Santa Sighting!

Well here is proof that Santa does exist! We set up a trap to capture video of an unsuspecting Santa on his visit to our house Christmas Eve. We placed our video camcorder in a corner on a chair by the tree and recorded through the night and in the morning this is what the girls found on it!!! Too bad we didn't face the camera near the fireplace so we could see him coming in and out. :)

I was happy to see what a wonderfully sewn suit Santa had on. Such beautiful swirly red velvet. Hmmm. That Mrs. Claus must like to sew and must have expensive taste in fabric. :)

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Our Beautiful Surroundings

We live in the most beautiful little neighborhood. We live up in some little hills and mountains that surround our house and then from our backyard you can look all the way down the little hill we are on to see nothing but fields and then Utah Lake and across that Timpanogos Mountain and the surrounding mountains along the Wasatch. Everyday I wake up to a beautiful picture. So many times I have tried to take pictures after it has snowed and my camera doesn't do it justice so the last picture is basically what I see from my backyard everyday (taken by someone else). These other two pictures are from a little hike we went on a few weeks ago after a small snow storm had gone away and melted and before a new one began. We just hiked around the hills in our front yard basically. It was a beautiful, brisk, crisp little hike.

Yes, we miss the ocean, but there are many other beauties. :)

Some Holiday Cheer

A Christmas wreath from a friend many years ago reminds me of her. Thanks Julie!

Our entry way. I love that you can see the garland and tree as you walk in.

Cupboards wrapped in paper and lighted garland across shelves. Cozy. (You can see touches of Kendyl with the glued on paper snowflakes)

*No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you... Seth is doing the dishes. :)
A jolly gingerbread house made by us and a beautiful poinsettia from a friend.
To the left of the tree is a little basket of Christmas books. I love seeing the girls reading them to each other and spending so much time over in that corner.



Also in that corner on the window sill is Kendyl's little nativity collections she plays with constantly, drops and breaks and literally loves them to pieces.

Presents waiting to be opened. Little elf bells from their shoes hidden throughout the house for the girls to find showing them Santa's elves are watching to see if they are naughty or nice.
My stack of cards and stationary still to be made and sent out.
Our little door of love reminding us of friends and family.
Lights at temple square. (I like this picture I took) :)

Christmas performances.

Who does Makenzie look more like?

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Who does Kendyl look more like?

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

Well we realize we are nuts, or at least will think we are in a few months when we get sick of all this white stuff, but we are just having too much fun in the snow. Yesterday it snowed a constant light snow the whole day. Last week it snowed a pretty good amount one day and then it was mostly melted within a few days. We were bummed when it was almost all gone and began praying for more snow again to play in and be able to shovel our driveway. Well just in time before it completely disappeared we got more snow. :)

You can all make fun of us when we complain about the snow in February or March, but for now we are so happy to play in it and be able to make doughnuts in our car in parking lots.

O Christmas Tree- O Christmas Tree- La la la la la la la

I don't know why I haven't posted this sooner since we set up our tree two weeks before Thanksgiving (I got excited a little early- shame shame). I figure I'll post it now before it's too late.

This is our tree skirt. It's not very curved, is it? :)

It was actually suppose to be a blanket that I crocheted while in college waiting for Seth to get back from working at Disney World. I wanted it to be big enough for the two of us to snuggle in (hehe) and it stretched and by the end of the semester it grew to be able to fit my entire apartment of girls and our FHE brothers (12 people). It was so ridiculously enormous that my roommates named it Boa. Seth and I cuddle in much more comfy blankets now so it only comes out at Christmas to use for our tree skirt.

Here's Seth and the girls helping him set up the tree. The picture to the right shows how helpful Kendyl was during the process. I'm one to talk though. I was so sick that the picture below was taken by Makenzie to show how helpful I was... :)

After they had the whole thing set up I got up and put in red lights too and wrapped it in ribbon and leaves and the girls put the ornaments all over it. Kendyl kept them mostly in a clump and throughout the weeks we've sneakily placed them higher and further apart. :)

Here's what it looks like in our family room and I put another picture up that's closer because I like how glowy and Christmasy it looks.

Did you spot Boa? Good. :)

A bajillion pics from Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving started with the local "Turkey Trot" where most of Seth's family and inlaws got involved, but us of course. :) We were there to freeze our butts off, take pictures, scream for them, and watch their kids. We did a great job.

Here's a few pics from Thanksgiving day/night. We just sat around Seth's grandmas' house eating, watching movies, napping, and talking for hours catching up. It was so nice! The goofy pic of Seth and I is from when we went for a walk with some of the fam to work off the dinner to make room for the bajillion pies. Yum! We found some fun hats in a closet that were his grand-dad's. So we wore them on our walk and looked quite dashing.

Playing with cousins at the Dinosaur museum and a pic from when Seth's oldest brother (Lyle) and company came to see our house. Yes, you do see our Christmas tree up in the background. I'm pretty sure it's not a sin to set it up early. :0)

It was so fun playing with cousins and catching up. Wish every Thanksgiving was this fun. We sure missed Seth's oldest sister and fam, but were happy to spend time with the rest of his family.