Christmas

Christmas Eve dinner.  We always pull a cracker (a fun tradition we picked up while we were living in Scotland) and have Rice Tafel for dinner (something my Dad learned on his mission).

We sang "Christmas is Upon Us" when we were little, and now we continue the tradition with props that my Mom has.  The girls LOVED it, and we had to do it again the next day.

We sang Christmas songs around the piano.

Opened our pajamas (I make pants for all of us, but didn't get a family picture this year)
The girls also opened a new Christmas book for us to read before bedtime.

The girls woke up early- about 5:50!! So we were all gathering in Chris and mine room when the phone started ringing.  My mom answered it, although we all knew it had to be something about my Grandpa, who was near the end of life.  Her brother was calling to say that he had passed away at about 5am.  He had really been suffering terribly, so it was like he had received a Christmas gift to return to his heavenly home.  But it was still a tender moment.  We knelt and said a family prayer, and then we proceeded with Christmas morning.

Molly and her stocking stuff.

The girls got this train set from Santa!  They love playing with it, and Chris LOVES setting it up for them each time they play.  Each time he seems to say, "now this is the best track ever!"

Caitlin with her stocking stuff

Ashlee with her stocking stuff (this is the best picture out of 2, this girl is impossible when it comes to pictures!)

Ashlee gave Caitlin this head band and stick-on earrings.  Caitlin loves both so much.  I love seeing their excitement in giving to each other.

Molly loved the presents.  She found an alley way and crawled in to see what she could find.  I would have let her play with the wrapping paper forever if she didn't insist on putting everything in her mouth.

Chris got a new sweater and Bronco's hat.  He didn't have anything with the new logo, and it was high time he did since they only got their new logo 15 YEARS AGO!!!!  He had a hard time letting go of the old one :)
When he opened the hat (from the girls) he was thanking them for the hat, and Ashlee said, "and the shirt!"
He said, "nope, just a hat."
So she walked over and started ripping all the paper out of the box looking for the shirt, all the while I am trying to whisper to her that he hadn't opened the shirt yet.  He still acted surprised when he opened it.
It was funny.

The girls loved their new princess dolls.

 And their chef hats and pie pans.

Caitlin learned a Mexican Hat Dance at school, and saw that Grandma Berta has a Mexican Hat!  So she and Chris did the dance for us.

We had a tea (a.k.a. water) party with my Mom's new tea set that we all gave her for Christmas.  Everyone picked a hat to wear, Ashlee picked a headband.

We played Christmas BINGO.

And this cute girl was just along for the ride.  She was happy to participate or happy to nap.  She was a great traveler also!
She got most of this cute outfit for Christmas.

Arizona

We headed south to warmer weather for Christmas this year.  We were so excited to be in Arizona because we hadn't been (as a whole family) for 1 1/2 years.  Our trip was cut short so we could go to Utah for my Grandpa's funeral, but we still had a fun time!

Grandma has the best dress-ups, Ashlee REALLY loved this umbrella.

 This little snowman dances and lights up and sings "Frosty the Snowman" and Molly was unsure of it.

Caitlin helped make breakfast Sunday morning, but didn't feel well enough to eat it.  Chris had to rush her out of sacrament meeting at church to throw up in the garbage can.  This silly girl gets sick and throws up EVERY time we go to Arizona.  At least it was on the 23rd this time instead of Christmas Eve like last time.

The girls helped put together neighbor gifts and walk around to hand them out.

Ashlee helped Annie make Fudge.....

 ......whoops, and ended up with most of the chocolate chips in her lap!

More dress-ups.

Even Molly got a new dress-up hat.

All the girls in Grandma and Grandpa's bed.

Caitlin feeling much better and riding Grandpa's bike.

Annie did my hair, I don't usually have enough patience to curl it.

 Playing games.

My Mom has lots of cacti in her Arizona room (i room with better climate to grow plants in) and Ashlee thought one of them looked so soft.
So she run her hand down it, and it wasn't soft!!
My mom used Elmer's glue to pull the spines out.  (we let the glue dry and peeled it off).  That got most of them and then we used duck tape to get the rest.

Molly had lots of room to move around.

We checked out one of the new parks, and Molly rode down a slide for the first time!

We fed the ducks and tried to not feed the geese.  We had to stand on the bridge because the geese were so persistent if we were on the ground.

We sure do love going to Arizona (although I'm not sure the girls like the LONG drive).

In Loving Memory

Verl B Garrett

1926-2012

My Grandpa Garrett passed away early this morning.  

He was a wonderful man, and showed so much love for all his family.

We are saddened by his passing, but so grateful that his suffering is now over.

We love you Grandpa!

9 months

Our beautiful little Molly girl is already 9 months old.

She does pretty good with bows, but if she sees it in her periperal view then she tries reaching for it, as she is in this picture.

She loves to sit and play, and can carefully lower herself to the ground to scout around.  Still no crawling, but she does get up on her knees sometimes.  She is VERY mobile overall.

She is doesn't cry to much, but is a great whiner! She whines and whines at me if she is getting hungry, or tired, or bored.

She is obviously a good sport when we dress her up.  Good thing because we love playing dress-ups at our house!

Caitlin and Ashlee love their sister!  She loves them to, although she is scowling in this picture. They make her laugh and smile.

She still is a terrible eater.  She will only eat some things in the net, and seems to be getting more picky all the time.  We have tried spoon feeding again, but have NO success at all.  She clamps her mouth shut, turns her head, covers her mouth, or pushes the spoon away.  Then if it somehow makes it into her mouth she makes a terrible face and spits is out.  She has some major issue with textures I guess.

We love this cute little girl!!!

Haircut

After a semester of swimming the girls hair was a mess and needed to be cut badly.  I usually just do it myself, but this time I made an appointment to support a local business.  

Caitlin and Ashlee were so excited when Tuesday afternoon rolled around and we went to the salon.

Caitlin went first.

Getting her hair washed:

cut:

and the final product, she decided to go a lot shorter:

Ashlee's turn getting her hair washed:

cut:

and her finished cut.

They loved the experience and were very good the whole time.  We are super glad the bad swimming hair is gone and much softer again.

UGLY!!

We attended our friends annual ugly sweater party last weekend.  And, as usual, it was a total blast!!

Our sweaters weren't the ugliest.  Mine seemed ugly at the thrift store, but later seemed not so ugly.  And Chris choose to wear his WYO sweater instead of the ugly one he got, and there definitely isn't anything ugly about the Cowboys!

Caitlin tried to take out picture....

 and did better the second time.

Thanks to Brooke and Jenn for a great party again this year!!