Christmas sleepover

We started a new tradition tonight...sibling sleepover out by the Christmas tree. 

Halle's photography

Today all found all these pictures, plus about 30 more, on my camera roll. Looks like someone (Halle) got a hold of my camera and had some fun.

Halle's Christmas dance performance

Today Halle's dance class had a little performance where family was invited to come see the class perform their Christmas dance to "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas." It was very cute and Halle was proud to have Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma Lori there watching her. She is a very good little dancer and shines when she is dancing!

Strong minded sister

Our Halle girl has got a mind of her own! If she decides she wants to wear a certain thing, or do her hair a certain way, or do something by herself, that's the way it has to be! Today I was doing her hair for church and she insisted on wearing these two bows in her hair. In the beginning I tried telling her the bows didn't really match each other but she would have none of it. Of course, she looked cute as always :). 

Letters to Santa

 Halle asked Santa for:
A toy set
Barbie
Princess horse clip clop palace
Yo Gabba Gabba box

Luke asked for:
A real dog (puppy)
Darth Vader helmet
Jake and the Neverland Pirates hide out toy
Thomas treasure train track
Art kit

Polar Express

Over Thanksgiving weekend we went on a trip to the Polar Express! We drove five hours there and then boarded the train. Then we drank hot chocolate, ate cookies, they read us the Polar Express, and then we got to the North Pole! We drove past the lights and then Santa got on board and passed out bells to all the kids on the train. On the way back we sang Christmas carols. The kids loved it! It was very fun.

Best preschool helper

This was Halle's mid year preschool evaluation. She is so smart and doing so well in preschool! I thought what her teacher said here was funny and cute. It's so true- Halle is a very good helper! 

Fun at the St. George Children's museum

For about the last month Halle has been ending up in our bed just about every night. We love snuggling with her, but you can see from this picture why many nights we don't get very good sleep! Somehow she often ends up horizontal. How does that happen?? But we love our girl so much we just keep letting her come back to sleep with us!

Planet cake bites

My sister Jamie is such an awesome aunt! She babysat for us yesterday and made "planet" cake bites decorated with colored chocolate (because Luke is really into the solar system lately) with the kids. So fun! And they are delicious too. Luke and Halle loved it. These kiddos are very loved!

Sweet girl

Halle drew this cute picture today of her and me together. I love how she got the hair color right, the eye color, such a good artist and smart girl. I asked her why my mouth was open and she said because I am saying thank you :). 

Halle is such a sweet girl and I love her to peices. She lights up my life and I am so grateful to have her. She is such a spunky, fun girl but also has a very sweet and tender side to her and I love that about her. I love being her mom. Love my girl!

Girly girl

I told the kids to go her ready and Halle came out like this. Ready to hit the town!

Sleeping Beauty

A few nights ago the kids got to bed late and were pretty tired getting up. Luke woke up before Halle and, as usual, was all excited to wake her up. So he ran into our room where she was sleeping (lately Halle ends in our room on our floor almost every night because she is scared at night). Luke ran in there and woke her up. A few minutes later she stomped out with her bed head and said, "Luke! You woke me up from my sleeping beauty!"

Luke started giggling and told her she meant her beauty sleep.

Tonight as I was putting her to bed and laying with her (I have to lay with her every night so she can fall asleep because she is terrified of witches) she had almost fallen asleep, and I coughed. She turned her head to me and said frustratedly, "Mom, don't cough! I was falling asleep and you woke me up from my beauty sleep!"

Looks like our sleeping beauty got it right this time. :)

Witches night out

Witches night out at Gardner Village was quite the party! The kids loved walking around and seeing all the witches, and Halle especially loved dancing on the stage they had set up with a DJ and dance party they had going!

Lake Powell

Grandpa Dave and Grandma Dixie bought a houseboat so we got to go on a final Lake Powell trip over the weekend for a last hurrah for the summer. The kids were very brave and jumped in the water even though it was pretty cold! It was lots of fun being down there and we're excited that they now have a houseboat because we'll get to do lots of fun trips in the future!

Soccer pictures

Nemo and Rudolph live on

We finally got a bigger tank for our goldfish Nemo and Rudolph. It's one my sister Jamie had and wasn't using anymore. We got these fish back when Luke was potty training and was finally able to go #2 in the toilet, so I know it was over two years ago. We actually did go through about five Rudolphs before we found one that survived, but we've had the same Nemo all along. Once we got a Rudolph that was a survivor he's been here for forever too.

So basically, these fish have gotten huge. We have no idea how they got so big. I don't even dare change their water anymore because I'm afraid they will jump out of the net when I'm moving them out of the tank! The old tank was much smaller and the fish looked so cramped in their, so it's good we got this new one.

