Just Loving This Christmas Season

Hannah ran to the Christmas tree and got her favorite ornament, a simple nut cracker.  

I love the little things that bring happiness to those that seek it.

Daddy loves his littlest girl.  She begged him to sit next to her for pictures and he did.  

I just love this sweet photo of my baby and my husband.

I also loved a picture similar to this one on pinterest and tried it tonight.  I turned off every light in the house besides the tree.  Then I had the girls stand very still in front of the tree.  It was fun seeing the different poses that we could get.

As a child I always loved lying under the Christmas tree.  I had my girls do that tonight just for fun.  Christmas time is so fun.  

My Favorite Day in the Year

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love celebrating the birth of Jesus and thinking about how He came to earth.  I love the music, the joy and peace, the lights, the tree, the smells and the food.  I so am delighted by all the little things surrounding Christmas.  As a child, one of my favorite memories was getting up early in the morning, before anyone else.  I would sneak downstairs in the dark and turn on the lights on the tree.  Then I would lay under the tree and look up through the branches, ornaments and lights.  It would take me to a magical place and I loved it.

Now I love seeing Christmas through my children's eyes.  I see their wonder and joy in all the little things.

Last night we got out most of our Christmas decorations and put them up around the house.  The girls so enjoyed opening all the boxes and finding treasures.  Hannah was trying to see into the little house to find the wheel that spun, changing the lights.

We set up the play nativity for the girls.  They must have spent an hour last evening having everyone come and visit the baby Jesus.  It was so cute.

Today is my favorite day of the whole year.  The day we get our tree.  For years we have joined the Carrillo's and the Riley's in their Christmas tradition of a potluck breakfast, the tree farm and Twin Apple Ranch.  Due to sickness and busy lives, this year it was just their families and mine.  We had a delicious breakfast of pancakes, french toast, berry deliciousness, bacon and apple cide.  Then we all headed for the Frosty Mountain Tree Farm.  The girls got stories read to them by Mrs. Santa, while I picked out some beautiful ornaments.  We have a tradition to give the girls an ornament every year for their own tree someday.  Lots of fun memories.

We found this great tree and took a family picture of it.  

Then we found two other trees we liked.   The girls each chose a different tree, so that was no help.  I finally chose one.  Then Chris saw that the trunk was only about an inch around and figured it wouldn't fit into our tree stand.  So we ended up getting Hannah's tree.

Bekah ended up pulling it.  She was so, so proud that she could do it all by herself.

After a fun time on the slide, we went on a hay ride.  

My girls loved climbing up on the tractor and playing.  

This is my favorite picture today.  I so love the fact that they do love each other and are the best of friends.  God has truly blessed us with them.

Then we headed to Twin Hills Apple Ranch for our free bag of apples and their awesome fire pit.

Since the Tonks couldn't join us earlier, we went out to lunch with them.  It was a great time to chill, catch up and have some yummy food.  I so appreciate the fact that I can eat a GF pizza here and not get sick.  They are awesome just because of that.

I got a nap when we got home.  The girls and Chris played with a marshmallow shooter and ping pong gun that some how made it home with us today.   I could hear them laughing and having a great time.

Hannah decided that the tree skirt made a great cape this year.    What a fun girl I have.  Then she climbed up in the window and announced that she was doing something dangerous.  Can you see the accomplished look on her face.  She just makes me laugh so much.

We had a great time going through all of our ornaments and showing the girls their very own ones.  This year I put out two blankets: one with glassable ones (Bekah coined that term for breakable glass things and it stuck) and one for kid safe ornaments.  We still broke three of them, but Chris had the super glue all ready.

Our tree is up and lovely (no picture though-not sure how that happened).  The girls had a bath while Chris made us salted caramel popcorn.  We watched Dumbo and had popcorn, hot cocoa and grapes for dinner.  It was a perfect day all around.  Relaxing, special and best of all, I got to spend it with my family.

Our First Broken Arm

I had a crazy, busy week before my little girl broke her arm.  I had worked for 6 nights straight, 4 of those nights with no break.  Multiple admissions, codes and a cooling baby.  I had just woken up on Monday, took a shower and met my family as they came home from the school.  We were just sitting around playing with soft frisbees.  Hannah knelt down to pick up one that had fallen on the ground.  Bekah was watching her daddy and backing up so she could get ready to catch the next frisbee.  She ended up tripping on Hannah and fell on her back, putting weight on Hannah's arm.  My littlest immediately started screaming.  I knew it was a "I'm actually hurt" cry and ran to her.  As soon as I saw her arm I could see that is looked a bit crooked and that she would have to get it fixed.

We called the pediatrician and they told us to go to the doctors office.  So we did.  And wasted an hour getting the info that yes they thought it was broken and we had to go to the ER.  We kind of already knew that.  So we drove to the Hospital and spent the next 3 1/2 hours there.

Hannah was a trooper.  No crying.  Very little whinning.  We sang and played games and tryed to get her to ignore her growling tummy as the hours ticked by.  Hannah loved the fish tank in the waiting room.  She named every fish in there: Blue, Orange and White, Yellow and White, Strawberry, Red.  Hannah ran back and fourth in front of the tank while I followed her while holding the ice pack under her arm.  Can't keep this little one down.  

She did great through the xrays and was amazing as they put the sugar tong splint on her wrist.  We sang Baby Mine to her and she just layed there with sleepy eyes as they wrapped up her arm.  I had promised her ice cream for being so brave.  She told everyone about it.

That night after we got home, Hannah ate her ice cream happily.  Then she started peeling the tape off her splint and told me she was ready to take it off.  She was not happy having to keep it on.

My cutie all ready for the day.

