Ugly Sweater Party!!

So this had to have been one of the funniest parties I have ever been too! (thanks to Kim and Amy for throwing it!) Here we are in some of the sweetest sweaters ever... in some of the sweetest poses ever!! Be sure to check out my sweater...I think it was made for some one a little more round with really short arms? We had a great white elephant exchange with some pretty crazy presents? Then we had a root beer taste test with 10 different brands of root beer. I thought that root beer all tasted the same, but I was proved very wrong...why do we even drink that stuff (yuck)! What a lucky girl to have such awesome girl friends (your hubbies are pretty cool too!) I love you girls and can't wait for our next get together!!

Happy New Year!!

The Polar Express

My mom got us tickets on The Polar Express! Well sort of...just a little smaller:)

We had such a great time with the Fam. It was a great start to a great Christmas!

Not only did we get to see Santa, but even more important, we remembered the true meaning of Christmas!

Grannie and Pa with the kiddos

Audrey trying to smile with Santa despite the nervousness

Abby Babby with Santa

On the Train ready to go

the rest of the fam

Catch up...

So we have been home for a couple weeks now...and I just haven't been able to get myself to sit down and get caught up! I know that if I keep putting it off it will only get worse...and probably never happen. So here it goes! Prepare yourselves for a long couple of posts:)

Here is how we celebrated the rest of Abby's Birthday!

Dinner with mom, dad and Audrey at Chuck E Cheese

played all the fun games and rode the rides

Present: Leapster(pink of course)

Celebrated in Utah with Grannies, Pas and cousins

Princess Bell Cake

Spoiled

spoiled...spoiled:)

Great Birthday!!

Thanks to everyone for making it such a special day for Abby!!

Preschool party!

At preschool they celebrated Abby's Birthday. She wanted donuts (with sprinkles) for her treat! Audrey has to be right in the middle, just like all the big kids! Thanks Miss Char for making Abby feel so special!

Gotta love that ear holding up her hat:)

Happy Birthday Abby!!

What a fun day we had!! Our Abby turns 4 on December 9th, so we decided to have a princess party for her. Abby has loved princesses for the last year and a half straight! So we thought this was a perfect opportunity to have a bunch a girlie girls over to celebrate out cute Abby!! We had a house full of little 3 and 4 year olds...I was a little nervous, but they were great! When they arrived we put special princess makeup on. We played a bunch of fun games, pin the crown on the princess, the princess and the pea( the girls had to sit on three pillows and decide which pillow the pea (golf ball) was under, pass the crown (hot potato) and then we made beautiful crowns and mirrors for each princess. Each of the girls enjoyed a pink cupcake with pink lemonade! We opened presents that were all fit for a princess (thank you) and the girls played and played!!

Abby with her princess cupcakes

The beautiful princesses making their crowns and mirrors


Playing games and singing songs

Christmas Festivities

This weekend we decided to get in as many Christmas Festivities as possible before we head to Utah. So the girls and I met some of our friends at The Davenport Hotel for Christmas Tree Elegance. This actually turned out to be pretty cool...especially if we win. You get to walk around and see all these trees that have been decorated and donated by businesses along with cash prizes, trips, diamond rings, leather chairs, family portraits, etc. Then you can buy raffle tickets for a dollar for the trees you like the best...and then they have a drawing on the 13th and if they draw your name you get the tree and all the prizes that go along with the tree. So wish my friends and I luck...we could really use a win!:)

my favorite tree

The girls in front of the huge Christmas tree in the Davenport.

Then on Sunday night we went to the Nativities Around the World that is hosted by our Spokane Stake. It is a really fun tradition to do every year and is also a great missionary opportunity! There are over 800 Nativities from around the world that are displayed beautifully, they also have a place to dress up and take nativity photos (which we couldn't leave without doing!) There is a kids area with stories, coloring, and kids nativities to play with. We had such a fun night with our friends as you can see from the picture!

sticky face Audrey...suckers are the best!!



