"Christmas Time Is Here... Snowflakes In The Air.."

We got hit with a beautiful snow storm. It is so fun to see our yard covered in snow for the first time!

Jordan had a blast playing in all of the snow. He got out a toy sword and was battling the snow off of the cedar trees branches. 

Capturing the moment.

For Family Home Evening one night we bought a kit and build ginger bread houses. This was by Jordan's request. But instead of building a ginger bread house he decided last minute to build a robot. Funny guy. 

Hillary loving the snow! I always say "Let it snow!"

Caught this excited little lady learning how to stand and hold onto things. 

Our yard is full of trees, too many in fact. We plan to thin them out and make the yard not so cluttered. It turns out that we happened to have a beautiful Evergreen tree that was far too close to the fence that would need to come out. So we decided to make it our Christmas tree this year. Talk about getting a Christmas tree close and for cheap. What a fun way to spend our first Christmas in our new home; with a Christmas tree from our very own yard! 

Preston was also such a sweetie to put up Christmas lights on the house for me, even though our roof shingles are slick and it was cold. He knew it meant a lot to me to have lights on our house our first Christmas at our home. I love that man so much!

Decorating the Christmas tree. All the kids were a great help. When we got the tree we were surprised at how tall it was. It just barely missed touching the ceiling. It it just the right height and fit well in our front room.

Here are the kids dressed up for church in their Christmas best. We have the most adorable kids ever. Just saying...

Look at this picture perfect Christmas scene. It warms my heart just looking at it. To me we have the perfect front room for Christmas time: fire place for stockings and cozy fire snuggling, mantle for decorating, bay window for extra tree room, and big windows to watch the snow come down. I love it!

What's the Christmas holiday without making sugar cookies? It was lots of fun for the kids to do this with Grandma Suzie too. Plus they were delicious... Santa is a lucky guy. 

I love sugar cookies... can you tell? Yummmmm.

Christmas Eve we read the story of Christ's birth and had the kids act out the scenes with this nativity scene I painted. Afterwards Natalie kept playing with it and I couldn't help but capture this sweet moment. It is such a sweet experience to teach our children about Christ our Savior. 

 

A beautiful season of lights, traditions, and the babe in Bethlehem. 

 

Little Katelyn 9 months old.

Thanksgiving 2015

Whenever there's a holiday and my Mom is around we have to make apple pies. At least that's how I feel. Katelyn is helping with the skin peelings.

Jordan had a lot of fun trying out the apple peeler. He also had fun eating up the apple pieces. What a great helper.

Happy baby! 

I was so excited when I caught this photo. She moves so fast that I often miss the moment, but not this one... right in the moment.

Natalie loves to help cook anything. She has her own play kitchen but the real thing is always more exciting. 

I've always thought that snow makes everything magical, calm, fun, and beautiful.

We got a blanket of snow to enjoy just in time for Thanksgiving! We had a great time playing in our snow filled yard for the first time since living here. It's so wonderful to create new memories and traditions in our new home.

Snow everywhere... we love it!

Kids ganging up on Dad for a snow ball fight. I wonder who gave them the idea?

Grandma Suzie enjoying the snow too.

Since we hadn't put our trampoline down for the winter yet; the kids thought it would be an excellent idea to go jumping on a snow covered trampoline. They slipped and slide all over the place,  laughing and giggling the whole time. It was hilariously cute!

So fun to be in our yard playing together.

Thanksgiving at the O'Neals was a special experience this year. One you can't help but feel welcome at their home and two they had some exciting news to share... they are expecting another baby to join their wonderful family in May!

Congratulations O'Neals! What a surprise!

So I have this thing about jackets... especially peacoats and so I had to take a picture of Katelyn in her adorable self in this pink peacoat. Love her!

Here the kids are jamming with Uncle Ben in his drum room. Our kids have never had the chance to go crazy on an entire drum set. They had a blast rocking out!

Caught Charlie and Melissa being cute playing a duet on the piano together.

So it turns out that Jordan can fit in their toy washer. How do I know you may ask? They checked.

Uncle Charlie and Avery building an awesome block tower together.

More jamming time... this time just father and son. Super sweet.

Everybody hanging out downstairs. Jordan and Heath have always gotten along great. Ben and Rebekah are always so welcoming to having family get-togethers at their home. I've always appreciated that and I know others do too.



Check out these horses, I mean Uncle and Dad giving a bunch of kiddos a ride.

I have always enjoyed what a fun loving person Preston is. The kids didn't want to stop. They took being the horses well. What good sports!

Mother and daughter visiting together. Glad we could see Grandma Sharon for this Thanksgiving holiday.

Good family times together. Happy Thanksgiving all! I am thankful for fun family experiences.

Natalie's First Haircut

Natalie is three years old and has just had her very first hair cut. I love this picture! She looks so adorable and a little older then the girl I brought to get her hair cut. I hated having her curls cut off but it was beginning to feel like brushing Rapunzel's hair. Plus hopefully now Natalie won't fight me brushing her hair as much.

At the beginning of the haircut Natalie was less than excited. Look at that face. I had her sit on my lap so she would let her hair get cut.

My friend Joran did a great and quick job. It's strange when firsts happen and how that means you realize it's a milestone your child is passing through and that means they are growing up a little. I just try to take a step back and soak it in and remember the moments... no matter how small. I am also grateful for blogs, journals, etc. that help me remember better. And especially for photo that capture the moment as it is. 

 

Silly raspberry monsters! So terrifying. 

 

And here's another one. I will run for my life... after I'm done laughing.

Where is your favorite place to read books? Today's choice was Mom and Dad's not so tidy closet. They are such cuties.

A picture from the kitchen of Jordan and Natalie jumping on the trampoline. I'm so glad these to play so well together most of the time. Having siblings is such a blessing. 

Katelyn Cutie

Here Katelyn is 8 months old. She is a mover. I have to be fast to get a good picture of her smiling at the camera now a days. She loves to learn and do all that her older siblings do. She can't wait to run around with them.

Cruising along the couch and loving it!

Here she crawled up to me to grab the camera. She already knows that Mom and Dad's toys are the best. 

Here is a funny picture of a time when Katelyn was so tired that she just fell asleep face down on the carpet in her room. I thought it was so funny, I had to take a picture of it. 

Play time.

One of Katelyn's absolute favorite things is bath time. She LOVES to splash in the water! 

Check out the hug grin. She is in heaven. We love you little lady!