bellagio conservatory

every year we head to the bellagio to gaze in wonder at the amazing winter wonderland display of polar bears made out of carnations, reindeer crafted out of pecans, snowmen created out of carnations and poinsettias in such abundance, it's hard to believe they are all real! they use natural, organic supplies whenever possible, and it's amazing to look at each detail and figure out what was used...seeds, beans, plants, etc. so creative and breathtaking!

mia's class christmas party

thanks to my mama watching george for a few hours, i FINALLY got to help out in mia's class for her christmas party! they did a rotating party where the kids went to other kindergarten classrooms to learn about different culture's holiday traditions (hanukkah, holland wooden shoes and mexican poinsettias). mia's teacher, miss whisler, taught about the mexican poinsettia tradition. we had so much fun learning about the poinsettia legend and making a really pretty "stained glass" poinsettia ornament. miss whisler also surprised each student with a thoughtfully chosen christmas present...a book to practice reading over the christmas break (mia zipped right through hers as she is already reading at a 3rd grade level!!!)

thirty-two

on december 10th, my dad and i celebrated our birthdays...yes, we share a birthday! my cousin, clint, and i also share the same birthday (same year in fact), but he lives in another state, so as of yet we have never been able to party together (one of these days we will, though!). i had a great birthday filled with lots of calls, texts, emails and drop-ins, which was wonderful {thank you so much!}. i feel so lucky to have such amazing friends and family. on the 11th, we celebrated as a family by going to claim jumper and then back to my house for some birthday cherry oat squares...my favorite!

my grandma jo is 100 today!

today is my grandma jo's 100th birthday! isn't that amazing? she is such an incredible lady...one who i daily strive to pattern my life after. yesterday she was a guest on cbs radio out of washington d.c. in celebration of the century that she has spent on this earth. i am posting her interview on my blog in case some of my relatives weren't able to listen {it's about 25 minutes long.} i laughed and cried through the whole interview. i love this woman, and i think of her daily!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDMA!!!

let there be light!

on saturday we finished putting up our christmas lights. the kids {LOVE} the blow-ups in the front yard. tonight we went to look at the gift of lights display at sunset park while sipping hot apple cider and hot cocoa. it really got us in the holiday spirit. when we got home and saw our house all lit up mia said, "mom, you can run in the house and get your camera to take pictures of us with the blow-ups." so i did :).

so you think you can dance!

i am {obsessed} with 'so you think you can dance.' if there is anything in the world that i'd love to be it would be a dancer, but i was not blessed with that talent to say the least...i trip over my own feet most days. it is my guilty pleasure each week to curl up on the couch and watch these amazing dance routines. mia and george enjoy it too. russ bought me tickets to the 'so you think you can dance' tour for my birthday (which isn't until next month). my mom decided it would be fun to take my sister and mia too. so the 5 of us all went. we didn't sit together, though, because russ and i got our tickets several weeks before my mom bought the other tickets. i would have loved to sit by mia just to see her reactions to all the different things. it was an amazing performance!!! other than the lame commentary between each number, i enjoyed every second! mia absolutely loved staying up late. i have to give props to my wonderful husband for taking me to this when the utes were playing their biggest football game of the season at the exact same time. it's a good thing we have a dvr! he's the best!

all grown up!

mia decided she was ready to get her ears pierced. for about 3 days she kept asking me if we could go. finally last thursday i took her...i can't believe how much my baby is growing up!!! i think she looks so beautiful...

halloween

so far every year the kids have chosen costumes that go together...i wonder how long this will last! i imagine at some point george will choose to be something scary and gruesome, and i'm not sure mia will be too excited about coordinating with him. we had a great halloween carving pumpkins for hours (the kids only lasted about 45 minutes due to boredom) and trick-or-treating. my parents came over to share in the halloween fun. we passed out over 300 pieces of candy, and ran out! our neighborhood is pretty dang fun during the holidays.

our neighborhood friends that we went trick-or-treating with...

the HAPPIEST place on earth!

we FINALLY did it! we took our kids to disneyland! there are some people who have told me it is criminal that we have waited this long, but i think we waited the perfect amount of time. we met up with my good friend, sam, and her beautiful daughters, abby and sydney. our kids loved having other little people to pal around with, and i loved spending the day with my dear friend. sam had a pass that allowed us to essentially cut everyone in line for all the rides, which was awesome. we estimate that we got to go on twice as many rides because of it. we rode 12 rides in all...pretty good for 8 hours in the park. for the halloween season, the villains were out in mass numbers, which was kind of fun. we saw the witch and the queen from snow white as well as jaffar from aladdin. many of the regular disney characters were also dressed up in spooky costumes. it was one of the best days ever...we're already planning our next trip!

mia and abby with spooky goofy

the classic photo

we didn't ride mr. toad's wild ride but we got a picture in the car

these girls are so darling

i LOVE abby's face in this picture!

george worked hard for several minutes trying to get this sword out!

mia was so excited for this ride!

george was terrified of this ride!

{he did think it was a blast once it started}

me and sammi

every kid loves to knock on this door! they each needed a turn...

i skipped this ride...i didn't want to risk being sick the rest of the day. the kids, however, LOVED it! i think it was one of george's favorites!

there was TONS of nightmare before christmas stuff out. the whole haunted mansion was this theme. i REALLY wanted to go in, but the kids told us 'no way!'

sammi took sydney and george on the winnie the pooh ride and to meet the winnie the pooh characters while we went on splash mountain. i think she got the best shots of george!

i don't know if you can see mia's face in this picture, but it is awesome! we just had to buy the photo!

after the SPLASH! {she loved it by the way}

russ's sister, melinda, sent the kids money to buy mickey and minnie ears. they looked so cute wearing them around!

we tried getting a picture in front of this famous spot as we entered the park, but there was a marching band blocking it. luckily we got to get a picture just as we were leaving the park.