We learned somthing new!!

I know these aren't the most flattering, but they made us laugh so hard!!! When I was trying to take his pictures with the cube in the air it would hit him right on the head...hahaha

Christmas at our house

Christmas eve, Rhylan and I made some special chocolate chip cookies for Santa and left some carrots for Rudolf. Rhylan was so excited for Santa to come, she was a very good girl this year. As a matter of fact, after reading the Friend, Rhylan wanted to help around the house, and choose the right as a present to Baby Jesus. We made a chart and started filling it with stickers for things she did: unloaded the dryer, cleaned her room several times, made her bed, unloaded the the silver wear in the dishwasher, set the table, brushed her teeth all by herself, got dressed without me asking, cleaned the living room, feed Zelda, swept the kitchen floor, etc. In about 1 week she earned 33 stickers!! She loved this, after earning a sticker she would say "what else can I do mom?" It was getting hard to think of something that needed to be done:) This was a nice present for Baby Jesus and me.
Rhylan really wanted a Rapunzel dress and Rapunzel hair for Christmas. Of course I waited until after the movie came out to go shopping for these items...sold out, at several stores and online!! I was so frustrated. Luckily for Rhylan, Santa and his elves were able to make this dress and hair. Rhylan loves it, she even made sure to check the "collar" to make sure it was a legit dress. Christmas morning, Riley went to their bed room door and yelled "I think Santa was here!!!" Rhylan said "Let me out!" I loved her face Christmas morning when she came into the living room I was ready to take pics. She just gasped and covered her mouth. She loved it. Santa did not disappoint her. She also got several other fun presents from grandparents, aunts, and us. Some of her favorite were: the super hero cape, Mr. Potato Head family, My Little Ponys, Kitty keyboard, Princess Tiana dress, Princess Tiana, and Arial Barbies, a Bug house (to keep bugs), kitty blanket, books, you get the idea:)

Gracin was a little slower to come out of the room. Santa had set up a train set in our living room for him!! He wasn't too sure what to think of it but it made him happy. He wasn't interested in much but his Nerds candy he found in his stocking. I think he had them for breakfast and lunch:) He would have been happy to only get that, but he did get a few other presents. Some of his favorites were: a "shake and go" Lightning McQueen car, Cars blanket, wooden blocks, a Cars search and find book... are you seeing a pattern here? Oh and his first BYU t shirt, Riley and him both got one.




These two Barbies are from Great Grandpa and Grandma Olson...She loves them, thank you.




One day I said, "I need to get daddy one more present." Rhylan asked if she could buy a present for Daddy too, and Gracin. We took $2.00 from her piggy bank and went to the dollar store. She chose two special gifts for them and paid with her own money. She go Riley a rubix cube, and Gracin some Cars stickers.
"Smile'n Rhylan" the super hero!! --This cape works on so many levels, princess, super hero, wizard, I am sure we will think of many more ways to use it.
He found Mater right away!
Both of the kids loved playing with the Kitty Keyboard.
Dancing
Sharing!!




Rapunzel dress and hair.
She now has a "collection" of Princess Barbies with the 3 new ones she got for Christmas.
Here she is in her Tiana dress with matching shoes... she loves dress up.
Go BYU!!

We had such a nice morning opening presents, play with all the new toys, reading books, playing video games, and eating candy! (and taking loads of pictures)

Getting ready for Christmas

We decided to stay home for Christmas this year. (We partied hard for Thanksgiving instead.) There are actually several families who stayed around during the holidays. We went to the Crawfords to make "gingerbread" houses. This is a special tradition to Marci and she wanted to make a party of it. We had a lot of fun. I really only remember making these houses when I was at mutual activities and maybe an fhe at college. As you can see by Rhylan's face, she wanted to play instead, so I finished her house for her. People got really creative.

Marci, Wheat Thin shingle roof, round-a-bout driveway, green Christmas tree.

Brittney was very precise with her frosting technique, she put frosting shingles on her walls and a cobble stone path in front with skittles!
Rhylan and my house: My most creative decor was the two Gummy bears roasting marshmallows over a fire (lower right corner)
Riley was having a great time. He had snow tubing bears, ice fishing bears, and a chimney with a smoke stack.
5 m&m's and she was done!!
Rhylan and Milly


After that we headed to Ceneral park to check out the light show. I really liked the dancing trees. Rhylan enjoyed "driving" the car. We drove nice and slow stopping at times to watch each different display. It was a nice little Christmas activity. Then of course we went and drove around to see more Christmas lights on houses. Thank you crazy people for decorating your house with hundreds and hundreds of Christmas lights, Rhylan and Gracin think you are awesome.

2 more

I did three photo shoots last week! I have edited two of them.

Crawfords: We were so cold. These poor girls were freezing in their dresses. I love taking pics at the library, so many fun places to pose:) Thanks Marci, I had a great time seeing your faimly and how much you love each other.

McCoys: This days was surprising warm! (It was the very next day) We had so much fun. I really liked taking pics of teenagers, they were silly. They even laughed at some of my jokes;)

We finished!!!

We finished reading the Book of Mormon as a family this week!! It took us a few years and I don't think we started with Rhylan until Alma. Gracin and I missed most of 3 Nephi- Ether because I was putting him to bed in another room. But we did it together!! We are pretty proud of this accomplishment. We have now started the illustrated version of the Book of Mormon. Rhylan is asking a lot more questions this time around:)

Date night --Canadian style!

We went to a River Kings hockey game for our date on Saturday night. We had such a nice time being alone together. Isn't it nice to always have a best friend?


This Canadian misses hockey (what is he going to do when we move to AZ next summer?)


--And as an added bonus, our babysitter washed our dishes and cleaned the toy room!!!! We couldn't believe it. Thanks, Amy you are so thoughtful. It was a total surprise:)

Sunday best

There were better ones of us smiling, but I liked this one best! She makes me laugh everyday!!
I promise Gracin does smile!! He is really a happy kid. But he doesn't understand "okay smile!"



You have already seen Rhylan's Christmas dress, but we all had something special to wear this Sunday. I made me a matching skirt out of the same material as Rhylan's. And, I made Gracin and Riley matching silver ties to go along with our dresses. I even had some left over from the ties to make Rhylan and I some rose hair flowers. It is kind of neat that we can all go to church wearing something I made!