Practice Makes Perfect!

I am trying to clear off the memory card on my camera for Christmas and I found this video. It is from back in Sept. when the girls were preparing for their October violin recital. My favorite part is when Madi says, "Get ready Saige!" That is so typical of her.
They have been taking lessons for almost 8 months now and I can't believe how fast they are learning. Even from this video until now I can't believe how much they have improved. It won't be long before they pass me.

Merry Christmas

Well, we are almost ready to load up the minivan and make the trek to Utah for Christmas so I just wanted to wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS. We are so excited that we are able to go home this year. Christmas just isn't Christmas without snow and being around family. Here are a few random pictures.

I decided to wash the pads on the girls' carseats before we go. They found them hanging to dry and decided to try them on! The are so GOOFY sometimes!

These pictures are from our Ward party. Seeing Santa here is SO MUCH better than waiting in line at the mall.

This year Saige wants (with the help of her sister telling her what she wants!) a Jewelery Maker.

Madi wants a crayon maker.

This is what happens when you store your Christmas candles in the garage in Bakersfield.
Lesson learned.
(My favorite scent: Christmas Trimmings)

Not going to try

I am not even going to try to play catch-up. It has been too long.
I have had a hard time keeping up with the blog for several reasons. The main two being that we have had bronchitis and pneumonia for the last 6 weeks at our house. It has been miserable but I think (fingers crossed) we are better now. Saige and Brett never got it and we sure hope they don't.
The other reason is that I loved when I opened my blog and saw that video of Chance helping Saige on the monkey bars. He is gone now. He has been in the MTC a month now and we really miss him. It probably won't really hit me until we go home again and he is not there. We are so excited to have him get to Chile so that we can hear all about it. The pictures are random-sorry!
While in Utah, we were able to go to Hansen's baby blessing. We usually miss out on things like that so we were so excited to be there. He is such a cute little guy!

We had an awesome Halloween party in Midway! Thanks everyone for making it so fun.

Then we went to Circleville to say goodbye.

Helping Chance pack.

A visit from Bigfoot!

Whippin' up some yummy cookies with Grandma

Riding Buster & Brownie


This is one of my favorite pictures of my Grandma. She would kill me if she knew I put this on here. She is making carrot cookies (a family favorite) and I made her stick the beater in her mouth for a pic!

A countdown poster that I made because I couldn't find one to buy that I liked. There sure are a lot of empty circles on there (730 to be exact).

We missed Disneyland because of our sickness. But, we did go to Build-A-Bear and made horses and we were told it was the best birthday EVER!
I CAN'T believe they are 5. So Sad :(
Thanksgiving was GREAT. My parents came down and we had so much fun. We had a BIG dinner that took me 3 days to cook. The best part of it was the egg nog that my mom made. It is my favorite drink EVER. Not the stuff from the store-YUCK. Definitely not the same!
We went to see the Christmas Carol. It was such a cute movie (although, beware with young kids-it is scarry!). Dad helped us hang our Christmas lights and put the girls b-ball hoop together-THANKS DAD!
Then we watched The Santa Clause at the Hubble Theater (our awesome neighbors down the street who have an in-home movie theater).

Last night for FHE we went and got a tree (at a lot-not the mountains. It is NOT the same). We had fun decorating it and then we ate leftover Cold Stone ice cream b-day cake.
I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!