A Very Merry Christmas

A few days after Thanksgiving,
I took Ellory to my friend, Ashley,
to get her hair cut.
And it turned out adorable:

Just a sweet little bob :)

And then, the unthinkable happened.
It snowed!
Like, legitimately.
EVERYTHING got cancelled for
3 days.
And we went out and played in it,
of course!

We built a snowman:

And had a snowball fight!

Kale made a snow angel:

And we used baking sheets to sled:

It made it feel like Christmas!

Last Christmas,
Tyler gave me a 1,000 piece
Star Wars puzzle.
And I finally finished it,
just a few days before Christmas!

It was awesome.

One day, the kids asked for a 

blanket fort.

So we delivered:

And then they watched

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 

inside it.

On Christmas Eve we went
to our friends', the Marsh's house for dinner.
Look at this ham she made:

It tasted as amazing as it looks!!
Kale and Ellory exchanged
gifts with Lyda and Emmy and Olive.

They gave Kale and Ellory these

really neat ornaments:

Kale and Ellory gave Lyda and Emmy

slippers.

Olive got a little toy that 

glows.

The kids played some more while

me and Tyler and Nathan and Amy

chatted and got dessert ready.

It was fun to spend Christmas Eve dinner with

such good friends!

Well, then we headed home

so we could open up our 

Christmas Eve pajama presents!

Yay for Christmas Eve pajamas!

We took a better picture than this,

but for some reason it won't upload.

Whatevs.

And then it was Christmas morning!!!

The kids opened up Santa presents first.

Ellory got a Doc McStuffins fold out couch,

and a blanket, and The Peanuts Movie,

and some Hersheys Kisses.

Kale got a Spider-Man fold out couch,

and an Avengers blanket, and 

Madagascar 1-3, and some Skittles.

And Owlette toy!!

Kale's haul:

Ellory's haul:

Then it was time for church!

I sang in the choir,

so Tyler got to take care of the kids alone.

Ellory wasn't happy that I was up front

and not with her.

Tyler had to take her out to the hallway.

I felt bad.

After church we went home,

got some new clothes on,

ate some leftovers,

and relaxed!

Just before bed we Skyped with Uncle Shane,

Aunt Realyn, Sadie and Allie.

We miss them so much!

Earlier in the day we Skyped with my family.

Everyone was in Iowa this year!

It sounded like they had a lot

of fun together.

I missed them lots!

Well, Santa's present is a big hit with

the kids.

The first thing they did the day after

Christmas was pick a movie

and cuddle up:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A Very Happy Thanksgiving

One day the kids and I were at Old Navy,
and we walked passed a skirt in the little girls'
section and Ellory loved it when she saw it
and asked if she could have it.
She said, "Mom, can I have the princess?"
How do you say no to that?
Especially when it's only 10 bucks??
So we grabbed it and a sweater that was
on on clearance to go with it.
And she looks even more adorable than
you ever imagined:

When I put it on her,

she stood up and just twirled.

And then she said,

"I gotta go show daddy."

And she went and twirled for him.

Precious.

Also, my sister-in-law, Heather,

made these super cute bows

for Ellory,

and I love them!

This one matched so perfectly,

and she sent Ellory a bunch

more of different colors.

Thanks Aunt Heather!

For Thanksgiving we got to

have Grandma Pam come stay

with us for a whole week!!

Kale was counting down the days

until she got here.

And once she was here,

he never stopped playing with her

and showing her all his favorite things.

I wanted to have some fun things

for Kale to do at Thanksgiving time,

especially crafts since he loves them so much.

So, I decided to have him weave placemats for us.

Do remember weaving paper in school??

Well, on the night before Thanksgiving we

found out we were having a few extra

people joining us,

so we made enough for everyone,

and we decided to get that stuff to laminate them.

It was really fun making them together!

Kale loves to help cook.

Here his is squeezing the lemon juice

into Pam's famous clam dip:

On Thanksgiving morning, while we were

busy getting food made,

Kale and Grandma colored some Thanksgiving 

pictures together:

The couple we were having over

have a one-year-old, so we got our

high chair out for her.

But Ellory wanted it...

This was our table situation!

We had one of Tyler's 

athletic training students come.

His name is Kengo,

and he's from Japan,

so his family isn't exactly around,

plus they don't celebrate Thanksgiving.

He was so fun to have!

He played with Kale

and was fun and easy to talk to.

We also had a little family over

that Tyler had recently met 

when going on visits for his calling

in the Elders Quorum Presidency.

They are from Brazil,

and their names are Davi, Aline, and Sophie.

They are a wonderful little family.

Their daughter is SOOO cute,

and skeptical of others.

It was so wonderful to invite

others to share Thanksgiving with us!

Here was my plate:

We had ham, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls,

stuffing, roasted butternut squash/carrots/asparagus,

and Pam made this super yummy sweet potato souffle.

It was pretty delicious!!

And then we kept up our tradition of making

pumpkin cobbler for dessert.

Before:

and after (of the other one)

We decided to put up our

Christmas decorations while Pam was still

with us.

Up goes the tree!

Pam gave the kids Old Maid

and Crazy 8's.

Kale could not get enough

of playing them.

I think Pam would be ok if

she never played those games again.

One night, Kale and Ellory decided

they really loved each other:

And then it was time for Pam 

to go back home.

It's always sad to say goodbye,

but were are so happy she could come!

We also went to a drive through

Christmas lights display with her

which was cute.

And she and Tyler and Kale went and 

saw Moana.

Thanks for coming!!

Grandma's are the best :)