Michael's Two!

Michael turned two on Sunday! My parents, James' parents, and lots of aunts and uncles got to celebrate together!

Christmas Morning Pictures

This is the only picture I got of them in their Christmas jammies.

Sunday Before Christmas

We are getting so excited for Christmas! Today, we had our church Christmas program and the girls sang a song with all the other Primary (Sunday School) children. When they called all the kids up, Michael, who's still in nursery, decided he needed to go up, too. He hopped off of Papa's (James' dad) lap and made a break for it. Before James could catch him, he was standing on the Bishop's lap in the front of church, trying to sing with the big kids. Then, we didn't know if he would be able to find his was back, but he ran straight to us and made it before the girls did. Later, he decided he needed to help two ladies with their duet, but we were on to him and James caught him before he got to the microphone. :)

James' 30th Birthday!

James turned 30 this week! We waited until the weekend to have a little party, since a lot of his family came into town for Chrsitmas. We also celebrated our 9th anniversary by going out to dinner and to see New Moon. It was a really fun week, and it's just getting better with lots of family coming into town over the next 2 weeks!

What is She?

Earlier this week, Ashley came up to me dressed like this and said, "What am I, Mom?"
So...what is she?

Paige and Michael

I'm still trying to figure out what to do about this camera, so I've been taking pictures like crazy...Here are some of Paigie and Michael while Ashley was at a birthday party this morning.

Paige was reading a book to Michael :)

New Camera

On Black Friday, I found what I thought was a great deal on the Canon Digital Rebel, but then I did some research (after buying it...) and found out that I actually only saved around $30 on what I could buy it for on amazon. I'm trying to figure out if I should keep it or not. I've been wanting a dSLR camera for a few years, but I don't know if this is THE ONE or if I should keep waiting and find a better deal on a better camera-it's the XS, not the XSi. I really just want to be able to take great pictures of my kids. I would love advice from anyone with an opinion on dSLR cameras!

Since I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it or not, I haven't opened the instruction book. Here are the pics I took messing around with the buttons.

One of our family friends made these ornaments as the favors for our wedding. Coming up on 9 years!

When It's 11 Degrees Outside...

...it's WAY TOO COLD! We recommend staying inside!
Today, we opened an early Christmas present.
We pretended to sleep in our warm flannel winter bedding.Some of us are better at pretending to sleep than others!We made ice pops..and hot chocolate..and chocolate chip cookies. (And ate a lot of snow!)We ended the day with a nice, warm bath and a snuggle with Daddy.

Paige is Five!

Paige turned five on the 19th! She is such a sweet little girl. She's easygoing, loving, smart, agreeable, and gentle. We love having her in our family!
We celebrated all week long, starting with the princess dinner at Disney on Monday. They brought out a cake, sang to her, and she got a card signed by all of the princesses.

Next, on Thursday, her actual birthday, she had birthday cinnamon rolls and opened presents at my parent's house. She thought that all five of the rolls that had candles in them were hers. She ate one and licked the icing off of the others.

Finally, on Saturday, we had her cousins over for a party. It was really fun to get together and all the little girls (and Michael) had a blast.

Watching Katherine wack the pinata.

Now the tough part is going to be convincing her that she is no longer "the birthday girl." I asked her to clear her dishes tonight after dinner and she asked if I could please do it for her since she's "the birthday girl." hmmm....

Disney World!

We've spent the last two weeks in Florida! We went to Disney World a few days and had a great time! Since it was almost Paige's birthday, we had dinner with the princesses--they all showed up that night--it was really fun!
Snow White:
Ariel:Sleeping Beauty giving Michael a big kiss!

Michael with his kiss from Cinderella!

Ashley's favorite princess: We listened to Belle tell stories in the castle garden and then saw her at dinner in her ball gown later in the week.

Michael was happy! The girls and I are the three hot pink sets of arms in the last car:

Watching the parade:

He wasn't too sad that he couldn't ride the fun rides :)

Paige's favorite princess! Minnie Mouse!