Attack of the Birds

I was walking through my family room this morning when movement in the backyard caught my eye. I quickly got the girls to come look and the camera. (Sorry the picture is blurry. I was taking it through the window so we didn't scare them off.)

Let it Snow!

Friday we got pounded with snow. Luckily Nate had a short day and got home right before the snow came and the roads turned to ice. It probably only snowed 2 1/2 hours, but we got around 8 inches. Nate, Allie, and I shoveled all our snow and started on the neighbors house before thinking that he has a triple car garage and RV pad; that's a lot of snow. It ended up being fun, but we were definately ready for some hot chocolate by the time we finished.

Later Kayla and Nate went outside to play and get the last inch of snow shoveled. Our neighbor beat us to the punch this time; so mostly they just got to play. Kayla built herself this nice snow chair. She loved it and couldn't wait to go sit in it Saturday.
My snow angel!

Our Christmas house.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Happy Birthday Makayla!

Makayla is now officially 6 years old. Last Thursday was her birthday and her whole class celebrated by having a Polar Express party and wearing their pajamas to school. She thought it was wonderful and really thought it was cool when I let her go to play in her pajamas too.

After Daddy got home she opened her present to find a new Polly Pocket.

And a cute new shirt.

Then she got a musical princess card.

Allie had to run and get hers so they could compare them.

Then we sang Happy Birthday while Makayla blew out the candles on her fudge. That's right. After getting a small sampling from a plate of goodies delivered by the neighbors, Kayla wanted fudge for her birthday. It was a hit! Daddy took one bite, sighed, and said now this is how fudge is supposed to taste. I wish all birthday desserts were so simple and so well received. :)

Makayla's Christmas Program

All the kingergartens got together to put on a play for the parents. They opened the program singing Jingle Bells. Then they did their play. It was the ABC's of Christmas. Her teacher read something about each letter while the kids acted them out.
M is for mistletoe. This was really cute as the boys suddenly realized what the girls were holding and took off running.

T is for train. Makayla lead the train around the stage. Unfortunately we never got a picture of her face while onstage.

Z is for sleeping.

After the kids were all asleep, they woke up to sing a few more carols including Suzy Snowflake.

It was quite cute, and probably just about the right amount of time on stage to introduce them to acting. Kayla was pretty nervous beforehand, but she did great!

Temple Square

I love to go to Temple Square and see all the beautiful lights-normally. This year things just didn't work out. Our plan was to be there about 4:30. Go look around inside the visitor center until dark. Then walk around and enjoy a nice pleasant evening before it got too cold. Unfortunately everything took longer than expected, and we didn't make it to downtown until about 6pm. Traffic was a nightmare, and it took up to a 1/2 hour just to drive 1 block.
We eventually realized there was something getting ready to start at the Conference Center and the Jazz game was about to begin. All the parking lots were reserved for those with a Conference ticket or Jazz ticket. After an 1 1/2 of getting no where, we drove to Smith's Marketplace to use the facilities and get the kids a quick snack. We left Mom and Dad's car there and piled in the van. Nate said he'd drop us off and hopefully park in the $10 (ouch) parking we'd seen from a distance earlier.
The girls had seen these trees in our driving and thought they were really cool. Kayla couldn't believe how big it was up close.
What a beautiful sight.

Papa, Kayla, Allie, and Grandma pose near the reflecting pond in front of the temple.

Look at the pretty lights behind the pretty girls.

A sweet sister missionary stopped to take this picture of all of us together. You make ask where is Nathan. He is still driving around unable to find a place to park regardless of cost.

Another shot of the gorgeous Salt Lake City Temple.

This is as close as we got to the Christus. The visitor center was closed before we made it to that side of Temple Square.

I'm pretty sure that look says, "What are you guys doing to me? Are you crazy?"

Well, we got to see the lights as we raced through the temple grounds. Nate said he quite enjoyed the red and green of the traffic lights accented by the red brake lights of thousands of cars. Unfortunately the grounds were so packed, the weather so cold, and the visitor centers closed (at 9pm) we didn't stay very long. The girls couldn't handle the cold, and Nate was ready to pick us up. Well, I guess we'll always remember the Christmas light fiasco of 2008.

Happy 3rd Birthday Allie!

While we celebrate the girls' birthdays in the summer, we still want to make their actual birthdays special too. They get one small present, and we try to make the day about them. Allie and I went to lunch while Kayla was in school, and then we made brownies for her birthday too.
Allie got Dr. Bubbles. A little doctor kit for playing in the bathtub. Both girls loved using it in Mommy's big bath Saturday morning.

Allie had seen these musical cards at Walmart one time, and she absolutely loved them. I splurged and got each girl one (shhh don't tell Kayla yet). Allie has been carting it all over the house singing, "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes..." Totally worth it.

Make a wish!

And the Winner Is...

Miss Makayla Ann Hulse!!!

Tonight was the Award Ceremony for Kayla's school's Reflections Program. Makayla won 1st Place for Photography competing against kids K-2nd grade. We knew about this award, and Kayla was bouncing on her seat as soon as they announced the Photography category.

I think she might be excited.

When they started on the Visual Arts category Kayla was starting to zone out. It was the last category, and Kayla wasn't paying close attention. They called her name for winning 2nd Place, and she just sat there stunned. We had to push her out of her chair to go get her certificate and prize.
Look at all this fun stuff Kayla came home with. I think she'll be drawing up a storm for quite a while with all this cool art supplies. It is such a great prize for her since she is really into drawing right now. I've never gone through printer paper so fast before.

Way to Go Kayla!

But Mommy...

I want to play in the snow.

We got home from taking Kayla to school Monday and Allie refused to come in the house. She didn't care that there wasn't even enough snow to begin to cover the grass. All she cared about was throwing snowballs/flakes and stomping around in the driveway.

