the 5th article of faith, and christmas dresses

it's not the best picture, but i couldn't get them to hold still!

she's so awesome...

christmas at our house (and grandpa's)!

girls' new beauty salon

he's really fond of this picture of himself and his brothers

molly's new favorite toy

opening presents

cheese!

look at the excitement!

ewwwww!!! :D

awesome face

decorating cookies for santa

i don't know why she can't just smile for the camera

our stockings

The Polar Express

We went for a ride on the polar express on friday, and the girls were so excited!

except for this one:

i'm not sure why, we had an awesome conductor, tom hanks.

(he looks just like him, doesn't he?) :D

they got cookies, hot chocolate, got to see santa,

and santa's elves even got onboard and sang some carols/danced with the kids on the train.




but molly wasn't having any of it:

oh well!

Santa!

We took the girls to the Museum of the South West last weekend and they got to see Santa! I thought he was rather strange, but Lucy was all about it! She keeps comparing all of the Santa's she's seen this year (we counted 4 santas that we've seen) to him. He was the loudest and silliest apparently!

Richie and the Girls

Lucy and Jayne and Santa

the girls thought this gingerbread girl was so cute! on the back side of it was a gingerbread boy, too!

ward christmas party

We had our ward Christmas party last night, and it was a lot of fun! i didn't really get many good pictures because i was a little busy. we took our friends' kids with us to the party, so our whole back seat was filled with carseats and 5 children ages 5 and under.


i'm on the activities committee, and so i got to help get everything planned/underway for the party. we had a potluck dinner and there were a ton of really savory desserts! we also had some live entertainment from members of the ward. we sang carols, and heard some awesome talent. there was even a slideshow presentation of people's christmas memories. everything went very smoothly, and a as jayne said, "it was so fun!!!"

my 2-year-old neice, emma, was there, and all the young girls in the ward were all about holding her and babying her. she loved it, and i'm sure her momma loved it as well!

jayne and her best buddy

awsomeness!

My friend, brittany, and i ran another 5k yesterday, and we did much better this time than last time! We completed the race in about 33 minutes, and last may we finished it in about 39. we actually ran the whole thing this time, and we improved our time by 6 minutes! that means we averaged about an 11 minute mile, which is a record for us!

i forgot to bring my camera to the race, so richie took some pictures when i got back.

surprise!

We awoke on friday morning to snow! it hadn't snowed here for 2 years, so it was a pretty big deal, even if we did only get about an inch worth! school was cancelled (since no one knows how to drive on the ice here), so the girls got to go out and play in it before it melted away that afternoon.

molly all bundled up

they wanted to catch snowflakes on their tongues like they do in "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

do other one year olds do this?!

happy thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! my parents are Richie's parents all live nearby, so we had everyone over for thanksgiving dinner at our house again this year. i made the turkey (which richie said was the juiciest turkey he'd ever seen), but i didn't even get a picture of it! i did get a picture of the really cute napkin holders that the girls helped me make during lucy's 9 days off from school! they were a big hit! everyone said i was really creative and crafty. no, just bored with all the kids home all day every day. gotta do something to keep them busy, right?





on the last day of school before thanksgiving break, lucy's school had an awards ceremony, and lucy got a AAA award! i think it's an award they give for kids who do their home work, and have made progress in school, and get good grades. here's a picture of her with the other kids in the kindergarten who also got one.



she's the little one in the pink with the pig tails. good news: she's not the smallest kid in the school! there's one other little girl who looks like a 3 year old who is also in kindergarten. yay for lucy!

we put up our christmas tree on black friday (and no, i did not brave the crowds in the wee morning hours to go shopping. i went in the afternoon!).

here's our tree. we even have a few presents underneath it!

good times

smile for me!

cheese!

a baby shower cake i made

look at me, ma!

pretty girl!

at the park driving to the park.

look at those rolls!!!

molly's 1!

this is what you get when you mix this:

with this:

want some?!

halloween

the statue of liberty

dorothy

toilet paper mummies

singing "5 little pumpkins"

being crafty

jayne was a rockstar

dirt 'n' worms

bones that they dipped in blood (marinara sauce)

nutty ghosts

monster jaws

mummy dogs

i threw a halloween party for the girls and a couple of their friends. it went really well, too! we played games, did some crafts, and i made some really festive food for the occasion.

Then we went to the trunk or treat at the church.

my mom's trunk at the trunk or treat.

jayne excited to go trunk or treating

cute little lady bug!