Christmas program clip

Here is a clip of the program... The words are kind of hard to understand at the beginning, but this is the song about Mary having a baby.

Christmas music program

On Dec 5th Kate had her school music program. We all were very excited to go and see her sing in her first school program ever!

To no one's surprise, Kate was in the back row, center...She was lucky enough to stand by her best friend, Trinity (the girl in the red dress).

The songs were cute and the Kindergarten kids did a great job singing. My favorite part of the evening was the song they sang about Mary and Jesus. I am so grateful that I live in an area where we can still sing in public school about the Savior, it was beautiful.

Kate made us so proud, and Elise and Lily sat very well during the program...All in all, it was a fantastic family night.

Happy Birthday Elise

The baby turned 1 yesterday! She was lucky enough to have two celebrations: One at Grandma Eva's and one at home.

She needed lots of help with the presents.

For her birthday dinner we had Elise's favorite, homemade mac and cheese!

Thank you Dairy Queen for the cake, yum!

Elise is such a joy in our lives; she makes us laugh all the time. Her are a few facts about our 1 year old:

Likes:

Food

Books

Ripping pages in books

Mommy

Wrestling with Kate, Lily, and Daddy

Stairs

Food

Pacifier

Food

baths

Dislikes:

Bedtime!

Sisters

Kate and Lily Nov 2008

Lily and Elise Nov 2011

I can't believe how fast time flies!

Thank you Lord for these blessings!

Halloween part 1&2

Halloween started early this year with a very fun party thrown by some great friends. It helped me get their costumes done early, and we got an extra use out of them. Honestly though,I am not sure why I keep making their costumes year after year, they can be such a headache. I went to Joann's a billion times because I kept underestimating how much tulle I needed...Silly tutus. However, by this time next year I will forget all the toil and money saved and probably put myself through it all again. Thank goodness the girls are so cute, they make it all worth it!

Here they are, outfits intact! We ended up breaking the headbands in the next 20 minutes and shedding out wings closely after that, so this is the one complete picture I got! My three little butterflies!

Melting my heart

The next weekend was our church's trunk or treat...so fun! I sewed hangers into the girls' wings so they would stay open, and I must say, it made the look even better.

In this game one little one throws small pumpkins over their head while someone else catches it with the cauldron. It was way more dangerous than it looks...Kate and I were a team and I ended up catching a pumpkin with my nose! Those things were hard! Luckily, no black eyes.

Hit the cans with the beanie babies and win a prize!

Mommy (still seeing stars) and her girls!

Halloween part 3&4

When we finally got to Halloween for real, I was a bit worn out, but the girls were still full of excitement. Papa took the girls for a little tick or treating around our neighborhood.

Lily decided that she wanted to be a ballerina because she "had already been a butterfly," and fortunately we had all she needed. It was a little chilly, so Elise was just bundled up, not that she cared about not having a costume.

"Are they getting something for me?"

After regular trick-or-treating, we went to Bethel Temple for trunk or treating because Drew had our car in the event. Here is how he looked! Besides the Lamborghini, his set-up was the coolest

Elise enjoyed the food...

while the girls loved the inflatables. It was a really good time, and since the girls had more fun playing than trunk or treating, we didn't come home with very much candy!

Fall Festival 2011

October dawned with the annual Westside Fall Festival. The weather was gorgeous and my sister and brother-in-law were in town for the festivities, making for a fabulous week.

Kate and Lily had a great time this year, especially with the cotton candy!

Grandma Eva was great to the kids and got them some tickets for the rides. I think the giant slide was the hands-down favorite for everyone

The family in front of the monster ear booth. We had PLENTY of these. I wish everyone could have the chance to come down and experience the fall festival, especially the monster ears! We had a wonderful time visiting with Melissa and Christopher and can't wait to see them again.

One Hungry Monster

Today I handed Elise a "cutie" orange to play with while I was getting some things done. For a few minutes I was engrossed with my routine when suddenly I heard a very cute "smack," "smack," coming from behind me. Elise was chomping on the orange, peel and all! Where there are three teeth, there is a way to eat anything!

'Why doesn't this taste very good?"

The damage, she really didn't let that peel stop her!

9 months old

September is upon us, and what a great time we have been having. The weather took an unexpected twist and we are now enjoying temperatures in the 70s. We also had Kate home an extra day from school for labor day, which made Lily so happy. These two miss each other so much during the day, it is so sweet.

Elise also had her 9 month appointment on Tuesday, surprising us with an unexpected growth spurt. She weighs in at 19 lbs 10 oz ( 64th percentile) and stretches out to 29.25 inches (93th). In June she was only in the 75th percentile for height, showing an impressive gain from 6 to 9 months. It looks like all my girls will be tall...two more and we will have quite the basketball team!

Daddy and Elise taking a nap before church.

Making some beautiful music.

Lily hard at work on her preschool craft.

Trying to entertain Elise during preschool time

Elise's new favorite position. If I hold still for more than 5 seconds, she is on my leg, bouncing up and down and begging to be held, it is nice to be so loved!

The end of August!

August has been a fun and busy month: school, birthdays, milestones, lots of things going on! Hopefully September will be just as fun, but with much cooler temperatures.

Last Friday, Kate's school had a Family Fun night with inflatables, food, and a book fair. We had a great time.

Kate and Lily were very excited to get a balloon animal, they are so easy to please!

I also worked part of the night as a parent volunteer by supervising one of the inflatables. It proved to be a very interesting two hours. I called one boy a girl right to his face, which was mortifying, but the funny thing about it was his reaction, he acted like it had happened before, which made me feel better. Cut your hair kid!!!!! I also thought two girls were boys, which would have been even more disastrous if said out loud. Parents, make sure your children aren't gender neutral or look like the opposite sex when they go out! Geez...

Elise turns 9 months old tomorrow and is such a cutie pie! She races around and is into everything...I love this stage. When she grins you can see her two little bottom teeth sticking out, its priceless!

Playing

Elise is starting to get so big! She will now sit and play with toys that she finds, and it is so fun to watch her explore. She has so many more things to play with then Kate and Lily did, so this time around it is so different than the other two. Elise played with this doll forever, touching its face and "kissing" it.

She worked so hard to get into the box, and ended up not liking sitting on all the toys inside!