It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

To start off the season, I had the kids each make a Christmas count down. This seriously has been the best thing for them. Every morning each of them are so excited to tear off a chain as it gets smaller and smaller. Carter is starting to get it this year, and it's just going to make it that much more exciting!


This is a classic picture with EmmaLee and her babies! Carter, had to show off his boyish side and threw in the soccer ball.

This is our Christmas tree! I have it hidden behind the two couches because Carter still likes to pull stuff off. We haven't invested in any ornaments yet, but I'm starting to see that it's a good thing with Carter around. He's getting a lot better though. And look at his cute smile! He's starting to smile at the camera... finally! They both melt my heart.

They are playing so well together lately. They do know how to push each other's buttons... far too well! But they also are very kind and loving toward each other. They play a game where they both run around the house, and when they meet at a certain point in the hall, they give each other a hug and a kiss and say "Good job!" and keep on running. It makes me laugh! It's super cute.

Neil officially finished all of his class work, for hopefully the rest of his life! We were super excited and decided to celebrate by going to Winger's for dinner. (Which was SO DELICIOUS, I might add) All he has left is one full-time unpaid internship, starting January.

Every milestone is worth celebrating, I think! Plus it makes it so I don't have to cook, and I'm all for that!

Next we headed to Temple Square to check out all of the lights. I think every one else in Utah had the same idea, because it was a Monday night and the weather that day was a good 55 degrees! There were thousands of people there, but it was still fun to get out.

I have to admit, I don't love going to look at the lights every year because I am a wimp to the cold! I really am not a happy camper when I'm freezing cold. (My husband will agree, just ask!) But it was a perfect December night, and the best part about it was, it helped you remember our Savior, Jesus Christ who we are truly celebrating every year.

Look at me, I'm all bundled, hat, gloves, and a scarf! Everyone else seemed to stay warm with just a coat. There must be something wrong with me! Ha ha!

The nativity on the water. It was gorgeous.

EmmaLee at the reflection pool. So sweet.

This is where Neil and I got married! Oh, the memories! I feel like it was so long ago, not as a bad thing, just that I feel I don't know how I'd live my life without him.

Daddy and Carter! They sure love to play sports together.

I am so blessed! This truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Even though I complain about the cold, I can't help but love Christmas time. It's wonderful to see so many people serving and thinking more about others them themselves. It's amazing what can happen when our lives focus on Christ.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

This is Neil and the kids heading out to play in the snow, when everyone was banned to their houses due to the Blizzard! It was pretty windy and the roads were bad, but we got more snow last night, then on the official blizzard day. It was a fun night to hang out though!


We were all prepared with flashlights a warm dinner just waiting for the power to go out! (Since the previous Sunday it was out) Thankfully, we didn't have to use the flashlights.


Neil and I on Thanksgiving. We went to Neil's parents' house this year, and it was delicious!

EmmaLee with her Aunt Erica.

We can't get Carter to smile or pose for the camera. We have to basically hold him down and make him laugh before he'll let us take a picture. Silly boy! But a cute one! This is him on Thanksgiving.

EmmaLee went to such a fun birthday party and she got her face painted! She really is growing up. One year ago, she would have never let anyone paint her face, but this time she waited in line very patiently with all of the kids and let the lady paint her face with no problem.

This is today at our Condo after the all day and night snow storm! Snow any one? We have plenty to share. We had to run some errands and my car is not the best in the snow. This morning taking EmmaLee to school was really scary! My wheels were moving, but not my car and I was sliding everywhere. But we made it safe thankfully! And I have to say, I'm just thankful to have a working car.

More pictures of the snow.

Getting Closer...

It's getting so close to Christmas time, so we had our family pictures taken. Thanks to our amazing sister-in-law, Jill! She was gracious enough to brave our family and take our pictures! Carter didn't love it, but we at least got a few that he smiled in. Thanks so much Jill!

We also are getting closer to our car getting fixed.

As of today, it's been in the shop three times, since November 2nd, when it first broke down. All I have to say is, it's giving us a hard time! However, I have to say thank you to all of you who have seriously helped us out! It's hard to ask for help and rides, but I appreciate everyone who has been so helpful.

Since Thanksgiving time is coming around, I have contemplated all of the things I am grateful for, and my car is one of them. It may be an old car, and nothing special to look at but I have taken it for granted. I also have realized that I have the best friends and family in the world, who have been so kind to help me out! Thank you, thank you!

Neil is also getting a lot closer to graduating! You're probably all sick of me talking about it, but that's the reality of our life right now, and I can't think of anything more I am more excited about right now. He had to quit his full time job three years ago to complete this program, and that was a very hard thing to do. Looking back on the past three years, I don't know how we've been able to make it. We for sure have been looked out for.