Reading, Writing, and Meeting Santa

Kayla's school had a fun holiday season literacy night for K - 2nd Grade and their families. The girls and I were getting ready to leave when Sienna found out we were going to see Santa; we decided to bring her too.
We started the evening by writing letters to Santa. The kids all knew what they wanted, but I must say it is hard to write two letters and help a third child spell hers while there are about a million other things going on in the room at the same time. Allie wants Christmas lights and a Christmas tree. I reminded her we already have those things, and she was supposed to tell Santa what kind of toy she wants. Allie decided she wants some Littlest Pet Shop Animals. Kayla knew she wants a bigger bike and a glass tea set with pink flowers on it and a princess phone, but she wrote cat and bike on her list because she was in a hurry to be done. Sienna wants a princess computer and princess clothes ...
After writing the letters and mailing them, we went to one other station and read a story. The kids couldn't wait any longer; so we got in line to see Santa. Here the girls are waiting. We must have been in line at least 45 minutes.
Here is Kayla telling Santa all her wishes.
I worried about Allie, but she knows all about Santa this year and wasn't scared at all.
Sienna got her turn too.
Santa gave all the kids a book for coming. He had elves that tried to give them books according to their reading level. We had to come straight home and read both stories.

Kayla Lost Her First Tooth

After a lot of torture. Kayla lost her first tooth. We thought it would be a good idea to tie string around her tooth and have Allie run and yank it out.

The first error was thinking that Allie would run. Allie couldn't figure out why we wanted to her run when she was attached to Kayla's mouth. She would go hesitantly until she was out of string. Since all this was doing was torturing Kayla, Papa grabbed Allie's hand and they took off together. Second mistake. We used heavy string, but not heavy enough. It broke. Daddy then pulled himself, and the string broke again. At this point Kayla is crying. Finally Daddy yanked the tooth out.

Kayla was not very happy to have gone through all that pain. She didn't think it was very funny or nice.

It didn't take her long before she was thrilled to be missing her first tooth. She has been so happy to show everyone the hole in her mouth. Today at school she told about her lost tooth for show and tell. Kayla said she didn't tell that the tooth fairy brought her money because she didn't want anyone else to feel bad if the tooth fairy didn't bring them money.

Thanksgiving Weekend

What a fun and exhausting weekend. Let me give a quick recap. Thursday we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Kathy and Byron's house. We then celebrated Grandma Garbett and Dad's birthdays. Afterwards we headed to Mom and Dad's to finish making our plan of attack for Black Friday.
Nate and I left the house at the insane hour of 4am. We went to Walmart, Fred Meyer, Sears, JCPenneys, Gottchalks, and Walgreens all by 9am. (Thanks for watching the kids Mom.) We were able to get most everything we wanted, and I am happy to say we are officially done with our Christmas shopping.
Friday afternoon to went to Hulse's for haircutting, a trip to the Gingerbread bake-off, another delicious Thanksgiving dinner, family pictures, and lots of visiting. I was running on probably only about 5 hours of sleep since about Tuesday night. After dropping the kids off at Terra's I still had to go make cheesecake for Saturday. I fell asleep before they were finished. Nate put them in the fridge and headed off to play games. He got back about 3:30am.
Saturday we went to Terra's to get the kids and enjoy breakfast together. Then we made our gingerbread houses.
About 1pm we rushed back to Mom and Dad's to finish throwing together a salad, change the kids clothes, and grab everything we needed for the Miles/Garbett Holiday party. We had a great time getting to see people we haven't seen for a while. They had an auction; Kayla was thrilled to come home with some fun stamps. I hope Andrea will enjoy the necklace I made.
Sunday Allie woke up sick, again. I nominated Papa, the sickest adult, to stay home while the rest of us enjoyed church. It is funny how some wards everybody leaves for the holidays and others all the kids come to visit. My parents ward is definately one that grows around the holidays. They had to bless the water 3 different times to get enough and the bread twice. The sacrament took so long, one of the speakers was asked to wait and give her talk another time.
Then Amy and Tyler (her boyfriend) and Angie, Cory, and the boys came over for dinner and games. We had fun finally getting to play together for a little while.
I am very thankful for all the time we had to spend enjoying everybody's company this weekend. It was tons of fun! I am anxiously looking forward to seeing everybody again. (Our door is always open-You can visit us too. Hint! Hint!)

Making Gingerbread Houses

After going to see Grandma's house the girls were especially excited to get to make their own. First we enjoyed a yummy Thanksgiving dinner. Then all the kids except Kaden went to a fun sleepover at Terra's house (7 cousins and one adult). Thank you Terra they had a blast. We all got together Saturday morning for breakfast.
Afterwards it was on to making our Gingerbread or in our case Chocolate houses. Unfortunately Nate and I ran out of chocolate bars for our roof. Hopefully we'll find time to finish it.

Candyland

Every year we get together and make Gingerbread Houses with the Hulse family. The last few years Nate's mom has been donating her houses to Habitat for Humanity. The last two years at least she's won 2nd place (1st place get $1000), and this year she got people's choice too.
Terra and Darla spent many late nights making this really cool Candyland. The kids loved it, and one little boy (who's family won it in the auction) just stood in front of it all night.
Check out Texas Roadhouse.
Ethan and Makayla in front of Candyland.

Jordyn was enjoying this cute house.

Jonas' cookie!

Morgan's cookie! Check out Morgan's cute new hair do.

Jordy wouldn't smile for the camera cuz she was too sad she had to wait til after dinner to eat her cookie.

Allie's Cookie (Kayla helped her with the frosting since she didn't need her own to eat.)

Ethan's Cookie