Christmas at Temple Square

means THOUSANDS of lights! More than 300,000 actually.

It was so much taking the girls to see it all. We went with Trent's parents, his sister and her husband, and their four kids. It was so beautiful and the girls were in awe of all the trees and statues and everything being lit up for the holiday.

Here's the four of us!

My really good friend from BYU, Ryan, and his cute wife Becca came and met us there too. They brought their adorable little 6 week old baby and it was so good to see them and to walk around and talk. I love Temple Square! :)

Ornaments, gingerbread houses, and all that fun stuff...

The kids all had fun decorating ornaments for the tree that Auntie Keltie brought.

Then they made gingerbread houses with graham crackers. Mikayla ate more frosting than she put on the crackers though I think!

The finished product!

Kezia spent a lot of time making the perfect house. The kids had so much fun together doing all the crafts, games, making food, and playing together.

Snow Time in Utah!

The girls LOVED all the snow in Utah! We drove there this past week for Christmas and they were amazed by how much it snowed!

My big pink, fluffy marshmallow!

Helping dad build a snowman.

Kayla liked fining the arms and eyes, etc.

Their finished lil snowman. Pretty cute!

Date Night!

We went out last weekend to dinner with the Astle's and then to a fun adult Christmas party. I love nights out without the kiddos!

All dressed up for church

These are pics of the girls before church last week looking sooo cute!

Mikayla brought her build-a-bear with her with matching dress and all.

Such funny little girls I have!

Teacher gift for Christmas

The teacher gift I made this year for Mikayla's preschool teacher and a set for my mom who's a teacher as well. It's an altered notebook and clipboard. I just mod podged the paper over the top and added a few embellishments.

I placed them in a basket with some caramel and apples to continue the apple/teacher theme.

Wrapped it up with a card and voila! A cute, personalized teacher gift for Christmas!

Christmas gift for the grandparents

We had fun painting the girls' hands and feet and 'stamping' them on towels for the grandparents for Christmas. The girls loved making them and the grandparents loved getting them! We let the girls pick their paint colors too, hence the reason Mikayla has two different colored feet here!

Tim and Michelle's Chico Reception

Our whole fam

My mom and Mikayla

I like this picture! I look so skinny, I think I'll always hold flowers in front of me in pictures! lol :)

How cute are these two?! Megan loved dancing and hugging my cousin Matthew who is 2 months older than her.

Me, Chloe, Josh, and Trent having fun on the dance floor!
Cutting the cake!

My parents

Chloe and I in our matching dresses

My dad dancing with Mikayla. She was so cute! She heard the slow song come on and really wanted to dance so she walked over and asked Papa to dance with her. He took her to the dance floor and picked her up, but she insisted that she wanted to dance holding his hand with her other hand on his hip just like the grown-ups! It was the cutest thing ever! I'm sure my dad's back hurt like crazy from bending over like that, but she felt like such a big girl that night. :)

Me, Josh, and Uncle Joe, yep, we love to dance!

We had a fun reception in Chico and the girls loved holding their pretty flowers. The food was excellent, the room looked beautiful and my mom threw a really smashing reception. The dancing was tons of fun and I don't care who you are, the Macarena is still fun! We're so happy for Tim and Michelle and wish them the best getting started on their life together and are so thankful Dusty still has more than a few years before he gets married! :)

Sometimes I just make bad choices...

Getting ready to drive the other day...

Me: Mikayla, get your seatbelt on please.
Me: Mikayla, please make a good choice and get your seatbelt on. Are you listening to me? Please help me out and make a good choice.

Finally, I had to take off my seatbelt and reach back and help her put hers on.

Me: How come you didn't put your seatbelt on?

After about 10 seconds of thinking she sighed.

Mikayla: Mom, sometimes I just make bad choices. Because if I make bad choices now, then when I am a mom I can tell my kids not to make bad choices because I can tell them it's not good to get in trouble and make Mom mad. I will tell my kids to make good choices so they can be happy. So that's the reason I didn't put my seatbelt on Mom.

Seriously? Do I laugh? What does one do as the mother in this situation. I just snickered and quickly grabbed a pen and a piece of scratch paper to write it down. I mean, what else could I do?

The Girls Laughed EVERY Time They Saw This Tonight!! So Funny!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Tim and Michelle's Wedding!

We're back from a fun-filled trip to Utah for Tim and Michelle's wedding. They got married on December 5 in Logan, Utah and then we went to Rockland, Idaho that night for their reception in Michelle's hometown.

Don't they look good?

My family: Me, Megan, Dad, Tim, Michelle, Mom, Mikayla, Josh, Dusty (we're just missing Trent and Chloe who stayed home because they both had to work)

Mikayla holding up her beautiful train

My bros and their friends, we took several fun jumping pictures, I love these!

Mikayla at the reception. She LOVED her wristlet corsage and this sleigh set up for pictures.

The 4 kids and Michelle outside the Logan Temple.

My girls were excited to greet them as they came out of the temple.

My parents with the happy couple.

It was SOOOO cold outside! There wasn't any snow, but it was about 22 degrees and we were FREEZING!! We all wore jackets and blankets and then threw them off to jump in a picture, then bundled up again. The girls were such troopers! Meggy, me, and my mom

We drove out in an rv and the girls loved walking around and sliding on the floor without having to wear seatbelts. They LOVED dancing at the reception and having fun with their uncles and grandparents. I'm glad we were all able to be there for Tim's big day. :)

The Best Park Ever

is in Wendover, Nevada!! Every single time my family has driven to Utah we stop there to play. It has the most unsafe yet most fun playground toys we've ever seen! We spun and swung and spun and spun some more. I was SO sick after this and my equilibrium was thrown off for the rest of the night--but it was worth it!
This swing bounces up and down while swinging in a circle! Sweet huh?
Look at this old metal beauty, Meg's looks just slightly unsafe!

A cute teeter totter.

This one's awesome! You stand in the middle while someone spins you and you try to push back against the centrifugal force that wants to throw your body into the side bars. This one is sure to make anyone sick!

Who doesn't love this spinny thing?! I haven't seen one of these in years! The girls both loved it and wanted to stay on much longer than their mother!