Santa Came!!!

Yay!! The Big Guy made it to our house this year! How exciting! All the wrappings, ribbons, toys and candy you could stand!







Every wish fulfilled!









So fun for the kids, and fun for Mom and Dad to watch.










But, clothes? Not very exciting. She hucked them right over her shoulder just like Randy and Ralphie. Classic. Merry Christmas Morning!!

Christmas Eve

It's December 24th, what should we do???


Hang out at home and watch as many Christmas movies as we can.




Then head on down to Orem for a pajama party at Grandma and Grandpa Wise's!!!






Uncle Aaron, Auntie Kim, and cousin Elsie are here to celebrate this year.


Oh the joy of cousins!!







Oh the joy of being related to someone who is as WEIRD as you are!!!!




Can you tell they were having too much fun?










The grownups were having fun too! ;) What a lovely way to spend Chrismas Eve. Now, hopefully we'll all get some sleep so Santa can make his way to our house!


Night - night!!!

Can We Build It? Yes We Can! (sort of)

This is my lovely, gracious, wonderful friend Erica. I have known her since she was probably 3, but I didn't realize it till I was about 30. LOOOONNNGGG story!



Today we went to this cute lady's house to have lunch (yummy sammiches!) and make gingerbread houses.

She did all the prep work! We arrived, and lunch was made, and so were all the little houses! They just needed to be decorated!




The kids all did a great job. We used mostly old stale Halloween candy, but no one seemed to notice. They were taste testing their building materials anyway. Gross!





What a fun Christmas-y day we had. Thank you Erica! LOVE love love you and your cute kids!!

Dang CUTE

Most of you know, I love Greg's Aunt Liz. MY Aunt Liz. Cute Aunt Liz.


Last year, just before Christmas, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Yucky. Christmas was a bit sad. She actually had surgery on Christmas Eve!



But, time passed, and Liz kicked that cancer in the butt! And here we are at THIS Christmas. And, it seems a bit more Christmas-y!


Today Aunt Liz and Aunt Nola came to visit.... and what to my wondering eyes should appear? These cute little ornaments made by my Liz so dear!!!!


Even the little basket she brought them in is so precious!


Can you even stand how cute these are???? YES. She MADE them!!! Yes, she is wonderful, and YES she is an artist.



Look at their little faces! Oh I am so happy! I love to look at the tree, and remember the story behind each special ornament. Every ornament has a story.



LOVE love love it!!! (can you tell this made my day?)

Thank you, Liz and Nola! What a fun visit!

Christmas Bunting/Banner

Crafty time! I'm still on a roll with using up scraps, so I decided to continue the momentum from the Halloween banners and make some Christmas ones.


I loved the Felt Festoon idea from the Inspired Ideas Magazine. But I wanted something bigger.

So I got out my wool felt and cut some holly leaves. Then added some little seed beads. I like to use invisible thread, then you can't see how messy the sewing can be. ;)




I cut more triangles from fabric, placed them right sides together and left the top open to flip them right-side out. Then after ironing them, I used more invisible thread to sew the leaves onto the white triangles. I added some red sequins and beads for the berries.







I ended up with 9 triangles for this one. I used a package of red wide double-fold bias tape and pinned it all where I wanted it. (3 yards long) I love this because it's easy, and you tuck the triangles right in, sew a quick straight line, and everything has a nice finished edge.





I left some room in between for some little scraps of ribbon, and now it's up on my wall!




Easy EASY! And cute!

2!!!!!

Wow, a lot can happen in two years! You go from this little tiny package: December 11, 2008

To this little toothy grin: December 11, 2009

To this big, independent, funny girl: December 11, 2010

Happy Second Birthday Harper Kate! We love you so very much!!!

UNsupervised...

What happens when the Mommy goes downstairs, and puts laundry in the dryer AND checks her email???? (We're only talking 15 minutes here.)



Baby Cakes goes into the bathroom, opens the topmost drawer, and removes ALL of the tools. Yipes, we've got a lot of scissors! And SHARP cuticle nippers and clippers.... and she brings them all the way out into the living room and lays them out, surgical-tech style... nice and neat!

Looks like she dissected a fishy from the "Gone Fishin'" game as well.



Luckily, she managed NOT to hurt or cut herself. Or the leather ottoman! OH MY!










But. Look, Mommy! "lips!" She was only looking for the lip balm. I guess that's the hard way to do it!





***** She's coming downstairs with me next time, and Greg's gonna crap when he sees this post! *****

Let's Talk Turkey!

About a week ago, Cannon and I put up a picture of a turkey, and decided to write or draw what we were thankful for and put it on feathers for the turkey.



What a great week! Making sure to think of lots of things to be thankful for, so we could get that turkey some feathers!



Then yesterday we had Thanksgiving dinner (lunch). Just Greg, the kids and I. See our little turkey boob? It was just right!!


Cannon made a great turkey centerpiece out of Connectagons. Perfect!





And we tried for a family picture.... oh well.



BUT... see how many feathers our turkey has? Apparently, when you talk turkey, there's a lot to say!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Bay"

This is Harper's "Bay" (blankie). She reminds us of a little character called Linus. Greg's Uncle Dave crocheted this for her when she was born, and it has been the one thing she has gravitated towards. (again, different than her brother! Cannon had these easy, very portable silkies that he was attatched to.)
If she's sad, she needs Bay. If she's happy, she wants to play with Bay. She MUST have Bay if we go anywhere in the car. She CANNOT sleep without Bay! She used to bite it, and her poop would be fuzzy. When she was little, and learning to crawl, she would attack it and go into a death roll like an alligator.
Oh she loves her Bay! And it shows!! I sneak while she's napping and wash it, but you can't really tell.
The comfort this article brings her is truly amazing. It can stop the saddest of tears. It can make the biggest owie feel so much better. It can fill up her heart when her daddy leaves for work, and she's not so sad.
She loves her companion, her Bay. And I'm sure it loves to be loved too!

SNOW DAY!!!!

HOLY SNOWFALL!! We were watching last night, and it kept falling and falling. This is what we woke up to this morning! I think poor Greg broke his back before he left for work, shoveling all the snow in the driveway!

After he left, the kids and I geared up.
This was Harper's "real first" time playing in the snow.

She has been very uncooperative (to put it nicely) about wearing her new boots. I mean, she runs screaming when she sees us with them! I think she finally got it today though. Ah-hah! You need boots so your feet won't get cold in the snow!

Cannon showed her how to make a snow angel....

She was mesmerized by the fluffy snow..... picking it up, and throwing it, and clapping it off her hands. We even showed her how to take a taste.... ONLY white snow though!

We of course had to build a snowman!
Then, just when they start to get cranky because they're too cold, we come in and make some hot chocolate. Both kids like lots of marshmallows! This was another first for Harper too. I think she liked it!

Man, look at that pile of wet clothes! A sure sign that we had a ton of fun! Welcome, Winter!!!