Christmas lights...

I love Christmas lights, especially the lights at Temple Square. For years, I have tried to convince Steve that we need to wrap lights on our tree just like temple square. He hasn't complied. Not that I blame him, it takes a lot of time to wrap each individual branch, but, oh, the beauty! Anyway, we went for a drive to look at all the lights and Brityn tells me, "Mom, I have good lookers, because I see all the Christmas lights!"

Easy Bake treats...

For Christmas Kendyl got an Easy Bake oven and has been making us sweet treats all week.

She loves being able to 'cook' all by herself.

Brityn can't wait to help and be old enough to get an oven for herself, yikes!


Chocolate chip waffle...it was surprisingly good. :)


We all got a bite!

Here's the yummy chocolate donut with sprinkles...good job cooking Kendyl and good job sharing girls!

Christmas Day...

Lucky for us, the girls didn't wake up until just before 9am! Ryder did wake up about 7am, but fell back asleep. It sure was nice to sleep in! :)

Kendyl was feeling good and ready to open presents!

Ryder found the tag on his new shirt. :)


Santa brought exactly what Brityn asked for...a scooter! She zipped up and down the hallway all day with a big grin!

A fun game for our family to play on our lovely new grass.

Steve thought it would be funny to give Ryder the orange juice container for Christmas, since that is what he wants every morning...and he was happy!

Santa also brought us some snow boogie boards so we can go have some fun in the snow!

Brityn and her favorite cheetah print. The smile and excitement on her face is just priceless.

Suzie and Ryder having fun opening presents.

Kendyl was so excited to get some High School Musical clothes, she went upstairs and changed right into them! Santa also brought her what she asked for...a two-wheel scooter.

Everyone's happy!

Ryder was totally into his first Christmas. He was happy to just sit and play in the chaos. He ripped open paper (and then tried to eat it) and once he saw there were toys inside, he got even more excited. He has been so happy playing with his new toys.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve...

It seems like every holiday or track break, Kendyl has managed to get sick and this Christmas was no exception. She started throwing up on Tuesday and once more on Christmas Eve. Needless to say we stayed home so she could rest and get better and also to not spread any sick germs.

Poor Kendyl was feeling better, though she had not eaten much, but was still so excited for Christmas Eve festivities.


The rest of us had a nice dinner and let the kids open their traditional one gift on Christmas Eve. They all decided to open gifts from Aunt Margaret and Uncle Dono...thanks for the fun magnetic dress-ups and books!

Ryder was even excited to be allowed to rip open his present...finally!

The meaning of Christmas...

Kendyl: Mom, what's the meaning of Christmas?
Me: What do you think it means?
Kendyl: It's when we celebrate Jesus' birth. Mom, someone needs to tell Shrek.



We had recently watched Shrek the Halls where, while very cute, they skirt around the meaning of Christmas as being time for family and friends. Yes, someone needs to tell Shrek, and everyone else who sets aside the true meaning of Christmas...to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

Tooth fairy before Santa...

Kendyl's been working on her top left front tooth for some time now. She finally convinced Steve it was time to pull it out--she's not one to wait and let it happen all by itself.


She's a great patient and was very happy to show me the results of her visit to the office.


All ready for Santa!

Happy Anniversary...

1 smart, good-looking guy: $
1 cute, talented girl: $
1 wedding: $$$
2 semesters at BYU with 2 graduations: $$
1 move to Chicago: $
4 years of dental school with 1 doctorate: $$$$$$$$$$
1 move to California: $
1 dental practice: $$$$$
1 construction of new home: $$$$$
1 baby girl: $$
1 move to Las Vegas: $
1 purchase of home: $$$$$
1 more baby girl: $$
1 start-up of dental practice: $$$$$$$
1 baby boy: $$
our life together: priceless

Snow...what snow?

It snowed at our house for the first time, in the four years we've lived here, on Wednesday. It seems like everyone got accumulation except our area of town. Seriously, they closed roads and canceled flights and canceled school across the district.



