While I was at work.............

.................Chris and the girls got the Christmas tree set up. Don't they look thrilled.


They were not in a picture taking mood, because it sounded like the really enjoyed themselves. We have a busy week, but hopefully we will have all the decorations up by the end of it.

thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving and had a lot to be thankful for, including missing snow storms on the way down and on the way back up.
Our first few days were spent in the mountains at Chris's parents cabin.

We had fun eating, playing games, watching movies, and sitting by the fire because it was COLD outside.


We ventured outside for about 5 minutes to look for pine cones, but the wind was brutal. I, actually, only lasted about 1 minute.


The Will men crafting- making pine cone turkeys.


Friday night we drove up to Estes Park to catch the Christmas light parade. It was FREEZING, but we had fun. The girls loved the parade, and didn't seem to even get cold at all.

We made poticia which was fun and yummy.


And the girls found a fun toy at Grandma and Grandpa's house.


We are thankful for a wonderful loving family who we know we will always have fun with.

Finally some snow

We are not complaining at all this year, because we didn't really have any snow to speak of until Monday, November 22nd. That is crazy, unheard of, very rare, and we couldn't be happier! It meant that we actually had a very nice fall this year.

The girls were excited to gear up and shovel with Dad.

So Tired

Poor Ashlee has been so tired lately, some from being sick and some from just plain lack of sleep.

Last Saturday and Sunday night she could barely keep her eyes open during dinner. Her sleepiness equaled great entertainment for us.

Eyes getting Heavy from Beth Will on Vimeo.

Annie visits

Annie came and visited last week, Wed-Mon.
We were so glad she could come and visit and we had so much fun with her.
The girls love anything and everything about her. And whats not to love?
She reads them books, plays games, does hair, makes dinner and lunch, doesn't care if they wake her up at 4:30am, goes to swimming lessons, and she looks exactly like their mom!

We did alot of things while she was here.
While she was here Ashlee LOVED the dragon costume that she won't have anything to do with at Halloween :)

We had pudding for snack in fancy bowls!

We played hop-scotch (how great that a picture can be so deceiving as to make one believe that Ashlee really knows how to hop on 1 leg)

We played games like Toy Story Yahtzee.
Everyone say "Buzz, Buzz, Buzz" If you ever join us in a game you will know what I am talking about.

We had a tea party.

Up close and personal of Ashlee using her "cut"

Besides that we also had ice-cream cones at Little America, she and I went to Zumba twice (i love zumba), we went swimming, did some shopping at our mall, went out for Tai, saw "Oklahoma" at the college, and basically just had fun hanging out together.

After I got back from dropping Annie off at the airport Ashlee said to me, "Are you Annie?"

I said, "No" and she said "Ohhh-kay Mom." I think she was disappointed :)

And she keeps asking where Annie is. I tell her she went home and she asks, "At the airport?" Since Annie flew up to visit, Ashlee is convinced that she lives at the airport. Caitlin told her that would be silly.

I asked Caitlin what her favorite thing about Annie coming to visit was.

"Watching a movie on the way to pick her up at the airport" was her answer.

What!!

Don't let Caitlin's answer get you down, Annie. We loved having you come!!! Come again!

Cribless

We are a crib family no more! (well, at least for the time being)

Ashlee helped me take down her crib today to get ready for her big girl bed.

I asked her if she was a big girl and she said, "Ahh- I sink so"

Both girls, in fact, get to sleep in new beds tonight. We set up the ladder, and Caitlin was so excited to climb it to her bed.

I seems weird having no crib since it has been set up for the past 4 years. And it is a little sad knowing that they will just keep growing and growing and never be little enough for the crib again. But we are excited to be moving forward, and have more space in their room! Their room now:

I don't expect it to go as smoothly as Caitlin's transition to a big girl bed (that girl NEVER, literally NEVER, got out of her bed), but we are hoping for the best with our little spitfire.

To the Temple

Yesterday we went to the Vernal Temple.
Chris and I had a yearly goal of 5 visits to the temple. Well, we made it, and actually exceeded it. Yesterday was +1 for us, and our number over our goal will surely increase at Christmas with a temple now just 10 minutes from my parent's house.

The Vernal Temple is a renovated Tabernacle, hence the "not so temple looking" appearance.

Poor Ashlee had to wear her jacket all day because her 1 and only shirt suffered the effects of car sickness on the way. The road to Vernal is sooooooooooooo curvy.
Hey Ash, who is on top of the temple?
"Mow-ni!"

fridge learning

Caitlin's new favorite past time involves our new accessory to our LeapFrog Fridge Phonics. She has been working on letters/sounds/and words a lot a pre-school, so she loves to try to create words at home. If I am in the kitchen, then she is at the fridge with the new word toy. I love it when she thinks she is building a work, i.e. FGP. Then the "voice" says the sounds each letter makes and then says "great sounds!" So it even is encouraging when she doesn't make a word. It has several game options, but she also likes me to give her letters to make words. It is an awesome toy.

And a story....

Today, on the way to the store, I told Caitlin she was in charge of remembering our 4 items on our shopping list and I proceeded to tell her the items. She repeated them back to me and we were set.

At the store I asked her what our items were.

She said,

"green beans" (great! close enough to green onions)

"bread" (crescent rolls, same family)

"the things for the chairs" (spot on)

"hippopotamus glue (glue named after an animal is all the same, hippo......gorilla.... same thing)