Early Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Emma's birthday today with Grandma and Grandpa Erickson. Grandma made Emma two dresses- one for church and one for her baptism day. Her Aunt Lara made her a cool flower cake and her Aunt Heidi gave her a butterfly necklace. She got a set of scriptures from mom and dad with a cute scripture case to go with them. (Thanks so much TyLeen!)

Little Quin was trying to get into the presents. :)

My Sisters

I love my sisters.

They are valiant and courageous,
they are beautiful and smart.
They have tremendous self discipline in the face
of accomplishing their goals.

We talk. We laugh. We sometimes cry.
They are my best friends.

Ward Christmas Party Time

We had our ward Christmas party tonight. What a fun event. We got to see Santa and then the kids picked a table right in front for dinner. We had our friends Taya and Paxton Riner (friends we made in Ellensburg) with us because we were helping with babysitting. We are so glad to live close to each other again.

And of course they wanted to play in the walk way.
w/ Jaron and Isabella Sandoval and Malia Cook

Ben was most intent on his goodie bag from Santa.

Paxton had fun turning his candy cane into a gun.

We snagged a crayon to keep the kids occupied while we waited
for dinner by drawing on the table cloth. Good thing they were paper. ;)

The primary kids sang a song as part of the program. Some neighbor boys came to the party and really wanted to stand on the stage with the kids even though they didn't know the songs. They're the two red headed boys in stripes by my kids. It was so cute during the song, the older boy leaned forward and said to Jason,"I don't know the words." Jason tried to quietly tell him that was OK and the boy said, "What?" really loudly. It was so cute and funny.

Counting Down: The 15th

My sister also gave us this really cute advent with 24 mini books.

Each book tells part of the story of Jesus' birth.
Today we caught up. This is how many we were behind.

Counting Down: The 14th

They love to pull the little boxes out on this one.

Once we take the candy out, we turn it around.
When we're done, it will display a picture
of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem.

Counting Down: the 13th

Oh how the craft supplies pile up when it's Christmas time. We brought this table in for Thanksgiving and it quickly became my crafty catch all. This way we can still use the table and I have all my stuff close. :) Emma had to scale the table and all of my stuff to put up the next magnet.

Pocket Countdown

I made a pocket countdown for my sister-in-law. I just did it for the 12 days of Christmas, because 24 would have been crazy! I am in love with little denim pockets right now. They are so fun to use. I'm going to make one for me too. :)

Counting Down: The 11th

My sister also gave the kids this fun advent with stickers.
Simple, but the kids really like it.

A White Christmas

Now this is my idea of a white Christmas.

I'm not such a big fan of the mess and worry that snow brings.
This is my mom's garden under the magical winter spell of the last few days.




Emma and Katelyn

Counting Down: the 9th

My sister gave us this countdown candle.

You burn it down one number a day.
The kids really like watching the flame do it's magic on this one.

This has also been a fun one for me because
I remember doing this when I was younger.
I think we'll have to keep this tradition.