Christmas wrap-up

Christmas this year was awesome!  The girls now seem to be at that magical age when Christmas is the absolute best day of the year.  We had a lot of running around to do, but I don't mind because it just means we are blessed with a lot of people to visit and love.

As usual, we started out on Christmas Eve with the Egan party which was held at the Deckers this year.  We played the Amazing Race again and Josh's team won - again - likely due to a lot of crazy driving.  And this year, the girls decided to jump right in to the annual program with a couple of performances.  They sang Jingle Bells, but they also sang "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri.  Nope, not even close to being a Christmas song, but it's one of their favorites and they ask to hear it in the car all the time. Josie especially sings her little heart out.

Here's another shot of the group singing together.

Christmas morning we got up, but not too early.  Lucky us, the girls aren't yet to the age that they know to wake up at the crack of dawn.  Josh made some sticky buns and we opened the presents that Santa brought.

New princess bikes!

Later that day, we headed up to Bubba and Grandpa's house for the Wathen family gathering.  There was more food and more presents.  Josie and Piper love playing with little EJ.

 Giving lots of love to Conor and Melissa, reading with Grandma Bubba and opening presents.

Then to round out our Christmas day, the Jones family came down to our house.  The girls ran wild in the basement with their cousins, we ate more food, and opened more presents.

Grandpa with the grandkids (minus the Koupal kids).

Jones boys together.

It was a great holiday season and I feel very blessed.

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.