CHRISTMAS

I can't believe that Christmas has already come and gone already. I always get so sad when it is over. I don't want to have to send Brinley back to school, it has been so fun having her home with us. Halle has especially loved having the company. The only good thing about Christmas being over this year is that I am that much closer to my due date! I really can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone. It really does seem like it has flown by this time! Anyways...We had a good Christmas. We started off Christmas eve with our tradition of the girls opening Christmas pajamas. They were excited to get some new jammies! Then we headed off the Nate's sisters annual Christmas Eve party in the afternoon. She usually has it in the evening, but since a lot of Nate's family wanted to get home early she moved it to the afternoon. Actually it worked out great so we could make it to both of our family parties. It is always stressful trying to get to both parties and deciding which one we will go to first. I think next year we will start rotating so we aren't so stressed!

Brinley and Halle in Christmas Pajamas

The girls were so excited Christmas eve to go to bed! Luckily they went right to sleep so Santa could come early enough! Brinley came into our room at 4:30 and wanted to get up and open presents. We told her that she had to go back to bed until 7:00. I had been up sick most of the night and I just wanted to get some sleep. So she stayed in my bed and talked for another hour, (Nate ended up going into her bed) and she finally feel asleep at about 5:30 after asking every 5 minutes if it was time. Then about 6:45, I rolled over and QUIETLY said her name and she jumped up and asked if it was time to get up. We called Cam and Justin and they were on their way to watch them open their gifts. Grandma Merrell also came down to see them. They were so excited when they saw their presents. Brinley is so dramatic. She would squeal after each present and say it was what she wanted. She is a very easy child to please. Halle was excited, but she didn't have the same reaction as Brinley. It was so fun to see! They got American Girl dolls and Santa had left them sitting out. They were thrilled and they have taken them everywhere we have gone ever since! My mom gave them each some pajamas to match their dolls and that is all they want to wear!

Halle and Brinley wearing their pajamas that match their dolls

Brinley opened a movie that had a sticker from Toys R Us on it. She said to me..."Mom, Santa doesn't make all the toys, this one came from Toys R Us!" It was pretty funny! She is a very observant little girl!

Halle's typical response to opening a present

Christmas morning was spent opening presents, going to my Grandma's breakfast, and visiting all our families here. We all had a great Christmas. Sometimes it is hard having both families in town but then on Christmas I realize that it is kind of nice that we don't have to travel and we can stay in town! I have so many things to be thankful for this year! I have realized how blessed I am, as I look around me. I didn't ever get a Christmas card sent out this year. It just seemed a little more chaotic for some reason, but I hope that you all had a great Christmas! It was fun receive all your cards and catching up on your busy lives as well!

Christmas Happenings...

I always love having my kids home for Christmas break. I feel like sometimes we are so busy with school that we don't get to spend a lot of time together. So I decided that we would do some fun things for Christmas and I let them choose what they wanted to do today. Yesterday we drove around and looked at at the Christmas lights. Then today they wanted to...

Build a snowman..

Make snow angels....

Play in the snow

Make sugar cookies

Then for family night we drove out to the lights at Willard Bay with our friends. They got to see Santa and even Halle sat on his lap and she even talked to him! We also got to go on a wagon ride! It was quite an eventful day....I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Christmas dresses and concerts!

I can't believe that it is Christmas already! It has flown by this year! I am so behind on posting my pictures so I thought that I would update with a few pictures of what we have been up to. Here are my girls in there Christmas dresses. They were a little upset that they were not exactly the same this year.

Halle

Brinley

Brinley also had her TaVaci concert last weekend. She did so good we are so proud of her! She seems to know the songs really well and then she gets a little nervous when she gets on stage. She doesn't dare take her eyes off her teacher in case she misses an action! She still loves singing and we hear the songs she learns all day long! :) But it is still fun to see her perform! Brinley doesn't look too happy here. This was after the concert and she was ready to be done and take her costume off!

Halloween!!!

Okay so I know that it is now December and I am just posting my Halloween pictures! I do have a good explanation for it. Our computer was down and then we could not get it going again so we had to buy another computer. Well it happened to be a good thing because Nate's brother, FINALLY talked him into getting high-speed Internet!!!!!!!!! Well actually our new computer wasn't hooked up for dial-up so he didn't have a choice. Let's just say I can actually upload some pictures without getting a load of laundry done in between and I can upload more then one picture at a time! So just a little warning there is a lot of pictures to come and more to follow.
Our Halloween was good. Brinley was Hannah Montana and Halle was a witch. Brinley was a little sick. She had to come home from because she felt like she was going to throw up. So we took her home and I kept wondering if maybe she wasn't really sick because her cousins were here. Anyways, I had to go back for her classes Halloween part because I am the room mother for her class. She wanted to come so I let her because she said she was feeling better. We were in different groups and all of a sudden her teacher came and told us to trade her spots. Brinley had thrown up all over. Poor Girl! She really wasn't feeling well!
We went trick or treating with Jen and her kids and all Brinley wanted to do was go home. I really knew she didn't feel well when she didn't care to get any candy! Which was fine with me because I just threw away our candy from last year a few weeks ago.

