Happy 4th Birthday, Izzy!

I can't believe that Izzy celebrated her fourth birthday a few weeks ago. Seems like just yesterday she was a wee baby. She had a wonderful princess party and we had so much fun! We all dressed up in our royal best for the grand affair. I helped Heather with the flowers and logistics of the cake, but couldn't help her the day before because I had to work-- I'd say she did an AMAZING job. She definitely created every little girls dream cake and party. Happy Birthday, Izzy!  We love you!
Addy even wore her tiara from Disneyland that Nana got her!


The royal family-- Liam was the very handsome prince!


The amazing cake and the beautiful birthday princess:






Addy found her new best friend, Papa, because he fed her cake. She stuck to him like glue. :D

Happy New Year!

We had a really fun New Year's Eve. Initially I was supposed to work, but ended up having the day off due to low census, so that was a nice surprise! We had a low-key wonderful day! Wes BBQ'd ribs, Liam and I made cherry coke float cupcakes, and Wes and I went to the movies and saw "New Year's Eve." I think we were in bed by 11pm, but ya know, it was still a nice end to our year. :D

We rocked our new aprons we got for Christmas.






mmmm

Spaghetti!

This was the first time we let Addy go all out and feed herself spaghetti. Little hambone. Think she liked it?

Mentos Geyser!

Santa brought Liam a Mentos geyser kit in his stocking. What you do, is attach this little clear tube to the top of a liter of diet soda. You put a couple of mentos in the clear tube, pull the pin out to drop the mentos into the soda and then run! Here is what happens (it actually went higher than our house!):




Cool, right? We had SO much fun doing this that we ended up taking a liter over and putting on a show for GG and Grandpa-great. Our first little attempt ended up being a flop, but it was still fun. Addy even really enjoyed watching, screaming and giggling from her swing. :)

Christmas Day

We were excited to be the hosts of Christmas Day 'brunch' this year. However, because Christmas day was on a Sunday, we had a later in the day get together. Liam and Wes sang a beautiful duet in Sacrament meeting to "There was Starlight on the Hillside" and Nana and Papa, and GG and Grandpa-Great were able to join us. It was very special and they did an amazing job-- we are still getting compliments about it. Here are some pre-church photos:






The rest of the day was filled with lots of fun too. Izzy had asked Santa for 'lip paint' and became Liam's make-up artist. GG was shocked to get the angels that Aunt Linda had made years ago framed from my mom. One of my favorite gifts was a nurse smoker from Germany that my Aunt Pam got me. It's soooo cute and I just LOVE it.








And I just loved this photo of Papa reading on his new kindle and Liam playing his new game on his Leapster.


We hope everyone had as blessed of a Christmas as we did.

Liam Quote

Liam is constantly making us laugh and I wanted to jot this down before I forget. On Christmas Eve when we were tracking Santa on Norad, I told Liam, "Hey, look, Santa's in Greenland"  To which he replied, "Hey, it's my favorite color land AND it's a compound word! Cool!"

I didn't even know he knew what a compound word was. haha.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

We really had the most wonderful Christmas morning. Liam woke up at about 5am I think. He went down to Nana and Papa until we woke up. We had to wake up Miss Addy.  Anyway, you can imagine what excitement there was around here!  Liam got the Rumbling Gold Mine he had asked for from Santa. Addy got a Little People tree house, Daddy got shoes that Mommy doesn't care for that he REALLLLY wanted (he was very surprised) as well as new pots and pans and Mommy got a Schwinn! Nana got a new printer and Papa got a Kindle fire. I'd say Santa was veryyyy good to us this year!











We made Papa some scrapbook layouts of Wes's antelope hunting adventure and Liam learning to shoot with Papa.





Trying out Liam's new karate helmet.

Our sweet neighbor, Mr. Price, makes gorgeous bird houses.  We got one for my mom and my sister this year, and the Prices gave us one as well. They really are spectacular pieces of art and so neat!



She almost got lost in all the wrapping!



Time to play!

Addy looooves to cook in her new Minnie pots and pans from Mom and Dad

Stockings are always saved for last at our house-- and they are always so much fun!  My boys always get new ties from Santa in their stockings and lots of other good stuff!



One of my favorite gifts was the baker's twine in EVERY color. I *love* it!  (yes, this is the crafting dork in me).

See all the pretty colors?

I had to take my new Schwinn for a spin. It rides pretty swell. I *love* it.




We really had a LOT of fun and are so thankful for such an abundant Christmas!