Check out my new wheels! It's a 2004 Toyota Sienna! I LOVE it!!!!!

More Christmas Pictures...

Here's a few more Christmas pictures. It was cold and wet and rainy today so I'll take a picture of my new wheels tomorrow when the rain lets up!!

The girls loved these umbrellas from my mom! We went to the park today (in the rain) and they wanted to bring them. I had a hard time explaining why that wouldn't work...

Lani made this purse for Caitlin. Lately she's been really big into bringing her own church bag to church, and she's excited this one will be able to fit so much stuff! She's been toting all her presents around in it, and told me this was her favorite present to open!

The girls got out their nail polish from my sister Emily unauthorized!! Fortunately, I could smell what they were up to before any disasters occurred and got them to the table to finish. Their nails (really, their whole last knuckle on) look interesting to say the least!

(Leticia, note what Caitlin's wearing...she wore it ALL day yesterday and put it on again first thing this morning!)

Opening presents...

Merry Christmas!

I'm sure you all had a great Christmas, as did we! We had a lot of fun with our quiet little Christmas, here's a rundown of the events:

Christmas eve, the highlights being the traditional clam chowder (Caitlin cleaned her bowl and asked for more!!) and a little presentation of the nativity. They took turns being Mary (so we had to do it twice, of course!) and Rod was the (half-asleep) donkey. They liked leading him to the stable...

Christmas morning the girls woke up around 8, and Rod started things off with a wonderful French Toast breakfast for us all!

I love Letitica's tradition of having her kids make stuff for each other, so we've adopted that. This year I helped them make tie-fleece pillows for each other. This project was totally at Caitlin's level, she loved tying them all, but I'll admit Lizzie basically just wrapped Caitlin's when I finished...

Then came the present-opening! We all took turns opening presents, and it was fun to see the girls get excited about what everyone was getting, not just them. They liked watching daddy open the 8-pack of Dr. Pepper cans they decorated for him!

Snow Days!!

So yesterday I took a bunch of pictures of the snow we've had here all week. (Seriously, NO school or church since last Sunday! Yes, we're all going a little stir-crazy.) Then we woke up this morning and I had to take new pictures - there's twice as much snow and it is STILL snowing!! We have about 4 inches of powder covered by a 3/4 inch layer of ice and now 4-5 inches of powder on top of that. Here's a couple "Before" & "After" pictures.

And here's some pictures of the kids - they loved "stepping" (as Talia called it) and breaking through the ice yesterday. Scott said it felt like he was Godzilla. I think the biggest piece of ice we picked up was 2 x 2.5 feet! The kids loved to karate punch/kick the ice & break it.

It snowed here! It snowed around town earlier in the week, with some places getting 5-ish inches and it sticking. We're one of the lowest parts of town, so we didn't see snow then- but yesterday we did! It snowed for awhile and flurries stuck for a little bit, until it rained that night. I bundled up the girls and sent them out as fast as I could! They loved it for about about 15 minutes, then they were freezing. Little desert weenies.

Anyway, the funny part is that today was a snow day for the schools! And it was blue skies and sunny- no snow on our part of town whatsoever, though in other places there were a few inches of snow. But really, a snow day for a few inches??

Demonstrating the true craziness of the weather, Monday the girls picked the corn they planted a few months ago (and they got to eat it for dinner!). It was just little 4" or so corn, but it was fun watching them husk it and be so excited about cooking and eating it. So Monday was harvest, Wednesday was snow. Seriously, how often can you take a picture of freshly harvested corn in front of a Christmas tree?

This is pet attempt #2....two baby bunnies! A friend in the ward's 3 bunnies turned into 10....with another litter on the way! My friend THINKS they're both males, hopefully they're both the same, whatever they are! I will take them to a vet and just have them tell me for sure in a few months. I really, really don't want to end up with millions of rabbits! They will just be outside rabbits, in the summer we'll have to rig something up for them to survive. But I'm hoping they'll be low-maintence, fun pets for the kiddos.

Tonight when Rod got home from work we worked on the ol' Christmas Family picture. This one of the girls is cute....

It's definately better than this one...

After we finished the Christmas photo, we went to get a tree. Rod was going to just bring one home on his way home from work, but he had to hurry home before it got dark so we could have our photo shoot. Then we went all together to get the tree. I'm glad we did. The girls had a blast, and the tree place was really fun for them. There were lights all around, a huge fake snowman, and they loved looking at all the trees.Rod & Lizzie

Caitlin hanging on the fence at the tree lot....

Anyway, that's the first week back of Christmas preps! We decorated inside, and it's starting to feel a little more like Christmas. The leaves on our trees are again covering the grass, and I actually had to wear long sleeves today. I even got to wear a scarf tonight at the tree farm!!

We had a great time in California for Thanksgiving. It was a full house- all my siblings and all the grandkids. It was a lot of fun! We ate and ate, Rod got to go see Bond with my brother-in-law, he relented to see Twilight with me, and we enjoyed the cooler weather. The girls loved seeing their cousins, my parent's dog (who I think they view as an uncle), and of course, grandma and grandpa. We had a lot of fun!

Recent Pictures of Lynnea

Here are some pictures of Lynnea from this fall. See how cute she's getting?!!!!!

Thanksgiving at the Lake

Hi Everyone! Here are some of the pictures from Thanksgiving at the Lake. Most of us arrived Thursday afternoon for a Thanksgiving dinner. Then on Friday, Michelle & Henry, Gordon & Marcy & Laura, Will & Sarah, and Sheree came too and we had a big dinner at Diane's and had the family gift exchange.

The boys went mountain biking Friday, but I'll have to let dad post those pictures. The weekend was full of family, fun, and good food!