On the 4th & last day of Christmas...(whew!)

Our last day of Christmas was opening a BIG box of gifts from grandma who couldn't be with us on at Christmastime. Thank you so much for the sweet gifts- as you can tell from the pics the girls LOVE the gifts & have a blast with them. Thank you again!

On the 3rd day of Christmas...

We went over to Lance's aunt's house to spend our Christmas time with his family. We had a yummy dinner, gift swap, the kids decorated cookies & Ellie basked in the attention from the older girls!

Eliana had to check out all of the gifts in the adult's gift swap!

Decorating cookies

On the 2nd day of Christmas...

It took a few years but I've learned! I didn't wrap any of Eliana's gifts & had them all out of the package & ready to play! For Sami- everything was wrapped but also out of package & ready to play. When the girls came downstairs- Sami saw the opened toys & got so excited; she told Lance, "He came!" Sami's excitement was contagious in Eliana & it really made Christmas so much fun this year!

What the girls saw as they came downstairs



This was their favorite gift! Thanks to my brother, Chris, for helping us clean this up & get it ready! As you can see Ellie is all about driving & Sami more about getting her babies settled; she does enjoy riding in it though! My the personalities that are emerging!

Our advent calendar contains ornaments of the nativity & each day we put our wiseman or shepherd on this special tree. Here Eliana is putting our last ornament, baby Jesus on our tree.

On the 1st day of Christmas....

On the 23rd the boys (dad, my brother & Lance) took Sami to an Avalanch game. At the game they met Adam Foote!

On Christmas Eve we spent the day with my folks & younger brother. We had a BIG lunch, went to Christmas Eve service then shared gifts.

Sami just put out the reindeer food for Santa's reindeer.

Ellie LOVES her whistle!

Samantha showing off her watch, necklace & guitar (BIG hit!)

Even papa got in on the princess guitar action!

Me & my girls!

Happy Holidays!

* Halloween

Sami's gymnastics class dressed up for Halloween-the girls got into a fight because they were all princesses & apparently that is not allowed!

Lance took the girl's trick-or-treating to our neighbors house. After this another neighbor filled his trailor with haybales & took Sami & I along with a few other neigbors around trick-or-treating. It was a great idea!

Teaching the girls about pomegranates! They LOVED them!

* Thanksgiving

Samantha helped me make turkeys for friends & a bake sale.


Eliana fell head first off the couch. Check out her nice egg.

* Christmas

Samantha made this for Lance & I in Awanas. Cute idea!

Christmas tree shopping!

* Snow!

We've had quite the winter storm around here. The girls were so excited to play in the snow- it lasted until the first faceplant! I think Lance & I had more fun than they did!
Ready for the snow


Snow angels




Our snowman, Frosty

And we're done!

Pumpkin Time!!

I love this time of year, mostly because I love pumpkin! Here's some pics of our pumpkin time: our HOA Fall Festival, a local festival & carving Jack-o-lanterns with daddy.

Sami loves coloring, especially with marker on pumpkins! (Mommy loves the free pie pumpkins!)

Ellie enjoys playing with the 'baby pumpkins'



The local festival had plenty of things to keep the girls' attentions.



Airbrushed tattoos! Sami got a fairy.

Eliana got a ladybug.

Coloring more pumpkins!

I love Ellie's face here!



Crazy hair day at AWANAs. Sami wouldn't let me take a pic of her hair.



Carving pumpkins at home with daddy.



"But daddy I want to do the saw!"