'Tis the Season...

I love Christmas!  I love seeing all the little girls in their Christmas dresses at church.  I love the cold and snow.  I love the goodies.  I love Santa.  I love reading about the birth of the Savior.  I love Christmas movies and decorations.  Here are some photos of Christmas around our house the past few weeks...

Lexi and Lily's visit with the Bass Pro Santa. (He looks like the real deal to me).

 Lexi and Lily both had TONS of fun at Crampa's Christmas Party.

They got their faces painted like kitties...  Lily's is pink and Alexis' is blue...  you know, to match their dresses.  

Lily just before we left for her first Winter concert ever!!

Alexis liked her ornament "earing"... 

Here's a shot of Lily with her kindergarten class.  (Man, I love her!)

Here she is helping me dip pretzels into chocolate.  She liked that they look like hearts.  I do too.  

Here is my little helper...  I think I need to make her an apron that actually fits...  hmmm...  Stocking stuffer?

Here is our version of "boots-a-monkey".  Or, in non-Lexi language, Dora's side kick Boots.

And, Lily made this Rudolf head all by herself.  Seriously, she came upstairs with this and we were blown away!

Okay, this one is just a picture of Lily being Lily.  :)

And both of my girls decorating sugar cookies.  (Oh, Dana, if you read this..  I'm sorry Taylor gave you these. I forgot the vanilla in the cookies, but I let the girls decorate them anyways because its fun.  I have much better goodies for you guys, I promise.)  :)

This was a picture overload.  I am sorry for that, but allow me one more moment to show off my beautiful girls.  This is a video clip of Alexis singing "Twinkle, Twinkle" late one night when she and I were the only ones awake...  I think its one of the cutes things ever, but that might be because I'm her mom.  :)

Christmas Music

I have been so busy lately...  I have been trying to listen to Christmas music as much as I can because December is flying by!  But I have been searching for something....  more, you know?  To make the season special...  To bring Christ back into Christmas..  Anyways, it wasn't until today that I really felt it.  And you know what, the music didn't come from some famous singer or some Christmas movie... I came from the CD called Praise to the Man.  I don't even know why it was in the car, but it gave me that special Christmas spirit driving home tonight.  Wanna hear it?

Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "This is My Beloved Son"

I hope you are all feeling that special Christmas joy.  :)

What now?

Taylor should never be allowed near computers...
 He "upgraded" our internet explorer and I HATE IT!  I don't know what version it is...  but I want to know how to uninstall it.  It is slower and doesn't let me do a lot of the things I used to be able to do.... like insert pictures onto my blog.  And it is waayyy slower and it doesn't work consistently.  I am constantly having to close it down and start again, which is not fun if you are trying to watch Grey's Anatomy and you don't have cable, so the only other option is online.  :(

So... Does anyone have any suggestions.  I tried the control panel, but there is no button that says add/remove hardware... there is no button that says add/remove anything...

Did I mention I HATE the new version of internet explorer?  hmmmm.... well, if I haven't then I definately should.

How to Entertain your "Dragons"

A few facts:

1) Kids can be frightening.
2) Kids can be a handful.
3) Having two 2 year olds and 2 five year olds for 5 hours can be a NIGHTMARE!

.... if you are not prepared. 

Here are some things to consider when preparing to entertain young children:

*Get someone to help you watch the munchkins.
*Ask the parents for permission on any planned events.
*Watch your language. 
*Don't talk about anything that you don't want repeated... kids have goo-ood memories.
*Make a Plan. 
*Prepare activities to keep the dragons (I mean kids) busy.
*Have a few "impromtu" ideas in your back pocket in case of emergencies.

So, while Vaughn and Tasha went and saw Harry Potter, my husband and I watched Elina and Meaghan.  Add in Alexis and Lily and that's four altogether. 

Here's how the evening panned out...
To start, we did sparklers in the snow!

Elina and Lily Sparkle

Lexi in the warm indoors.

Our next activity is pretty straight forward.  We were cold...  We needed hot chocolate!!  And by adding left over cupcakes from the night before, hot chocolate turned into a Hot Chocolate Party of course!

 



By now an hour had gone by...  Everything was great, but things like this can turn in an instant, so stick to the plan.

