MERRY CHRISTMAS

From our family to yours,
we would like to wish everyone

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

Aubrey and Alex wanted to pretend they were Mary and Joseph and "Purple Baby" was Baby Jesus

Boxes make GREAT houses

With all the presents/packages we have received in the mail and a few trips to Costco, we had plenty of boxes to create a house. Here is Dave's creation. The kids insisted on using every box.
Alex and Aubrey have had a great time playing with it.

 

 

I am kind of glad that Dave doesn't build real houses or we might be in big trouble. : )

Christmas Ornaments from Nanny

This year, Alex and Aubrey have loved decorating and redecorating the Christmas Tree.  They have even enjoyed making their own ornaments and adding them to the tree.  I think we may have one of Alex's paper rocket ships on the tree right now.  
They were very happy when Nanny (Dave's Mom) send them some ornaments to put on the tree.

 

Christmas Preschool Pageant

Alex and Aubrey participated in their preschool Christmas Pageant.   They did a spectacular job. 
Alex was a Christmas Spider and Aubrey was a Sheep.  They were super cute!

 

Ironically, even though they are in separate classes, they stood near each other.

Christmas Lights

A few weekends ago, we took a drive to the LDS temple to see the lights.  It was beautiful.  While we were there, we ran into one of Marissa's friend from Arizona.  It was nice to see her there.
 

 

 

Visit to my Hometown

After attending our Family Christmas gathering, we went to my hometown to spend some more time with my sister Andrea.   Our first stop on our way was to visit "Aubrey's Lighthouse".  Unfortunately it was closed for the season, but we could walk around the outside of it.  Aubrey loves this lighthouse.  She was so excited to tell her Daddy that she went up it twice last summer.  Alex is not a fan of the place.  He has a slight fear of heights, so he didn't make it up last summer.  However, he did say that he would try to go up the stairs next summer.  Aubrey is probably ready to go up and down three times.  : )
 

 

Andrea and Aunt Andrea

Are you guys ready to hear and see this?

Aubrey sat on Santa's lap!

She is even smiling.  I couldn't believe it. 
I think she realized she had to sit on his lap to tell him what she wanted for Christmas this year or she might not get it.  Aubrey wants a doll that talks, but doesn't open its mouth.  Alex wants a Pirate Ship.
 

After visiting Santa, we took a ride on the Mall Carousal.  

 

Christmas with my Family

Last weekend, we went up to Michigan to spend time with my family.  We had a great time and it was wonderful to spend time with my family over the holidays.  We miss having family around over the holidays, so I was thankful to have this chance to see them.

Our flights were on time, so that made for an even better vacation. 
We have been known not to be as lucky. 

After we arrived in Michigan, we met up with my sister Andrea, my sister Kendra, her fiance Rob, and my niece Olivia and we went to Greenfield Village Holiday Nights.  We thought it was going to rain, but the rain held off (except a slight mist) and we enjoyed the evening.


Alex and Aubrey

Kendra, Rob, and Olivia

Andrea trying to stay warm.  : )

The next day, we opened gifts in the hotel room.  First we opened these cute owl hats that my Mom made.  The kids loved them and they are adorable.

(I am not sure what Alex had all over his shirt...hmmmm)

Aubrey opening her Tangled gift from Aunt Andrea.

Alex opening his Lego garbage truck from Aunt Andrea.

Posing with their Scensy Buddies from Aunt Kendra.

Olivia...isn't she such a cutie.  She loved playing with Alex's cars.

Christmas Ornaments

Uncle Paul made Alex and Aubrey a cute Christmas Tree ornament.  They were so excited it to put it on the tree as soon as they opened the envelope!!!
 

 

Santa Time

Last weekend we attended a church progam and Santa was kind enough to make an appearance.  Alex was so excited.  He waited patiently in line for his turn to sit on his lap and ask Santa for a pirate ship.  

