The Advent Calender

Grandma Pattie brought over an advent calender she had made for our family. We had the same one when I was little and I loved it. Isabelle loves it too. She spent about an hour before bed looking in all the pockets and deciding which ornaments to put on the tree. This morning she came in at 4:00 and asked me if it was time to put something new up on the tree. This is going to be a favorite for years to come!

Gingerbread House

Grandpa Clyde, Grandma Chris and Aunt Candice came to dinner tonight. After dinner, Bella asked if we could make a gingerbread house. Lucky for us, Aunt Candice has decorating skills. I think more candy was eaten than put on the house! Afterwards, Bella put a on a small ballet performance, with some encouragement from Grandpa and Aunt Candice. It was a wonderful Sunday evening all together.

Happy Birthday Holly and Grandpa Clyde!

It was Holland Marie's 1st Birthday! (Don't you just love her name? I especially love to call her Holly!) We had a fun party and Grandpa let all the kids have their own turn blowing out the candles. I think the highlight for Belle was frosting her own cupcake. Melia dumped a whole jar of sprinkles on Belle's plate and she went to town! She would dip her knife in frosting and then pull it up covered with sprinkles, enjoying everyone. Needless to say, she was quite a handful from all the sugar. It was a great party! Thanks Aunt Janine!

Festival of Trees

We spent a little time at the Festival of Trees. There were far roo many for us to see all of them, but Bella loved the ones we did see. I told her at the first that this was very special and she couldn't touch anything. After that, every time she saw something she wanted, she would ask if it was special and could she have it. She loved the Cinderella, penguin and Care Bear trees. In fact, she wanted Dad to take her picture in front of the Care Bear one. Mom loved the ladybug tree! Do you like the scraf? Jake and Abe gave it to Bell and she loves it! She insists on wearing it everywhere!

The Nativity

Every year I debate about putting out the nativity I brought home from my mission in Chile. It really can't be replaced if something happened to it and I would be so upset if one of the pieces broke. But it makes me sad not to have it out. I usually just get it out and look at it and then put it away. I thought maybe if I talk to Isabelle about it, stressing it is very special and we don't touch it maybe it would be okay. I had her watch me as I was putting it out and told her about each piece. She was very careful to watch and didn't even try to touch it. When I got out the Baby Jesus she looked at it and started to sing "I Am A Child of God." It was such a sweet little moment. I am so glad I decided to get it out with her!

Putting Up the Tree

We spent the morning before Thanksgiving dinner putting up our big Christmas Tree and getting out decorations. Everything was a wonderful surprise to Bella. Her favorite was the Christmas Tinkerbell Doll we got at Disneyland last December. She had forgotten about out and when Dad handed it to her she said, "Oh thank you Dad, this was just what I always wanted. Thank you, thank you, thank you." We added to our collection of Disney ornaments too, (I want a tree in the basement with just Disneyland on it, maybe next year.) with Mickey, Minnie, Lightening McQueen, Alice, Belle and especially for Bella, Tinkerbell. I think she had a pretty good time decorating the tree. Now, I have to finish the rest of the house!

Thanksgiving Day

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family. Good food and even better company. I got to get Baby Caroline into her pajamas. She is such a cute little thing. I love this picture of Bret teaching Jake what he calls "The Essentials." It was a little crazy with all the grandkids, but they seemed tohave so much fun. Isabelle played for 7 hours straight, she was exhausted by the time we left! I think the favorite thing was for the grandkids to throw Grandma's socks on her chandelier, they had such a funny time, you could hear the laughter echoing through the house. Ome sock started smoking a little so that had to end, but it was sure fun while it lasted!