Gingerbread Houses

It was time for our annual making of the gingerbread houses. This is one of my favorite christmas traditions. Chris and I started this tradition when Hallie was just a baby, Chris was the master decorator he always made sure that our house had a massive chimney, a helicopter, and even a palm tree in the front yard. It wasn't the same without him, but we decided to give it our best shot. This year the girls were old enough to really participate. At first it was hard to let them give decorating advice (my sister and I are pretty serious about our gingerbread houses) but after a while we gave in and let the girls do their own thing. They did a good job, and we all had a lot of fun.

My brother Cameron and his wife Steffanie joined us this year, they tried to make it a competition and I am proud to announce that they lost miserably.

Christmas With The Millers

A few days before Christmas my long lost brother and sister-in-law and their adorable kids stopped in UT for a visit on their way from Missouri to California. We have missed them sooooo much that we jumped at a chance to come and visit them.

The girls were in heaven. They played dress-up and many other things all weekend, in fact I barely even saw them, it was wonderful.

Poor little Reese really needed another boy cousin there to play with, but we found him some reindeer antlers and that entertained him for a bit. He was a good sport.

This is little Dawson. I have the cutest niece and nephews!

Before bed the girls put on their cute pink silky jammies

and Grandma read them all a bedtime story.

Grandma teaching the kiddos a tune or two on the piano, earplugs definitely suggested.

Unfortunately an impending store storm shortened everyones trip to Grandma and Grandpa Millers, but before we left we were sure to have some hot chocolate around the fire,

Hallie's idea of course

Hallie and Grandma Miller sipping hot chocolate around the fire.

Seeing The Real Santa

We ran into Santa outside a toy store in Park City. Hallie who has been skeptical about store Santas since she was about 3 was positive that this Santa had to be the real Santa Claus, and all the other store Santas were just hired help from the north pole.

Hallie wasted no time asking Santa for a Barbie and a Zhu Zhu Pet

which she then told Santa that her mom said that they were too expensive

( a little white lie that I told just in case Santa was unable to get ahold of the hot toy of 2009)

I had no idea that she was going to rat me out to the real Santa Claus

Brooklyn decided to take her time she talked, and talked, and talked, this is a picture of her showing Santa her new purse. Finally after a little pursuading she asked Santa for a

blue present, barbie, roller skates, and ice skates.

I have no idea where she got roller skates and ice skates but I am really hoping that she forgets about them.

Christmas Party

Hallie had a christmas party at school, and Brooklyn was super sad that she couldn't go too. So I promised her that we could have our own christmas party at home. Well, it started out small and then it turned into quite the event. Brooklyn has entered the phase that Hallie just came out of, and that is wanting to only wear dresses. She asks me if she can wear her church dress, and today I let her and we called it her party dress. She couldn't have been happier. We then made a fort, and played her favorite game the bumblebee game.

After that we read stories and made cotton candy (one of the only treats that she can eat) It was fun to spend time some one on one time with little Brookie.

HaPpy HAlLoWeEn

This years Halloween festivities kicked off with a Kindergarten Halloween Parade.

Hallie got to dress up in her Halloween costume and march around the school while the other classes and moms all watched. It literally lasted only a few seconds, but it was very cute to see all the kindergartner's strut their stuff around the school. The look of importance that each child had on their face was absolutely priceless. Hallie had fun too, but later admitted that she was a little disappointed because she thought she was going to be in a real parade outside.

Ahh to be 5 again.

My cute little Butterfly Princess (not to be confused for a fairy, she made sure of that)

After the parade we headed to Idaho to visit Darin and Sveta my brother and sister-in-law and baby Chase. Brooke and Hallie LOVE Baby Chase! In fact it is all that they talk about. It was fun for me because he managed to

entertain the both of them for the majority of the weekend.

Hallie loved to play hide and seek with Chase, and they would both laugh hysterically,

it was really cute!

When the kids weren't playing with Chase we were doing all of the traditional Halloween stuff.

We made carmel apples, and carved pumpkins. Now normally I really look forward to carving pumpkins, but this year I was a little apprehensive about carving the girls pumpkins by myself. I hate all of the prep work involved in pumpkin carving, aka cleaning the darn thing. But this year Hallie really stepped it up. I am happy to announce that this is the first year that Hallie has stuck her hand inside of the pumpkin. It only lasted a few minutes but it was a big step for a little girl who can not stand having sticky fingers. She also designed the pumpkin including tracing her hands onto the template, and she poked the holes in the pumpkin so I knew where to carve, it was wonderful.

Even though Brooklyn came to the table dressed like a princess she did not hesitate to stick her hand in and start pulling out the guts.

Snow and a Sleepover with Kinderbear

Is it really snowing this much already? What happened to Fall? Seriously, I am scared! I love snow when I am sledding, Snowboarding, and on Christmas Day, that is about it. The girls on the other hand think that it is the greatest thing that has ever happened to them. Hallie woke up extremely excited to see it snowing, and ran off of the bus ready to start building a snowman. It was very cute! And although we never did build a snowman, both Brooke and Hallie quickly learned how to pummel each other with snowballs, and eat the snow (yuck!) All in all it was pretty fun!

Hallie just off of the bus and ready to play in the snow. She looks so old, it is killing me!

The girls also had a blast playing with Uncle Simon (the dog), even though he kept stealing Brooklyn's gloves.

Simon trying to swipe Brookes' gloves.

It was finally Hallie's turn to take care of her class pet (Kinderbear.) No one could be more excited! It came with it's own backpack, Pajamas and blanket. She got to bring it home, play with it, have a sleepover, and then write/draw about what she did with Kinderbear. She loved the idea. I on the other hand was a little hesitant, and found it a little odd that with the numerous letters/lectures sent home about the risk of swine flu, that each child in the class was encouraged to sleep same stuffed animal each night of the week. Welcome to public school I guess. Rather than spoil her fun, I decided to send caution to the wind, and welcome the class pet into out home, germs and all.

After playing in the snow it was time for Hallie and Kinderbear to have some hot chocolate, an event so exciting that it ended up being what Hallie wrote about to share with the class.

Brooklyn was pretty excited about the hot chocolate too! So excited that she didn't seem to notice that it was warmed up apple juice.

Kite Festival

We decided to check out the Spanish Fork Kite Festival this year. It was pretty fun, they had kite making, a zip line, and an awesome kite show. It was pretty neat!