Christmas Stuff

We spent Christmas in Manti this year.
On Christmas Eve we gathered at my 98-year-old Grandma Nora's house where the manger scene is reenacted each year. Millie was an angel and Ivy thought she was a shepherd. She was enamored with the baby Jesus doll (not pictured).
Before we left for Manti. Mark had an early Christmas present for the girls: A toy kitchen of his making. They loved it and started playing with it right away.
In Manti my sister Ariel gave the them aprons to make them professional chefs (Mark and I also got aprons!).
My mom also gave this "talking" baby doll to Ivy. She mothered that doll for hours! It was perfect.
On Saturday afternoon my mom took us all to "Princess and the Frog". It was Millie and Ivy's first time in a movie theater. Millie was in heaven. She was giggling and screaming and even dancing. It was great! Thanks mom. Millie will remember that for life.
And Millie's cute hair was courtesy of her lovely Aunt Ariel.

Ivy's 2

It's hard for me to believe, but my baby is two years old!

Thankful for Turkey

Wow! I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone already!
We had a nice time at Mark's parent's house. There were 16 of us in all and we ate at two big tables in their great room. I'm so glad we have special days like Thanksgiving, or else we'd probably never all get together at the same time.
The food was delicious. And now I wish I would have taken a picture of it. Mark ate three plates full! And I was full after one (but still helped myself to a second serving of turkey and mashed potatoes :)
I don't think I've ever seen Ivy eat so much! Maybe if we had Thanksgiving every day, she would finally gain some weight!
And one last interesting tidbit about our Thanksgiving: Seven people came wearing purple! Not at all planned, so that made it fun.

P.S. Don't mind the huge cold sore on my bottom lip!

Ivy's Before and After

Before picture courtesy of Millie.
New "do" courtesy of mom.

Scruffy Hubby

Mark had a little extra facial hair prior to Halloween in preparation for the holiday. Any respectable Captain Hook must have a mustache right?
However he ended up looking a little less like a pirate and a bit more like a man born south of the border! Good times.
But the look didn't last long. He shaved as soon as the party was over.

Goodbye Dial-up (again!)

In case you haven't heard the good news: Mark and I have upgraded! Yes, it's true: we penny-pinchers will once again be forking out 20 more bucks a months to have DSL. (However Mark did insist we drop our land line to off-set the cost, and use our cell phones exclusively -- blah.) So in honor of the blessed occasion I have uploaded a video. You heard me right, a video (entirely impossible to upload with dial-up!) of my oh-so-sassy Millie (dressed as Indian princess Tiger Lily) and her preschool class in their very first Halloween parade. Enjoy!

P is for Pumpkin

I survived my week as "teacher." But it seriously wiped me out! I learned a lot though, so hopefully it's easier next time around, which (fortunately) won't be until January. (One of the mother's is expecting twins in the spring and so she took my November week and I am teaching her week in March). I don't have pictures of the actual preschool class, as I was too stressed out to think of that. But the kids all had a good time learning about leaves and the letter L (on Tuesday), squirrels and the number zero (on Wednesday), and pumpkins and the letter P (on Thursday).
On pumpkin day, I used a pumpkin as a punch bowl at snack time. That night I had Mark carve it for our front porch. Millie has loving named our jack-o'-lantern Linda. So if you're in town, make sure to drive by our house between the hours of 7 and 10 p.m. to see Linda in action.