Santa

The kids were able to sit on Santa's lap at our ward Christmas party.  They both told him they want a puppy.  Bailee was scared and didn't want to.  I had been preparing my talk for Grandpa's funeral and getting funeral errands done most of the day so I wasn't in a very festive mood and we really only stayed long enough to get pictures.

Tradition

Since Blair got married it has become our family tradition to all attend a temple session together and then go out to dinner after.  It is something we all look forward to each year and really cherish the memories.  Especially this year as we have been reminded of the importance of eternal families.  We sure are lucky to have the family we have!

Prime Christmas

This year for Matt's work party it was decided that it would be adult-only.  Our kids love it when we get a babysitter.  It doesn't happen often, but we have two cute neighbor girls that they just adore. Prime parties are always full of fun conversation and games so it was a very enjoyable night. Especially since we didn't have to chase kids around and remind them to be quiet.  Life is good when your coworkers are your friends!  When we got home, this is how we found the kids... all sound asleep in Brooke's bed.  That is quite the feat, our kids rarely go to bed for babysitters.  And my house was all clean!  I love good babysitters!!

Weekend in Salt Lake

We had several parties last weekend in Salt Lake, so we got a hotel and spent the whole weekend down there.  First stop was at Grandpa's rehab center in Bountiful, where the very important Christmas party ended up being the not-so-Christmas-party-only Jardine's.  We were the only ones there of all the rehab patients, but it sure was fun for all of us to be together.

Next, was a birthday party for Cole's friend at Discovery Gateway.  We used to go there all the time when we lived in Salt Lake, but haven't been for years.  The kids didn't remember much of it and had a blast playing.  Elsa and Anna came to visit the party and Cole could care less, but Bailee was so excited... even if she was a little nervous.

Last, we went to see the lights at temple square and then on to the hotel to swim.  The weather was beautiful and so warm and we all had such a great time.  We are excited for Christmas to get here!

Bailee is 4

Bailee was pretty excited for her birthday this year.  She told us for months that she wanted a barbie dream house.  Her birthday was the day after Thanksgiving this year, so we went to dinner at Fred's, per her request.  Then we had cake and ice cream and opened presents at our house house.  She was so excited about her house and all her new barbies.

Bailee at 4:
Learning to write her name in preschool
Loves barbies
Still naps most days -- even if it is at 5:00
Loves dance
Still sleeps with night night and sucks her thumb, we are working on limiting this to bedtime (obviously she's the baby)
Mommy's girl
Finally goes to primary willingly (most the time)
Eats cheese bagels for lunch almost everyday
Loves "cow" aka cottage cheese

Halloween

Carving pumpkins

With all the excitement of moving, we were a little late carving pumpkins this year, but the kids had a blast.

Pizza and Painting

We finally bought a house!  Yay!  We have been thinking about it for a while and since our contract was going to be up on our rental in November we decided it would be a good time.  We had debated buying our rental, and the owners really wanted us to, but in the end we decided that we really needed something bigger.  We knew we wanted to stay in our neighborhood so our choices were pretty limited, but we ended up really like one house and put an offer on it in August.  The owner's were nice enough to let us delay closing until our contract on our rental was up.  We were able to take over on October 15th and decided that we wanted to repaint before moving in.  The house is 10 years old so it needed a new coat of paint badly.  Annie was my saving grace!!  I COULD not have done it without her.  The house we bought happens to Nate's sisters so she spent several days helping Nichole clean before she moved out and then countless days helping me paint!  We really were hoping to get the painting all done over UEA weekend, but we also thought we'd have more help from family.  Then Grandpa had his accident and that all went out the window.  There are only so many people you can ask to help you paint.  Annie was here helping me until 2 or 3 a.m. several nights.  Not to mention she took the kids several times too and helped us move everything in.  I am so grateful for awesome friends and neighbors who dropped everything to help us with our kids, clean, and move!  My amazing visiting teacher text me almost everyday to see what she could help with.  I finally gave in and asked her to help clean up our current house and do some laundry so my kids would actually have clean clothes to wear to school.  It was a LOOONNNGGG week to say the least.  We all know how well I function without sleep so I'm proud of myself for making it through! We love our house and our space!  It has been awesome for the kids to have their own rooms and a finished basement!  Lesson learned though... next time we will hire painters!!

Homecoming Parade

The girls were in the homecoming parade for dance.  They were so excited, especially Bailee.  These aren't the greatest pictures, but they loved their pom poms.  When they saw us, they cheered as loud as they could.  We even managed to convince Cole that Big Blue wasn't going to be there so he would come watch. (he has a crazy fear of Big Blue!)

Soccer

Cole loves soccer.  He played this fall on a fun team with lots of friends.  He is not afraid to go after the ball and play his hardest.

Brooke played too, I don't know why I don't have any pictures of her team.  She finally scored a goal on her last game of the season.  She had been trying to hard and was so excited.  We were so proud of her!