The next morning Hannah woke up screaming.  Her splint had fallen off in the night.  The ER said to call the orthopedic surgeon.  The answering service said that it was his day off and he wouldn't take calls from anyone he hadn't seen yet.  So off to the ER we went and Hannah got a plaster cast that couldn't come off.

Hannah was in good spirts while waiting for the doctor.  She played catch with daddy and drew pictures.  She is getting very good at figuring out how to do things with one hand.

The orthopedic doctor had a cool xray machine in his office.  He had to cut the plaster cast off so that he could take the xrays.  Then we found out that two of her bones were bent, not just one.  He put her in a fiberglass cast that glows in the dark.  She was so brave through the whole thing.  She did whimper a bit when he was putting her arm in a good position to heal correctly.

Then they had to cut off the extra bit around her thumb.  We got to wear cool eye protection and helicopter pilot ear protection.  

I love the look on Hannah's face here.  She was so trying to be brave, but I could feel her shaking a bit in my arms.  We gave her a See's Candy chocolate after everything was done.  She deserved it!

After we got her cast on, Hannah got to pick a special toy.  She picked a pink piggy, named pig.  We drove over to my parents house to see my Aunt Barbara and my Grandma Carol.  She accidently left her piggy there.  I called when Hannah realized that it was missing.  She talked to her Nana who assured her that the piggy was still there and would wait for her until tomorrow.

Later that night, she had me call again-just to make sure that the little pig was still there.  

So Hannah is doing great now.  She will have the cast on for three more weeks and then everything should be good.  My little peanut is feeling much better and is already running around and playing.  Thank-you for all your prayers!

All those funny saying that make me laugh!

How time does fly.  My little ones are growing up so fast.  I try hard to write down the sweet and funny things that they say so that I don't forget them.


Luke ( a boy in her class at school)told Bekah that he loved her and wanted to marry her. Bekah looked at him and told him that she had options and wasn't sure if she was going to marry him. She said that she might marry him or Crew or Josh or Max. Oh my!

I was giving my husband a hug and a kiss this morning while Hannah sat on the counter watching us. She piped up and said, "Keep your hands to your self!" We both just about fell on the floor laughing.

Hannah whispered to her Grandmom tonight, "If I eat too much, I'll get a baby in my tummy."

Hannah was telling Daddy about two books that the Berinstain Bears wanted to read, "The Three Fighting Kittens" and "The Three Billy Goats and the Gruff". Love how she mixes up the titles.

I wasn't feeling good yesterday and Hannah claimed she wasn't either. She looked at me and said, "Since we're not feeling good let's just not pick Bekah up from school today. Ok? " Umm. . . I think Bekah might have a problem with that.

Our van is in the shop, so we got a rental car. Bekah opened the door to get in today. She was very impressed. On the way to school she told me, "When I opened the door to the car I said, Gosh, then i GASPED because it was so beautiful." Make me laugh so hard.

Bekah, "I'm going to marry Crew!"
Papa, "Well, he has to talk to your daddy before he marries you." Bekah, "He can't ask my daddy. He doesn't know where our house is!"

Stephanie Writebol, so Bekah was sobbing before you were even in the car. Bekah said, "Allie told me not to tell you, but I'm going to tell you anyway. I am moving to Witchita, KS when I am grown up. I'm going to be next door neighbors to Allie. But don't worry mom, I'll still come visit you." Love how they are planning for the future.

Today I watched an advertisement with Bekah. At the end of it the guy said, "I am a mormon." Bekah looked at me with a question on her face and asked, "Why did he say he was a woman?"

Sayings from the girls from June, July, August, September

Brazillian BBQ Bobby Crocker Style

Auntie Shonna and Hannah played in the bounce house before everyone came over.  I love how Shonna can be so involved in the girls lives.  They just adore her.  Bekah had a great time swinging on the rope swing inside the bounce house.

 Many years ago a bunch of us came up with a fun idea for a get together.  We (all the wives) thought it would be great fun to have our husbands cook for us and compete for prizes.  We set up some ground rules and invited everyone. 

 The rules: The guy has to choose the recipe. 

 He has to shop for the ingredients.  

He has to make the dish and present it to the girls.  

Then the wives would taste everything and vote on the best appetizer, main dish and dessert. 

 We decided to call this fun evert the Bobby Crocker Cook-Off.  We just had fun hanging out and enjoying each others fellowship.  We have been doing it for years.  Some times the girls cook sometimes the guys cook.  We don't care as long as we get to enjoy fantastic food.

On another note, the guys in our group like to go to San Fransisco and eat at the Brazillian BBQ restaurant.   This place serves every kind of meat cooked in amazing, yummy ways.  The guys always came back talking about all the amazing meat that they were able to enjoy.  It is expensive and most of the girls could never eat enough to make it worth while.  

SO I decided to combine the two events.  We had a Bobby Crocker Cookoff, Brazillian BBQ style.  The rules were slightly different this time.  You had to make some kind of a meat dish, plus bring a salad or dessert.   I guessed that we should have something to eat besides just meat.   I made a bunch of batches of Brazillian Cheese Puffs to enjoy too.

We had amazing food: Bacon wrapped Filet Mignon, Tri-tip, Smoked Ribs, Citris Roasted Chicken, Grilled Tuna, Pizza and more.  

 This was so much fun!  We'll definitly have to do this again.

Sue, Morris, Chris and Jared hang out waiting for dessert.  I was so busy eating that I didn't take any pictures until after the main course was finished. 

Can you believe that this is gluten free.  I made a GF version of Caffe Latte's Turtle Cake.  Yummy!

Our friends Karoly,  Alexandra and Madeline enjoyed the food and fellowship.

Peek-a-boo!

Byron and Toy

Sue and Morris

Kelly and Wendy

Love this sweet picture!

Our new friends came to the BBQ.  

Love the cute boots!

Adorable Madeline wants to say "Cheese" for the camera.