The Big Day

It is so fun to see the excitement of your kids on Christmas morning.  Ashlee and Caitlin loved seeing the things Santa left for them.  

 Caitlin got a little dog with a leash, and Ashlee got a robot, just what they wanted.  I don't think these things ended up being their favorite things, but they were glad that Santa brought what they asked for.

After we saw what Santa brought us and played for a while, we had breakfast and got ready for church.

 When we got home from church we opened the presents under the tree.  Our house is chilly downstairs in the winter, so I made a quillow for each of us.  The girls left theirs on their laps for the rest of the present opening time.

 Ashlee got a new baby doll that she loves to mother.  I'm sure the girls baby dolls will be played with a lot when the new baby is born.  That way they can do just what I do.

 Ashlee with some of her gifts. 

 Caitlin with hers.

 We got guitar hero for the Wii, which Chris and I like to play.

We had a great Christmas and enjoyed our time together as a family, and with friends.  We missed our families, but are grateful for Skype so it is almost like we are with them. 

Monday I was on low census for work until about 1:00, then I had to go in until 7:00pm.  Imagine my great surprise when I came home and ALL the Christmas things were put away!  Chris is an awesome husband to do that while I was working.

Christmas Eve

We stayed home all day Christmas Eve and just enjoyed some family time, it was a very nice day.

Caitlin and Ashlee made ornaments (cait-snowman, ash-penguin).

 We had rice tafel for dinner, which is one of our Christmas traditions.  And we even got to have fire! Nothing is more exciting then that.  We pulled crackers before dinner which is something we do since we lived in Scotland.

 We got to have german chocolate cake ice cream (my favorite) in fancy bowls.

 We sang Christmas songs and read that story of Jesus' birth in the bible, then opened up our Christmas Eve gift of new pj's. 

 While I usually do matching pants for the whole family, I opted for a different option for me and my expanding belly this year.  Thus the girls got matching, and Chris and I got random.  They all turned out great though.

We also opened a Christmas book and read it before we headed off to bed.  Caitlin was soooooo excited about Santa Claus coming, more so than any other year.  Surprising it didn't take either of them long to get to sleep though.

Last big girl move

This girl made the last official move into the big girl world this morning.  She got to sit in her chair without her booster seat!  It is quite remarkable that she has actually sat in it this long, but it didn't bother her so we didn't change it.  The past week she has been complaining about it, so today we pretended to measure her to see if she was big enough to have it taken away and she was so excited that she was big enough.  Now she is one happy girl.

Other holiday things

Since we are staying home this year, we have had many parties and get-togethers with friends.  Most are not documented with pictures, except for our annual ugly sweater party at Brook and Jenn's.  It is always a fun time, and Chris won most colorful sweater this year!

We made snowflakes with q-tips, glue, and glitter, we love our Family Fun magazine for fun little crafts like this.

The girls colored holiday masks.  Ashlee is a reindeer, Caitlin is a nutcracker.

Chris brought the projector home from work and we watched Cars 2 last night with some friends.  It is a hilarious movie, but maybe not the most kid friendly-as we found out.  It was still alot of fun though.

It has been a fun, and busy month.  We will be sad for January to come and have to start living our normal life again.

Merry Christmas

Its no secret that we are Wyoming Cowboy fans.  This year the football team had a good season and were invited to the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, NM.  Chris really wanted to go to the game for his Christmas present, so he headed down with a van full of other football loving guys.

He was suppose to get a picture with himself in it, but at least there is a picture at all :)
Wyoming ended up losing.....bad, but Chris had a wonderful time anyway.  He even got a new yellow Cowboys sweatshirt to wear for the game that he got to open before he left.
Merry Christmas, Chris!

Breakfast with Santa

Our ward activity this year was a breakfast, and Santa himself made an appearance.

Caitlin said she didn't tell Santa what she wanted because he didn't say she could :)

That's okay, I'm sure he has received her letter.



We were nearly ready to go, the breakfast casserole was in the oven and Ashlee started throwing up.  Some friends graciously took Caitlin for us and Ashlee and I watched cartoons at home.  

(Chris is out of town for his Christmas present, more on that later).

Dear Santa....

The other night the girls wrote their letters to Santa.

It's exciting to see Caitlin actually compose a letter now that she knows how to write and sound out words.

She drew a picture of the dog right under the words, then she drew a winter picture.

(Dear Santa, How are you? I have been good. I want a toy dog with a leash. Love Caitlin)

Ashlee drew the best pictures she could!



 This picture is a snowman.

 This picture is what she actually wants, a robot.

SLC weekend

Grandma Berta was flying to Utah Friday night, so the girls and I drove over to spend Friday night and Saturday with her.  Chris missed out on the trip because he was on a trip of his own for work.
After picking her up at the airport and checking into our hotel, we went and saw the lights on Temple Square. 
It was so cold outside, but so hot inside that we didn't stay long in this building.  Just long enough to see the Christus and get out.

 The snow was falling, making everything look even more beautiful.

 I don't get many pictures of me with my girls.

 Saturday we spent some time at the church history museum.  There are tons of kid things, so the girls LOVED it.

 They even have adult size dresses to dance in!

 Caitlin tried tossing tortillas.

 Ashlee collected eggs from the chickens.

 They both picked veggies from the garden and made dinner.

 And they did a little quilting.

After that we toured Ben Behunin's house and studio.  My mom had read his books, now I will have to.  His pottery is really neat, we especially liked his teapots.
By then it was time to drop my mom off for her visit with my grandparents and head home.  It was a quick trip, but so fun.  We always love to see Grandma Berta.

Decorated.

We assembled the tree on Monday and decorated the house on Wednesday.  The girls loved looking at everything as we took it out of the totes, but they loved decorating the tree most of all.  This year they did a pretty good job of getting the ornaments spread out over the whole tree.  They would be in heaven if we took the ornaments down and re-hung them everyday.  

Their next favorite things about decorating for Christmas are the Christmas books and the train under the tree! 

Swimmin' Ashlee

Ashlee has been in swimming lessons since the end of August, but I have failed to mention anything about it until now.  She loves it, and really does pretty well.  She was scared jumping off the diving board for about a month, and then started doing it on her own.  Here she is doing a fantastic belly flop.

She was timid about putting her whole face in the water at first, but she doesn't mind at all now.  She comes out of the pool with red eyes because she won't wear her goggles.  She gets distracted easily and sometimes is more interested at waving to us then swimming or talking to the teacher.  She is getting better all the time though.