Christmas Festivities 2014

This was our first time having a full-size tree. The kids loved decorating it and Grant only spent the first few days redecorating/throwing ornaments.

We had a great ward Christmas party. Abby, as usual, wasn't interested in visiting Santa.

We were asked to be the nativity family.

Clara was the crowd favorite as the little lamb.

As you can see, Grace thoroughly enjoyed her first Christmas.

Grant got all things vehicle related. We had a hard time getting him to stop playing with the first toy he opened to see the other things.

The girls had such a great Christmas, despite Clara being in a cast. That probably deserves its own post but I don't know if I'll get around to it.

Thanksgiving 2014

For Thanksgiving, my family gathered at our home for a weekend of fun. I guess I never got the pictures Merrick took on the big day. She's better at remembering to take pictures than I am but I'll use the excuse that I was busy in the kitchen.

While they were here, we figured we better take them to the ostrich farm. It was a warm, gorgeous day and everyone had a blast feeding the animals.

We also took family pictures while everyone was here so I thought I'd throw this in for good measure.

Halloween Festivities

The girls decided they wanted to be Elsa and Anna for Halloween as soon as they saw the movie. I had looked at some tutorials and was contemplating making the dresses. However, when I saw these dresses on sale, I decided to snatch them up. I ordered them in May and they didn't come until mid-September. I wouldn't let them wear the dresses until Halloween.

We figured that Grant should be Olaf to coordinate with his sisters. I finished making his costume the night before Grace was born.

We attended a neighborhood trunk-or-treat that Sam's office was participating in. It was a lot of fun!

Grant wasn't being very cooperative for pictures. He was people-watching and was very distracted. His costume was a hit. There were so many Elsas and Anna's that an Olaf was quite a novelty.

Sam's parents were visiting last week to help with Grace so we had the cousins over a few times to play and to hang out with Grammy and Grandpa. He did pumpkin carving one night.

Abby and Ella insisted on doing stencils on their pumpkins and it took forever. Abby finally let me help her finish but pumpkin carving is not one of my talents.

Grant was obsessed with "carving" the pumpkins. He cried inconsolably for like 20 minutes when we cleaned up all the pumpkin stuff.

The cousins came back over for Abby's birthday and they went trick-or-treating together. They made out like bandits and had a blast.

Grant's costume looked the best when he was looking down.

Family Staycation

Philip and Merrick came into town and my parent's decided to treat us to a resort in Scottsdale, AZ. We stayed at The Westin Kierland Spa and Resort. It was a gorgeous hotel with a delicious buffet breakfast.

We spent most of our time outside mixed with a little bit of relaxing in the rooms for naps/bedtime. 

We all had fun playing in the pool, going down the slide and floating in the lazy river.

These three have so much fun playing together. I love that my kids are close with their cousins.

I didn't get a lot of pictures. Sam had to work so he didn't get to spend a lot of time at the resort and I didn't want to leave the kids to fetch the camera. I was able to snap these shots on the morning we got to go to the pool with daddy.

Grant loved the splash pad, particularly laying down in the middle of it.

It was a fun weekend but not super relaxing juggling the kiddos without my partner in crime. Oh, the things we endure for our sweet little ones.

Monsoon Storms

The kids have been enjoying monsoon season and have had several chances to play in the rain. We haven't had a drop of rain in months so it's been pretty exciting.

Usually, monsoon storms are fast and furious--a lot of rain comes down in a very short period of time. They also seem to occur in the evening.

On this day, it rained off and on for most of the late morning and into the afternoon. The kids had a blast playing outside, making mud pies and getting filthy.

It's funny how your perspective changes. When we lived in Philly, I used to dread rainy days. They always made me feel melancholy--especially when there were several rainy days in a row. Now, three rainy days in a row is cause for celebration!

Independence Day 2014

On the morning of the 4th, we drove to my parent's house to spend the weekend. As soon as we arrived, the kids were begging to swim. It was pretty stormy the night before and there were still a lot of clouds so it wasn't as hot as a typical Arizona morning.

Grant loves the pool. He's usually pretty calm and relaxed. When we brought him in wrapped in his towel, I thought he was going to fall right to sleep.

Abby and Myrta.

Clara loves to jump in. She makes us all a little nervous because she doesn't always pay attention to where she's jumping.

I love this picture of Abby. Can't you just feel the fun?

We spent to afternoon hanging out, BBQed for dinner and then went out for frozen yogurt. We came back and put Grant to bed and my parent's graciously stayed home with him so we could take the girls to watch the fireworks.

There was music playing while we waited for the fireworks to start and the girls were getting their groove on.

Do you like Abby's patriotic outfit? She came up with it all by herself. Clara spilled juice on herself at dinner and I forgot to pack her an extra outfit so she just went in jammies.

It was a really great show. It was a lot of fun watching with the girls. Clara has never seen fireworks and Abby's never really heard them.

Clara was asleep almost immediately when we got in the car. It was a late night for them but totally worth it!