Last Saturday, Neil presented his Research with his partner Dave. They have put in countless hours and lots and lots of time away from home and their families to complete this huge project.

They researched Veterans who served in Afghanistan or Iraq, who are now enrolled in college, to test their vision relating to blast waves they've encountered. (That's in laman terms, of course but you get the drift!)

Anyway, they were the first in their class to present and did an amazing job. They are further presenting their study to the VA hospital in Utah and other places. Great job guys!

Neil and I, after his presentation.

Neil's mom. She was so sweet and came with me. She has raised a great son! And I will love her forever because of it!

Boo!

I have to say, Neil is the pumpkin carver in our family! He loves it, and does an amazing job! I however, don't love carving pumpkins (I know! It's weird, I just don't enjoy it so much). So, Neil bought a pumpkin the day before Halloween, and had a ton of fun with the kids!


The night of Halloween, EmmaLee picked out a Halloween Mac and Cheese. Which I was happy with because it was easy to make and the kids ate all of their dinner. Also, I think it was only like $0.62! I knew they were going to eat a lot of candy, so I figured as long as they had something else in their belly, they'd be good. I just remember when I was growing up, I was so excited to go trick-or-treating, I didn't want to eat because I just wanted to leave. So, maybe we'll make this a tradition, who knows?

Carter was enjoying his meal! They seriously, between the two of them, ate the whole box!

EmmaLee as Cinderella. She kept wanting me to take a ton of pictures in all different poses!

The night before Halloween, Neil and I went to an amazing Halloween Movie that some of our friends put on and he won this sweet "This is it" Michael Jackson shirt. (The movie was awesome by the way!) So he of course tried to dress up as MJ. What do you think? I happen to love the white socks with black pants!

I didn't dress up too much, Neil just gave me some stitches on the forehead. Good enough, I guess.

The pumpkin! We didn't have a candle, so Neil stuck a small flashlight in there. It luckily stayed lit all night.

Here are our friends Joel and Kenzie the cat!

Here they are, off in the RAIN!! It rained the whole time they were out. But loved every minute.

The load of candy!

Wow!

Oh, where was I? At home in the warmth, passing out candy of course!

This was actually taken on October 31st, Halloween day. Since we live in Utah, we celebrated Halloween on a Saturday. What handsome boys!

Every Sunday EmmaLee gets out the play dough after church, while Carter is napping. She is getting very creative. I still don't 100% trust Carter with play dough, since we have carpet under our table. I'm such a mean mom!

As you can see, EmmaLee and Carter are playing in their car seats. Car seats in the house, you might ask? Yes, our white car broke down. We were on our way to the store when our car just went out. Luckily our neighbor's Joel and Kellan were home to come and pick us up and tow our car. Thank goodness! However, the bad news is, we still don't have a working car and have to check to see the price on fixing it. I'm worried since we just spent a ton of money in May on fixing the same car. It's so frustrating!! But I guess we'll figure something out. It's never fun, but it always seems to work out in some way or another.

The Weather is Changing...

So on Monday when we woke up to snow, I was excited for the kids to wake up to see what was outside! (Even though I'm not a huge fan of the snow for long periods of time.) I brought Carter to the window and had him look out. He had a confused look on his face, obviously he didn't remember what snow looked like. I said, "Carter, look at all of that snow!" Carter looked out, "Eeww? Mama?" "No," I said, "Cold!" Then he looked at me... "Oh." It was just so sweet and innocent, I wonder what he thought it was? Something disgusting, I guess!
The picture above is of him at our Ward Chili-cook off. I finally got him to smile! (Oh, and I won second place for my White Chili, Wahoo!)


Here is all of the princesses!

Neil and I TRIED to be vampires from Twilight. I was trying to look like Victoria and Neil, Edward! Ha ha, just kidding, he didn't want to be Edward because he didn't want everyone to make fun of him. I, of course, thought he looked amazing all sparkly! We are still finding sparkles all over our house! Next year I'm going to see if he'll be Jacob! We'll see.

Yesterday when I was in my room for a minute I came out to find EmmaLee doing the dishes all by herself! I thought it was so sweet, I had to capture the moment. She had soap and water everywhere, and the water was freezing cold! But I politely thanked her for doing such an amazing job, and cleaned up after her later. I love that girl!

Neil has been working so hard in school lately with all of his Research he's been doing. Yesterday he presented his Research to a panel of professors and he did amazing! He exceeded their expectations! So because of all of his hard work and long hours we decided to celebrate by going out to eat. We ended up at Red Robin. It was delicious.

What we've been doing this Fall!

