Versatile

Who knew a sleeping bag could be a hat, a leg warmer, and a mask?!

(These are the things you do during winter break)

My birthday

It was my birthday.



Elle started it off right when she served me breakfast:
Captain Crunch with a candle in a peppermint Jo jo
YUM!



Decorations


And finished it off with peppermint brownies, and peppermint ice cream that night!

In the mean time,

I had a birthday lizard.

That's right.  I started to sit on the couch and chillax for a bit, but a funny thing happened along the way...

I stepped on the soft carpet, but it felt soft and squishy.  And it moved!  That's when I saw the birthday lizard skitter across the floor and settle on my blanket--the one I was going to cuddle up in! (it's freezing here.  In the 60's!)

The logical thing to do was to carefully pick up the blanket and carry it outside, but did I do that?  No I did NOT!  I screamed like a girl, grabbed the blanket and flung it across the room. (ya)

I immediately texted Chris, who did not respond.  So I texted my friends who were satisfyingly horrified and consoling. One of my friends who has even had experience with this sort of thing came over.
We located the lizard in the corner.  Her advice was to block it off until Chris came home:



I had another brilliant idea to have Elle catch it for me when she came home.  Well, that didn't go well either.  It just hid under the couch.

Eventually,  Chris came home and chased it all over too.  In the end, he used a ruler and flicked it ito a garbage bag:



( you can see it in the lower left hand corner)

But, back to GOOD birthday happenings:

A few days earlier, we went to a Japanese barbeque and had MEAT!
(NO, not lizard meat, silly)

Although Elle has sworn off meat of any kind (after throwing up for six hours on the way home from Thanksgiving), she was kind enough to help me eat  (and cook) all the delicious cuts of meat.

Really, there were other things like vegetables and rice, but the meat was all up to us, not Chris, to eat.

Chris even cooked me the perfect marshmallow for my birthday s'more!

It was a great happy birthday to me thanks to Chris and Elle :)

Gingerbread Houses!

Chris's artistic (or something) house:

Apparently, they are removing moss from the roof)

Elle's house:

My house:

(see the woodpile out back?)

The gingerbread village!

So delicious!

We didn't end up doing stain glass windows because it was hard enough just cooking and assembling the things!  Maybe next year. . .

Sunday (night) Dress and Hair

As Promised . .

group selfie in front of the Tree

And Elle in her Chrismas dresss and bare feet 

:)

And fancy hair

And all the fixin's to make gingerbread houses!

to be continued. . .

Sunday/Friday Dress and Hair

Elle went to the Jr. High School social on Friday!

To prepare, she and her friends went shopping for dresses then got together early to do each other's make-up

This is only half of her group.  The other half met them there.

It was semi-formal, but the girls wanted to look extra spiffy.

Notice Elle's adorable clutch.

None of them danced, but they all enjoyed the hot chocolate bar and singing along to Frozen in loud and obnoxious voices.

I love her cute new coat! She looks so grown up!

Now, as requested:

Elle in front of our Christmas tree

With cute hair

:)

And a moustache! 

Sunday Dress and Hair

Here is Chris's after-church-relaxing outfit. Can't get much better: 3 wolf moon shirt and fluffy alien pants.  Makes me remember why I married him in the first place :)

In other news: I meant to post this a few days ago, but didn't so I'm tacking it in on the end of this one. . .

One of the perks of my job is being available to chaperone Elle and her friends on field trips. 

Her orchestra had a field trip to none other than California Adventure! (across from Disneyland)

Thankfully, we just went for the day and I didn't have to take care of anyone in a hotel or on an airplane.

It was very fun being fly-on-the-wall like as I tailed Elle and some of her friends

Yes I KNOW it is a terrible picture.

Both Mickey and Pluto chased the girls down and insisted that they get their picture with them.

(You'll notice that one of the girls is proving her teenage-ness)  Elle patted Pluto on the nose for good measure.

The best part of the day was when we were waiting  for "Soarin' over California"-- and not just because it is my favorite ride of all time.  It was the best part because the girls had a mild panic-attack when they realized they had no reception in the line!  They couldn't look anything up! (0)_(0)

Elle turned to me and said "The drama of teenagers." It was pretty funny.

Thankful Turkey

Sunday Dress and Hair

It is so cold* here that this is what Elle is wearing to church!

*66

Costumes

*Sigh*

Remember how cute little Elle was in her poodle skirt?

Not sure who the boy is. . .

Look at her now!

(no boy included)

(No, that's not her same skirt.  It's mine!  The shirt is mine tooo.)

And remember when I went to Prom with my friends when I was 30?

Well, guess what?

This little 13 year old fits into that dress!

And pulls it off quite well!

Concert Black

The school orchestra is playing today to commemorate its 10th (it's really the 11th, but they forgot to do something special last year) anniversary!

That means concert black for Elle!

Doesn't she look all grown-up?!

Sunday Dress/Costume

Since all of our costumes are packed in a box and on their way here, :)  Elle had to be creative in her costume for the ward Halloween party yesterday.

Can you guess what she is?

White on top, Orange in the middle, and yellow on the bottom . . .

Maybe the two hour manicure I gave her will give you a hint:

She was a candy corn!

Pretty creative, right?

I thought so too 

:)

New (Rental) Home!

Check out our new rental!


http://youtu.be/4XxLaT_MnGs


Just two more weeks until our furniture arrives. . .

Happy Birthday Elle part 2

Sushi for dinner

There were so many candles on the birthday cupcakes it took Elle several puffs (and a break in between)to get them all out!

Lots of gifts!

Hand made card from Chris 

Gift card to her favorite store (bath and body works) from grandma and grandpa Harvey

A fun family game so we won't be board from grandma and grandpa Hales

Brady Buch season 1&2 

              A tiny toilet 

Oh wait. No, it's a candle warmer for all the candles she will buy from Bath and Body

And the best for last...

Legos!

Which she used immediately. :) 

She's so old it's a wonder we didn't burn down the table!