build-a-bear

the kids got build-a-bear gift cards from granno this year. so off we went to the mall to create some new friends.

here is logan pushing on the pedal to fill up his bear. he picked out a camouflage bear which is very fitting for him.

here is allison being shy about stuffing her bear....sigh....

logan volunteered to step in and help her. what a good big brother!

they were super into combing their bear's hair and making them look all pretty.

allison affectionately named her bear "cutie bear." i love how both the kids picked out patterned bears.

 

and finally logan, with "army man bear."

thank you so much to granno for the gift cards! they had so much fun and now have a special bear to remind them of her!

christmas 2012

christmas eve

 the kids filled out their letters to santa and left him some cookies and milk...and don't forget the carrots for his reindeer!

 santa had come and put all the presents under the tree. i'd say we got a pretty good haul this year! the stockings were hung and the kids were sleeping away in their beds by then.

christmas day

christmas morning we got up and opened presents. the kids were so excited to see what santa had brought them!

 logan's favorite was a remote control helicopter.

 logan also got a skateboard which came in at a close second.

 allison's favorite was a remote control my little pony car.

then we had some quality snuggling time. it was nice to stay home and have a quiet christmas with our little family. later in the day we went to dan's parents house to have a gift exchange and christmas dinner.

december snipits

we have had a very busy christmas season this year. here is a little bit if what has been going on during the month of december. enjoy!

decorating our christmas tree

visiting santa

sing-a-long at logan's school

wrapping eachother's presents

playing in the snow

zoo with cousins

zoo lights with more cousins

allison's preschool christmas program

it's been a busy month and we are grateful to spend it with family and friends that we love!

it's a girl!

we found out on december 10th that we are having another girl! we feel so blessed to be having another child. i was told by my doctor that it would be best to not have any more children because of my heart. i have also had one of my ovaries removed because it had a cancerous tumor on it, so we felt that factored into the decision. however, both dan and i feel like we are not done expanding our family. we have struggled with this decision for a while not knowing what we should do. but after many prayers and many discussions and many hours of agonizing over the outcome, we have decided to go for it. luckily my doctor is LDS and he totally understands our decision and is very supportive. we are so excited to have another little girl and can't wait to meet her!

polar express

we went on the polar express again this year. we don't always go every year but try to go about every other year. it is so much fun and the kids won't believe in all the magic forever so we try to take advantage of it when we can. this year we went with dan's parents and his brother's family.  the cousins had a great time together in their matching pajamas.

the kids got polar express "tickets" that we "found" with their christmas jammies.  they were so excited about although i'm not sure what allison is crying about in this picture...

like always we read the book and had hot chocolate on the way to the north pole. on the way back we had fun singing christmas carols waiting for santa to come. i even had a solo! we were sitting in the front row and as we were singing the "conductor" put the microphone right in front of me so i just went with it.

we sure had fun and will definitely be going again!

family pictures 2012

we had family pictures taken with dan's family. we all tried to coordinate our outfits and i think they turned out really cute! it's always kind of crazy to get pictures taken with this many people but our photographer does a great job and is so patient with all of us.

october activities

logan and allison were super excited to be skeletons for halloween.  i don't know how many more years i will be able to coordinate their costumes...this year i got away with convincing allison she was a skeleton princess...either way they both loved their costumes!

i made their costumes which was a little time consuming.  i don't mind making their costumes because then i can add all the little touches like glow in the dark paint around the bones! they won the award for cutest costume at our ward halloween party.

we also went to the pumpkin patch again this year.  there is a new pumpkin patch that is closer to our house so we went and checked it out. we rode the tractor pulled wagon out to the field and we each got to pick our own pumpkin.

one of the activities at this pumpkin patch was a zip line.  both logan and allison wanted to do it and they were both so brave and had a blast!

here is allison getting ready to fly down the zip line.  she was probably one of the littlest kids to go but she wasn't scared at all!

we love this time of year.  it is so fun to get outside and spend time together as a family...even if it is still hot out!