The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

A little preview of all of the fun we've been having! More to come when we get home! We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and will have a wonderful New Year!

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

Our first major storms hit this past week, which meant a lot of snow days, and a lot of crazy ppl freaking out about the weather. The stores ran out of most everything the day before the first storm and I think the whole city pretty much shut down. The good news was that work was cancelled. Bad news being that Banana's pre-school got canceled one day. I tried really hard to convince her it wasn't my fault and that no one was going that day. Then we drove past her school to go shopping and there were cars in the parking lot...not pre-school cars, but she definitely didn't believe me when I tried telling her again there was no school. :Sigh: It was FREEZING, and just like our previous years here I forgot how cold it actually gets here in the winter months. Or maybe I purposely block it out because it's so painful to remember. :) The first "snow" day there wasn't a lot of snow, but plenty of ice and wind. Banana has been dying for the snow to arrive so she could play, and was pretty disappointed when we went out after the first storm and there wasn't very much snow.
(notice the beautifuil, clear sidewalks in the background? Running Man gets to plow a our whole square block and the paths around the church. But he said he didn't mind it this year because Banana loves the snow so much).
After a few tears we convinced her she could still do her snow angels, and she perked up even more when we started throwing snowballs at her dad!
This was Em's first real experience playing in the snow. We took her out last year, but she couldn't run around and play so she didn't get the full experience. She loved every minute. Her snowboots are hand me downs from Banana and are slightly large on her...she was fine walking, and sitting down. But to go from one to the other wasn't her favorite. She couldn't figure out how to swing her massive boots under her body and stand up. Hilarious. Kind of sad. But mostly hilarious.

I think this is the last chance I'll have to post before we take off for our Christmas adventures. I'll post some pics from the sunny Bahamas when I get a chance! Have a WONDERFUL Christmas!!

Think, Think, Think

Things have been crazy lately, and I haven't had much time to sit down and blog. I should have because the last few weeks are a muddly mess in my brain tonight...We've been working a ton, but have also found time to do some fun things as a family. I think I'll just let this blog be a picture post because that is so much easier than trying to remember anything right now :)


Here are some cute pics of the girls from Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time with all of our D-Port Family, and enjoyed all of the yummy food! Banana was excited to get to be with some of her best friends, and Em was just excited to get to eat all night! Every time I turned around she had something in her mouth!
Running Man surprised Banana and I with tickets to Princess's on Ice last weekend! It was such a fun girls night for Banana and I. She was decked out in all of her princess gear (complete with makeup and sparkles). On the way in we walked passed a family and one of their little girls started yelling at her mom that cinderella was there, while pointing frantically at Banana. I thought Banana was going to scream she was so excited someone thought she was Cinderella!! No trip to Disney on Ice is complete without one of their overcharged, but delicious snow cones.
I spent most of the night watching Banana's face every time a princess would come onto the ice. Melted my heart, and made me so excited to go to Disney World next week!

It's our tradition to get our Christmas Tree the day after Thanksgiving and we love going to a little tree farm here. Not quite the same as cutting one down in the snow covered moutains...but a whole lot easier with two kids! The girls loved it, and Banana found the perfect tree for our tiny house.



We started new tradition this year of watching Polar Express while decorating the tree. Banana and Em are in LOVE with this movie and have all of the songs memorized. And you can't watch Polar Express without drinking some hot chocolate! I didn't get a pic of them enjoying their treat because by the time I got the camera out their hot chocolate was gone!

Decorating our Gingerbread Sleigh. So much easier to construct with two toddlers. Banana enjoyed decorating the sleigh so much more than the house. There was a lot more for her to do, and we didn't have to be as careful in the construction.Em doing what she does best...eating her food while we try and decorate the sleigh. She got to put a few things on, but after around 5 sneak attacks on the candy she was banished to her chair. :)
And finally here's Em in her favorite hang out. I don't know why we buy her any toys because she loves to play with the most random household objects. This is a shot from when she first climbed in...

And here's her face when I had just saved her from tipping over and nearly bashing her head into the coffee table....She's clearly not impressed with my superhuman speed.Phew...I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season, and we can't wait to see some of you in a few weeks!!

Heart Full Of Love

I am so grateful for this eternal family I have. Thankful for a Savior who loves me. And so thankful for all of the people in my life who inspire me to become a better me.

Change!

