My Favorite Gift

My parents gave me this locket for Christmas. I love carrying my two favorite people around my neck.

Christmas Finale

Pre-Christmas Celebration

My parents always come over for dinner and opening gifts before Christmas since we are in Boise for Christmas.

The kids enjoyed a story from Grandma

And loved every present they opened

Visit to Temple Square

No, Mike will not smile for pictures. He's not always that serious in real life.

Photo-Op with Santa

This sweet Santa is a man named Lars who lives near my parents. When my mom found out he was going to be playing Santa at Tai Pan, she showed him pictures of our kids and told him their names so that when they walked up to him he said "Hello Ben!" "Hello Klarah!" Definitely one of the best Santa experiences we've had.

New Tradition

I thought it would be fun to start a new tradition of taking a picture of the kids in front of the tree every year and mounting each one onto a wooden ornament and making a garland out of them, so that we can see how the kids grow and change over the years.

Cookie Decorating Party

I threw a cookie decorating party today for the kids and their friends. I had my reservations about hosting about 20 kids, but thanks to some wonderful fellow moms who stayed to help and the fact that it was at the daycare and not my home, it was a smashing success.

Raggedy K

My Grandma Russell made many dolls for me and Susan over the years. We decided that we were going to make dolls for Klarah, Sariah, and Anna this year for Christmas. My mom had kept the pattern for the Raggedy Ann dolls she had made for us so we decided to use that same pattern to make dolls for our girls. Of course we gave them hair and eyes to match our girls so I call Klarah's "Raggedy K". It was so much fun to make a doll. I just love hand-made gifts!

The doll Grandma made for me
The two dolls side-by-side

Raggedy K

We're Back

We spent Sunday evening decking the halls. It should have taken an hour. It took almost 3 hours because Klarah had so much fun moving the boxes from room to room and filling them with books and dolls and taking ornaments off the trees and wreaking havoc in all sorts of fun ways. I tried experimenting with how to use the custom settings on my camera. There has to be a way to get a clear picture other than in natural sunlight, but I haven't figured it out yet.

A New Record

I guess November was pretty noneventful because this is the first time since starting my blog that I have gone an entire month without a post. I'll get back on track soon...