Building a Snowman

With our first big snow storm this year Tyler and Emma built their first snow man together.
She thought this was the neatest thing in the whole world!

A White Christmas Day!

We had a busy yet wonderful Christmas. I am going to have to do something about the busyness, but I might have been super tired because I'm pregnant, I dunno. But it was a long day. We were really grateful for 4 wheel drive as we tried to get around in all the snow! What a white Christmas!
Here are a few pictures of our Christmas morning. Emma was so excited. She woke up at 8am and called from her crib. "Get Presents!!" She remembered. So fun! She pulled us to the living room to open them.

BEFORE

Her pretty dress ups! See Daddy in the back with her pink camera!

Sleeping Beauty jacket - or as she calls it Sleeping Loody!

Her Snap n' Style Doll! She can put the clothes on by herself! Mom is excited about that! :)

Here she is! What a happy Christmas Morning!

AFTER
(That is the recycling pile :)

Christmas Eve at the Groves

We celebrated Christmas Eve with the Groves family.

Emma loves her cousins; Rulon and Peyton.

Here is Peyton getting into the Christmas Tree.

Emma tickling Rulon

Rulon getting back at Emma and tickling her!

PJ's from Grandma and Grandpa Groves! She loves them.

Santa also visited us that night. When Emma was sitting on his lap telling him what she wanted for Christmas, she looked over at us and said "Hims Trevor!" :0) It was Trevor all dressed up. But I think it just confused her. Because she said "goodbye Santa" and talked about him all night. I don't think it even sunk in. :) I got it all on video, but the file is too big to post on here. :(

Emma's Christmas Dress

Here is our Pretty Princess. She LOVES her Christmas Dress. It "twirls" you know! :)
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Making Christmas Gifts

I made a lot of jewelry for Christmas gifts this year...
I also always had a little helper.
I will let the pictures describe themselves - thanks Tyler for photo documenting this. :)
Let's just say a lot of time and work went all over the floor.

Singing to Baby Jesus

So I caught Emma singing, "Once upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping "Loody" according to Emma) to Baby Jesus and Mary the other day. We have been trying really hard to teach her the real meaning of Christmas and she loves to play with the Nativity scenes. I hope it means that she loves Baby Jesus to sing him her favorite song! So cute!

Santa

Our Ward Christmas Party was last night.
We had the BEST Santa there. Emma was so scared to talk to him, even though she really wanted to. Santa just talked to her while she sat on Daddy's knee and then asked her what she wanted and asked for a high five and a hug and she promptly gave him one and we quickly took a shot of her on Santa's lap! Now she isn't so scared of him. Even waved to him goodbye! Yea!
The other side of the story is we were preping her before we left on Santa being there and telling her that he will ask her want she wanted for Christmas. We hadn't even asked her that. "Hey Emma what DO you want for Christmas?" "Humm...let me think...I want candy, toys and a camera!" says Emma. "YES!" says Mom quietly, becuase she did get her a camera, knowing she would L-O-V-E it! :)

Our Christmas Tree

Emma sure loved putting up our Christmas Tree! I wasn't feeling very good so I was really grateful for the help - especially when she put all her ornaments on one branch. :)
She sure is proud of her work though! :)

My winter Garden

It is December 10th - just a titch of snow and it has been so mild and unseasonably warm....
I went to my garden while Emma was swinging and I found my spinach is still growing and thriving! I had no idea. There was even some flowers still blooming on my rock flowers. WEIRD!

The Swing Set

So, I have been wanting a swing set all summer. Emma loves them. She was constantly over at the neighbors all summer (whether they were there or not) to play on their swing sets. It's a great entertainer. Then you say, "Why don't you get one?" Well, one word. Tyler. :)
Tyler is a little obsessed, a perfectionst, and a hard worker, when it comes to his yard. I do believe he got it from his dad. (Love ya Kevin!) And I am very grateful for it, but in this situation it does have it's drawback. So he has flat out refused to get one. ("Do you know what those things will do to my grass? They are pain!")
Well, a couple of weeks ago, a cute lady up the street asked us if we wanted one. Her grandkids don't use it anymore and she wanted to get rid of it. So I told her my dilema with Tyler but I would let her know. I went up and checked it out and it was a nice swing set and even had that swing teeter totter on it that Emma loves. I told Tyler what had happened and told him not to make a decision right now and to keep an open mind. But this summer when I have a baby and Emma I am going to need that kind of an outlet. I told him I wanted to give it a try and if he didn't like it I would compromise and we would get rid of it. And I left him alone to think about it for about a week. I was really proud of myself for not making him feel guilty or anything. :) Well, just one time I did. :) Well, to my surprise he went and got it from our neighbor on Saturday while I was Christmas shopping. I was so surprised to see it in the backyard when I got home. I didn't think he would give in! I was all smiles as I got into the house and he just looked at me and said. "I hate it." But we have it! :) We'll see what happens this summer, but for now we have a swing set! Emma LOVES it! We went outside when the sun hit the backyard today and swung on it. She went from one swing to the next to the next. She had to try them all out! It's going to be fun. Just pray that the fun will last. :)

Look at that smiling, happy, beautiful girl! How could you take this swing set away from her! :)