A Merry Christmas!

We went to Island Park again this year with my parents, brother Alex, sister Catherine and her husband Jason and their 2 kiddos.....it was beautiful:). We played in the snow, hot tubbed, ate a lot of good food, played games, and just enjoyed the beauty around us. A few pictures.....

Milk, cookies, and donuts for Santa...We thought Santa might like some variety

Nathan reading the Polar Express

Santa came!!
Yes Rachel has underwear on her head, she has become obsessed with hats lately. She even sleeps in them:).

I was obsessed with this rocking chair! I want Santa to bring me one next year:)

Self explanatory


Rachel reading, she is our little book worm .

Becca and her cousin London

A few from the past few months!

Rachel was being a tiger in the leaves, this picture makes me laugh so hard for some reason

(eating Chocolate chip cookies, while shopping:)

P.S.....IT'S SNOWING RIGHT NOW!!! HURRAY!

Reindeer cookies, hot chocolate, and a few updates

Becca's little imagination is always going full speed. All week long she kept asking if we could make reindeer cookies? What are reindeer cookies? I guess she found some in one of my cooking magazines, and had the idea stuck in her head:). So we made them, and it they turned out kind of looking like reindeer....? I also pulled out my snowman chef mugs, I got from William Sonoma. We filled them to the brim with hot chocolate, and whipped cream!! So yummy! Now on to a few updates....

Becca

- As you know loves anything girly. Lately she puts a blanket on her head with a headband, so that she can pretend she has long hair (do you remember doing this when you were little)? So the other day she came up to me and said "Mom I need to find Prince Cornelius so I can marry him, my hair is beautiful today".

- Loves to phrase everything, with "everyday" She will say "Mom I don't have to go to the bathroom everyday" or "Mom we have to go to the store everyday" "It's pretend Christmas eve everyday mom" "I don't want to be nice to Rachel everyday" "We have to wear a dress everyday". Those are just a few, there are so many.

- Gives the best scowls. During the Primary program a few weeks back, she smiled all of 1 minute during the program the rest of the time she scowled. I had a few people come up to me after words, and said "Your daughter can give the best scowls, I could not stop laughing".

- Likes to say "in my/our hearts"....With out fail if she is saying the prayer she will say "We are thankful in our hearts" or " I love you in my heart".

- Loves to sing, it is so cute! Then after she is done singing whatever pops into her head, she will come up to me and say "I have the most beautiful voice mom."

Rachel

- Still loves to sit on people, and climb on your back. If you are sitting down with in a 1 mile radius of her beware, she will find you:).

- Has learned to scrawl out of her crib!! And will knock and keep knocking on her door to get out her room. Thankfully she can't open doors...yet.

- Spends half of her days looking through books.

- Loves to snuggle! I love to watch movies with her because she will let me hold and squeeze her the entire time:).....I love it.

Everyone once in a while.....

I get to pull out my paint brushes, and go crazy on a blank crisp white canvas! I love it! I love every minute of it. I love to listen to music and just play around on the canvas, what ever come into my head. Lately I only paint when I am being paid to do it. I wish I wouldn't do that but I do. My mom hires me often when she is working on a commercial or movie. They usually need artwork for a shot, and whatever, so I happily paint for them. This go round my mom had me paint 3 pieces of art work. I did not get a picture of the other two I did. This last one is huge! And it was so fun! I got 3 pictures of the process, the last being the final piece. You could say I had a change of mood:).

The Nutcracker & the tree!

Last night Nathan took Becca and I to the Nutcracker. I am pretty sure Becca was glowing the whole time. She was so excited to go out on a date with us! She loves ballerinas, loves them! She was literally on the edge of her seat watching the show and did not want it to end. Nathan has been so excited to take her, honestly it was the cutest thing to hear him talk about how excited he was. At the end of the show Becca gave both of us a big hug and said "thank you for taking me to my special ballet, mom & dad".....We both wanted to break into tears at that point. It was such a fun evening! Thanks again Leslie for watching Rachel:). Today we went and got a small Charlie Brown tree for our little room off the kitchen. We have our main tree downstairs, but thought it would be fun to have one that the girls could decorate. We had a double bonus of finding Santa at our tree lot! Becca was incredibly happy to see him, Rachel....was not:). I stood by her while Nathan took the picture, I am pretty sure she was frozen in fear.

Fa La La La La!!! La La La La!

