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....

It's Official

The Star is Up

And before it was... Darin for some reason pulled out both of our "boxes" from High School and early married life. He pulled out this jacket that Paris can't wait to wear for "80's day" . We had so much fun walking down memory lane with the kids. It was priceless seeing the kids gather around asking all about every little thing. Ava kept saying, "what's this?" with complete exuberence at every item pulled out of the box. It was adorable. I hope they remain this excited about who we were. Doubtful , I know...

It turns out that it is not actually a good idea to buy a pre-lit tree. We have only had the tree for a couple of years and the lights went out on it. It took us hours to remove the old lights. Ugggghh!!

Of course Madeline and Ava are all dressed up for the "occassion". Sunday seems to be the only day they pull out the "dress up clothes."

It's hard to capturesthe true essence of our tree. The flash distorts the colors. It's an "all kid" tree. Every ornament is for the kids, by the kids and of the kids. Exactly the way we want it!!
Tonite Darin and I were thinking how sad it will be when the kids aren't home with us to decorate the tree! I wouldn't have one if it weren't for them...

And the Best Actress Award Goes to...

Yep, you guessed it! Paris!! This weekend Paris had a film festival at her school. Her team had 7 hours to make a short movie. They already had the story line, but they had to do all the filming and editing in the same day. She made cupcakes from scratch (they were beautiful and amazing) to keep the boys focused. There was another boy on her team (not pictured). I guess the cupcakes did the trick, because her team one. She also received the "Best Actress" award. We were sooo proud of her. She loves doing the news everyday and thinks about new fun ideas everyday. It combines so many of her great talents!! We feel lucky she goes to such a great school that provides this fun, creative outlet for her.

Christmas Play

Our Ward put on this really cute Christmas play this weekend. Darin and I are the mom and dad of this cute little family. The rest of the play is all the primary kids. It was adorable and hopefully will be a tradition for the ward. I wish I had more pictures, but as you can see I was busy.

Savvy had to work extra hard at being an "unrighteous person."

Madeline was the star angel as "Gabriel" She said her line perfect. We were so proud of her. She was apprehensive at first, but was a true "star."

Easton played the part of the "inn keeper" who let's Mary and Joseph stay. The music was beautiful.

Ava's First Dance Performance

Ava loves to dance! She walks around her very tiptoe's all the time. Everytime music comes on she just can't help herself, she wants to dance. I love having all these "dancers" in the house. It's a dream come true for me!

Ava loves to watch the dvd of her at this recital. She can't get enough of it. I can't blame her, either can I!

Madeline was so proud of her! She is on a "dancing break" this year after we burned her out last year letting her do "mini company". I think she was re-inspired after Ava's big debut. Thanks Tosha for bringing extra flowers:) It was sooo cold outside I didn't want to get out of the car to get them...