Christmas Eve Pajamas

Every year I get the kids pajamas that they get to open on Christmas Eve.  The pajamas I got for the boys this year, weren't exactly what I thought they were.  I was not aware that they were TIGHT fitting pj's :)  The boys were very excited to put on their new STRETCHY PANTS,  They actually had quite a lot of fun entertaining me in their new pj's.  I asked Logan if he still liked them even though they weren't loose like I thought, and he said, "Heck yes!!!  I'm Thing One and he's Thing Two!!!  These Rock!!!"  It's the little things in life that entertain us :)

PRE-Christmas Activities

So we had lots of fun getting into the Christmas spirit this year. 

 We went to the temple as a family.  It was so nice to see the lights, nativities, and of course watch 

Luke 2.  It was a wee bit cold, but we survived, and then went to Organ Stop Pizza to warm up and fill up.  Good times.

We did a little Christmas caroling, too.  The rain kind of ruined our annual Christmas caroling hayride, but we improvised and the girls sang their little hearts out to Grandma Weathersby.

I love the pic below.  Riley's arm is outstretched as she hits the climax of the song!

So cute.

We were so excited Bree stopped by with her cute little family for some hot chocolate!  I love how they all color coordinate their outfits when they go out.

Then we had the McMurdie's annual adult Christmas dinner.  It was lots of fun and we had lots of yummy food.  This is Daddy and Ava, relaxing on the couch after dinner, because their bellies were to full to do much else.

And finally, we went to our annual Christmas Eve party at the Townsend's.  We had so much fun being together with friends and family.

Dinner was super yummy!

Everyone looked super beautiful!

Especially you, Stevie.

My dad once again cheated on the white elephant gift exchange.

Ava kept herself entertained in whatever way necessary.

Overall, it was a BUSY Christmas season filled with lots of fun and always looked forward to events!  Can't wait till next year!!!

Gracie's Dance Show

Gracie danced in her Christmas dance show for the studio.  She was in two dances and did AWESOME!!!  This is seriously Aaron's FAVORITE event of the year!  He LOVES sitting and watching little girls dance for a couple of hours on his Saturday!  Isn't he wonderful and supportive?!?

Doesn't she look so cute with all her makeup???  

I think I definitely achieved the street walker look I was going for.

Gracie did FABULOUS on both of her dances!!!  She is so talented and I just love watching her progress and work hard. 

SUPA PERFORMANCE, BUBBY!!!

Christmas Concert

Logan, Colton and Gracie all had a Christmas concert that they sang in for school.  The school has a concert every year, but this year was different.  This was Gracie's first year in it.  The boys always wine about how stupid it is and why do they have to do it.  This year I had Gracie, who needed curls, glitter and lip gloss, and then I caught her in front of the mirror practicing her songs.  When she saw me watching, she very seriously told me she needed to see what she looked like singing with her glitter and lip gloss.  She then informed me that she really needed a little eye shadow, too.  

That's my girl. 

Nothing could have made me happier to hear.  So we of course went back into the bathroom and added a little eye shadow.  She did, after all, need to look perfect for the BIG SHOW.  

Ugh, I love girly girls!!!

Ava and Krista playing together

Logan was there, too.  He was just too busy with his friends to take a picture with mom :)

This was me giving my sister a thank you kiss for coming.

She's SO "in your bubble" sometimes!

Reading Rocks!!!

Gracie was given an award this morning at the school's morning assembly.  It was for 'Great Improvement In Reading'  Gracie's teacher, who is so wonderful, told me that in the beginning of the school year when she tested Gracie in reading, Gracie read 8 words in the alloted time frame.  When her teacher gave her the same test a couple of weeks ago, Gracie read 89 words in that same amount of time.  Gracie's teacher said she's never seen a student make such a drastic improvement in reading like that.

Apparently she wasn't aware that Pookie is BRILLIANT!!!

Way To Go, Baby!!!

Here's Ava snug as a bug, in her stroller, while the rest of us were freezing out in the cold.  I kept peeking in at her and she kept giving me the cutest little smiles every time I did. 

 Ava's so proud of her super duper awesome reading big sister!!!

Random Pictures

These are some random pictures that I never got around to blogging.  

These next two pictures are of when Julia entrusted me to watch her precious two year old.  I have never been so tired in all my life.  She is a very BUSY little girl.

