Faithful Friends who are Dear to Us...

gather near to us once more.

I love this time of year. I especially love seeing all of my friends and family on our wall all month.

Ward Christmas Party

Tonight we tortured Hope one more time with a picture with Santa at our ward party.

The highlight of the party were the "Rics." Doug and the other counselor in our Bishopric presented a multimedia presentation .

John and Doug aka the Rics.

John breaking out his Justin Bieber moves while Doug flashes a strobe light on him.

It ended with the infamous flashlight dance with a twist--the crowd got involved.

It's a bad picture, but it was awesome.

Santaphobia

I think it's a one-year-old thing. As soon as Hope sat on Santa's lap she immediately wanted off.

Love the Game, Love the Player

We've sat through soccer. We've sat through baseball. I think basketball is my favorite.

James started his basketball season with his first game today.

They won their game, and this is a picture of James sinking his free throw. Great job.

Happy Birthday, Spencer!

I'm hoping that big birthday parties are not really the thing to do in middle school, so to celebrate Spencer's birthday this year, we let him have a big party for his last year in elementary school. He chose a computer and video gaming center. Big surprise.

I must say it is the easiest party I have ever done. The kids played video games for two hours and I got to read.

Pizza for lunch.

The cake looks pretty boring on the outside, only because it took a lot of work for the inside. We did the colors of the four houses of Hogwarts on the inside.

These girls are in heaven with dancing and mics.

More celebrating to come, but we wish Spencer a happy 11th birthday. Can't believe he's almost 11.

Cookies, cookies, cookies

Today I hosted a cookie exchange luncheon so we can begin our holiday eating. We had some awesome cookies from some awesome ladies.

Speaking of awesome cookies, if you have a Trader Joe's near you, I'd suggest you run over and pick up these. We love Joe-Joe's anyway, but these are gourmet Joe-Joe's. My favorite is the gingerbread cookie dipped in white chocolate. I honestly didn't even know these existed until a couple of days ago.

I can tell someone loves them as much as I do.

We are the Proud Owners

of this piece of dirt.

It was sudden. From the time we thought about getting a new house until the contract was signed was less than a week. That's kind of how we roll. I guess when it's right it's right.

Home to be arriving in March or April.

All Aboard!

Tonight we went to Grandpa Tom's former ward's Christmas party with a Polar Express theme. It was so cute and very well done.

At the end of the night, Santa Claus came. We were eating dessert and couldn't find Faith anywhere. Grandpa went all around the halls looking for her. Then James says, "She's up on Santa's lap." She had cut the line to the front without any of us there and just helped herself to Santa's lap. If he asked her what her name was, she probably told him Ariel since that is her answer these days if you ask her what her name is.

It worked

I had my doubts. I've heard that you can potty train in one day. I didn't believe it. Well, thanks to this doll we borrowed and named Ariel who uses the potty, Faith is now potty trained. I would say it took more like a day and a half, but Faith did it. I don't know if it's because of the book I read and the doll or the fact that girls really are easier to potty train, but this is so much better than what I remember potty training to be with my boys. Good job, Faith.

Tiny Tutus

Parents are not allowed to sit in the ballet studio and watch the tiny tutu girls, but today was an audience day where parents could watch.

Faith loves it when they get to dance with fairy wings.

Taking a bow for us. She lives for this.