Pictures with Santa

Brynn and I took the kids to Thanksgiving Point this year to get their pictures with Santa (er, Brynn dressed up as Santa).  The pictures reflect their personalities perfectly.  :)  I love EJ's very serious expression in these photos.

Christmas Season

We are having a fun Christmas season this year.  Here's a little snapshot of some of the fun things we've been up to.

Early in December, the girls had their dance performance at Bingham High School.  This is literally the only photo that I took.  We were rushing out the door and I didn't take any before, so I thought I'd get some when they were done.  Unfortunately, there was a complete meltdown after the performance and both of them REFUSED to cooperate.  So this is it. :)  They did a great job though and it sure was cute (also, how cute do they look?).

 All ready for school and wearing some of their new birthday clothes.

 We made some gingerbread men one night.  They ate more candy than they put on their guys. :)

 Cold wintery morning looking pretty Christmasy for school.

 Blue boy got all his fur shaved off. :(  He had mats and needed a big trim.  He was really cold in December, so this is how he coped with it.  Poor little puppy ball.

 First snow!

 First time skiing for the girls this winter.  We went up to Solitude and they did awesome.  It was a night and day difference from last year.  They didn't need us to hold them up at all.

Looking pretty cute for a shopping day.

Jones Family Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year with the Jones side at Jim and Rebecca's.  It has been a long time since we've all been together for Thanksgiving.  I don't even remember the last time.  We had great food, a relaxing day, and the kids had a blast playing together.  Instead of taking a bunch of pictures, I just relaxed.

Some highlights from our day:

• Not only was it Thanksgiving, it was our 15-year anniversary.  Brought back a lot of memories to 15 years ago when we spent Thanksgiving with Josh's grandparents, mom and Jessica at my grandma Cherie's house with the rest of my family.  
• The kids made some fun turkeys out of rice krispie treats.  Piper was pretty proud of hers.
• After 24 days without sugar on a "no sugar challenge", I dove right into the punkin pie.  Delicious.
• The girls are finally old enough to just "go play" with their cousins.  No longer do we have to stalk their every move. :)  

Four year olds

The Jones house is now officially being run by a couple of four year olds.  Like any good birthday, the celebration stretched out over a couple of weeks.  The day after their actual birthday, Josie looked at Piper and said "mom, are we four yet?".  I told her yes, then she said, looking confused, "but we still look 3!".  I guess the magical transformation they were expecting didn't happen.

They did do some growing.  At their check-up, we got their stats.

Piper*
Height: 39.2 inches
Weight: 34 lbs
When she was 3, she was 28.6 lbs and 36.2 inches
*my little 3 lb 3 oz baby is now my big girl

Josie
Height: 39 inches
Weight: 32 lbs
When she turned 3, she was 30 lbs and 36.7 inches

They both passed their vision and hearing tests and got a bunch of shots to get ready for kindergarten!

On their birthday, they woke up to some presents and we had a little birthday breakfast.

Then last night, we had some family over for a little birthday celebration for the girls and Uncle Nate.  Josh made this lovely cake:

Uncle Nate got a cake too.  :)

 Now that we're finally done celebrating, it's time to move on to Christmas.  Happy birthday to my big girls!

2013 Family Pictures

We had new family photos taken a little while ago at Thanksgiving Point.  Here are a few of my favorites.

4th Birthday Party at Black Diamond Sports Academy

We celebrated Josie and Piper's 4th birthday a little early yesterday with all their friends at their gymnastics gym, Black Diamond.  The kids all had a great time and some friends from preschool, dance, gymnastics and other family friends all came.

All the kids getting warmed up: Piper, Josie, Scarlett, Ireland, Marley, Olivia, Ava, and Brody.

 Fun with the parachute

Ireland, Brody and Piper.  And let me pause here for a minute and introduce you to Piper's boyfriend, Brody.  We've been hearing about Brody nonstop for months now and Piper was so excited that he was coming to their party.  She's been saying things like "I want Brody to dress up like a prince and I'll wear my princess dress and then we'll dance."  Also, "I didn't dare to talk to Brody today".  Thank goodness Brody's parents brought him to the party.  It literally made her day.  They ran around holding hands together, jumped into the pit together, shared a hula hoop together.  My girl is already boy crazy!

 Getting ready to jump into the pit.

 After some gym time, we came in and had pizza and cupcakes.  There's little Emery in there too!

 My big girls are almost 4!

 Finally, opening presents together.

What a fun party!  We'll do it again with family on their actual big day.

Halloween Wrap-Up

I can't believe November is almost over and I'm just getting around to writing a little about October.  The month of October flew by this year with our trip to California, but we still had time to fit in some fun stuff for Halloween.

Halloween is not like it was when I was a kid.  I remember wearing my costume one time - on halloween night when you would go trick-or-treating.  That's it.  Now it is a month-long affair.

First up - we went to breakfast with a witch at Gardner Village with Lauren and Olivia Larsen.  Brooke was with a sick baby, so it was me and all the girls.  Josie wore her fairy costume and Piper wore her Care Bear costume.  Not the best picture of my carebear here.

 Then on a super warm Saturday, we headed to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point again, which is a lot of fun.  This year, they went with all their Jones cousins.

Then we painted punkins on a Sunday night.  I thought it would be easier than carving, but maybe not.  Paint all over the dining room...

 The Monday before Halloween, they wore their costumes again at their dance class.  A bunch of little princesses showed up, plus one little scarecrow.  Too cute.

 Then on Halloween morning, they wore their costumes to preschool and there was a parade around the school with all the different classes.  These little girls, Ava and Ireland, are their preschool BFFs.

 All the kids in their classroom.

 On Halloween, we went to Bubba's work party again, which is incredible.  They put on quite the party.  They did some trick-or-treating there, then we headed to Josh's work for more trick-or-treating.  I didn't get any pictures because by this time, Josie was getting pretty sick.  By the time we got home, she was in full-blown fever mode and the sickness/fever/cough stuck around for the next ten days.  Welcome to winter!