This was the SECOND time I untangled a comb from her hair.  Then after getting her out of my makeup like 20 times, I decided if you can't beat'em join'em, so we played makeup.  It was a very busy morning!

Colton and Ava taking a Sunday nap together.  It's hard to see, but Ava has her hand on Colton's chin, just holding it to make sure he's still there.  So sweet.

This picture of Gracie was in between conference sessions.  We played dress up and had a photo shoot.  This was one of her pic's from our shoot that day.

This is pretty much what Ava does while I get the kids breakfast and make their lunches before school every morning.

This is a cute picture of all the kids in my parents trailer at the beach two summers ago.  I can't wait for this summer!  We are staying at the beach for a month this summer!  I'm making up for no vacations this last summer :)

Logan and Ava.  I love her cute little smile looking down at him.

Gracie and Mommy snuggling before bed.

My Little Cowgirl

Little Ava decided it was high time she saddled up.  

Actually, Papa and Daddy were like, "Ava's 6 months old, and she's never been on the horse!  This is craziness!  Get her out here now!  She must learn to ride right now!  Right now!!!  What kind of mother doesn't teach her baby to ride a horse by 6 months of age!  Craziness!!!" 

Or, at least they said something like that.

Daddy's so proud

FYI

Papa is holding Ava on the other side of the horse.  Didn't want everyone freaking out on my comments about me leaving my baby on top of a horse unsupervised.  Simmer down everyone, she's just fine.

Apparently she didn't enjoy my dad shoving her face directly into the horses nostrils.

Hmmm, I have no idea why she wouldn't have liked that.  Hopefully she grows out of that weird faze.

And here's Papa, giving Ava a plethera of kisses, while she just patiently sits there and lets him.

Whew, that was a full day of horsey stuff, huh Beans

Date With The Trail Boss

Howdy ya'll!!!  Welp, yesterday I went on a date with the hottest trail boss ever!!!

My cowboy decided to take me for a horse ride.  

YEE HAW!!!

Doesn't he look super H-O-T in his shnazzy new birthday chaps!

This here was a double date

(I was informed that this WASN'T a date, just friends riding horses together, but it's my blog so I can call it whatever I want)

Krista bunkered down on Moe.

Here we have cowboy Taylor ridin ol Dunny.  

Giddy Up!!!

Here I am on Roxy Girl.

The trail boss took us on the old Rusty Angel Trail.  It was pretty rough terrain.  I wish I had me a good pair of chaps for the ride.  Oh well, I'm a pretty tough chic, I mean cowgirl.

This is Roxy and I have a pretty awesome heart to heart.  Wow, she's quite an amazing horse.  Apparently, she feels quite unappreciated for all the wonderful horse things she does.  She really feels like all the boys that ride her, just don't understand how hard she really works to keep her stall clean, and keep her body in good shape.  It's way hard work!  

Those boys should really appreciate her more!  I feel for you, girl!!!

This was pretty much my view for the whole trip.  Well, I could have looked around more, but why, when I had such an awesome view right in front of me :)

Nice rear end!!!

I MEANT the one on top.

Thanks for the fun date, pardner!!!

What Looks Wrong With This Picture???

Ava fell asleep in her clothes the other night, so when she got up in the middle of the night I proceeded to change her diaper and put her pajamas on.  The next morning I scooped her out of bed and we rushed down to get our adjustments.  While we were waiting I went to change her clothes and diaper, and this is what I saw.  Her body is laying perfectly flat, both legs are side by side.  I was so confused at first, then I realized when I dressed her in the middle of the night, I had twisted the pajamas and put her legs in the wrong holes.  Woopsie.  I guess I'll use a light when I change her from now on.

Love you, Beans!

Dance Show

Our Christmas Dance Show Rocked!!!

I teach two little dance classes and today was our first Christmas dance show!  It was so great!  

My girls did AWESOME!!!  

We even had a couple of guest appearances!  Taryn 

played a supa dupa piano solo, and Gracie sang two fabuloso songs for everyones enjoyment.  

Thanks ladies :)

The show really went so great, I wasn't even stressed

 about the fact I had a craft show the night before and 

no husband for like............................um, well, a long time. 

 (ok, maybe I was a little stressed)  

But it was all good, everything went smoothly 

because I had lots of helpers.  

So here's a little shout out to all my helpers!

WHOOP WHOOP!!!

Overall, our first Christmas dance show was definitely a success!  Here's some pictures from the big event.

Way to go girls!!!