Some of the nativities

Paige, Bryce and Cj, Tyson, Brody and Heather, Me, Audrey, Abby and Levi and
Shay and Misty

CDA Light Parade

The day after Thanksgiving we headed over to Cour DE Alene for the annual light parade. It was cold and snowing, which soon turned to rain, but we still had a good time! The kids got to see Santa in the Parade, and then after they had a firework show. It was crazy to see fireworks when there was such a huge cloud cover. You could see light behind the clouds when they would go off and a few got down low enough for us to see them. We had a fun time and definitely froze, but it's a good memory!

Our friends Beau and Maureesa

Decorating the Christmas Tree!

So the last week has been really crazy for us! Levi has been studying like a mad man for finals and on top of that he has had to be at tithing settlement. I have had the Young Women in Excellence Program (and set up the night before), Feeding the missionaries, Hair appointments, Abby's birthday party, and teaching the lesson for Young Women's on Sunday...not to mention trying to get everything ready to go to Utah for Christmas! So we had a few minutes on Tuesday night before I had to head to set up for YW so we decided to decorate the tree. The girls absolutely loved it...Audrey was so funny, she watch Abby and I for a few seconds and then jumped right in hanging up as many ornaments as she could! If you look at the bottom of the tree you can see Audrey's contribution:)! Abby decided to take one side of the tree and put all her ornaments on it...she even figured out a way to hang her princess sunglasses on the tree. I am glad that we decided to get a tree this year (we were really close to not getting one) the girls really enjoyed decorating it and it help us to get into the Christmas Spirit and make some great memories!

I had to take a pic of the girls right before we headed out the door (I was passing them off to Levi at the Church so I could decorate for YW...that's why they are in their jammies).

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Levi was too crazy with school to allow us to go to Utah, so we got some friends together and enjoyed the holiday! It was a small group but it was really nice to be able to relax and really enjoy the meal and company. Our friends Mandy and Colby hosted it at their house. She did such a great job decorating and made the table look so beautiful! Paige and Bryce made the turkey and it was also so beautiful! She displayed it with parsley, orange slices and cranberries. Not only did it look beautiful but it tasted spectacular!

The kids had a great time playing and eating too!

Thanks to my mother in law and my mom for all their help with the yummy rolls! (last year they were a disaster...I used bad yeast)

Audrey enjoying a little banana cream pie!

Cute Tate and Abby eating pie and watching movies:)

Stake Football Champs!!

Moran Prairie Ward Stake Football Champs!!
It was a fun season to watch the guys play ball. They worked hard and
in the end it payed off. It was a close couple of games with the 6th Ward (last years champs)
But Moran Prairie came out on top!

Audrey enjoying the game...trying to share
her chair with C.J. :)

My cute girls cheering on their DADDY!!

Halloween Party!

So last year I planed a Halloween Party for a bunch of our friends and it was a success. Everyone wanted to have another party this year...so we planed it again. I had a ton of help from everyone this year especially Paige (thanks so much)! We were lucky to get to have the party at the institute building this year. They had a ping pong table, pool table and a foose ball table, needless to say all the hubby's were happy! Paige planed a darling Ghost Hunt for all the little kids. She had a bubble blower, balloons, cute Halloween music playing and tons of candy for all the kiddos. It was so much fun!! We also had a Costume Contest for all the Adults... the winners were

Paige and Bryce ( basketball and Dr. J, there baby was the ref)

Taylor North (tooth fairy)

check out the pics and be sure not to THROW UP when you see our picture!!

How did we get such cute girls???

White trash!!

The Gals

The Guys

All the cute families

Preschool Party

Here is Abby Lou at her Halloween party with her preschool class.

She has made some great friends...and I have too! Her Teacher Miss Char

is so great! She relates so well to each of the kids and you can really tell she

loves to teach!

Here they are lined up for the parade



Miranda (Abby's best buddie) and Abby

Abby didn't want to walk by her self...and Audrey didn't

want her to walk alone either!

Singing some fun Halloween songs

After the costume parade they had some fun singing and
decorating cookies. Again Audrey has to be in the middle of things:)