The Box

Sometimes the box is more fun than the toy!

Christmas Dresses

One of my favorite traditions of Christmas is having Christmas dresses. I had to make sure that both of the girls had extremely frilly ones this year.
Here is Sara's.

I had to bribe Anna to get her to stop crying and let me take this picture.

Here are both of my very cute girls. I love Christmas time!

Winter Wonderland

We had a family party at Cecil and Liz's house tonight. It was a lot of fun, but very cold (below 10 degrees). Sara got pulled around on the sled and had a great time. Anna had a great time making snow angels. I don't even know how many she made, but she enjoyed it.

Grandpa brought the snowmobiles. It was the first time the girls had been on one and they loved it. Rob said that they both screamed with joy everytime he went faster.

Christmas 2009

Christmas has arrived. The girls actually let us sleep in until 7:30 and then Anna yelled, "Did Santa bring me an Ariel doll?". We knew it was time to get up.
Sara was a little confused and didn't know quite what to think about the whole thing.
Then she found her slide and she was so excited!


Anna searched for her Ariel doll. We think it might be in this one.

She was so excited! She loves her Ariel doll.

Rob took an art class this last summer. He did a fabulous job recreating one of the places that we lived by near the Bahamas. For Christmas I had it framed for him.

My mom made the girls princess dresses. When Anna asked her what princess she was my mom told her Princess Anna. So this is what Princess Anna looks like.

This is what a Princess Sara looks like.

The girls together. All in all we had a great Christmas. Thank you everyone.

Christmas Eve 2009

I'm sitting here waiting for my little monkeys to fall asleep and thought it would be the perfect time to blog. I have to say that this Christmas Eve was one of the most memorable that I have had in a long time. We started out the day by going to see The Princess and The Frog. It was almost as if we had our own private screening. There was only one other family there. I thought it was a cute movie, classic Disney. Anna hasn't stopped talking about it. Afterwards we headed over to Grandpa and Grandma Hadfield's where we went to the cemetery and did luminaries and placed a tree on the triplets grave. This was my favorite part of the evening. It was so nice to be able to include Jason, Ellie and Grace in our Christmas celebration.

Here's my mom placing the luminaries around my Grandpa and Grandma Hadfield's headstone.

Anna riding up top again.
Sara and Aunt Kassi.
My sweet angels headstone with the angel candle holder and the luminaries.
Afterward we came back to my parents where my dad read the story of Christ's birth and reenacted it using the figurines. The girls all had a great time helping grandpa.
Then Aunt Kassi gave all the little girls her gift to them. She had been busy making them crocheted hats. They are so cute!
Grandma made sugar cookies and had the girls help decorate them for Santa. Anna was careful with the sprinkles but put a ton on!
Sara even got involved and didn't even eat any in the process.
Opening their Christmas Eve present. Can you guess what it is?
Pajamas! Very girly pajamas at that!
When we got home we had to sprinkle our reindeer dust on the front lawn so Santa and the reindeer could find our house.
Putting out the milk and cookies. And then to bed! Good night everyone!

Final Nutcracker Performance

Anna had her last Nutcracker performance of the year a couple of nights ago. Grandpa and Grandma Hadfield, Great Grandma Colledge and Aunt Kassi were able to go and watch her. Anna had a great time and keeps asking me if she gets to dance the Nutcracker again tonight. I'm so glad that she had the opportunity to do this.


Anna and Aunt Kassi

Anna and Great Grandma Colledge
With Grandpa and Grandma Hadfield
Grandpa and Grandma gave her this Nutcracker filled with candy. She was in heaven!

Christmas Lights

Even though Temple Square is only about 20 minutes away I have not been to see the lights in about 10 years. This year Anna is obsessed with Christmas lights so I made sure we made it there. So we called up Grandpa and Grandma to come with us and met Aunt Kassi there (she only lives a block away). Even though it was pretty cold, it was so worth it to see the lights. This was one of my favorite scenes. I loved the red tree and how pretty it was in the reflection pool.

The nativity on the water was pretty neat as well.
More beautiful scenes.
Such a beautiful place.
Anna didn't want to walk, so she hitched a ride on daddy.
Sara didn't want to either, so she got to ride on top of Grandpa.
Our little family.

Me, Anna, Aunt Kassi and Sara in front of the fountain at the Conference Center.
Rob and I don't have very many pictures of just us together, so I had to post the one that we took
Grandma, Anna, Sara and Grandpa in front of the fountain.

I loved doing this with my family. I hope we can make it a tradition!

The Nutcracker!

Anna was invited to participate in Utah Regional Ballets Nutcracker as the little party girl. She has been so excited to participate. After every practice I ask her what she does and her answer is always the same; "I rock my baby and pose. Then I pretend to be asleep when my pretend dad carries me.". That is pretty much what she did!
Last night was her first of three performances. I was so nervous for her because she has never performed in front of a bunch of people. I thought for sure that she would freak out, but she was perfect. She was the cutest little party girl. My favorite part of her performance was when she had to sit still and rock her baby, but you could see her leaning forward to look into the orchestra pit. I guess I would have been curious too.
Here she is before she got dressed. Those ringlets were cute but such a pain! I put so much hairspray in there that they actually didn't come out after she slept on them last night!
Here she is in costume.
After her performance with her flowers from mom and dad and Grandpa and Grandma Cloward.

With Grandpa and Grandma Cloward.
With mom and dad.

Snow!!!

The first really big snowstorm hit today. It made everything look so white and pretty. I loved it! Christmas is about the only time of the year that I love snow. Rob was out shoveling the walk and the girls wanted to go out with him. This was the first time Sara was really able to experience snow, so I bundled her up. It was almost like the little boy in "A Christmas Story" who couldn't put his arms down. Sara had a great waddle.I felt bad that she fell down a couple of times because she couldn't get up herself, but she didn't want to come in after that.
Anna wanted to help daddy shovel. In her opinion, she is a great shoveler.
I had gone back inside and was doing some housework when Anna came running in saying that I needed to get my camera and go outside. This is what I found. Rob had pulled out the sled and was pulling Sara around. She was giggling pretty good.
Then it was Anna's turn. The girls loved the snow. They must be their father's children because I am not a fan!