Christmas Saved!

Every time Carolyn goes to see Santa or someone asks her what she wants for Christmas, she always gives the same response: she wants a princess necklace where you can change the pictures. She saw this necklace a little over a month ago at the Dollar Store and it has evidently stuck in her brain. We just love our sweet little girl - can you get any more easy to please? We'd only have to spend a buck on her and she'd be perfectly happy on Christmas. I went to the Dollar Store to buy the necklace a couple of weeks ago and was so devastated when I found that the store didn't have any in! I felt so bad! My little girl wants a simple dollar toy and I can't get it for her! I kept going back to store to only find the same thing - no necklace! Anyways, I went to the store last night for the third time in the past week and a half and they had some necklaces in!! Yeah! I was so excited! Christmas is saved! Carolyn will get her little dollar necklace she dreams about!

Christmas Dresses

The girls looked so beautiful in their little dresses before leaving church on Sunday so I wanted to take pictures of them. Angela was mad when the camera came out, so the pics didn't turn out like I imagined...but you can still see my little beauties in their dresses :)

Carolyn playing with her "Mrs. Claus" hat...and showing the nativity...she loves talking about the story of Christmas.
Angela in her little dress:
She didn't want anything to do with the camera, so I took a pic of her playing with one of our Christmas Countdowns.
As you know, height doesn't run in the family. Being short is something I have always loved. One of the many advantages? I still wear clothes from as far back as 5th grade. Yup. And we don't have to buy new Christmas dresses every year :) Carolyn can get away with wearing her one from last year :)


I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL Christmas!!!

Christmas Cookies...and such

We love sugar cookies over here and find ourselves making them for just about every big holiday! They are so fun to make and delicious to eat!

Angela did such a great job icing cookies for the first few min, but then she discovered that eating the frosting was much better than putting it on the cookie :) Carolyn did a fantastic job at decorating!! She's such a good helper!
If you came into my home right now and looked at the tree, you may think we are a little odd...only the top half of the tree is decorated. You may be able to guess why! I have a little cute one-year-old that loves taking ornaments off of the tree and hiding them in her special spots around the house :) For the first few days, I kept putting all of them back on the tree...but eventually gave up...now we only have half of a tree decorated!

I think I might not be the only one with this problem! I got this picture off of Michelle's (my sister) blog. It makes me laugh so hard out loud every time I see it! Look at the guilt on this little boy's face! Caught in the act!! Haha! I love Coooper :)

These are some more pics I stole off of my sister's blog. Here are some more pictures from our fun in Utah:

Grandpa and the grandkids:
Angela just loves Cooper!

Fun Uncle Richy with the kids...
Being back in Utah was wonderful...but also a little bitter sweet for me. I love living here and wouldn't want it any other way, but I really do miss a lot about living in Utah....For instance, nothing can replace how I use to be able to hang out with my sister, Michelle, everyday. We'd get together everyday during the week (usually we'd find ourselves hanging out multiple times in one day). Luckily, we are on the same cell phone plan so we still talk all of the time on the phone - major blessing in my life! I don't know what I would do without those phone conversations...I don't make a decision without her consent! Just kidding...but she probably feels that way!

Carolyn feels the same way about Michelle's cutie, Jaxon...she misses him so much and was so excited to reunite with her buddy:
Carolyn and Jax posed like this all on their own.
I was going to go out to Utah for a couple of weeks during some of Andrew's busy season, but the trip was so hard on Angela! Before we left for Utah, she was taking 3-4 hour naps everyday and sleeping perfectly at night! Well, on the trip the poor little girl really struggled sleeping in a new place...and even now, 2 weeks after the vacation, her sleeping is still really messed up. She has a hard time taking naps and sleeping at night! Hopefully with time, our little sweetie will start to go back to the good little sleeper she used to be. I'm sad that this means that I won't be going out there any time soon! Angela (and me!) just can't take it! But we are so excited that we will have vistors coming to us and hopefully it won't seem too long until we make it back out there!

Emergency Supply of Laundry Detergent: Check!

My lovely friend, Lisa, introduced me to an amazing novelty: Homemade Laundry Detergent. There are only 3 inexpensive ingredients that you need to make it…so, if you want to have something to wash your clothes with in your emergency supply – just buy these three inexpensive ingredients and, if there were to be an emergency, you’d be set to wash your clothes!

My sister, Michelle, wanted me to post more details about making the detergent on the blog. Basically, you can find everything you need to know here. The only thing that might be hard is knowing where to find the stuff…so here is where I got my stuff:
Fels Naptha Soap: I couldn’t find this type of soap so I used the second choice (Zote)). I found it at Walmart in the Laundry Aisle for less than a dollar. I think that I’ll use Zote every time because it is really easy to grate! (I hear Fels Naptha takes a lot of time to grate…

Washing Soda: Not found at Walmart – it was at my local grocery store (King Soopers) for about $4…the most expensive item. It was in the Laundry Aisle.

