Getting Ready for Christmas!

Jake really looked like Santa with my white scarf around his neck. I always get nervous when he gets up on the roof. He told me not to worry however because he secured a rope to himself and the garbage can on the other side. Hmmm... sounds really safe sweetie;) Madison loved decorating the tree and Emerie loved taking the decorations off. Madison colored a beautiful star to top our tree which we bought for only 12 dollars at a local nursery. What a deal! I love the smell of real trees and this year ours didn't die.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving and even cooked our first turkey! Jake took care of the Turkey cooking and it turned out amazing! I tried to be brave and pull out the gizzard thing but couldn't quite figure it out until Jake came home and showed me how it's done. We had our friends the Jensens and the Andersons over for dinner. Everyone made such great food and we had lots of fun hanging out and playing games afterward. The kids had a great time at their little thanksgiving table too! I did decide however to feed the kids first before getting my dinner on my plate. I think I reheated my food at least 4 times until I was able to eat it. Emerie messed her diaper once, I changed it.... then she did it again. However, before we could change it she was running down the hallway and was bumped down to the floor which ended up in a diaper explosion all over the place. So we scrubbed the floor and Emerie down in the tub before really sitting down and enjoying the meal:) Never a dull moment with cute little ones around!

Madison's Christmas Dance Recital

This is Madison's second dance recital and she is having so much fun. Her first dance recital she kept running off the stage to say hi to us but this time she stayed on the stage and danced the whole time. Her favorite dance move was shaking her shoulders... that was the move she did most of the time until she noticed the class was doing something else:) It was so much fun to watch and they are all so cute!

Everyday is Princess Day!

Madison loves being a princess and playing princess everyday! It all started when she read her first Snow White book at grandma's house and then it turned into this fun little world of imagination. The girls love to go downstairs in the play room with Jake and act out all the princess movies. Jake makes a very good Flinn from the movie Rapunzel and Emerie is often assigned to be the witch or Malificent. Today in the bath tub the girls were playing Ariel and Emerie was Ursala. They are so funny and make us laugh everyday.

Gingerbread houses

In November we got together with some friends and made gingerbread houses. I think more candy ends up in their tummies than on the house. I was impressed with how carefully Emerie spread on the frosting. Such a fun winter time activity!

Notre Dame vs. Utah Game

Back in November we went to South Bend Indiana for the Notre Dame U of U football game. We were able to stay with our friends the Wells and had a great time tailgating with our Notre Dame alumni friends the Bugnitz. Jake really stood out in his red hoodie and said that it wasn't a matter of who was going to win but how much the U was going to win by. It's a good thing tailgates happen before games! Oh, he swallowed those words a little bit into the sad sad game. Good thing I am a BYU fan;) Overall we had a great time despite the Utes sad loss.

More Party Pictures!

Madison's Rapunzel Party!

Madison turned three! She has been talking about her birthday since she turned two! She had been planning her party almost everyday of the year! For over a month Madison has had us read her the story of Rapunzel from her Mickey Mouse Fairytale book. So... with the new movie "Tangled" coming out it worked out perfectly to have a Rapunzel birthday party. The movie didn't even come out until a week after her party so hopefully Disney will thank me for some extra marketing:)

Madison woke up to find a castle (a great find on Craigslist over the summer) with a Rapunzel barbie letting her hair down. Luckily the castle comes apart nicely and fits in the crawl space otherwise hiding it for so long would have been tough! Madison has very extreme emotions and she screamed with excitement when she walked in the room.

I had so much fun planning the party. It is amazing the things you can do with a Rapunzel braid made out of yarn. The kids played in the castle at arrival and colored on the castle picture preserved from Madison's two year old party. After coloring we played Rapunzel limbo, and then jumped over Rapunzel's braid. Afterwards they were all given their own Rapunzel hats and the boys got crowns. It took me about a week to figure out how to make the hats and I am happy to hear that they have survived a lot of wear by many of the girls and some even wore them to the movie! That makes staying up so late to make them even more worth it:) I made them out of the foam paper you can find at craft stores. The hair was carefully arranged on a piece of masking tape and then I used a glue gun to attach the hair to the back. They looked so cute!

After dressing up we did some freeze dancing and then we used strands of Rapunzel's hair to play the worm game. You take gummie worms, tie them to yarn and tell the kids to put them all in the middle of the placemat. You then play music and when the music stops they have to hurry and pull their worm away before the lid squishes their worm:) Sounds so silly but they love it! The party was then interupted by the witch who stole Rapunzel from her tower. They all had to hold on to her braid to find Rapunzel and some stollen treasure. After Rapunzel was found they followed the clues to the treasure. The treasure could only be retrieved by letting down Rapunzel's braid over the banister. After all this excitement we did presents, cake, and icecream! Whew, what a fun and exciting birthday. Madison and her friends had so much fun!

Happy birthday Madison! You are such a fun girl with so much excitement for life. We are so lucky to have you in our family! Thanks for always making us laugh and for being such a cutie!

Color This!

Back when I was an illustration major at BYU I did a series of paintings with kids caught in mischievious acts. My cousins little girl posed for this painting and now she is all grown up. It's so funny now to be the mom of this cliche situation:) This illustration fits Emeire perfectly! The cat in the picture used to be my stuffed kitty and now Emerie sleeps with it every night. She even has the sad eyebrow look perfected! Here are two of Emerie's latest drawings on the floor and our door. There are others on the floor, yesterday I washed the couch, our washing machine has some nice art on it and who knows what will be next?

You may be wondering why I keep trusting her with crayons. Well, she just loves to color and often will walk around the house yelling, "Color this! Color this!" If she sees a pen, pencil, or crayon she won't stop saying color, color, color until she has her way. Lately she has been saying," I need markers mom." Those definitely get full supervision! However, often when she has a pencil or a crayon, I get distracted for a moment, or go in the other room only to come back with a new drawing on the wall or floor. She is quick and she doesn't get into mischief every time. I often think she has learned that we can only "color this" on paper. She is very good at going to time out and will run in her room, come out and say, "I will be nice mom!" as she runs and gives me a big hug. So so cute! Thank goodness most everything is washable. Santa is bringing this little artist an Aqua Doodle for Christmas.

One of the other illustrations I did was of a little girl cutting her hair. I haven't come across that situation yet... knock on wood!

Nothing Is Safe!

The other day I walked back into the kitchen to find that little Emmers had scooted the chair over to the counter and seized the computer and the phone! This was my tallest counter where I could keep all our stuff "safe"! Looks like nothing is safe anymore and I will just have to teach the girls the honor code system (if mommy says no they will obey?). Do you think this face can be trusted;)