Christmas 09

The kids made and decorated these cookies. I love that the older girls can cook. They spent a whole "lovely" afternoon making these. They were amazing! This is actually Santa's plate, but I got some as well:)

Santa brought the girls jewelry.

I love that at this stage in Easton's life he takes great care of himself. He loves to be clean and is always well groomed. Santa knew he would love this and he did! He liked this almost as much as the remote control car.

Savanna's necklace that matches mine. She loves that we have the same one. I love that too.

Madeline gave Darin a coloring kit for them to color together. They both loved it...

Christmas 09

We were able to "skype" with Meems and Peeps from their mission in Mexico. It was sooo fun to share in our special day with them. The quality was great and it was the next best thing to having them here.

The kids talking on "skype"

The highlight of Christmas gifts were the ones the kids bought for each other. They each earned their own money and went shopping. Madeline scored 6 gifts for 10 dollars. Thank you Target Dollar aisle...

Ava loves her purple baby Savvy got her.

Madeline's doggy from Paris...

How We Spent Christmas 09

These are the Pajamas I had made for the kids. They opened the on Christmas Eve. The little girls were "over the moon" about theirs. The "bigs", not so much... Mine, were a surprise from the seamstress. Wasn't that sweet? For the record, Easton's draw string in skulls and cross-bones. His pajamas are NOT feminine...

We went up to the cabin for Christmas Eve. We ate yummy food courtesy of Connie, skied and had a great time. On Christmas Eve we acted out the Nativity with the Gillespie Family. Look how big my "baby jesus" is!

Sweet baby Jesus!

It's tradition in our family for Savanna to be the Angel Gabriel. She is getting better and better at it! Note the cast... She was in and out of casts for the whole month. Ughhh! Darin took it off so she could ski one day with us.

We got Madeline up on the mountain skiing like a champ. I don't have pictures of Ava, but she is skiing now as well. Darin and I are skiing rather than snowboarding this year, just to keep up with them. It's been so much fun. I enjoyed the outdoors with my family. I love enjoying the indoors sipping hot chocolate when we are done equally.

How We Spent December

We made Gingerbread Houses for "Family Home Evening." Madeline still thinks everyone copied her...

Ava danced in her first performance.

Paris danced in the nutcracker.

Easton performed the "nutcracker". Ava watched...

The weather was sooo beautiful, we walked home (at least from the top of the neighborhood) from church...

We shopped enough to amass this large amount of gifts

Our Thanksgiving in Pictures

The finished product! Savvy and Darin made all desserts. Blueberry/Sour Cream pie (my personal favorite), Apple Pie, and White Chocolate Sweet Potatoe Pie. All were super yummy!

Paris was in charge of "tabletop"

I love that my sister is 12 minutes away! Her family joined us for our feast...

Paris designed this to look like BYU font. Love it!!

Madeline and Lily at the "kids table". See the little creation with the candle? Madeline made it at school. It was the perfect centerpiece. See cute Madeline here? Guess what? This proves she is cute without eyelashes. Do you see me in any of these pictures? Nope! I was at the 30% off sale at Sports Authority. I walked in the door to find Ava and Madeline with their hair and eyelashes cut! yep... cut... Madeline for some reason thought it would be fun. Good thing she is adorable without them, cause it's going to be awhile. I'm pretty sure she will never do it again. Her only real punishment came when she said she didn't do it. Ava outed her of course:)

Thanks Savvy and Darin! I love Thanksgiving and all in all it was the perfect day minus the eyelash and hair trimming! Even that was a little bit perfect....