It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Christmas festivities are here and we're having a blast!!

Decorating the tree with Grandma

My cute little ornaments

The 4 babies at the Rusts.  It was FREEZING and we bailed out of seeing the lights at Temple Square... so we played Minute to Win It games. 

Here's Chelsey shaking it!

And mom!

Dad trying to cut down the Christmas tree

Aaron testing his flexibility

And me looking ridiculous trying to eat a cookie off my forehead. 

15 of the 17 cousins.  Cute!!

Seeing Santa at the Riverwoods.  Van told Santa what he wants for Christmas - an iPad.  Santa told him that in his shop they make iPads out of wood, but he'll see what he can do.  :)

On a horse-drawn carriage ride.  Aaron calls this my pirate headband. He hates it.  Which means I love to wear it.  :)

Van got to ride up front on the carriage ride.  I distracted Em the whole time so we wouldn't have jealous tears flowing. 

Van learning some carpentry at "A Night in Bethlehem"

Em working some dough at "A Night in Bethlehem".  And Van picking his nose.

sitting on the window sill at a Bell Choir sing along.  fun!

November Lovelies

November was great!!  We did so many fun things and really enjoyed some amazing weather, too!

We found out the kids are pretty awesome at raking leaves.  We spent hours raking the leaves in Grandma and Grandpa's awesome yard!

And maybe having leaf fights too....

Oh, and eating tomatoes whole off the ground. 

This is how Van eats pears - everything but the stem.  Cute kid. 

A bit of hiking in rock canyon with mom. 

We had some fun with mommy school.  Here's Van smiling with his mini volcanoes. 

Here's Em with our bubble snakes.

Van couldn't quite figure these out... and then he sucked in instead of blowing.  Dishsoap down the windpipe = the end of bubble snakes.  We'll try this one again when they are older. 

Here are the kids playing in the sink with the raft we built from a piece of cardboard, some duct tape and 2 water bottles.

We went bowling!!  We'd never been bowling as a family (are you surprised?  bowling is kind of expensive... and we are the cheapest people EVER.  often to our disadvantage.  ha.).  It was so fun!!

Emery's new weird picture face!

Mommy loves bowling. 

And the winner of both games - VAN!!!  Go buddy!

We had an awesome snow day in November, too.  Here are the kids ready to go play!  (I might get the bad mom award, but they both wanted to go play so bad I let them both go out even though they both had fevers.  Oops.  So worth it.  They had so much fun!!)

Grandma, Van and Ashton heading down the hill.

Van riding on Crazy Uncle Taylor's back.  This kid is a totally FEARLESS sledder!!  We were all cracking up at him.  He wasn't afraid of anything and kept walking back up the hill by himself time after time after time.  That's my boy!

Thanksgiving - Ranch Style

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  You're surprised?  Then you clearly have no idea what a foodie I am.  I really should be an obvious choice if you know me at all.  :)

I love my family's Thanksgiving (hands down the best food you've ever had, a lovely table, center pieces, lazy afternoon after we eat) but I've really learned to love Thanksgiving with Aaron's family every other year as well.  Picture this - 80+ people (we've had over 100) in a barn in Fillmore, the best meat you've ever eaten (turkey, ham and brisket - yes, brisket - that tastes like butter and melts in your mouth), a 30 foot long table of dessert, a hay maze, a hayride and this year even a bouncy slide and rifle shooting.  It really is a blast and we love Aaron's family!)

Emery's face when we pulled up and saw all of the horses.

Uncle Craig and Aunt Donna - so fun to have them join us!

Love that handsome face

Cute baby and silly Uncle Ammon

Goin' on a hay ride

6 months of LOVE

Okay people.  I'm so obsessed with this baby.  She's just so sugary sweet.  And edibly cute.  Rolls AND cottage cheese on her tummy.  Seriously.  OBSESSED.

I don't know if it's just that now that I've done this 3 times now so I'm more relaxed or just that she's so easy and fun to have around, but I just LOVE this baby.  I ENJOY her so much.  I spent far too much of the day just STARING at her and making her SMILE.  Which, by the way, completely MELTS me into the floor.

She's really starting to be a little person.  It's so fun!  She loves our time in the dark when I'm getting her ready for bed.  She just kicks and wiggles and smiles from ear to ear as we play and get her jammies on.  When she gets excited she flaps her arms like she's going to fly away.  She loves to play peakaboo when I put her in her crib for naps.  She gives kisses and snuggles.  She laughs and laughs - the hardest at Emery and Van.  And....

She adores her daddy - stares at him like she never wants to look away.

She thinks food that doesn't come from mommy is a bad idea after about 3 bites. 

She sits up.

She sits up in a cart like a big girl - at least for a few minutes.

She's free and clear of torticollis (tight neck muscles on one side) and her plagiocephaly (flat/crooked head) should finish correcting itself on it's own!  She almost got a helmet for Christmas.  Here she is with James the Magic Head Fixed (aka her physical therapist). 

And she has the cutest ears in the world.  They aren't nearly as cute on her mom as they are on my little elf!

And a few more stats... she's over 16 lbs (75%) and 90% for height.  No teeth (Em and Van both had a few at 6 months).  And she's slept through the night most of the last week.  Thank goodness because this mama was becoming a nut case.  :)