The kids had fun seeing Nemo and Rudolph swim around their new territory. Luke and Halle keep asking for a dog, but I have to remind them we already have TWO pets - Nemo and Rudolph. Luke and Halle aren't so sure they count, but I am, at least for now!

Spidah Sista

While we were in St. George over Easter weekend we watched spiderman with the kids and they loved it.

A couple days ago we were in the Landry room and Halle noticed a cobweb in the window pane. She pointed it out to me and said, "Mom, is that a spidahweb?" (aka spiderweb...she's still getting down her R sound)

"Yes it is."

"Good," she said "cause I want to get bit by a spidah!"

"Why?" I asked.

"So I can be spidah sista!" (her pronunciation of "spider sister"...I just love how she talks!)

It was so cute, I wish I could have recorded how she sounded and the look on her face. Her face was all twisted and determined and serious, like she was ready to go fight a bad guy or something. She is so cute and spunky.

I just love my little girl so much and all the cute little things she says and entertains me with everyday. She brings so much joy to my life!

All by myself!

Halle has always had a mind of her own and wanted to do things herself. But lately she has gotten this way even more, to the point where even the littlest things she has to do "all by myself!"

Today it has been one of those days where EVERY LITTLE THING has to be done by her. I think it's funny because she is such a sweet, happy little girl but she sure wants to do things herself and be independent! Which is a good thing :). Even when she decided she wanted to watch a show she had to be the one to put the disc in the Blu Ray player, select the episode and push play with the remote.

I love my sweet little firecracker!

Lemonade Stand!

Luke has been talking about doing a lemonade stand for a long time. After all the talk he got Halle excited about it too. They wanted to do it last summer but we never did. All throughout the winter the kids would mention it here and there, and I would tell them when it got warm enough we would do it. Finally, today was the day!

Right when they woke up Luke and Halle started making plans for their lemonade stand. I had to hold them off until the afternoon because I knew otherwise all the kids in the neighborhood would be at school and they wouldn't have any customers. The kids made the sign together - Luke wrote it and they both drew lemons all around it.

Luke told me he thought they would sell it for ten dollars. I told him I thought 10 cents would probably be better. Once we got the table and everything all set up I did yard work while the kids stayed at their table. They took it pretty seriously. They both kept calling out, "Lemonade for sale for ten cents!" They were very diligent sellers!

As for the selling, they ended up getting quite a few customers! A few neighbors stopped by and Grandma Lori and Grandpa Sheldon drove out to buy some.

I'd say Luke and Halle's first attempt at a lemonade stand was a success! 

Valentines Day

This year I got a little more into Valentines Day then usual. The kids are at a really fun age right now where they get into all the holidays and are old enough to understand what is going on an have fun with it. Leading up to Valentines I did the valentines hearts on their doors, which was fun, and then Valentines Day morning Cory and I had little "love gifts" for each of them. Luke got the Darth Maul lightsaber he has been dying to have, and Halle got a princess camera she has also been dying to have and a little princes magnet book.

Luke loves Star Wars right now and thinks it's the coolest thing ever. He loves to play with his lightsabers and do "cool moves" with them, twisting them around in the air and swooping them down and through his legs. Halle is really getting into princesses lately. It's just been lately, too, that she seems to really understand the whole princess thing and she tries to act like them and do princess type mannerisms. The other day she said, "I am a sensitive princess."

So anyway, the presents were a hit and started the morning off fun. Then we had red dyed pancakes that were heart shaped for breakfast. In the afternoon we made our usual Valentines Day heart sugar cookies and for dinner I decided to cook dinner and do a candlelight dinner with the kids. The really liked this and thought it was so neat that they got to drink out of goblets and eat a fancy dinner. It was a fun night and I think we'll keep up that tradition. After dinner we took around valentines to friends and delivered valentines cookies to the kids primary teachers.

We had a lot of fun with Valentines Day this year. It's a fun holiday and I tried explaining to the kids that it's an important one because it's a special time we can show and tell each other how much we love each other. They seemed to get that, and were really cute on valentines day about telling each other they loved each other and also us. Kids are so fun. Without them, Valentines Day would just be a boring holiday! Kids make everything more fun! I love my little family so much!

Halle's Valentines countdown hearts

This year for a fun little Valentines countdown activity I decided I would write something I love about each of the kids on a heart each night for ten nights leading up to Valentines Day. I taped the heart to their door so they would get to see/read it in the morning. The kids had fun with it and would get excited to run to their door each morning to see what their heart would say.

Halle, I love you SO, SO much and hope this was a little extra way to show and tell you how much I love you and a few of the little reasons why!