CHRISTMAS VACATION

For Christmas this year we drove home to Utah to spend the holiday with our family. We left the day before Christmas Eav and got there at about 2 in the morning on Christmas Eav. The drive wasn't my favorite, we were expecting both girls to fall asleep around 8 and sleep the rest of the time. But for some reason Nikell decided that after being asleep for 2 hrs she had gotten enough. so she stayed awake the whole rest of the way. Luckily she really was so tired and loopy that she just talked to herself the whole time.
On the drive we had to go over Donner's Pass and that was the first time that we saw snow. Brooklyn was so excited about the snow she said that she wanted to go make a snowman. So I promised her that when we got to Grandma and Grandpa's we would make a snowman. It was a lot of fun to see her get so excited about playing in the snow.
So on Christmas Eav first thing we did was take Brooklyn out in the snow to play. Living were we do it's not that often that we get to play in the snow. So the only thing we had for her was a hat, coat and knit gloves. That didn't really cut it so we borrowed a snowsuit from Grandma and Tess let Brooklyn borrow some boots and gloves. The snowsuit was HUGE on her but she looked so dang cute in it. She totally reminded me of the little boy on "the Christmas story". She could barely move!
I know there are tons of pictures but they were having so much fun so I had to post them.

Tess and Brooklyn in their matching snowsuits.

Brooklyn had the most fun on the snowmobile, she kept saying "gin, gin" (again, again)

Nikell had really had a long night so she was pretty tired on Christmas Eav. Poor thing had a hard time that day.

I really don't think there are many things that are more beautiful than the Wasatch mountains covered in snow!

Eating the snow was always my favorite thing to do as a kid too. Just watch out for the yellow kind!

Whenever we set Brooklyn down in the snow she would just sit there because it was to hard to move.

Her daddy is teaching her to drive the sled early.

Toby and Uncle Quinn attached the sled the snowmobile. They seriously were having so much fun. This is Brooklyn, Tess and Taitum.

At the very end when we were about to go in the house from having fun in the snow. Marie showed up. She gave Brooklyn the biggest hug. And was very excited to see her. Brooklyn loves her little cousins so much!

BIRTHDAY CAKE

The other day we were coming home from Brooklyn's gymnastics. She was a little tired and cranky on the way home. So to cheer her up I said to her " Brooklyn, in a couple of day's we are going to drive and drive and drive for a long time. And when we are done driving we will see our Grandma and Grandpa's and we will see Jeremy, Jake, Angie, Erika, Abby, Isaac" (you can see were this is going) I named everyone in our families and the whole time she was just staring at me with wide eyes. Every once in a while she would repeat a name back to me. Then I said "And, Brooklyn guess who else is coming?? Santa is coming to bring some toys for us to play with." Her whole face lights up and she says " oh, I sited (excited) mommy. Sissy is sited too! (meaning Nikell is excited too.)
Later that night as I am putting her to bed after songs and prayer she goes " drive and drive? Jeremy, Jake, Abby, Grandma, Grandpa? Santa bring me toy's and candy?"
Maybe you had to be there but it was seriously so dang funny. I was amazed that she remembered so many names of family we don't see very much.
Brooklyn is so excited for Christmas. She says to us all the time "Its Christmas time? Santa coming? bringing Birthday cake? (apparently that's what she wants for Christmas this year) Then after I say yes to all of those things she goes "yipee, yahoo, wahoo, wahee." She had to have learned that from her dad!
We just love little Bing she is such a sweet girl and she really says the cutest things. It really makes Christmas even more fun for us to watch her get so excited about it.

MISS BRITTNEY

Well Brittney decided that she wanted another change. So we took out all of her extentions and I chopped her hair off. I swear the girl could do anything to her hair and look darling.

This is before doing anything, well besides color.


This is with the extentions.


And this is how she looks now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Angie, I just want you to know that I love you to death and am so grateful that you are in our family! I really have a great time whenever I get to hang out with you. I only wish we got the opportunity more often. You are so beautiful and I look up to you in so many way's. I hope you have a fantastic day and that Nathan treats you right. Love ya girl.
I hope it's OK that I used these pictures Ang. This top picture is Angie and Tanner (one of the cutest kids in the world!) They really enjoy the outdoors and get out whenever possible. This is them in Goblin Valley.
This is a picture that was taken on a trip to the Galapagos Islands. I'm pretty jealous by the way.
This is at our family gathering last summer in Logan. Ang was trying to make things exciting since the boat was pretty dang slow. That was a really fun trip!

SUGAR COOKIES

Tonight Brooklyn and I decided to make some yummy sugar cookies. She loves helping me in the kitchen when I cook and clean. So I thought it would be fun for her to have her own cookie to decorate all different colors. She loved it!! She really couldnt get enough of the green sprinkles.

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I think she had even more fun eating the frosting. That's my girl!

TIMBER

So, yes, our tree tipped over. I remembering waking up in the middle of the night to a crashing sound. I must have been more asleep than I thought because I remember thinking it was probably just ornaments falling of the tree. The next day I came down the stairs to this.

The sad thing is we seriously spent so much time decorating the tree and making it look beautiful. And now I really don't want to put all the ornaments back on. I wish I would have taken a picture of how great it looked before. Oh well.

CHRISTMAS PARTY

Our ward had our Christmas party last week. My camera is broken so I had to steal these pictures from my friends. It was a really fun night though. Brooklyn had the best time with her friends Dylen and Sydney. They were holding hands and dancing in a circle to the Christmas songs that where being played on the piano.
Santa visited too and Brooklyn was pretty excited about that. She went right to him and was so happy about the candy cane treats that he gave her. Now not a day goes by that she doesn't ask about Santa and when he is going to bring her some toy's. Nikell on the other hand was not to happy about going to Santa. Poor thing cried so hard.

MORE FUN PHOTOS

Misty gave me a cd of 200 pictures. I seriously am having a really hard time deciding which ones to get printed. I love the ones of the girls!

FAMILY PICTURES

Yesterday my wonderful friend Misty took our family pictures. We haven't had a nice family picture taken since Brooklyn was two months old. I just have to say to my cute friend that she is amazing and we all had a great time yesterday. So here are a few that Misty emailed to me last night. I haven't seen the rest yet but I am sure I will post a few more later.

CHRISTMAS TREE PARADE

OK so this was so fun. Misty and Ryan invited us to go with them to the Christmas Tree parade. I have never been to anything like this. It was like a regular parade but it was at night. Everyone lined up along the road and watched the floats go by all lit up for Christmas. The school marching bands all played and they even had a float for my good old Paul Mitchell hair school. The kid's loved it and I thought it was so fun too. After we went to eat with Misty and Ryan. We always have such a good time together. Ryan will be gone for about a year for the Army. We will miss hanging out with him!!!

Misty, Ryan, Dylen and Max.