky and had the last nice day of the season (before the 30 degree weather and snow settled in.) The kids got lots of candy and still think it's the second best holiday. Our neighbors put on a fun chili get-together before the trick-or-treating craziness started, so I didn't have to worry about dinner. My highlight of the day of course!

I love how Brian gets into Halloween and dresses up every year. It makes me hate it less. Why do I hate Halloween? Oh well, time for an attitude adjustment.

My cute little pirate loved his first Halloween party at preschool. He felt like one of the big boys and had a great day. I wish I would have gotten individual shots of the rest of them. Oh well, there's always next year!

Cute dogs and cute kids

Mark's parents got our doggies some costumes for Halloween and so we dressed them up for a few minutes.

 

Lily seems to be saying "help me, please". She's a patient dog though.

 

I didn't get a good picture of Daisy, but here you can see that she was dressed up too.

 

I like this picture of Joy, she is so often just really happy.

 

Daisy and Lily were groomed today and they are so white and fluffy and beautiful when they're groomed. They smell great too for a few days, so that's good (they don't smell too bad the rest of the time either).

 

Today when we asked Joy to smile for the camera she would scrunch up her face so cute and smile. Such a cutie!

 

And here's our pretty Grace posing for the camera.

That's it for now. Things here are going pretty well. I've been sick with some back-to-back colds and a pretty bad sinus and double ear infection, but I think I'm on the mend (with two antibiotics on board). Joy's appointment with the infectious disease guy was pretty fruitless. He thinks she just gets sick regularly with high fevers, with no other symptoms. Can't say that I agree with him, but at least it's probably not serious, just disruptive. We're going to wait and see how she does.
Grace and BethAnne have most of November off (because their school is year round), so I'm looking forward to having my girls home this month. Hopefully we can practice cleaning and playing nice together. Have a great week!
Love,
Aubrey

Joy the Pioneer

Joy was in a much better mood today, so she let me dress her up in her Pioneer costume. She didn't smile very much in the pictures, but she's a cutie anyway. We had fun trick-or-treating at Mark's work and Grandma's work and now we're almost all tuckered out. Mark will take the kids to a few houses in the neighborhood this evening and then we'll be done! Happy Halloween!

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween Preview!

We had our Ward Halloween Party last night, so we took some pictures. (They may be all the Halloween pictures I take, but we'll see).

 

There was a pumpkin carving contest at the party (you decorated them at home and brought them). BethAnne and Grace drew the design they wanted on paper, then Mark taped the paper on the pumpkin and carved away. I love both of their designs, but BethAnne's doggy pumpkin is especially awesome! They are so creative and Mark is so talented, the designs look exactly like the pictures.

 

Grace was a princess this year and BethAnne was a cute witch. The fake hair looks better in person, but you get the general idea.

 

Joy dressed up this year as the 2-year-old who absolutely refused to wear a costume. We tried the non-itchy pioneer costume and she wouldn't have it. But she was adorable for a few minutes even though she was screaming and pulling at her bonnet the whole time. I didn't dare try the fancy/itchy Cinderella costume. Maybe it's because she's been sick. She had another high fever this week for a few days. Then she was grumpy for a couple days and then she came down with a cold yesterday. Maybe she'll let me dress her up for Halloween tomorrow, but I'm not going to push it.

Joy has an appointment with the infectious disease specialist on Tuesday because she has had several episodes since July where she has a medium to high fever (lasting 3 or 4 days) with no apparent cause. She may have a recurring fever disorder. Hopefully whatever it is, isn't serious. The pediatrician feels like he's already ruled out most things, we'll see if the specialist has some ideas. It's getting to be pretty disruptive because she doesn't sleep well when she has a fever (so Mark and I don't sleep well) and then this last time she just seemed really uncomfortable for a couple days. Hopefully we can figure it out and hopefully there's a cure.

 

This year, Mark got into the Halloween spirit and he dressed up as a pirate. Very fun, aaaargh!

 

And one last picture taken this evening. Apparently, Lily the puppy is a budding pianist! I hope you all have a great week and a fun Halloween. Make sure you post pictures of your cute kiddies in their costumes!

Love,
Aubrey