Brinley at her Halloween parade. Doesn't she look happy?!?

Halle and Brinley insisting they pull a funny face!

Halloween Party!

Jen had a Halloween party for us while she was here. She is so creative and is always doing something cute for the Holidays. First it started out with witches brew, which the kids were so fascinated with. They swore it was root beer! Then we ate "Body part soup" out of a pumpkin bowl. It was so funny to see the kids reaction to the body parts in their soup. And Lastly they got to bob for apples! Here are the only pictures that I got from the fun event!

Halle finally got an apple!

Brinley with her apple!

Bobbing for apples

The gang with the pumpkin bowls and the witches brew!

cOuSiNs!

Halle riding the pony at Gardiner Village. She wanted to ride these ponies when she saw them. I was shocked because she usually does not like any animal but pigs!

My sister came from California for a few days and my kids got to spend a little time with them. They were able to come and see Justin and then they stayed for Halloween. They had so much fun and my kids are always sad when their cousins have to leave! Here are some of the pictures we took while they were here! We went to Gardiner Village and saw the witches, the pumpkin patch and then who could forget Jen's fun Halloween party. She is such a fun aunt and she always has such fun ideas. No wonder my children want nothing to do with me when she is around! Thanks Jen and grandma for making the party so fun!

Brinley on her pony ride

It was so hard to get all the cousins to look at the same time so this is the best I could get!
Gardiner Village

Watching the witch the the hula-hoop! They had so much fun together, but we missed Mag's family. They were here the week before but I guess I didn't get any pictures!

San Diego Trip

A few weeks ago I was able to take a trip with a few of my high school friends to San Diego. It was lots of fun and quite an adventure! We were planning on staying in this beautiful beach house in Imperial Beach. When we got there we were quite taken back by it...and not because of it's beauty! Here is Darci standing by the free T.V. outside our condo. Ours is the one to the left. Andrea did so good to book all of this for us! But we didn't know what we were getting ourselves in to! We got there and we were a little nervous once we drove into Imperial Beach. Let's just say that is was just like Tijuana! We had scary men yelling things at us and trying to take our picture! As soon as we saw our room we booked it out of there! Thank goodness for Darci's bravery cause the rest of us were chickens and we didn't dare tell the people how disgusting our room was. I don't think that anyone had stayed there for a few months and after seeing it, I know why!


Andrea, Me and Darci at Seaport Village



The next day was a lot better. We found ourselves a nice CLEAN, safe hotel room! We went to Coronado Island, and Seaport Village. I loved the sand at Coronado Island! I don't think Darci loved it as much as the rest of us! She got stung by a "no-see-um" jellyfish (as the lifeguard called it). She was even out of the water trying to take our picture and all of a sudden she her foot started stinging. She was in a lot of pain, so she sent me running after the lifeguard (I'm sure it was a sight to see, a pregnant lady running after the lifeguard)while Andrea and Kristi were busy picking up sand dollars. (That never even made it very far after all.......Darci!)


Darci, John, and Andrea

We had a funny experience at the temple. We were all wanting to go see the temple so we were so excited when we found it! We went in and hiked to the top of the hill to take some pictures and out walked one of our friends from high school. We had no idea that he was even working there at the temple. It was so funny! I haven't seen him since we graduated. It was fun to talk to him and he told us some good places to go!

This was probably my favorite beach, Coronado. I loved the glittery sand. It made me want to take my girls there someday. They would of loved it!

Darci getting some advice from the lifeguard! He told us what to put on her foot. We had to get ammonia and meat tenderizer and mix it with water! Crazy! It was a lot of fun! I was a little worried about leaving my kids for 5 days, but it was fun to get away! I had a hard time leaving them. I don't know who was more sad....me ot them. I cried the morning before and I didn't think that I wanted to go anymore. I am so glad that I did...we made lots of fun memories that we can laugh about now looking back. My kids did fine without me, but they were ready for me to come home when I did! Thanks, girls for the fun trip. Can't wait to do it again!