Next up was swimming... in the Jacuzzi tub.

**We used a few too many bubbles.  I wouldn't recommend bubbles in a jacuzzi.  They can turn out like this: 

After the girls got out of the "pool" and into their dry clothes again, it was time for a breather.  I decided that we needed to do something that used a little more of the girl's energy... and a little less of mine.  So we played...

TROLL!! ( Dun Dun Dun...)

This actually went on for sometime, until girls started running into each other, so we had to stop before someone got hurt.

After running around, we (I) got up the courage to make cookies.  Who doesn't love to make cookies?  And I have a fool proof cookie recipe from Taylor's mom, so that's what we did.

There was no fighting because we had a good talk about how we would all take turns pouring and stirring the ingredients.  The girls were pretty pleased with themselves.

BUT!

Even with all the planning and supervision...  things still can happen. 

Well, these two happened... in the pantry... with a whole bottle of anise seed.  Atleast it smelled good.

(Even now I get a random anise seed stuck to my foot).

While the cookies were baking, we did this...

And after all that...  the night STILL wasn't over. 

But, since it was about an hour and a half after bedtime, I decided it was "quiet" time.

I put on "A Christmas Story" and we all settled down.

These are just a few examples of what you can do to entertain kids for an extended period of time.  There are countless more, especially during the summer.

Here are a few:

-painting nails

-coloring

-making a surprise video for Grandma and Grandpa

-help them to write a story , which they can illustrate

-play dress up.

The possibilities are endless.  It is up to your imagination.  What did you like to do when you were a kid?

A few facts:

1) Kids can be really funny.

2) Kids can melt your heart.

3) A night with the "girls" can end up being better then you had planned.  :)

Ok.. Not this one, the next one... :)

I check this blog out sometimes...  when I need to be reminded...  I am amazed by Prestley's story and I know you would be too...  (I started following this blog the day after Prestley fell into the canal.  You can follow her story from the beginning.  It is an amazing story of love, family, and faith.)

*Be ready for a good cry.  I mean a gooood cry. 

And I am listening to this while I try to put thoughts together for my english project..  :)
(Which probably won't get done tonight...  hopefully tomorrow.  I am beat).

The Next Post...

My next post will be one I am doing for my technical writing class.  I decided to use my blog instead of power point or charts...  Anyways, if you have any ideas to add to the ones I post, please do.  I will use any comments in my presentation I have to make on Thursday.  I will hopefully post it sometime tonight...  like late tonight since I have a class that goes until 9. 
Thanks.  :)
Oh, and PS.  It is sooo cold outside that Lexi cries everytime we put her coat on because she knows she has to go out into the cold.  :)  That's my sunshine girl. 

2 With Three Fingers Up

Lily never went through the so called "terrible two's".  She was actually quite sweet...  and I should say, she still is.  Anyways, I am crossing my fingers it will be the same with Lexi.........

 Here she is on her 2nd day "here".  She was sooo mushy!

I remember waiting for the monster baby to come out... but slowly I started to realize that I got one,    I got a baby that hardly ever cries!  Lucky me!!  She was so sweet from the very beginning and she stole my heart right away.

Then one day, she developed her own silly personality...  

Here she is and she's TWO today!!  (She says she's two, but holds up 3 fingers...  We are working on it.)

I love you Lexi!!

SNOW!

I don't know what is wrong with me, but I am loving the snow and the cold.  I love the way it sparkles on the road at night and how you can watch it floating down under the street lights.  I love how it covers everything in white and makes funny shapes out of ordinary things.   I also love how happy it makes Lily.  She begs to go out and shovel the snow.  So this morning, that is just what we did...

Here is Lily with her very own shovel...

And here she is proudly showing off all her hard work.  (She did that whole walkway while I did the driveway and sidewalkds).

I had gotten Lexi all dressed up in her snow pants, jacket, touque, mittens, and boots.  (She looked like a pink version of the younger brother in A Christmas Story... "I can't put my arms down"...)  She took one step and fell into a snow bank head first and couldn't get up.  It was soo funny.  Needless to say, she hated the cold when she was a baby and she still hates it.  So I had to set up our portable TV downstairs in the living room so I could keep an eye on her through the window.  Taylor and I suspect we will have to travel long distances to visit Lexi when she grows up because she is bound for beaches and heat.

