Merry Christmas....

The kids invited friends over and we made gingerbread houses!

Claire one morning sometime in the past week or so.

Christmas Eve...

The kids singing for the talent show (and me playing the piano). They sang "Picture a Christmas", "Away in a Manger" and "Silent Night". Jeff came and sang Away in a Manger with them! Claire and Daddy watching the talent show!

Chloe as Mary and Caleb as a Shepherd

Festival of Lights

Christmas Day...

Love the excitement!

Dancing Claire

I put Backyardigans on to keep Claire's attention so I could get stuff done. As soon as the music started she started dancing! She was almost done by the time I could get the camera, but I caught a little bit!

I'm not ready for this yet!!!

What is this you may wonder? It's a gray hair. Where did it come from? MY head!!!! What? A gray hair already? I'm only 28 10/12 years old (picture taken on November 19th). I'm not supposed to have gray hair yet.



One day I was looking in the mirror at all the new little hairs that are growing in and sure enough, there it was. I'm going to have to dye my hair more often in case there are more....then I won't see them!

Claire at 9 months

My sweet little baby is already 9 months old.

Her stats...

Weight: 18 pounds 3 ounces 38%

Length:27.9 inches 62%

I got her 9 month old pictures taken today and I'll post them when I get them back. I know I'm a week late, but Jeff was out of town from Sunday til last night and I got strep throat while he was gone so I was not feeling like doing ANYTHING! She was SO good at pictures today. I had the hardest time deciding what to get...I could have gotten them all!

Info for me (and you in you'd like to read)...

She's scooting all over the place and putting EVERYTHING in her mouth. She's sleeping about 9 hours at night. She usually wakes up around 5am to eat, but I think we're going to start skipping that feeding so she'll sleep longer. She is still super happy and very good natured! She LOVES her brother and sister. Caleb loves to make her smile and is a great big brother. I love having both of them home together all day!

Saturday night on the town....

First we went to the BYU v. Utah State basket ball game. I wasn't super excited about it, but the tickets were free so off we went. It actually turned out to be really fun. There were TONS of people there, way more than I expected and the Utah State fans were super energetic and crazy.

Here are the kids in front of Energy Solutions Arena
(Delta Center still sounds better if you ask me.)

Since we were going to be in Salt Lake City, we decided we'd go see the lights at Temple Square! It was SUPER packed. There were people everywhere, it was kind of hard to get around, but we still had fun (after the kids stopped whining about being thirsty....seriously you would have thought they hadn't had a drink in months!)

The nativity scene in the reflecting pool in front of the temple. It was so pretty!


All of us in front of a huge Christmas tree made of lights

Looking out from the top story of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building....awesome view!
Not long after we got there, Claire was out and stayed out the whole time.....too bad we forgot the stroller!

I know I'm blocking Claire....I had to do it to keep Caleb from spinning while the nice strangers were patiently waiting to take our picture....ughh!!

A lot of you have probably seen it in person, but if you haven't....

They have a narration of the story of the birth of Jesus on a big lawn at Temple Square with life size figurines.

The Wise Men

The Shepherds

Joseph, Mary and Jesus in the stable

The Christmas Tree

Not too exciting... more for my documentation than your enjoyment! Yes, I know the top needed to be trimmed before the star was put on. I'm still planning on it....we'll see if it ever happens!

Is it just me or are trees ridiculously priced? $68 dollars for a tree that will be in my living room for 3 1/2 weeks then thrown away...I mean it just seems a little crazy. It's big and full and everything, but still. It's not that big.

Trip to Cali (yes, another one!)

We had a fun time again in California for Thanksgiving week. We took the kids to the FISH HATCHERY with Lindsey and her kids on Monday. I hadn't been since I was a little kid and it was pretty cool. We got to feed the fish in the pool things and there were a TON of them. Then we watched them jump up the ladder and the ones jumping were huge. Are they always that big? I don't know, but it was cool

Caleb, Chloe and Abbie

Jeff tried so hard to get a pic of a fish jumping but they're so fast that this is the best he got....everyone pointing at a fish!

Look closely...there are tons of them.

The ladder

The only picture I have from THANKSGIVING is this nasty one...

Jeff totally split his lip playing Turkey Bowl Thanksgiving morning and I took this with my cell phone. He also jammed his thumb and it's all bruised and swollen! I thought it was flag football, but I don't know!

Every year we go cut down a Christmas Tree on the day after Thanksgiving. We went to Apple Hill and got them.

How long and nasty is my tongue?

And then we go to Leatherby's when we're done. The family keeps growing....I think there were like 25 of us at Leatherby's for ice cream!

Ashlyn, Chloe and Hannah

Dad and Mom

Jeff, Kyler, Caleb and Mason

I don't know why I like making ugly faces in pictures...I just think it's funny. The other funny thing is that I was trying to make an ugly face and Jeff wasn't

How lucky am I?

This is who I get to spend all day every day with.

These two are so great! The older Claire gets the more Caleb interacts with her. He is so sweet to her and is totally a great big brother. Yesterday I went to run errands like get the oil changed and fun stuff like that and these two were such good kids. It takes longer, but I actually enjoy taking them places with me. Caleb is SO good and just holds my hand or onto the stroller and goes wherever we go! And Claire is SUCH a good, happy little girl!

Plus they keep me entertained.

For example, I went to get my ring cleaned and checked and it took about 10 minutes. The girl put my ring in to soak and went into the back office, which has windows out to the front. Caleb kept looking at the girl and waving at her and just cracking up when she waved back. It was so funny. Then they had a door off its hinges leaning up against the wall so when she came out Caleb asked her why. She explained that they were putting new tile in the hallway that the door led to so they took it off to do that. My smart little Caleb said, "I know a better way. They should have just opened the door." DUH!!! He's funny.

While I am it...

I'll tell you why Chloe is awesome too! She's such a smart little girl! Her teacher told me that she is such a great student and she's one of the ones that everyone notices when she's absent and misses her. She is an awesome speller and has gotten 105% on every spelling test except one where she forgot to put the "s" in dinosaur (They have 5 challenge words every week...that's where the extra 5% comes from). She's WAY ahead in reading. Her teacher said her reading level is easily in 3rd or 4th grade or further. She is super creative and always coming up with games to play. She makes new friends really easily and includes people that feel left out. I told her the other day about a mom that I talked to who's daughter is in Chloe's class. The mom told me her daughter was shy and had a hard time making new friends and wasn't having very much fun at recess. I told Chloe and she has played with the girl ever since. She LOVES to give talks in primary and always does an awesome job. And she's super lucky because Santa Clause is her primary teacher....really, he is (I'll have to get a picture for you)!

We definitely have our challenges too, but I really am thankful for such great kids. (I can brag once in a while, right?)