christmas

we had a wonderful christmas day! we first opened presents at our home and then headed over to my parents home for a delicious brunch and more presents. all of my siblings were in town for christmas except for andy. we missed you andy! here's a few pics from the day. the girls didn't wake up until close to 9. that was the best present ever.

elayna and her new scooter. she wanted a skateboard but santa thought this would be a little bit safter.

avery was in love with all of kyla's presents, especially her little dollhouse that came with furniture and little people. kyla was nice enough to let her play with it for a little bit.

kyla's new favorite book

it was so fun to have these two sweet babies join us for christmas this year

laila isabella. look at the sweet little bubbles she's blowing

colby michael. mark and courtney's sweet baby boy.

picture taking didn't last long. as soon as colby started crying, so did laila.

i loved colby's little christmas outfit.

more to post after the new year.

ho ho ho...

merry christmas everyone!

29 weeks...

...and i am feeling quite large! i don't normally like to be on this side of the camera, especially when i'm pregnant. but dan wanted to take a few pictures to document my growing belling. i am already starting to get the "are you having twins" comments! these last few months are always so uncomfortable for me. at least i will be induced early this time :)

gingerbread houses

this morning the girls and i made some little gingerbread houses. well, kyla did. avery just decorated a graham cracker for a few minutes and then ran off

but she kept coming back to sneak handfuls of candy. she was in candy heaven.

kyla's cute little house

she was so proud of it!

oh christmas tree

so fun to have the christmas tree up. we have a tradition where we decorate the tree together while listening to christmas music. then we gather around the tree with christmas cookies and hot chocolate and daddy reads a christmas story (usually the polar express).

so kyla was looking at the photos on my blog yesterday and informed me that she looks like a boy in my last post. she told me that i am only to post "pretty" pictures of her. lol

christmastime...

...and feeling a little stressed out. i haven't done ANY christmas shopping and haven't done cards yet. oh well. it will get done eventually. i've been listening to lots of christmas music lately. my new favorite is this. downloaded it from itunes after hearing it on another blog. love it! we decorated our tree over the weekend. will try and post photos tomorrow.

it's snowing!!!

...in south texas! the girls were so totally excited when they looked out the window this evening and saw snow! we drove all the way to utah hoping to see snow and who knew we would find it in our own backyard a few weeks later! crazy. i'm sure it will all be melted by morning, so we are enjoying it while we can!

avery didn't want to come outside! she said it was too cold. here's the little snowman the girls made.

friday

inspired by this blog to capture moments of everyday life. this was my morning. finally finished the story of edgar sawtelle. beautifully written book. loved every minute of it.

love her little impish grin. happy friday everyone. and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom. i love you mom!

thanksgiving

it was so nice to spend thanksgiving with dan's family in utah. we don't get to see them very often. we spent the week hanging out, enjoying lots of yummy food and pies, playing games and watching movies. the weather was beautiful and we spent lots of time at parks and playing outside. here's a few pics from thanksgiving day.

the girls and grandma deedee

the girls and their great-grandparents

here's everyone together, minus tracy and jerel. (grace is taking the picture and calvin was sleeping)

sweet little calvin and amelia. they are only a few months apart.

friday night we went to see the lights on temple square. so beautiful. i'm really glad we had a chance to do that. my brothers who are at byu even got to join us that evening.

the girls knees were stained from playing in piles of leaves all afternoon!

we had such a great time visiting with all the family in utah!

arches national park

on the drive up to utah, we decided to spend the night in moab so we could explore arches the next day. we only got to spend a few hours there so we stopped by again on the way home. the girls had a blast hiking on the trails, especially avery. after hiking to the top of an arch, avery yelled out excitedly "i climb mountain!!"

{click to see larger}

delicate arch

when avery got tired towards the end. click to see larger :)

this cool rock structure was outside of moab. taken at sunset.