And here are our faces afterwards...  pink and happy...  oh and dont forget about toque hair!!  haha

I have discovered that I need more practice at the art of snow shoveling.  There has got to be a better way than what I am doing...  My neighbors were probably having a good laugh...  I know I was. 
It's funny, it is still snowing and the sidewalks are fresh with a layer of snow, but I am kind of excited for when Lily gets home from school and we can grab the shovels again.  Maybe I love the snow so much because I am in it with Lily.  :)

It's Late, But I'm Still Awake

It is after midnight and I am still awake while most "normal" people have been tucked into their beds for hours.  I couldn't help it.  I have an english project due Thursday, as well as an exam, and tonight was my only night to touch either one...  So, for english we have to write an instruction manual.  I thought I would pick something easy.. so I picked How to Make a Child's Art Smock.  Hah ha well, it sortof got out of hand...  Here, you can see for yourself why I am just finished sewing and still wide awake...

Here is the beginning...  before I knew exactly what I was getting myself into (but I guess I have only myself to blame)...

 And here's the finished "art smock".  (Actually, I wanted to add a pretty fabric flower to it, but finally stopped myself.  It is WAY too late for that. )  :)

 And here is what was happening outside while I sewed...

SNOW!!  I am actually kind of excited.  Lily has skates and I wanna go skating a lot more this year.

Also, you should know that my sewing/writing an instruction manual project took me 3 movies long... 

I watched New Moon first, then went to Iron man, and finished off with a relaxing Runaway Bride.  Talk about a long project.  (Atleast the girls were in bed for most of it, so I don't feel bad for neglecting them. )

And, I got about 7 pages of notes that now have to be made into a professional looking instruction manual... but I don't want to think about that now.  I am suddenly very tired.

Good night all.  I will see you in the movies.  :)

Stole My Heart

This song of the weekish is dedicated to Taylor....  He knows why.  (muffled laugh)

Stole My Heart.

I was at fabricland today for their super 50% off day!  It was wonderful and that is alot to say because Alexis was with me.  But, it was wonderful because I came across this:

This is on my list... the long one... I guess you could call it a "I hope I get around to making this" list.  :)
And I do.

I FOUND THEM!

Yes...  It's true.  I found the camera cords.  Yay!  So many things to update...  so little time...
We will start with pictures of packing up the old house...

(I should be ashamed, but we were moving...  so I'm not).

Next is our trip to the bird sanctuary in september...

(This is our version of trail mix...  Cheerios, Fruit Loops, and Gold Fish.  mmmm.... (Don't mind Lily's face, she really did like them)).

 (These birds liked our trail mix too.  They seriously wouldn't leave us alone...  They FOLLOWED us, hopping from branch to branch until they got their fruit loops.  Greedy birds...)

(This is a picture of the girls watching the birds, watching us...).

Next, is Halloween and moving my parents into their new house, since they happened simultaneously...

 (This is a Unicorn Pegasis if you didn't know...).

 (This one is the cutest dragon I know!)

(Mmmm...  Pizza and supermodels!!  :) )

 (Twin cousins enjoying way too much candy).  :)

(This is what you look like after 3 full days of moving...  Thanks again Whit and Coly!)

And here is some fun in the new house!!

 (Lily handed candy out on Halloween because we Taylor didn't want to be "the people who didn't hand out candy on Halloween" to our new neighbors..  And I love candy.)

 She had so much fun and actually waited at the door for trick-or-treaters.  Around 845 I asked if she wanted to turn out the light and keep the rest for herself, but she wouldn't.  She gave out every last bit of candy we had.  Better for me, I say.

 (The pantry is Lexi's "new house".  She loves it in there!)

 (This is Lily eating a mandarine orange like its a gold fish.  haha)

(The girls love the jets in the tub.  They keep begging to have baths.  :)  Makes my life easier.)

Well, I was going to say that was it... but here is one more thing...

This "hat" is a weird ball Santa gave Lexi for Christmas last year...  We couldn't justify packing it, so Tay cut a hole in it and made it into weird hair.  :)  (No, it did not make it to the new house.  Thank goodness!)

And that's all folks... At least for now.