Meet Flake

When we got home from Leavenworth the weather here was very wintery. It snowed a few times, the temp dropped, and it stayed cold and snowy for about 3 weeks. We really had some cold temperatures...single digits and low teens. I kind of liked the snowy and cold weather but now I'm ready for it to start warming up.

One of the snowy days turned into a day off school. That doesn't happen very often here, so it was exciting to have a snow day.

This is Flake, our snowman. The snow was really cold and dry so we had a hard time getting it to stick together. We ended up packing a bucket, kind of like building a sand castle. Can't you tell? It's tall and skinny.

Christmas in Leavenworth

After we had our Christmas morning and yummy Christmas breakfast at Nate and Shelli's, we headed to the airport to pick up Aunt Maggie, Uncle Fernando, and baby Liam. We made the long drive from the Sea Tac airport to Leavenworth. I was on edge the whole time because of the snow on the passes. Slowly, but surely we made it just in time for Christmas dinner.

Here are a few picture from our week at Grandpa and Grandma's

Emily, Mara, Molly, Sophie, Elley, and Alexis

This is Addison protesting the picture above. She didn't want to sit on the couch with all the girls.

Uncle Frenando and Aunt Maggie with the girls. They need to move here so we can love them all the time!!!

This was the highlight of the trip....baby Liam. The girls loved on him as much as they could!!

Grandma put together a tea party for all the girls one night. She got out her special china, she made us "tea" and we had tea cookies. That Grandma really knows how to win over her granddaughters!!!

Making cookies with Grandma

Heres a group shot of one of our visits down to the town of Leavenworth

My little winter baby

Adam and Andrew 

another group shot waiting for lunch

Mommy and Molly

We got the girls a snowboard before we left and they were anxious to try it out. I was surprised that they weren't scared and always wanted to try again after a fall. Cute little girls, I just love them!!!

Sledding with sister!!!

Like I said, Liam was a hit and Elley couldn't keep her hands off. 

We had a wonderful time as we always do. We are so thankful for our families and the chance to spend special holidays with them!!!

Christmas Morning Chaos 2012

Christmas morning had little Miss Emily up at 4 or 5am....I can't remember exactly. All I know is that anything before 7am is all the same. 

The girls came down to see that Santa had come. We also had some Christmas crackers which is an English tradition. The Christmas crackers would explain the pink crown on Uncle Nate's head.

Elley asked for a pink Soccer ball

Molly asked for a Lalaloopsy

And Addison got a new baby doll set with a car seat and a stroller.

That's it for Christmas morning pictures. Sometimes I'd rather just sit back and not worry about taking pictures. I'll probably regret it later but for now, I enjoyed sitting back and watching my family enjoy Christmas.

A Little Bit of December and Christmas Eve

I know I know, it's almost March and I'm just now posting pictures of Christmas. I have to get caught up because we are going on a family vacation in just a few weeks and I have a feeling that if I'm not caught up I might just give up on blogging all together...and I don't want that!

One of the many holiday activities we did this year was gingerbread houses. Our neighbors and good friends came over one Monday night for some good FHE gingerbread houses. We had so much fun and the girls LOVED snacking on all the candy.  

On the Sunday before Christmas, we asked our neighbor to take a few pictures of our family all dressed up in our Christmas dresses.

I LOVE having little girls and getting to doll them up...especially for Christmas!

We had some plans of going to Leavenworth on Christmas Eve and staying in a cabin with Nate and Shelli, but Mother Nature had other plans for us. It's a big long story and really not worth the time to type it out.....but long story short, we ended up going to Nate and Shelli's house and loved every minute of it. We are so grateful to have such amazing family members.

We started off by making cookies with Santa. Thank you Sydney for helping us with that!

Look at this cute Christmas plate just waiting for cookies

Christmas dinner was AMAZING! Thanks Nate!!!

Christmas Eve FHE

Getting a little crazy....maybe just excited for Santa?