I was in desperate need of change so I did this to my hair! I am super excited about how it turned out, and still lovin' it after a few days. My roots are pretty dark anyway and I've always secretly coveted my mom and sister's gorgeous red hair. So I decided to make myself fit it!! I did it after the girls went to bed one night and when Banana saw it she told me how beautiful it was. That made me know it was worth it! Miss Em looked up from drinking her milk, stared at me for a few seconds, then went back to drinking her milk. I think that's a good sign...she didn't start screaming or asking for Mom. :)
We are getting excited for the holidays to be here. Banana and I watched our first Christmas show of the season today. It's her favorite so I'm sure it won't be the last time. We are spending Thanksgiving with some fabulous friends and I am ready for all of the delicious food, and wonderful company!
The girls love working out with Running Man and I, and on this night I had just finished working out at put my pjs on when Em decided to show us how tough she is! Ignore the scary lady in the background. :)

Counting Pennies!

A few months ago Banana started begging me to do more chores around the house. I wasn't going to argue with that! She was already such a good little helper that Running Man and I decided it would be a good time to start a chore chart, and to start teaching her about working hard and paying tithing. She has been so diligent about helping and her piggy bank finally was completely full this past weekend. She learned a while ago how to distinguish the different coins so we let her count it all out and she had saved $10! Running Man helped her count out what she needed for tithing and it was so neat to see how excited she was about that part. She is such a smart girl, with such a sweet little spirit. I forget sometimes how impressionable little kids are, and how much they crave learning. I don't expect Banana to remember certain things she's read about, or things we've learned together (scholastic and gospel related) and then she surprises me by recalling it all! So...back to the story. We took her to her favorite place in the world (Toys 'R Us) and let her use her $9 to pick out a treat. She picked a Barbie. (Huge surprise I know) :)

This past weekend we also went back to IC to go to the Children's Museum, and this time it was open! They have added a new exhibit and it was pretty neat. It was all about aeronautics and physics. They had some awesome interactive displays, and some fun games for the kids. This was the first time Em has been able to really run around and play and she LOVED it! It was way past nap time by the time we got there but she was such a trooper and it was hard keeping up with her! I learned to never go to IC on a game day. The traffic on the way there was insane, and I felt out of place not being decked out in my black and yellow!



Banana was giving Running Man a proper adjustment! The jacket she has on is just like his clinic jacket so she was so excited to put it on. She told us she was a real chiropractor now!Had to throw this cute shot in here! The girls are always so excited when their dad gets home every night. I feel bad for him sometimes because he's so exhausted and they are bursting with energy because they're so happy to see him! He's such an awesome dad and I am so blessed!

I had just gotten Banana down for a nap today and I walk into the girls room and saw Em sitting so quietly on Banana's bed reading a book. (Banana takes a nap in our room because the two of them have different nap schedules). I love this little girl! She wants a "big girl bed" so badly but there's not a chance she'd ever stay in one. She's such a little monkey and so mischeivious I think it would be a constant battle with her! Maybe in ten years. ;)

Good-Bye October!

I think we've seen the last of the candy :) We had a fun Halloween and only got slightly frozen. The girls had a blast at the trunk or treat even though it was kind of freezing! Em thought it was the neatest thing she'd ever done and was a pro at saying "trick-or-treat" by the time we were done. Well it sounded more like tikotwee...(which I think is way cuter).

Banana and her cute friend Little K hanging out in her parents truck. Banana was convinced we needed to buy a truck by the time the night was over.Once Em got done trick or treating she spent the rest of the time hanging out in the car. She loved helping hand out the candy as kids would come by. (Actually, at first she was VERY protective of the candy and as a kid would grab something she would start yelling at the poor child and grab hold of as much candy as she could). She did warm up to it though and then couldn't get enough of it!
Banana also had her Halloween party at dancing class this week and I'm just glad I survived. It's hard enough trying to maintain some sort of order when you're teaching dance to a room full of toddlers. But add costumes and candy into the mix and it was slight chaos. All of the girls looked so adorable though, I couldn't help but embrace the chaos. :)

Hannah's happily pondering which piece of candy to eat first...
These are the only girls I could get to sit still long enough for a picture!Yesterday we decided to take a break from the cold weather and have a little luau! It was Banana's fun idea and it made the morning pass pretty quickly. I am still in love with these little girlies and my life would be so boring without them!