lovely day

And now, the Cannon. Ah, I don't even have a great program to edit these pics yet but they are so much better. What a fun treat. Here's some more pictures of our Christmas morning. We made a big mess.

First pic taken with the Cannon. Get your own sucker.

Second to the bike, these scissors are Hazel's favorite gift. She is so excited to have her own pair. Whenever we do a craft at the library now, I do most of the gluing or coloring while Hazel works on a fancy fringe along the edges of the paper with the scissors. This is the moment she saw the bike from Santa.

Nice pants baby

I can't remember what was going on here, but I love this picture

probably should reglue that post back on...

love this boy

what a great day to try pineapple for the first time!

More to come of vacationing with the Phipps...

Christmas morning

Ooh, I just get excited all over watching this video of our Christmas morning. I have to say, David and I get SO excited over holidays. We have to set a VERY specific budget or else we'd buy each other everything we've ever wanted just to see the look of surprise on each other's faces. So combine that enthusiasm with KIDS and you get two very anxious and super excited parents who are lying in bed Christmas morning waiting for their kids to wake up. I didn't sleep a wink that night.
Anyway, we had a wonderful Christmas. It was so nice to be DONE with the endless task list and (as you saw) cleaning and preparing and stressing. By Christmas Eve, when our family came for dinner and we watched "Christmas Oranges" and read Luke 2, I finally felt calm and our house was quiet and it was the real Christmas excitement and joy.

Christmas morning was so much fun, watching Hazel open her presents and Charlotte follow the paper trail. David SHOCKED me with the most amazing gift. He bought me this:

A Cannon Rebel XSi. I am in love with it. I've wanted a nice camera for so long. Lucky, lucky me to have such a generous husband. So the rest of our Christmas vacation will come soon when I have time to go through all my pics off of this sweet new camera.

I got David a new (used) record player for his office and a stand to put his viola on so it's out of the case and available to play. Hazel got just what she asked for: a pink bicycle and a pink sucker (plus a few more fun toys). Charlotte was satisfied with the wrapping paper, but Santa took care of her as well.

We are so blessed. Really. This year was a toughy, but Christmas always seems to wrap it all up with a good feeling of gratitude for family, the gospel, and the desire to keep it all simple. Merry Christmas.

Sorry the beginning is totally black. Couldn't cut out the crucial Christmas morning dialogue though. I love how David and I are way more excited than the girls.

every christmas tree needs a star

So I must have borrowed my mom's Christmas stuff last year because I'm pretty sure we had a star on top of our tree. This year our poor tree looked so bare without that special topper and our budget had been met, so we made one. And I think we'll keep it.

Hazel has a sweet double chin in this pic

Much better. I have to add that my favorite part about Christmas trees are home-made ornaments. I will never have a tree that has all fancy decorations that match and color-coordinate. This year Hazel and I made a few paper snowflakes for the tree which I will keep as long as they hold up. For one of our family nights we wrote our gifts to Jesus on little snowmen ornaments. Everyone wrote nice things on theirs except for David who just wrote the same thing I did, preceded by "I will help mom....(be more patient, not yell, etc.) Little snipe.

We are also carrying on a tradition I started with my mom where everyone in the family gets an ornament that has to do with what they did that year. This year David gave me an angel that had a baby (charlotte), a graduation cap (his return to BYU), a cat (our devilish new addition to the family), and an "I voted" sticker (the campaign for city council)--all glued on. I bought him a pillsbury dough boy ornament for bringing in the dough this year at work. Hazel got a princess crown and Charlotte got a lady bug (we call her Lottie bug; it's stuck).

sunday pics

December 20th

I'm sure every parent does this at some point but we used to think that we could totally make millions off of Hazel's cuteness. She could take any of those Gap Baby models, easy. And then we noticed this trend every time we take pictures of this little ham...

When we say "smile!" she does this:

So then we say, "Okay no, maybe don't smile, just be happy." then this:

So out of desperation we bribe her with candy and she gets excited and silly and we end up with this:Sayonara modeling career
Pretty proud of that headband I made that morning in the middle of the Sunday rush.And Charlotte and modeling? She says that's for looosers.

Love Hazel's face in this pic.Because I'm obsessed with getting a FEW good pics while we're all dressed up, I made us do it again at home, after church. Charlotte thought I'd lost my mind.

LOVE these girls.

Merry Christmastime!!

25th Street

December 8th

One of the things I love about Ogden is 25th St (our street, but much closer to town). In December, the entire block between 25th and 26th on Washington Blvd. is covered in Christmas lights and several local businesses sponsor a little village house that's filled with Christmas/winter themed decorations like Santa's workshop or miniature ski slopes with skiers. There's a small cafe on the corner that serves hot chocolate with eggnog icecream and has a fire where you can roast chestnuts and eat free s'mores. so small town and fun.

and COLD! This was Hazel's second encounter with Santa, so it was a very important trips but we froze our tocuses off. The best part was when I decided to take Hazel on this little train that goes around the block (so we thought). David and Charlotte stayed behind as we waved excitedly, only to find out that the train circles the block not once, but TWICE so by time we came around the second time David was like "finally!" and then we KEPT GOING. I was about to jump ship. We ended up going down 25th a few blocks more to the actual train station and then back. We were confused and frozen. No free s'more that night. All in all we had a good time.

the before...and eventually...the after

Has your house ever been so messy that you want to take "before" pictures of everything so that when you clean it, you can look back at how bad it was and feel that much more satisfaction that you endured and conquered? Well I did. Here's the "before" which happened somewhere between our Thanksgiving trip and pulling out Christmas decorations. Holy mess.

Before = Dec 7th

See the little spill behind Charlotte? That was one of many throughout December.

Ah, the front room. Welcome home.
Prepare yourselves...this is the worst one. my room. everything article of clothing that is clean and unfolded or dirty or just barely worn or that is about to be worn, ends up here. and then i have little ones who like to dress up and leave a trail of clothes behind then. that's right, I'll give them the blame.yup.

And the after pics. These were taken two weeks later on Dec 21st. sweet success.

That's David hunched down at the foot of the couch wrapping christmas presents.

The sweet new edition to the office: David's record player. I kept this baby hidden for a few days.

Let the holidays begin

This was actually December 6th, just for the record.