christmas morning

we had a GREAT christmas morning.  happy children, happy parents...happy, happy, happy.  

the aftermath of opening presents...oi vey!

mia got the softest bathrobe.  she immediately took off her pajamas to put it on!  we tried telling her she could put it on over her pjs, but that simply would not do.

george got a racetrack from his uncle mitch.  he loves it!

my family drew names this year.  my mom drew mia's name.  she sewed her a darling cowgirl outfit and got her pink boots and a pink hat to match!  SO cute!!!  mia has already announced that she'll be wearing it all day tomorrow.

not the greatest picture, but it's all i got of mia in her cute outfit.  yeehaw!

georgie showing off a thumb puppet from uncle skaughty

this is the only picture i got off russ on christmas!  lucas gave him lost season 4, which we can't wait to watch!  we are obsessed!!!

i had this "u" made for russ for christmas.  our bishop works for yesco (young electric sign company), and he hooked me up with the most perfect gift for the biggest ute fan!  russ was SO excited!!!   i think this will be a permanent fixture in our front window.

'twas the night before christmas

two thrilled children who can hardly wait for christmas morning!  we of course read "'twas the night before christmas" before heading up to bed.

no more pull-ups!

russ and i spent the night at the mirage as a little get-away.  my parents watched the kids overnight, and that night mia decided she wanted to wear panties to bed instead of a pull-up.  she woke up completely dry!  this is her celebrating!  wahoooooo!  i'm just sorry we missed the big accomplishment.

sunday best

here are the kids in their christmas outfits all dressed up for church...

opa!

one of my family's traditions is to do "christmas around the world" each year.  we learn all about the christmas traditions of another country; we eat their traditional christmas meal, play their traditional games, sing their traditional songs etc.  this year we celebrated like the greeks!  we had a great time eating hummus, smashing plates, playing the triangle, delivering gifts to the kids at the hospital and much more.  at the end of the evening santa even made an appearance!

us at the hospital after delivering gifts to the pediatric wing

mia couldn't believe the real santa came to bring her a present!

she had no problem giving him a big squeeze!

this is as close to sitting on santa's lap as george would get!

mia showing off her new skates!

george may not have liked santa, but he had NO problem accepting a gift from him!

desert anomaly

who'd-a-thunk that we'd be experiencing a blizzard in viva las vegas!  russ is estimating that we got 6 inches of snow today!!!  all the kids in the neighborhood (and i'm sure the rest of the valley) had a blast playing in the snow.  already, though, several trees throughout the neighborhood are breaking under the weight of the snow.  i guess they aren't used to this weather either!  on the bright side, though, russ and mia made a killer snowman, AND mia gets a snow day tomorrow!  i don't know when she'll be able to say that again!  here are a few pictures from our winter wonderland.

this is one of our palm trees.  my neighbor, leslie, said that it's an alfalfa palm since it has that one frawn sticking straight up!  we've had to knock the snow off the trees 3 times in just 5 hours.

happy as can be!

our neighbor, quaney

our neighbor, samaya

our neighbors, ryan & leslie

russ feels right at home in this weather!

ta-da!

a beautiful sight

peeking

my parents took mia and george with them to their church christmas party.  this picture is of mia during the prayer!  usually when we pray she has one eye open, one arm folded and is picking at her food, which is totally something i would do (and still do every once in awhile!).  this picture is classic!  thank you, kristin, for getting the perfect shot!

double birthday

my dear old dad and i share a birthday.  this year my sister and mom thought it would be fun to go to crystal palace skating center to do some roller skating.  we had a lot of fun; however, we did have a few accidents and we think my dad perhaps got a slight concussion.  yikes...

early christmas

a year ago august, i started working on this christmas quilt for my parents.  i gave it to them early so they could enjoy it for the season.  it was a lot of work, but i really learned a lot and had fun doing it!

girls just wanna have fun

i took my first girls trip since getting married!  angela, jamie, jamie (my sis) and i headed to newport beach the 1st weekend of december.  we had so much fun talking, talking, talking, shopping, eating and relaxing.  my favorite parts were seeing twilight for the third time, sitting on the beach (my favorite thing to do in the whole world) and hanging out by the fire pit at our hotel.  it was really so good to get away for a few days and just be with my homegirls!  

riding the carousal at fashion island

angela, jamie (my sis) and me

jamie bundled up

angela couldn't resist getting her feet wet, even though the water was like 40 degrees!

it always cracks me up to take a picture with my sister because a) she and i don't look much alike and b) she is 10 times tanner than me!

thanksgiving in utah

we were in utah for 10 days over thanksgiving.  we had a great time visiting with friends and family!

russ and i were able to go to the byu-utah football game.  russ's dad hooked us up with box seats!  i get SO cold, so it was nice to be inside where it was warm.  russ was giddy with the utes' perfect season!  even though the cougars lost, i had a great time.

we spent an evening with our friends, the gordons.  caleb told mia that he is going to marry her.

george and spencer were about making themselves sick they were laughing so hard.  here i think they were laughing about poop.  what's funnier than that?!?

me and my pal, jessica.  i love her to death and wish she still lived in vegas.  

mia and george LOVED the leaves!  we raked up some nice leaf piles to jump in.

this is me and my friend, olivia.  i seriously love this girl.  olivia was one of the young women when we lived in utah 6 1/2 years ago...now she's all grown up!!!  time has flown SO fast!  

george, eliza and mia posing by the christmas tree, which mia and george helped decorate.

grandma dolores bought the kids these cute jammies.

the kids sure love their grandparents!

halloween

the kids love the cartoon "maggie and the ferocious beast," so we thought it'd be fun for them to dress up as them for halloween.  of course mia was maggie, and george was the ferocious beast.

when eliza was here before we left for hawaii, we put the kids in their costumes so we could get a picture of them together.

costume parade at mia's preschool

mia and her teacher, miss janie

my brother, skaught, loves halloween more than any other holiday.  we went to his house in the afternoon to show him our costumes and see what he had cooked up for the trick-or-treaters in his neighborhood.  he had this creepy clown mask to wear to pass out candy.  the kids thought it was hilarious!  i thought it was freaky.  i talked to skaught the day after halloween, and he said he had 1,000 or more trick-or-treaters!!!  he had to go to the store 4 times to get more candy!

george, mia, mylee and kai

we have a tradition of having a chili dinner at the koelliker's home every halloween.  we've been doing it since i was a toddler!  they graciously had us over again this year, and we had a great time!  malia has kids the same age and gender as our kids, so it's really fun for them too!

the kids posed with grandma and papa before we headed out to load up on candy!

george was getting tired of walking, so we got the wagon.  papa steve was making dirtbike sounds and poppin' wheelies!  i think they had more fun doing this than trick-or-treating!