December Festivities

I was invited to attend a really neat workshop the other day. This San Diego, California temple picture cost me a fraction of the price they charge for them on Deseretbook.com and I put it together myself! I learned a lot that day and was grateful for the experience. Also, Adam and I just had our 9 year wedding anniversary on December 27th, and this was my gift to him. Now we just need to find a place to hang it in our teeny apartment. :)

We have had the BEST sunrise and sunsets this year.....so pretty!

This one was the sunrise when getting ready for school.

We made 10 tea-towels with the girls' hand prints on either side and then I painted their names next to the prints. This was our Christmas gift to our family members this year. Thank you to my friend Anne for the idea. It was a fun project.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful and thoughtful husband. It really is a blessing to be married to my best friend. We have a great time together! Here we are at our friend's house where they made him a cake and we all sang to him. It was a good day.

This was a really fun weekend for all!

Enjoying lunch in the Captain's Headquaters that date back from the 1890's. Go U.S. Air Force!

Our sell-out tree. So pretty though.

They love to get dressed up and have their picture taken. Funny girls.

Char was a pro with Santa this year. It took her a while to stutter out what she wanted (sometimes it takes her a while to get to a point) but it was sweet. Also, this was the day Char got her hair cut (see story below). I LOVE her new haircut.

This was at the ward Christmas party that I DRAGGED Adam to......will he ever want to make friends or go out? I am glad we push eachother to be better people and get out of our comfort zones every once in a while. We work as a good team.

He and I enjoyed seeing Char in the Primary's Live-Nativity scene. They sang a few songs too....it was so adorable. What a good memory for us to have.

The girls got their Christmas present early this year.....a NEW bed. And it is a bunk-bed no less. These beds are so roomy and cozy. We are very pleased with our purchase from American Furniture Warehouse. We know these beds will last a long time and come in handy.

See the long hair? It is so beautiful and takes a while to grow out but we know that some little girl will be honored to wear a wig made out of this, so......Charlotte decided to donate it for her second time to "Locks of Love." She was so gracious to give up her hair. She didn't cry or anything. What a neat little girl.

Thanksgiving with the Fam.

Grandma and Grandpa Erickson's new house is quite the comfortable set up for the kiddos...

They climb...
They have their own playroom

A nice big deck to play on...

And they give us regular performances or "shows" on the piano.

Adam always keeps himself busy helping out his parents...what a handy guy.

Fun with cousins at Thanksgiving!

Workin hard or hardly workin'?

The Turkey Trot

Can we eat yet?

A lot of good food, family, friends and fun. We were very Thankful for many things this year.

Baby Caleb likes cold potatoes

They had some friends to play with the whole weekend too.

This was her getting ready for Grandma's house.

This is a pretty familiar face from the little one....always wanting to do what older sister can do. She gets a bit upset when things don't work out that way.

October Festivities

That is a tatoo of a scar on her neck. Yuck.

We got a huge snow storm already and temperatures dropped about 30 degrees in the matter of one day.
The pumpkin looks like Grandpa Hughes with the crooked smile. :) So funny.

Tradition. Yum & fun.

These girls are so much fun. They just had a great weekend full of Halloween parties and a visit from their Aunt Ginger!!!! It felt like Christmas this weekend with all the parties, candy, cooking and the visit from my sister. I am so glad she had an extra plane ticket that she "had" to use before it expired. We were so spoiled to see her. :)

Primary Program 2011

Favorite Sunday. I was blessed with the calling of Primary Choirister just a few months ago and am pleased to announce that the childrens hardwork paid off today. It was our Primary Program for 2011. All the kids did a wonderful job—especially my little Char who loved talking into the microphone. There were many people that said they could hear and understand each word in every song too. (Yay!) The kiddos and I worked a lot on diction and the dynamics in the songs. I was very pleased with how well they followed my lead. They brought such a great spirit to our meeting today too. After sacrament meeting, we met in the primary room to decorate cookies—I stole that idea from a blog that I had read—and we sang a few wiggle songs, took this photo and the Primary President read all the nice comments that members of the congregation wrote for the children (we had passed out comment cards with the ward bulletin). It was a great day! What a fun experience for us all.

Good luck to Adam next week....he serves in the Young Men's program and they are in charge of next Sunday's sacrament meeting. Hope it goes better than last year—one of their kids refused to talk. :/ Maybe I need to make cookies again for the Young Men in order to "bribe" them—like we did to the children. :)

A Webkins, Play-Doh, an R.C. car, books, dolls, and more...what a fun birthday!

After an hour of jumping in the bouncy houses, they were ready for pizza and cake.

Tangled theme.

Helping me with the birthday cake.

I cannot get enough of beautiful sunsets. We love our view.

It was our last weekend at the cabin....I am not ready for the season change. Where does summer go?

Love this quote.....

I came upon this quote while exploring on lds.org:

“There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. The choice is different and unique for each mother and each family. Many are able to be 'full-time moms,' at least during the most formative years of their children’s lives, and many others would like to be. Some may have to work part- or full-time; some may work at home; some may divide their lives into periods of home and family and work. What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else.”

M. Russell Ballard, “Daughters of God,” May 2008 Ensign

I love being a Mother.....it is such a precious position to be in and I am thankful for that.

Times are Changin'

Our fun little family of four!

Adam spent time trying to get a good spot where there was a pretty background and also where the light from the sunset didn't shine in too brightly......this was the best we could find (I loved the way they turned out) but in order to get there, it took some time trouble shooting.

Finally, we were ready! So, I went to tuck in this little ones shirt just before we began to take the photos and she said, "I have to go potty." Figures....I was thrilled, can you tell?

She climbs in here and does this a lot. It is getting more and more challenging though since she is growing so fast. This last time I heard grunting and pushing, so I thought I would take a few photos since this may be one of the last occurences. :)

When her hair is wet, it is about 4 to 5 inches longer. Seriously, could her hair be ANY more curly? Lucky girl.
First day of Kindergarten! Mrs. Groshart's class, here we come!

This is her new smile.