Christmas 2009

For Christmas this year Shane's family came to visit. His dad, 2 sisters, and a niece and a nephew came down. The girls had a lot of fun playing with their cousins. Here is a picture of Morgan pulling the girls on the wagon. I love Willow's face in this picture.
Both of the girls loved Morgan and he was really sweet with them. He helped them with puzzles and games and they loved to play with Wii with him. Ella was a good competitor for him in the Wii bowling. She would slide on the floor as she would release the ball. Somehow it worked for her. :)

Here is a picture of Ella and Erin. They thought it was funny to make this mean face at each other.

Christmas Eve we decorated cookies. I gave each kid their own cookies to decorate and eat and then I decorated the rest for the adults. I was not about to eat their creations!

Here is a group picture of everyone. From left to right: Shane, Erin, Darrell, Lachel, Morgan, Willow, Carrie, Ella, and Me. We originally went to old town Katy to take pictures put on the ride their Willow threw up. Ella and her had gotten sick the night before but then was fine the rest of the day. I guess the car ride just pushed her over the edge. So we came back home and took some pictures there.

Ella asked me to take pictures of her and then jumped in front of the fireplace and started posing. Such a goof!

Yet another pose.

After Christmas Eve dinner we had a little family home evening. Shane read Luke 2 and then we sang some songs. Ella was on the edge of her seat waiting to open presents.

Christmas Eve we opened family gifts. Ella got this Cinderella doll and fell in love with it.

Both girls got PJ's from us.

The girls fell right asleep on Christmas Eve but then kept waking up with throw up. All night long. It was so gross. So when Christmas morning came around they were not quite with it. Notice Willow is not in her Christmas PJ's anymore.

One of Willow's presents was this Dora coloring book.

Ella was very excited when she realized this family gift was Hungry Hungry Hippos. Here she is hugging it.

Shane's family left Christmas morning so after they left we lounged around a bit and let the girls rest some. Then we went over to my parents house to open gifts with them. The girls got a magnetic dress up doll kit from cousin Kinsey (Cyndie's little girl). Both girls have enjoyed playing with it so far.

It was a good Christmas. A memorable one, at least. Even with the girls being sick they were still excited and had a good time.

Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Miracle!

Ella and Willow sat at their table and played NICELY with play-doh for 2 hours today! It gave me much needed time to clean up the house. When I told them it was time to put the play-doh up they listened the first time and cleaned up their mess. Here are some pictures of the momentous occasion. Ella was making stars for baby Jesus.

Next week will be in the 70's again!

It snowed in Houston today! Some stuck but most of it just melted away. The low tonight is going to be in the 20's and by next week it should be in the 70's again. Don't you just love Texas weather! Here are some pics of Ella enjoying the snow. Ella was in school for most of the day but after I picked her up I was able to snap some shots of her in the snow. She said they were able to go outside during school and play in the snow and her teacher took pictures. Willow was with my mom and my mom has pics of Willow playing in the snow, I'll post those when I get them.

This first one is of Ella and a snowman that some neighborhood kids made. I think that they must have got every last snowflake off the ground to make him. I couldn't believe how big they got it with the little snow we had.

This is Ella catching snowflakes on her tongue. She is really concentrating.

Ella wanted to pose with baby Jesus.

I guess she figured she wasn't having much luck catching snowflakes on her tongue so she resorted to licking the leaves.

She was trying to throw snow at me.

Again, trying to throw snow at me. (It kept sticking to her mitten and wouldn't fly off) :)

Just enjoying the snow.

My dad decided to come out and play and Ella wanted to jump out and surprise him by throwing a snowball at him. This is her hiding getting ready to pounce.

And ATTACK! (You can probably tell by where she is throwing the snowball she missed. Luckily for Grandpa she doesn't have great aim)

Turkey Bowl

Thanksgiving morning, Shane played football with our ward. The girls enjoyed running around and playing. After the game, we went to my parents house for dinner. It was a nice low-key Thanksgiving. Here are some pics of the morning.

Picture Updates

Here are some pictures that I have taken recently.

I took some pictures for a friend at work of her kids.

I also took some pictures for another friend at work of her and her husband.

Here are a few old ones of Willow.

Here are some really old ones.

Dewberry Farm!

We went to Dewberry Farm yesterday with some friends from church. We started with the hayride around the farm. Willow really enjoyed throwing the hay out from the wagon while no one was looking. (She's a sneaky one). :)

They had a few animals you could pet. Here is Ella petting a donkey. The donkey kept putting his face really close to Ella's like he wanted a kiss. It was funny.
They also had a rope that the kids could swing on. I think this was one of the favorite activities of the day. Ella loved swinging on the rope. Willow on the other hand wouldn't even touch it.

This picture is of Ella trying to jump for the rope. As you can probably tell from her face, she didn't make it but she was a trooper and just jumped up and tried again.

It was a beautiful day and the girls enjoyed the time at the farm. We went last year but this year we thought it was much more enjoyable. I am sure the girls liked it better since they had friends to play with this year. Ella is already getting embarrassed to have us around while she is with her friends. When we got to the farm, Shane told Ella she needed to stay close to us and she looked at him, rolled her eyes, and said under her breath, "Daddy...". She is too cool already!

Halloween

Here is our Halloween in review.

Ella was CinderELLA but once we got to our ward's party she decided she was Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. Willow was Belle and as you can see had her princess wave down. This is how she would trick or treat too. She would walk around like her bag was a purse and expect people to reach to put candy in it for her. She wouldn't hold it out for them. :)

Willow making silly faces. This is one of her favorite silly faces.

We made Halloween cookies. Ella decorating her cookies. Can you tell she was also sneaking candy?

This is Ella making scary cookies of ghosts and witches. Willow was too scared of the cookie cutters to use them. Willow just used the pumpkin or cat ones.

Willow rolling out the dough.

Random picture of Willow in the sink at my parents. She would play in there for hours if we let her.

Shane decorated pumpkins with the girls. They had so much fun. Ella thought it was funny her pumpkin had three eyes and Willow kept laughing and saying "Big Hair".