Laura 411

What you see:

*Laura and Snow White at the Children's Museum

*A very excited four year old girl all dressed up for the occassion

*The letter that Laura wrote to Snow White

*Me in a very funny 'mad-hatter' hat

What you don't see:

*The paper chain to count down the days until Snow White came

*The couple of hours before and after that Laura and I spent on our 'date'

*The inside of the note inviting Snow White to come over to our house.

*Laura asking Snow White how she got her prince. Really.

*The other little girl in a princess dress that Laura immediately befriended.

*Laura pushing me out of the line because she can do it all by herself.

*Me almost crying because she's getting too big, I could see kindergarten morning already

Laura playing her violin Santa brought her. She has me give her violin lessons and she's always practicing scales. Of course it helps that she's always in-tune! Also here she is scrubbing off her name from the back of the door. I wondered why she was so quiet for so long. Laura also signed her name on her windowsill and Ryan's bassenette. We got all the pen off except for on the door. We'll have to repaint, she practically carved her name in!

For all the grandmas out there, here's Ryan havin' a great time jumping. I didn't get it on video but he's started jumping and then locking his legs straight to stop very abruptly. It's so funny. Also, if you listen closely you can hear Laura saying she's getting dressed up to get married, and Eden's carrying her new panties. Ah, motherhood:)

Like my mom says: it's better than therapy...

Our date for last week was a quick trip up the mountain on our snowshoes. It's amazing that this trail is about 10 minutes from our house. It was a really warm day, there were lots of deer tracks, and the company was great. Bonus: we didn't see any mountain lions. and please ignore the geeky girl, self portraits are almost always unflattering...

Ryan 411

Ryan started rice cereal a week ago, and promptly started sleeping through the night again. A lucky coincidence or correlation? I don't care, I'm just happy about it. And so is he! It took a few days, but he's decided solids are ok.

He's graduated to the exersaucer and the jumper. He loves to watch me cook in the jumper, the only problem is I'm having a hard time keeping the girls from spinning him around! Ryan's starting to get really wiggly, and trying to roll over. Also he makes every laugh with his raspberries and squeals!

While we were in Idaho for Christmas break Lesha took us all out to the ranch where she works to ride horses. The girls loved every second of it; being up high, all the cows (Eden chatted the whole time about all the momma and baby cows) and the snow. I was surprised by how brave they were, absolutely no fear. Now if only I felt that secure on a horse:)

Le also took Brent for an extended ride through the trees by the river.

Thanks Le for the great afternoon!

Christmas

This was our very first Christmas alone as a little family. I will admit I really missed my family, but it was a wonderful, relaxed day.
The girls slept in until 8:30am, and were jumping around with excitement to see what was downstairs when they woke us up. Sure enough, Santa had brought us all a few goodies. Eden loves her toddler size pony, Laura has been serenading us with her violin, and Ryan is thrilled with his exersaucer.

We spent most of the day playing with our toys and enjoying the chaos of the front room. That evening we ran a few secret errands to neighbors and visited the lights display in Layton Park. On our way home a huge blizzard hit and by the time we got back our driveway was covered with about 8 inches of snow! We were glad we were snuggled inside our little house while the wind raged outside.

Christmas Eve

Who: Our family and the Whetsels

We're so glad they live close enough to get together for holidays

When: Most of Christmas Eve

What: A big yummy ham dinner, chocolate handprint ornaments,

a few chess games, a movie for the kids, visiting and

the reinactment of the Nativity scene.

We grabbed a bunch of dressups and improvised some costumes. Lanna and Scott were Mary adn Joseph, Ryan was a chubby not-so-newborn Jesus, Laura and Makayla were the musical angels, Eden, Brent and Bradyn were present-bearing kings, and Dylan was our shepherd with a sword and shield. I was the happy narrator and camera-woman.

Next year we'll have a better script, and the angels might rehearse their song a few times before hand, but what we lacked in organization we were compensated for in happiness. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the Savior's birth.

After the Whetsels left the girls quickly got ready for bed, Laura had been an angel all day so that Santa would come:) Then we put together a plate of truffles and some milk for Santa. Laura even drew him a card with a picture of him and a reindeer so he'd know it was for him. She wrote 'Santa' all by herself. Christmas is so fun with a four year old.