Borax Powder: It was at Walmart – I think it was around $2.

For the Washing Soda and Borax you only use 1 c. of each item for a year's supply so that will last a few years…and as far as the soap goes…I doubled the recipe so I used 2/3 of the bar...I will have to spend a buck next year for my detergent - but that's it.

My sister also wanted me to post pics:

I actually do use my cheese grater to grate the soap.... Boiling the ingredients together:
I put my detergent in a 5 gallon bucket (I doubled the recipe)...my friend, Lisa, made the detergent back in June in a 5 gallon bucket and still has half of it left...

O Christmas Tree!

This weekend was a BLAST!! After my Christmas Enrichment Activity on Saturday, Andrew worked hard getting Christmas lights on our house. After that, we picked out our Christmas tree!

Girls gearing up to pick out the tree:

We go to the same place Andrew went while growing up to get our tree. On Saturday, a special visitor was at the store :)

Picking out the perfect tree...

On the way home from getting the tree, Andrew had to drop by his office to get something. Carolyn really wanted to go see Daddy's office! Andrew said Carolyn had a hard time leaving the office - she had so much fun seeing where he goes 5 times a week :) I took this picture as Daddy and Carolyn walked away to go to work (I hung out with sleeping Angela in the car).

Andrew's family always flocked their Christmas trees when he was growing up and he wanted to keep that tradition going. We didn't put a lot of effort into finding it, but we had a hard time finding a flock machine...so we just sprayed the Christmas tree this year and called it good :)

We are going to decorate the tree tonight for our FHE activity!

I already talked about this on my preschool blog, but this weekend, I also made our "Preschool Corner" in our home! It's obviously nothing fancy, but it's so fun having an official place where the girls and I learn together :)

Both girls have a special designated place in the corner where they display their beautiful artwork...they love it! And so do I! (Thanks, Michelle, for telling me about "Fun-Tak." You can buy the tak at walmart--the tak holds a lot of stuff...it doesn't damage the wall and it's reusable! Great stuff!)

Gobble! Gobble!

We had such an amazing Thanksgiving! We got to spend about a week and a half in Utah! It was so fun seeing everyone!

Here is Carolyn and Angela reuniting with Jax (and Cooper!...he's just not in the pics) at Grandma and Grandpa's house: Watching "The Fox and the Hound"...grandparents always have the best movies to watch :)
At the BYU basketball game with Andrew's family :) The girls did SO well during the game - they had a fun time looking out for Cosmo...
Trying to figure out what is going on....
We ate a delicious Thanksgiving meal at Andrew's parents' house! Here is Carolyn and Chantal working hard on the pies :)
Enjoying the feast!
The day after Thanksgiving, my brother (Johnny) and his wife (Kisa) had an open house (they got married in October). It was such a beautiful reception! My aunts did an AMAZING job at making a perfect Christmasy open house! It was at This is the Place in SLC...the reception was in a beautiful home there...everything looked so cozy and wonderful! (I LOVE Angela's smile in this picture...I really do feel like I have the best life)....
Grandpa and Angela:
My best attempt at getting a picture of the girls together :)
Carolyn's gorgeous curls! (I tried getting a pic of Angela's curls but she was too fast at running away from me :)
The place of the reception had a wonderful train ride we took! We rode around "This is the Place" and looked at fun Christmas lights! There were lots of fun stops along the way (i.e. see a live manger scene, live reindeer, etc....since it was so late we only had time for one stop...we chose to see Santa!! :)
Michelley and Richy with Michelle's cute boys :)


Carolyn with Santa! Angela wanted nothing to do with him :)
A few days after the reception, Nana took the girls to see Santa again :) When we went the girls were the only people there so Santa spent A LOT of time talking to them! It was really special! He even sang a few songs with them! It was a GREAT moment in Carolyn's life (again, Angela wanted nothing to do with him).
I love the mall in Provo because they have a fun train ride you can take after seeing Santa. I didn't get pictures of them riding in it, but I did get some of them playing in the mall :)
I love this girl. Nothing but coat and shoes.
While in Provo, we had to hit the museums! First, we went to the Bean Museum. Of course, the entire time Angela took good care of her baby doll. She has a great system of how she wraps it in a blanket. It always makes me laugh....
Carolyn and Daddy "kissing" a frog....
Angela and Nana getting brave to touch the froggie...
Carolyn loves her Ponka.
Angela and Nana....



I couldn't believe how big the elephant was!
Second, we went to the Dinosaur Museum...

My sister (Andrea) with Carolyn...Carolyn obviously loves her aunty...