Christmas Festivities

We have been keeping ourselves pretty darn busy around here for the Christmas holiday season. The kids couldn't wait any longer and we put the tree up Thanksgiving night. We got the Christmas lights up soon after. Cameron got brave this year and put some up on the upper level, per the kids request of course.

The kids have LOVED being outside this time of year. They will be out there for hours at a time. It's perfect weather.
Charlie watching her dad put up the lights.

Our little Snowman friend...

Just a random pic of Charlie in front of the tree.

We had to do the annual Gingerbread House.....less messy with the box kind all set up for ya to put together.

Finished product!

I usually give the kids their Christmas jammies Christmas Eve but this year I just couldn't wait!

Alex had a Christmas school program where they sang some Christmas carols. She had been practicing for weeks and knew EVERY word! We have it on video for you Grandmas and Grandpas.

Jake's birthday was the 16th. We went with some of his friends in the morning to McDonalds for some ice cream and let them run around for a couple of hours. He said it was the BEST birthday party EVER. Still easily pleased. When dad got home we took him to a special birthday dinner and then headed home for presents and cake.

Last weekend Cam's work gave us tickets to the Zoo Lights. We met up with our good friends who live in Mesa. The crowds were horrendous, but we had a good time just letting the kids run wild and chatting with friends.

Talia and Charlie

The very silly kids!

Not sure why I'm cheesin it up!?

The Sunday Christmas outfit picture was kind of a bust....couldn't get any of them to hold still. They are still too cute anyways.

Grateful to be movin around....

Our Thanksgiving this year was pretty low key. We had my sister Cris with us, her and I cooked the whole meal together. Great bonding time let me tell ya. I have to admit I was a little nervous to cook my first turkey but it was a success! I'm still trying to recooperate from all the eating we did, ALOT of turkey between the three of us and three pies later takes a while to feel normal again. Me and Cris attempted Black Friday, or should I say 10pm of Thanksgiving night at the outlet mall. We vow NEVER EVER to do that again. People are crazy when it comes to sale signs, deals weren't even that great but we can say we did it even though we only lasted 3 stores.

I'm SO very grateful for the life I live and the people I get to share it with. This year has been a crazy one but I have learned not to take anything for granted and to be grateful for what you have and the people that you love.

Rest assure Cameron is not sweating because of the hard work (or lack of) he did, the lighting must have hit him just right :)

I had to take a picture of our success, I know it's not that great looking but we had a fun time preparing it and it tasted heavenly! Yes, those are paper plates and plastic cups, Grandma Jane and Tami weren't around to pull out the china.

Oh my what can I say about this little mover and shaker? She hit seven months and decided to become mobile. She is army crawling pretty well and is trying to pull herself up on things. I found her in one of her most recent favorite places. Jake said, "Mom, isn't she supposed to be on top of the toy?"

Twins?

This is my sweet new niece Millie Sue who we all think looks just like Charlie Kate. They were meant to be twins. What do you think?

What we have been up to...

It feels like we have been moving non-stop for the past month but nothing really great to talk about. Just normal life stuff I guess. Alex had spirit week last week and we did her hair crazy for crazy hair day. She said her head hurt by the time she got home. I should have taken a after we took her hair out shot because she looked like Shirley Temple. Alex is doing amazing in school, we had parent teacher a couple of weeks ago and her teacher said Alex is a child that every teacher would love having, she's smart, easy to like and picks things up really fast. She has started to read and reads things everywhere we go. Soccer ended a couple of weeks ago and it was so much fun to see Alex get more confident from last year. We might have a future Mia Hamm in the house.

Jake got his first official Transformer this last week for being super duper good during family pictures. He has been asking for one for a long time and now that he has one he won't let go of it, church might get tricky tomorrow. Jake is loving preschool and is learning the funniest songs and can count to ten in Spanish.

Now this little stinker is teething and has nothing to show for it but grouchy, no nap, drooling days. She has been on a strike from sleeping for the last week and we can't seem to keep her excited about anything for too long. She is still the angel baby but just with a little attitude.

Look at our grass Grandpa!! It's green!!

