Christmas

 Christmas morning!  The kids got up at 6:30 am.  We made them stay in bed until 7 am since Lily wasn't awake yet.  We got Devin and Barb up and ran downstairs so we could see the kids reaction.  Lily is at the top of the stairs with her blanket.  She isn't quite awake yet.

 Jennifer just spotted her pony.  She has been asking for a pony all year.  Santa brought her a life-size pony to play with.

 Eric got a Lego Minecraft game.  He was so excited.  I don't know what is the obsession about Lego Minecraft, but he can't seem to get enough of it.

 Aubrey's big present is her American Girl doll.  To say she loves it is an understatement.  She hasn't let her doll leave her side.  Today she's (the doll) been in 5 different outfits.

 Lily was more interested in candy than her presents.  For the majority of the time she sat on the stairs eating skittles.

 She wanted her turn on the pony.

 Guess who got makeup for Christmas?

 

 This is Zac's Christmas present to me.  He secretly took all my St. George Marathon race stuff and had our neighbor across the street (who is a retired framer) create this beautiful shadow box for me.  The background is suede.  It turned out so good!  I was so shocked to see it.  Each of the pictures inside the shadow box are individually framed.  He made the box so I could take it apart and pull out different pieces as I need them.

Zac made us a delicious french toast breakfast, and we had ham and funeral potatoes for lunch.  Yum.  It was a perfect Christmas.

Christmas Eve

 Zac's family had their annual Christmas Eve party.  This year we went over to Cory and Colette's house.  We had most of the family there.  We had a great time.  The kids were so excited to see Santa.

 

 Lily loved Santa.  She ran right up to him.  I thought she would be scared or shy.  It takes a little bit of warming up before she will go to people.  But she couldn't wait to sit on his lap.

 All the cousins.

The kids opened up their pajamas before bed.  I could not get a "normal" pose out of them.  We probably took 8 pictures and these were the closest to normal.

 Jennifer is cracking me up a lot lately.  She does so many random things.

Eric earns his Bear

 Eric earned his Bear in Cub Scouts this month.  At Pack meeting they had the Air Force ROTC from BYU come and do the flag ceremony and color guard.  Eric loved every minute of it and wasn't afraid to tell everyone about his soldier Uncle Matt with the Air Force.

I'm so proud of Eric for working so hard and earning his Bear.  He doesn't turn 10 until the end of May, so he really works hard to earn it sooner than his birthday.

Christmas Tree

 We got a live Christmas tree this year.  Within 10 minutes of having the tree up, our cat climbed up to the top and tipped the entire tree over, spilling water everywhere. 

 Jennifer was so excited to put the star on the top.

 I love the smell of Christmas trees.  The kids had a great time decorating.

Uh...did I mention we got in on Thanksgiving morning?  Yes, yes we did.  We got it at Smith's grocery and Zac was able to pick out the largest tree.  Later on that day, we drove by and they only had 2 Charlie Brown looking trees left.  Zac thought I was crazy when I sent him out in the morning until he saw what was left.

Penny

Penny is our newest addition.  We got her on Veteran's Day.  The kids love her.  She is 5 years old and already house trained.  We haven't had one accident yet, and she has become friends with our cat.

The kids (Aubrey) loves to dress Penny up.  Eric and Aubrey take turns giving Penny walks around the block.  She is definitely a lap dog.  Not hyper at all.

 An Agent that I work with had Penny. His sister is a dancer in NYC and had to give Penny away.  He took her in, but soon discovered that his son and wife are horribly allergic to dogs.  I have wanted a dog since I got married, but Zac isn't really a dog person.  This dog is perfect.  Already house-trained, came "fixed" with all her shots, out of the "puppy stage," and he gave us all of her stuff (bed, toys, food, etc).  She is a funny dog.  She will randomly lick your leg once as she walks past you, and keep on walking.  She can do 5 tricks, and the kids love practicing them with her.

All I want for Christmas...

is my 2 front teeth.

(With Eric photo bombing.)

Random Pics

Zac likes to take pictures of the kids and sends them to me while I am away for work.  I went to South Carolina for a week in November, and to Washington D.C. for a week in December.  I am an instructor again with a national group where I teach asset forfeiture.  Exciting, I know.  But it does require me to travel more than usual.  So here are some random pics Zac took for me:

 

 

 

 

Mustang

 Here are some interior pics of Zac's mustang.  The upholstery guy is almost finished with it.  It is really starting to come together!

 

 

Earrings

Aubrey and her friend Katelyn got their ears pierced in November.  Katelyn turned 8 years old, and wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday.  These 2 girls have been best friends since they were 1 year.

 Katelyn wanted to go first since it was her birthday.  She was very scared.  She was shaking and crying crocodile tears.  Aubrey kept on telling her to be brave, and that she would go first.  It took about a 1/2 hour to convince her to get them done.  They told her they would say, "1, 2, 3, earring." and pierce the ear on "earring."  She screamed when they said earring.  Afterwards I asked Aubrey how she thought Katelyn's ears looked.  She said, "They look beautiful, but I'm not going to get mine done."  What?  Aubrey was being so brave during Katelyn's turn.  Aubrey didn't cry.  She was very matter of fact when she said it.  She told me she could "Wait a year or two." She said that I lied, that it does hurt because Katelyn screamed.  I told her it hurts like a shot, not that it didn't hurt at all.  I lifted her in the chair and was holding her there while the lady was cleaning the gun.  I then had the thought, "at what point is this considered child abuse?"  I know she wants them done, and is scared, but if anyone were to walk by, they would think I was the meanest parent in the world. 

As soon as she brought out the earrings, Aubrey calmed down.  She was good while they marked her ears.  When it was time to pierce her ears though, she needed to squeeze both of my hands and close her eyes.

Afterwards we went out for lunch and dessert to celebrate.  Once they were finished piercing her ears, Aubrey started laughing saying that it didn't hurt that bad.

Time Out for Women / Halloween

Since I've been without a blog for awhile, I am a little behind.  I found some pictures on our camera of Halloween and Time Out for Women.

I went to the SLC Time Out for Women this year with Diane, Amy, Becky, Heidi and Bobby.  We had a wonderful time.  We went to both Friday evening and Saturday to the conference.  We spent the night at Dad's house and left together in the morning.  There were a lot of inspiring talks.  I was really excited to see the authors/chefs of "Our Best Bites."  I have both of their cookbooks and follow their blog daily.  Unfortunately, during their talk, an elderly woman fainted in front of us.  I ran to the back to grab some medical help and missed their entire talk.  (The woman was okay, she just stood up too fast.)

After the conference ended on Saturday, we headed up to Bountiful and ate at the Mandarin.  It was so good!  I've heard about this restaurant for a long time now, but have never eaten there.  It was a great weekend and look forward to next year.  St. George?  Logan?  Idaho Falls?  Phoenix? SLC? We shall see.

 The Monday night before Halloween we had all the kids carve their pumpkins.  These are pumpkins that we grew this year out of our garden.  Lily drew a "scary" face on hers.  She was quite proud.

 Eric is excited that we are letting him carve his own this year.

 Zac assisted Jennifer in the carving of her pumpkin.

 And Aubrey with the other pumpkins.

 She had a Halloween concert at school that night.  Here she is acting silly.  They sang a lot of Halloween songs. 

 Here are the costumes this year.  Jennifer is a bunny, Lily a cat/witch (this is one of those times where you pick your battles), Aubrey wanted to go as Cleopatra, and Eric wanted to be a ninja.