My Steal of a Deal

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it when the stores practically just gives you things. As you all probably know, Kohls is my absolute favorite store, and for good reason. Today Allie and I went to Kohls in search of some white church shoes with straps for her to wear in Disneyland with her princess dress. We struck out there, but we found some great deals.
There was a bag hanging in the girls clothes area. It held a satin purple wadded up mess. There was no picture, price, or clue as to what it was. I had actually ordered this very item in September, but we went a different route for Halloween. Allie tried on the Jasmine costume, and it fit. She told me how the Jasmine was just going to love seeing her in her new Jasmine costume. I told her we could only get it if the price was right.
At the checkout, the costume rang in at original price of $44.99. They are still listed on the website at that price. As the cashier was trying to find out what to charge me, a manager came walking by. She asked, and I think he just wanted it out of the store, "Give it to her for 90% off."
Allie turned to me and asked if we could get it. Uhhh Yes. So it rang in for $4.49. Then I had an extra 30% off coupon. In grand total, the costume was $3.15.
Doesn't Allie make a cute Jasmine?
Then to make the deal even better, Kayla tried the costume on, and she can wear it too!!!

My Cute New Church Bag

For Christmas Mom had a lady make some new church bags for all of us girls. I love mine so much, I just had to show it off.

There are pockets lining the inside that came already filled with necessities like Kleenex, pen and notepad, cough drops, mints, scripture bookmark, hand sanitizer, wipes, etc.

This is the medium size. I am very tempted to order myself a small one to use as a purse and a large one for carting everything when we go into Salt Lake for the day. I'm thinking it could be a very cute birthday present. (Hint Hint-Nathan-Hint Hint)

Dessert Fondue

Tradition says that on New Year's Eve we have dessert fondue later in the night, but since it was at my house I voted we wait and do the desserts the next evening when we weren't so full. I think we enjoyed it more this way.
Kayla couldn't wait to try everything.
There was carmel and chocolate fondues. Then for dipping we had gala apples, granny smith apples, bananas, mandarin oranges, mini marshmallows, and since nobody wanted maraschino cherries, M&M's to fill the last spot.

There was also angel food and pound cake for the gluten eaters, and a GF white cake for the special ones. Kayla and Daddy really wanted me to put the camera away so they could start eating.

We have traditionally only done this the one time a year, but this summer we did this (on a little smaller scale) with friends using all fresh fruit. It was really yummy and it helped convince Kayla fruit it good. Now she'll even ask for fruit-not often, but such a huge improvement.

New Year's Party

I had a lot of fun getting ready for our New Year's Eve dinner. I got out my new table cloth and place mats that Bert and Darla gave me for Christmas. (I bought 4 red ones with matching napkins to complete the set.) Walmart had these plates, cups, and napkins on clearance that matched my linens perfect. I also got some plastic bowls that are polka dotted in the same two shades of green and red for really cheap that I can use for serving. The ribbon that I used for my chinese boxes was perfect for a few bows. The table was set, but it still needed something-so everybody got their own box complete with goodies.
I love decorating the table! I couldn't bring myself to using fabric napkins for fondue, especially with styrofoam plates. We'll use those next time.

Ready to eat!!!

After dinner we had a very, very tiny little fireworks show for the girls.

Back in the warm house, we played games! Kayla and Allie had a blast playing the wii with Amy and Tyler.

Chef Allie served us all some green eggs and ham.

The newlyweds.

The not so new newlyweds. And Kayla.

The really not so new newlyweds.

Allie really attached herself to Tyler. She was constantly climbing on him, getting him to play games with her, and basically just trying to be with him as much as possible. It was pretty cute!

We welcomed in the New Year with a slight pause in our game. I've noticed that year after year, it seems we stay up so late visiting and playing the week after Christmas that by New Year's that we're all so exhausted it ends up being the earliest we go to bed all week-if 1:30 can be called early. So Silly.

The Lights at Temple Square

Since we went to Pocatello for Christmas, I thought it would be fun to invite my family down for New Years. At the last minute Cory and Angie decided to back out when Cory found out he had to work. They were missed, but we still had lots of fun!!!
Mom and Dad came early for some extra relaxing and visiting. Then we all met at Temple Square to look at lights. After last year's mess, we went early, walked around the visitor center, and just as we were finishing, the lights came on outside. It was perfect timing.
Kayla, Papa, and Allie arriving at Temple Square.
It was nice to enjoy the spirit and get to look around inside the visitor center. We got a nice picture of our whole group.

The girls listened really well to the Christmas story. It was different seeing the statues covered in 4 inches of snow.

Beautiful lights.

Dad and Mom

These are how I remember the lights from when I was a kid. Unfortunately there were only two of the huge trees with lights on them. Amazing.

Our girls with their newly adopted parents.

Nate and the girls stood looking at the temple for quite a while. I was pretty impressed with how thoughtful the kids were being. Then Allie turned to me, can I touch the water? Is it cold? She was reflecting-just not on what I thought...

Our little family.

Once last picture with the temple in the background as we head for warmth, food, and games at home.

What was Santa Thinking?

Santa brought the girls little makeup sets complete with fake fingernails. Allie wanted hers on first. Kayla was determined to save hers for Disneyland.
(She loves her hat Angie, but unfortunately can only wear it about 5 minutes before it hurts her head. If you have time to make her and I one, I'll gladly buy the yarn. I'd love brown or cream or white, and she'd be thrilled with white. Let me know.)
Check out the princesses! Allie loved the nails until... she tried to do ANYTHING. She peeled them off within 20 minutes. No thank you!!!

After Allie's experience I wizened up and told Kayla she couldn't wear them at Disneyland because she wouldn't be able to do anything. So she decided she wanted them on that day.

It's Hannah Montana! Kayla LOVED her nails. She wore them for several days, just pushing them back down every time they got loose. The first hour or two she couldn't do anything, but then I was surprised how little they got in her way. She was so sad when they all came off... it scares me a little.

Disneyland Coupons

Since I worked so hard on these, I just had to show them off. These are the coupons the girls received for Christmas. Each was in its own envelope and numbered. My plan was to build suspense on where we'd be going.

They each got $15 in nice crisp bills that they immediately folded and shoved into their little wallets.

More Christmas

After finishing Christmas with my family, we headed over to Nate's parents for more celebrating.
Santa brought Morgan a doll just like Mandy. They had fun showing off their twins.
All four girls posing, but only one girls looking... Oh well.

Apparently I'm angelic-in the slinky kind of way. Hmmm that doesn't sound right.

Nate got a tetris like game. It's pretty fun to play with 2-4 players.

We gave all the Grandma and Grandpas ABC books of the girls this year that I made. I had fun coming up with 26 words to describe Kayla and Allie. Some, like quirky, were the perfect fit while y was a really hard letter and finally settled on yankee. I think everybody liked them.

We played some games before leaving early for some much needed sleep. I'd been so anxious to tell the kids about their big present I hadn't slept for about a week.

Thank you everybody! We love you all!