Friend Time

Dec 19-We were able to have Alex and Kia come and play with us.  Alex and Ellie get along so well and are always so cute.  We watched the Grinch.

 Dec 20-We love going to Classic Fun Center.  We had fun with Alex, Kia, Jade and Kiera.

Love this face-he's loving being able to go more places on his own

 I really like that Classic has big and little things.  The kids do well on all of it and I really don't worry too much about them getting stuck

Family Date Night

I am so stinkin' lucky.  I have such an amazing family and love spending time with them.  We decided to head out to Traverse Mountain for dinner.  We ate at Johnny Rockets(So yummy)

My silly family

Then we walked around and saw a HUGE Christmas tree that Ellie and Gavin loved.

Christmas Fun

We have had a great month with lots of fun places/friends and activities.  

We put up Christmas lights this year!-Dec 1

Patrick and I were finally able to go to Savior of the World at the conference center.  We went to the Cheesecake factory first and had a great time.  It was a really great performance and a nice way to bring the spirit.  It was also freezing and has been really cold this winter.  I thought we were going to die outside walking:)  Dec 4

Letters to Santa-Dec 9

We also went to see a bell concert at the library.  It was so cool and the kids liked it a lot.  Gavin kept saying oooooaaahhhh-Dec 9

Yummy snowman pancakes-Dec 9

We tried out ice skating with Jade.  It is so nice to be able to leave Gavin with my parents and go do some things with Ellie.  Dec 11

 It was a bit hard, but Jade got a walker and Ellie loved it!

 We got a walker too!

 And then she was off

 They thought it was hilarious to get stuck with each other

We did have a couple of spills:)  But there is still a smile.

Taking a break and enjoying a cookie

We had such a great time, and it wore her out!

 We got together with friends and made gingerbread nativities!  It was awesome because we each brought different parts and so it wasn't a lot of work for one person.  Dec 13

Ellie hard at work

Didn't they turn out awesome!

We made Christmas cookies to take around to all of Ellie's friends.  We put a little Tupperware with frosting and some red and green M&M's so they could decorate there own cookies.  Dec 16/17

We also sent Uncle Eric a Christmas package.  Ellie drew the picture all by herself.

A New (Old) Game

Patrick has always loved this game!  

Last time we were at his parents he pulled it out and we all had a great time!  I thought it would be a great gift idea, but found that they don't actually sell this game anymore:'(  A few tears were shed.  But...Patrick found the game on Ebay and it was pretty cheap, so he bought it!  He is super excited to have this golf game to play with our family as they get a little older.

Let it Snow!

I love this time of year and all the fun activities that come with it!  We were able to take the kids sledding and had so much fun!

We had a great time sledding.  This was Gavin's first time sledding.  He wasn't quite sure about having to be all bundled up and got for sure didn't love the cold snow when it touched his skin.  

But he loved going down the hill!

Ellie of course LOVED it.  She is such a fun age and I love watching her experience life.

Patrick got a lot of exercise:)

After our fun adventure we of course came home and had some yummy hot chocolate!  Bring on the snow!

Our Little Dancer

I have been wanting to start Ellie in a little dance class for awhile, but when I started looking into them, they were super expensive and I really didn't want to go all out for her first time.  What if she didn't even like it or didn't want to stick with it?  I found a free ballet class at a Stake center and decided to give it a try.  She LOVED it!  Here are some pictures at her first class.  August 23, 2013
Excited to go.

Little poser

 This was before it started.  Already making friends

 Her cute little tutu

 posing again...

 Miss Melanie did a wonderful job and Ellie loved her so much!  She had some fun little activities that the girls did.  They danced to a song, "There's a Wiggle in my Toe" by Joe Scruggs that was really cute and she had them doing all the actions with it.  She also had them practicing things like skipping and galloping. 

Here they are with lots of scarves twirling them around and such.  September 20, 2013
 Ellie listened pretty good.  I love that she is doing just what Miss Melanie is in this picture

Here is Ellie with Miss Melanie on her last day of class.  December 6, 2013

It was the last class before the next session, but by the end of the class, there were only 2 sometimes 3 girls in the class, so I decided to put her in a class at the rec center since she likes it so much and I think it would be a little more structured.  I am glad for this class to be able to see how much Ellie enjoys it and so glad for Miss Melanie and all the time and effort she put into it.

Preschool Fun

I have really enjoyed doing a little preschool for Ellie and a couple of friends.  We learned about the letter H and painted over tape.  Then took the tape off to show the H.  October 16, 2013

We talked about T today and did lots of turkey things.   We made turkey snacks out of apples, crackers and candy eyes.  Here is Ellie.  November 13, 2013

Gabbie Becerra

Jade Wilson

We also made a turkey craft with coffee filters.  You draw with marker all over them and then we sprayed them with a spray bottle and the colors are run together.  Gabbie, Jade, Ellie

The girls made Christmas cookies and shaped them like letters!  Rolling out the dough

 Cutting out the letter cookies

 Jade, Ellie, Kiera

 Ellie, Kiera

 Ellie LOVES to help with any cooking, especially cookies