I love Christmas! I am kinda sad that snow has not shown it's face around here... I have a solution to that though!! I close all my blinds, turn on the Christmas music and just pretend that snow is falling outside:)! Haha ok just kidding. Seriously though, can I ask a question...? What is with people who live here in Utah, that do not love snow?? They all hate it! Nathan and I always talk about this, and are stumped as to how people can not just love the beauty of snow, they only see the negative side of it (yes Taryn, Liz & April I am speaking to you, haha love you anyway:). Anyway last year at Pottery Barn they had the coolest Glittery Santa painting, that I sooo wanted! I just did not want to pay 100 dollars for it. So this year I made one myself...It is not the same as the one at PB, but I still think it is very fun! Especially considering I only paid 3.00 for the glitter, the other materials I already had. I added a few pictures of my house (again) with some Christmas decor. I love to see pics of how people decorate their homes. Can I convince any of you to post some of yours?? Anyway MERRY CHRISTMAS SEASON!!! Can I just add that I love going to Costco this time of year, as I drive to that wonderful store I like to sing "It's the most wonderful time of the year to go to Costco!" Sad but true I really do sing it, and Becca always tells me to please stop singing:).

A Bear Lake Thanksgiving

We headed up to Bear Lake this Thanksgiving, and it was so fun. Nathan's aunt Melanie just finished remodeling her cabin on the lake, and it was so beautiful! They put windows everywhere - any direction you looked was gorgeous lake views. It was so fun to literally hang out in Pajamas with family for about 3 days straight (ok I got ready on one day:). Nathan's aunt Jan and her boys came up, along with his uncle Brad and his kids, and Keith, Leslie & Grammy. Becca followed Mckenna (Melanie & Mike's daughter) around all day. If Mckenna wasn't to be found, Becca would call up and down the halls with her hands on her hip "Kenna where are you?" Rachel trailed shortly behind them, wanting to be a part of the big girl activities ;). Thanksgiving was incredible! We had about 3 chefs in the kitchen cooking up a storm. I made the turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce and corn pudding, I LOVE making Thanksgiving dinner. Brad also brought a turkey and deep fried it! Yummy! I had to watch how it was done, so I followed him down to the beach and took mental notes :) We had a couple of movie nights and had a double feature of Christmas movies one night...."Christmas Vacation" and "Elf". We played games, and watched the BYU vs Utah game. We also celebrated Nathan's 28th Birthday!! Thanks again Mike and Melanie for a great weekend!

(some of these pics where taken with a phone so forgive the blurry ones:)

The thankful list:)

I love my family! I love them so much it hurts most of the time. I am probably in tears at least once a day thanks to KSL. Yes I read KSL everyday, and there is always a tragic story, that makes me bawl like a baby for about 10 minutes, and then I have to go and squeeze my girls and kiss them like crazy! Seriously though, I just can't stand my kids cuteness (is that a word??)! Thats not to say they can't be total and complete stinkers, and tantrum throwers (everyday:). Rachel is especially going through the wine about everything faze. She gets away with it still because she doesn't talk much, even though she understands plenty. And did I mention that those adorable cheeks of hers get her a free pass out of trouble ?? Becca can be so incredibly sweet at times.... It absolutely makes Nathan and I feel lower than the dust of the earth. I hate it when we lose our patience with her, she is too sweet for words, and so loving. These two girls follow each other around all day, and I just love it! Becca dresses up, Rachel dresses up. Becca wants food, Rachel wants food. Becca laughs, Rachel laughs....you get it I know:). It just makes my heart melt though, when they do get along and play nice. I love my family! They are the best, I'm positive that no words in this world of ours could describe the overwhelming feelings of love I have towards them. Here is a small list in honor of Thanksgiving, of things I am thankful for. I am sure everyone is doing a post like this this week, and I don't care frankly because I am writing it anyway:).

-Becca= Sweetest girl in the whole wide world, who loves snow just as much as I do:)

-Rachel= Cutie buns of the entire earth! I just want to take a bite out of her, and I know she would taste delicious:)

-Nathan=Sexiest man alive in my opinion (People magazine has it all wrong). I just love him! I love him, I love him, I love him!!! Even if People magazine has at times been flung at him, on accident of course:)....

-My mom and dad= Wonderful memories, and a fabulous childhood, and upbringing. I can't thank them enough for all they have done. I love them much more than my arms will stretch.

-My other mom and dad (Keith & Leslie)=Wonderful, hardworking, selfless people. They are always out serving someone. They have done so much for us. I am crazy about them!

-Nathans job= A home for us, food, clothing, car. His job means I get to keep my full time job of being a mother....I cry every time I stop and think about how wonderful that blessing is.

I really could keep going, but I am keeping it short and simple this go round.

Happy Thanksgiving this week!!!!! Did I mention I am thankful for Thanksgiving?? I Love THANKSGIVING!

p.s. A little quote from Garfield "Thanksgiving is a day when people celebrate having food by trying to eat as much of it as possible".


p.p.s. The girls at Target (I am also Thankful for Target)! They were trying on the santa hats at the dollar spot, so we had to take a few pictures of course:).