The Girls

You Guys...

Today was a rough day. I slammed four of my fingers in the garage door. You know like in between the rows of panels. Yeah it hurt let me tell you. Then I took my kids to In n Out to try to brighten their day with a milk shake. (We have kind of been stuck in the house a lot with sickness.) As I sat there in the booth I could totally feel everyone notice me and look at me like I was crazy for coming with all of my kids. So after we had that experience, that involved Halle pulling napkins out of the napkin holder and Bryce wheeling around the place on his Heelys and Ella taking the lid off of her shake and spilling it down the front of her, I realized that we were totally late for kindergarten. So then I was trying to get the kids into the car alive without being run over and in my effort to that end I piled a bunch of stuff on top of my car, my diet coke, Halle's pacifier, my sunglasses, and I think a couple more things. And then after I spent 5 minutes trying to get Halle to comply and sit in her car seat, you guessed it, I started driving with all that stuff on top of my car. I mean really who does that? Really who does that? Thank the Lord one of the guys that had been watching my like I was some form of entertainment inside In n Out stopped me and told me that all of that stuff was on top of my car. I mean really who does that? Then of course we were late to school. Then I got home and spilled my diet coke all over the kitchen table. The one thing that was going to brighten my day, gone. To which I cried! Cried! Who does that?
Usually life is not this hard.

Ella

Washer and Dryer

We have had quite the week. Monday was bloody noses and Tuesday was puke and Wednesday was diarrhea and then of course the rest of the week was just the normal 10 loads worth. So I just wanted to give a little shout out to my washer and dryer. Let me say first that they are nothing special. They are 6 years old, my washer is not even front loading, in fact they remind me very much of what my parents had when I was growing up. However, despite their inadequacies and their failure to be new and improved and their lack of a really cool color that makes the laundry room pop (you know like those jewel tone ones that they have on the Maytag commercials), they still get the job done. They are still a modern appliance that makes my life better and for these reasons I am thankful. We spend many an hour together and I just wanted to give them the recognition that they deserve in my life. So Maytag washer and dryer I salute you. I thank you for your hard work and long hours and loyalty to me and the fam. What you do is truly essential to my sanity.
Oh and PS, Washer, could you work on doing a better job at stain removal. Sometimes the lack of effort is really astonishing.

Gingerbread House with Aunt Telsey

My sister is the best. I love her so much. Anyway she has a tradition of making a gingerbread house with the kids every year. And it is really cute because Bryce remembered this year with out being told. He loves special time with Aunt Telsey.

Well of course we had to take a picture of it before these two big bad kids ate it all down. Anyway thanks Tels we love you so much. (That is if you ever check this.)

A Few More Christmas Highlights

Here are a few more of my favorite Christmas memories...We had so much fun when some of our favorite friends came over to exchange gifts. We had pizza, read a story about Jesus birth, opened one present each, did a hand print craft, and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and ate cake. We are so thankful for our friends and so glad that we could celebrate Christmas together. This is my adorable nephew Colton and my adorable niece Kaitlin. They came to see Bryce's performance and we loved having them there.This is Mason opening one of the presents that we got him. I love this because he loves this skateboard so much and it makes me want to buy him everything in the store. This was Christmas with my Dad's side and these are all the second cousins. I just love that we got a picture with them all in it. And I am so pleased with the number of happy faces in this group shot.

At the same party we had a competition to see who could create the best gingerbread house. Ours did not win, but we looked cute trying. Our kids totally sabotaged us and traded to a new team right in the middle of the competition. What is up with that Bryce and Ella? Oh and Halle helped a lot by eating all of our supplies. Good lookin out Hal.

I think that the prize definitely went to my Dad's group. They built a mansion! Way to go guys.

Kindergarten Christmas Performance and Parade

As you can see I am trying to catch you all up on our busy holiday adventures. This is one small taste of Bryce's performance at the Kindergarten Program. And this was definitely one of my highlights from kindergarten so far.

These are pictures of Bryce's Polar Express Parade. Thank goodness for dads. Jarrod is fully credited with helping Bryce build his Christmas Train.

It was so cute to watch them parade by all the older kids in the school. They were so proud of their trains and the big kids really cheered them on.

Christmas Picture

So here is how we really got our Christmas picture this year...

Let me start by telling you that Halle happens to have two personalities. One is sweet and funny and just about the cutest, most fun personality you ever saw. The other however is very stubborn and uncooperative and happens to sit in time out a lot. As you can see in the first picture, my effort to get an amazing picture was not going well at first, and you can guess which personality I was dealing with. So I was on my own for this(daddy was at work) and I had to come up with something fast. So I had some white M&M's(white being important because it wouldn't make a mess). And Halle of course, actually lives for chocolate. And lucky for me as long as there is an endless supply coming her way you can actually flip the switch on those personalities. So all of you that thought she had such a funny huge smile. Now you know that it is because she ate about 20 M&M's. Who said that bribery was bad? If it gets the job done isn't that what really matters.

Fall

I have decided that it is officially fall in our dear sweet town. "But it is January" you may say. Yes well I am not sure what to tell you except that someone forgot to tell the trees. I must say that all the fall foliage is so beautiful and today the kids were even enjoying playing in the leaves. Hmmm, I wonder when winter will start.

Halle

Big Day

So yesterday was a big day. I went with my sisters and my mom to pick out my baby sisters wedding dress. (I really am so struck that this is already happening.) I love my sisters and I love how close we are, it really makes days like that amazing. We laugh and make fun of each other and other people and we eat of course. What a forever fun day though. I will never forget it. The part that I will remember the most is how excited and deliriously happy she looked. She found the most amazing dress and she couldn't have looked more beautiful. I obviously can't post pictures so you will all just have to wait till the big day.