Aubrey had a different idea.  She was terrified of Santa and had tears in her eyes. 
We were able to get her a bag of candy from Santa, but that was as close as she got.

 

Christmas Sugar Cookies

We attempted Christmas Sugar Cookies once again.  There was flour and sugar sprinkles everywhere, but we had fun.  At one point Alex was grabbing a cup of flour and he accidentally dropped it.  Flour went all over him and the floor.  I wish I had taken a picture of it.  For a moment it was kind of funny, but then we had to clean it up.  Aubrey did a great job with the spinkles, but all the sprinkles are all gone, Alex and Aubrey used a few too many.



They were delicious.

My Birthday

Well I turned 38 a month ago.  Oh my. 
 Dave got me my favorite pie.  PUMPKIN PIE.  I was so happy!

Growing up, my family had a tradition of holding up your hands for how old you are.   Alex and Aubrey had to help me with this one.

 

Happy Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Ghatool and her family.  Ghatool is Alex and Aubrey's sitter. 
We are so glad that they were able to celebrate this holiday with us.

We hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. 
Hopefully we can keep the thankful spirit through the year!

 

(Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of our great day.  UGH!  I always forget to take pictures on Thanksgiving.)

Alex did say something funny this morning.   As we were walking down the stairs to go get breakfast, he asked me (with a very serious face) when Daddy was going to go and catch the turkey!

Another Cyclist Among Us

Alex loves to ride his bike on our street.  He has been using training wheels, but he has been ready to take them off for a few months now.  Finally on the afternoon before Thanksgiving, we took Alex to a local school yard and took the training wheels off.  He took off and didn't stop.   He did great.

 

Here is a video of his second try, but this pretty much looks the same as his first try.

Aubrey gave it try, but didn't get as far.  We will try again when she is ready.  

We let Alex try on our street today and he did fine.  We just need to work on starting, but that will come.  He has given Dave and I few mini heart pains because he is a little bit daring.  Oh my.

 

Just relaxing

We haven't been up to much lately.  Just taking a break from our busy October and getting ready for our busy December.  I haven't taken any pictures lately either.   Hopefully I will get some nice pictures on Thanksgiving to share.

Removing the Halloween Window

A few weeks ago, we let the kids decorate our back window with Halloween (reusable) stickers.  Since Halloween is over, we decided it was time to take it down.   Alex and Aubrey were okay with taking them down.  They tried to save the stickers for next year, but they didn't all come off very smoothly.  Although I should say that even though it took many hours to put them all up, it took just about 15 minutes to take them down.  Maybe we can get some new stickers to do it again next year.  

Here are Alex and Aubrey taking the stickers off.

Candy Anyone

On Halloween, Aubrey dressed up as Rapunzel from the movie Tangled and Alex dressed up as a skeleton.  We went from house to house with our neighbors and got a lot of candy.  Great fun!

  

 

 

Fall Time Fun

It's that time of the year when the air gets crisp and the leaves start to fall. When that happens we knows its time to head to our favorite great fall playground.   We try to go every year, in fact we have gone since the kids were less than a year old. This year it was warm and a perfect day for us to be outside.  The kids have finally arrived at an age to fully embrace the activities and they had a blast!



Hamming it up for the camera! Cutie!



"I'm happy and I'm sleepy but we are both having a blast"
Waiting for the dinosaur slide.

Last year, Aubrey was terrified of the dinosaur slide and would not get near it! As we were leaving the farm last year after a great time, Aubrey said that she would do the dinosaur ride next year.  Here she is doing the dinosaur slide this year.

In one end and out the other !

  

"Ahhhh...do we have to stand here for a picture"

"Maybe I can plant this for a perfect 10"

 

Doing it Alex style! 

                                            
"Ayyyyeeee,,,when do I let go"?
 

Calm before the launch
 
Alex pretending to drive his way down the slide
    

Dave trying to catch flies!

Getty-up
  

Now there is a new sheriff in town, Sheriff Alex!