Sydney just realized it was Christmas Eve and that she had been a very naughty girl this year!!! :)

After our lesson, the girls decorated their cookies

 Don't those look like a sugar overload? Santa was on a sugar buzz after he left that house!!!

Hanging up the stockings, putting out the cookies

Looks like Santa found us!!!

Elley's Questions

On the way home from church today, Elley asked if they could watch a Jesus movie when they got home. Of course I agreed. She went on to ask if she could watch the one where Mary is pregnant with Jesus. I wasn't sure which exact one Elley was referring to, but whatever movie about Jesus she wants to watch is fine with me. And then the conversation turned to this...

Elley: Mom, how was Jesus born?

Me: What do you mean Elley?

I have to interject right here and explain that we've always just told the girls that when mommy's have their babies they go to the hospital and the doctor helps them get them out. And in my case, the doctor always told me what day I can have the baby then I meet him at the hospital and out comes the baby. She has always been satisfied with that answer and so we've never told her more.

Elley: Well mom, you always tell me you go to the hospital and the doctor helps you get the baby out. When Jesus was born there was no hospital, and no doctors.

Me: (getting kind of nervous) You're right Elley.

Elley: Then how did Mary get baby Jesus out? Who knew how to help her?

Me: Well, Joseph was there.

Elley: Joseph wasn't a doctor. (a little pause here while she thought about that for a moment) Maybe he just cut it out or something?

Me: Yeah, maybe. So, who's excited for lunch? Maybe we could even have some valentines candy after lunch.

Cheers from the back seat!!!!!

The Sneeze

I know, I'm so behind on keeping up with this blog. It's kind of overwhelming! My kids are growing at such a rapid pace and life sometimes seems like a whirlwind of events thats it's almost impossible to keep up. Oh well, I will continue to try and I will probably always be behind...such is life!!!

I just wanted to record this story that made me smile. I was doing Molly's hair the other morning and she was playing a game on my phone. She hates getting her hair done so this is a little compromise we've come up with. Not that getting to play with my phone is anything special to her, but it seems to keep her still and quite while we get something done with her beautiful blond locks.

Anyway, as she was playing she sneezed. Not just any sneeze, we're talking the mother of all sneezes where all sorts of bodily fluids come flying out. We both looked at my phone and thought, "oh, thats disgusting...clean that ASAP!"

I stopped for a second and said, "well bless you Molly!"

Still looking at the phone screen with all it's bodily fluids on it she said, "bless this phone!"

She's FOUR!!!

I can't believe it's taken me so long to blog about this beautiful girl. We celebrated 4 years of this little girl back in November, and we partied, because this girl deserved it!

Molly has a special place in our family. She keeps us all laughing, all the time. Most people think she is a quiet, shy, cute little blond haired, blue eyed girl. But, those who know her well, know that she is not shy and she is not quiet....although, she is a cute little blond haired, blue eyed girl...that part is true!!!

Molly is full of wit, sass, and is extremely funny. She's even got a little sarcastic side to her. She makes me smile!

These pictures were taken on her actual birthday, her party wasn't until the next day. Just a little side note, the owl shirt she has on is her favorite shirt of all time. It was actually given to Elley and has since been passed down. It's getting kind of ratty, but she loves it. The Hello Kitty has now become her new favorite shirt....thank goodness!!!

Molly had a few friends over for her party. We had lunch, played a few games, and had cupcakes. She was also spoiled by her friends with all the cool gifts she got.

Her Grandma and Grandpa gave her some birthday money this year, and ever since Elley went to Build-A-Bear for her last birthday, Molly has wanted the same. She spent every last penny!

Making a wish and giving it a kiss! 

Elley brought along her Hello Kitty she got last year. I love these 2 little girls.  

This is a total random picture but its one of my favorites! I hope Molly truly knows how much her dad loves her. My girls have the BEST dad. He's protective, loving, and gentle. He treats them like little ladies but is not afraid to kick a soccer ball around with them or wrestle. He is the best!!!