Visible snowflakes were falling, enough for the girls to run around and try to catch some on their tongues, enough for Kendyl to scoop some off the slide and make a snowball...and that was pretty much it!


Brityn hung back out of range from the lone snowball, but loved watching the snowflakes come down.

Everyone got a snow day on Thursday, except that it dawned bright and sunny with no snow in sight! Brityn still had her Christmas party at preschool and then we had lunch with Daddy and then spent some time at the park.

A fun day even without the snow!

Santa...

Here's how the visit with Santa went over this year...

The girls were very excited waiting in line for their turn.

Kendyl has never seemed to mind sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what she wants for Christmas...she just has to decide what it is she wants!


Oh, Brityn! She does not like anyone dressed up in any kind of costume--she screamed at every character we met at Disneyland this summer. :) I was anticipating this, so I had her write a letter to Santa and all she had to do was hand it to him. Yes, wishful thinking on my part...she wouldn't go near him!


Here is Santa reading Brityn's letter while she stood a safe distance away. She was very excited once we were all done about Santa reading her letter.

Ryder did just fine with Santa this year. I'm sure next year will be a different story!

Christmas Thief...

This is how our front door looked a couple of weeks ago...

This is how it looks now...

The extension cords are still there. I guess someone needed two Christmas trees more than we did.

Gingerbread house...

I went to the grocery store and as we were walking past aisles Brityn spotted a display of gingerbread house kits. Of course I'd already bought one, but there sitting in the front is the super-duper-deluxe-extra-special-fancy Disney Princess build your own gingerbread castle kit! Automatically comes the insistence that we must have one. Uh, sorry, we already have one, maybe next year. Luckily Princess Aurora grows up in a cottage in the glen and Snow White lives in a cottage with the seven dwarfs, oh, and Belle lives in a house with her father...

Step 1: Assemble


Step 2: Decorate

Step 3: Decorate some more

Step 4: Decorate until all frosting and candies are on the house!

Elfed Ourselves...

There's no better way to share a little holiday cheer then with a song and a dance. Steve got a kick out of doing this and the girls loved seeing themselves as elves. They can't believe Ryder can already dance.

It was so much fun that we (Steve) had to do it again...and again...and again...and (you get the idea).

Decorating the tree...

One year I wanted to decorate our Christmas tree with all "natural" ornaments and garland...you know, like stringing popcorn and cranberries, dried fruit and cinnamon sticks and hanging gingerbread cookies. We were in dental school at the time and I thought, maybe we can save some money by making our own decorations, right? Our tree was so pretty that year--I loved it! I decided that we were going to do this every year and make it our tradition.

Yes, well, good intentions only last so long and I was good for a couple of years. But, can I just tell you that it is SO HARD to string popcorn?!? They fall apart when you a push a needle through them and it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to string enough together to make a decently long strand. Plus, the wonderful smell of fresh cut Christmas tree gets drowned out, by the popcorn aroma. :) So we stopped stringing popcorn.

Cranberries are easier to string, but it takes way too many to circle around your tree, and are too expensive to just watch them dry on your tree for the next few weeks. So I bought some red beads instead.

Dried fruit is good, but it loses its smell and cinnamon sticks were hard to find and expensive as well. Which means, I no longer did them either. So, that has left us with gingerbread cookies...the lone survivor.

We have faithfully made gingerbread cookies to hang on our tree every year since. They smell yummy, but they aren't very tasty, so they make a very good choice to hang on the tree. (I am not tempted to eat any!)


Kendyl and Brityn love cutting the shapes in the dough.


And hanging them on the tree.


One must always reach as high as you can...

And wear your Christmas pajamas while doing it...

And look cute...

We gave a cookie to Ryder, so he'd feel included, and so we could see what he would do with it...

Hmmmmm...

Let's see how this tastes...yes, straight in his mouth!

Another tradition we have is that we sleep by the tree once it is all decorated. Just for one night, we leave the lights on and enjoy the ambience of the Christmas tree and let it lull us to sleep.


Sweet dreams.