Can I just say how much I LOVE my sweet kids! I've been thinking about them a lot and how lucky I am to be their mother. However, because of that I also have been thinking how hard it is to be a Mom, and to make sure all of their needs are being met, and I'm raising them to be the best they can be. So much PRESSURE!


They have been learning to play together so well! It makes me so happy when I see how happy they are when they are together. Don't get me wrong, they also know how to push each other's buttons!

Best friends!

EmmaLee was invited to a birthday party where they painted faces. She loved it!

EmmaLee and Carter were fighting about who got to wear the Hot Pad around their foot. EmmaLee won in this picture.

Also in October, EmmaLee had her first Primary Program. She had one line to say "God is the Father of my Spirit". She said it over and over to practice. To be honest, she is pretty shy and I wasn't sure if she was going to make it up on the stand in front of all of those people. But she did AMAZING! It made me cry to watch her being so brave and so grown up. She also knew every song and she sang her little heart out. It made my heart melt. I just can't believe my little girl is growing up so fast! The other day she told me that she wished she was a mom so she could hold and hug her little babies in her arms. I told her that she has 14 babies of her own (dolls) to hold and hug. She said.. but mom, those aren't real! I hope she can wait 20 more years! She loves those babies.

We were fortunate enough to go to Cornbelly's. It a great place to celebrate Fall! Neil loved to hang out and play with the kids in all of the activities.

They have huge jumping pillows there and you can jump for five minutes. The kids loved it, but we had to wait in line for fifteen minutes and Carter was getting very impatient. I don't know what we are going to do with him when we get to Disneyland next year?

Riding behind a tractor, in a fake cow! What more could you ask for?

Everyone enjoyed it!

We got to go on a Hayride. Which, I think, is the ultimate fall activity.

Neil, Kellan and Andrew. They were racing on these adult, tricycle tractors! I think Kellan won. But they had fun, none the less!

The Doom's in the corn maze. Thanks to Suzy, we made it out!

Nicole and I! For some reason, my camera was picking up all of the dust articles in the air. I couldn't get a clear picture. It was a little frustrating.

For some reason, just lately, Carter will not pose for pictures. I hope it's just a phase.

Our Family in the corn maze!

EmmaLee got to dress up as a princess and play in the princess land. She loved it. They had a horse and carriage just like Cinderella's.

Some of our sweet neighbors planned a fun Halloween party for the kids. We headed over to the church since none of our houses are big enough. Here are a few pictures of the event. Sorry, I couldn't get everyone. It was a lot of fun! Grant is pictured above with his adorable alien costume!

Katelyn, Nicolette, Danika and Issak!

Kristin, Ethan, EmmaLee, Skyler and Amy!

Nicole, Marcy and sweet baby Emily!

Carter, who again, wouldn't pose for a picture. He also has just recently started biting his fingernails. I don't know what made him just all of the sudden start chewing? Anyway, his hands seem to always be in his mouth. That won't help the colds this coming season. He already has a runny nose, that I just can't seem to get to go away! It's a little frustrating. Actually, it's a lot frustrating! I don't know what do to. Those darn colds!

Abbey, Aliyah, EmmaLee, Alyssa, Liriel!

The Princesses, Cinderella and Belle. Oh, I mean EmmaLee and Lydia!

Neil surprised me last week, and I walked into the living room and there were bikes! I was shocked because I have been trying to get him to buy us bikes for years! Anyway, come to find out, there are very generous, sweet people who gave him the bikes at no cost. I will forever be grateful to them and their kindness. So, he had his brother Ben help him fix up the bikes and he went looking for a bike seat for Carter. (If you ever need anything fixed, Ben is the best person to go to, he is always so very helpful! Thanks Ben!) Two weeks later, Neil found a seat and we were able to hit the road! Thanks Babe!! I LOVE YOU!

It was so fun to ride as a family, especially since EmmaLee has learned how to ride. She did get very tired on our first ride. She cried the whole way home. But I can't blame her. She has to petal ten times more than what we do, since her bike is so small. Hopefully someday we can upgrade her bike. Or, I have a better idea, a double bike trailer! Ha! Ha! I'll have to work some more on Neil for that one!

Our sweet Carter! He fell, running on the sidewalk. If you look him up and down, you will see that he plays very hard outside. EmmaLee was never like that. But you can tell he is all boy! He loves to kick balls, throw Frisbees and anything else sports. But I do have to say that today while EmmaLee was at school, he took four of her baby dolls and put them down for a nap in his crib. He also got out the wipes and the diapers and changed the dolls. He is definitely in touch with his feminine side, thanks to EmmaLee. He might just be embarrassed at a later age, when he finds out all of the stuff that EmmaLee taught him how to do. Oh well, I think it's cute!