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving this year, we will be on our own plus my sister Cris. We hope to not burn or under cook the turkey. We have SO SO much to be grateful for this year and can't wait to celebrate our thankfulness.

Half Birthday...

Half a year already!? Where does the time go? We have SO SO much fun with this gal, she is the sunshine in our house. The other two kiddos just eat her up! She is sitting up now and loves to roll all over the house. She is eating baby food, loves the green stuff, I have to sneak in some fruits. We are all SO in love with her, we try to soak up every second. I know how fast time flys by, it seems like Alex and Jake were just this age and look at them now! We can't wait for more of the fun milestones ahead.

I got this fun ruffle bum onsie at a What Women Want expo. The headband came with it, we aren't so sure about it, kinda looks like a flower growing out of her head :)

Halloween 2009

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! It's a great way to kick off the holiday season. I LOVE matching the girls up and when I found these t's on super sale I couldn't resist!

This picture is of everyone before their Halloween parties at school

Ever since Alex's first "dress up" Halloween, I have been waiting for someone to come around to wear this cute ladybug costume. It's one of my favorites!
Charlie is in flight!

These guys weren't too happy with me to be taking a picture right before we headed out to party! Can't you feel the love in their expressions?

My Cowboy and Indian! Thanks Grandma T for the awesome costumes! They both were complimented all night!

Right before we circled the neighborhood for our loot!

LOVE LOVE Halloween!! This year was no exception, we had a great time!

On to Thanksgiving!

On my own & 5 months....

I finally got around to making my girls some matching skirts. I LOVE how they turned out and Alex wants to wear hers every day. Cam says I need to start making ALL their clothes to save money, I say NO way, it would take the fun out of making them something fun every once in awhile.

In this picture Alex was afraid Charlie was going to fall, but I had to post it because we rarely get a picture of Charlie looking at the camera.
This little girl has turned 5 months! It's been a fun ride so far. Some things Chuck is doing....
-rolling ALL over
-talks to the ceiling fans all day
-LOVES when Alex comes home from school
-becoming daddy's little girl (finally)
-happy happy most of the time
-eating oatmeal cereal
-trying to get her legs up to crawl
-squeals and squeals at her brother Jake when he dances for her
-losing her dark hair :( but new blonde coming in!
-serenades us at 3:00 in the morning
-says ba ba ba (I think it might be the beginning of Grandpa ;)

We couldn't love Charlie more, she makes all of our family so much happier and we can't wait for more fun changes to come!

Six...

Alex turned SIX last week! Man oh man where does the time go? I know everyone says it, but I feel like just yesterday we were in Provo, in school having our first little girl and everything revolved around her and her cuteness. We still are loving up every minute with Alex, she is such a sweet girl. We had a great birthday weekend! Here it is play by play.....

I have NEVER seen Alex so excited on any of her birthdays. She had been counting down for months! (literally) I was SO SO sad that this was the first year we weren't together all day for her birthday SOO......

Me and the other two kiddos packed up and spent half the day at Goobs school with her.

We started off eating lunch with her and her cute classmates.
THEN we went outside and Jake got to play at recess with Alex and the other kids. When I say Jake played with Alex I mean he got chased around by some other kids that thought it was SO cool that a little person was playing on the playground. One little girl didn't leave his side the entire 30 min! He kept coming up to me and looking at me like what in the world is this girl doing? It was hilarious!

After recess, we brought in some cookies to share with her class and they all sung to her. She was super excited that they sung to her a total of 3 times that day!

Then of course we had to do the tradition of going to Red Robin for dinner. I think we have about 10 of these pictures of us here. I really need to branch my kids out!

We headed home and opened presents and had our family away from home over (aka The Smiths) for cake and ice cream.

I made a rainbow cake! It was super fun to make and the kids thought I was magic ;)

Even Cam thought all the colors were pretty impressive looking.

Saturday we took the kids to a little place to do some race car driving and miniture golfing.

While dad and the kids played golf, me and Chuck sat on the sidelines and enjoyed the shade.

We ended the Birthday weekend with our favorite Chocolate shakes at In-N-Out.

We walked outside and there was the brightest rainbow I've ever seen (picture didn't do it justice). The perfect ending to the perfect weekend!