For a better (less fuzzy) view see here:
http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=1247894
December 30, 2008
~ A White Christmas ~
December 21, 2008
Twas the Sunday before Christmas…
Twas the Sunday before Christmas… so the girls got all gussied up for Church, as usual. Just as in years past, Grandma Wales gave the girls beautiful Christmas dresses, this year with matching dresses for their dolls. The girls looked beautiful in their dresses and got a lot of compliments at Church. We had a nice program with 8 musical numbers and two really good speakers. We are all in the Christmas mood now and I hope we can keep the spirit with us through the next few days and remember the true reason for Christmas.
Happy Holidays to Everyone!
Would anyone care for some tea?
Yesterday we had a big Tea Party to celebrate 3 cousin’s birthdays: Jaycee, Makelle, and Brianna. They all have birthdays within a week of Christmas, so we all decided to celebrate together.
The party was huge - with 21 kids! The girls got to decorate fancy hats, and the boys decorated Top hats. Then we had our tea, using English accents, good manners, and pinkies up! Tea was served with 3 choices: hot chocolate, warm apple cider, or a sparkling lemonade drink. And along with the tea there were mini sandwiches, mini pizzas, mini muffins, mini pigs in a blanket, fruit trays, cookies, and mini cupcakes. It was quite the spread.
We also played some Tea-themed games, and sang songs.
And then the three Birthday girls opened their presents. Man was it hard to keep track when 3 little ones (turning 3 and 4) all got together to open presents. But they had a blast doing it! The best part was when Jyll gave them all matching gifts, they all opened them together and all got the funniest look on their face when they saw it was an empty box! I wish I had gotten a picture because their faces where priceless. Jyll had bought tea sets to use for the tea party and was giving them to the girls as a gift, so she wrapped up the boxes they came in. The girls didn’t understand at first though and thought they were given a box of nothing. All of them had this look on their face like “where is my present? Why am I getting an empty box?” It was too funny.
Christmas Tea and Spredding Cheer
Last week Jaycee and Rylee went to my sister Jodi’s house to spred some Christmas cheer by decorating her Christmas trees for her. She has just had surgery and has some major medical problems, so she couldn’t do it herself.
The girls got to pick what ornaments they wanted (she has several sets of themes for decorations) and then after decorating the tree we had a Hot Chocolate tea party with Travis and Jodi, which was super fun. Jodi makes great hot chocolate and always puts Ice cream in… yumm!
There were christmas cookies too. Jodi always thinks of everything. The girls had so much fun at Jodi’s house and it was nice to be able to do something to make her happy. Jodi also spoiled the girls by giving them the movie Sleeping Beauty as a thank you gift and sending them home with a giant stocking full of stuff. Thank you Jodi.
And Happy Holidays to everyone!
December 17, 2008
First “good” snow…
Over the weekend we got our first dump of snow that was enough to really play in. This was a first for Rylee because she’s never lived where it snows before. Both of the girls were so excited to go out and play. They were anxious all morning and didn’t like having to be patient for Mom and Dad to get ready.
Rylee loved it. The first thing she did was pick up handfulls of snow to throw and kept yelling “Snow ball fight!” It was so cute.
We made trails through the snow…
Jaycee really wanted to build a snowman, but this snow was so powdery, it wouldn’t work.
Instead she made snow angels, and burried herself in the snow. She also made a big pile of snow and dug a hole for door so it could be a snow castle. It looked remarkably similar to our sand castle we made on our last trip to the beach in South Carolina…
We’ve gone out a few times this week, and I can’t wait for it to snow some more!
December 15, 2008
Dance, Dance, Dance (Our little ballerina)
On Saturday night Jaycee had her first dance recital. She was so excited and couldn’t wait for evening to come so she could go dance on stage in front of everyone.
Jaycee did such a great job. She was amazing. I honestly think she was the best dancer in her class. She didn’t miss a step. She was so excited that people came to watch her dance. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa House, JanaLee, Sammy, Lani, and Elizabeth, Grandma “GG”, Tammy, Emily, and Rachel. Jaycee was so happy to have you there.
After her performance Jaycee got a dozen roses from her Daddy. Then we came home and she got a gift for her recital - a t-shirt from her dance company.
We are so proud of you Jaycee! keep up the good work.
December 12, 2008
That feeling in the air…
This week for Family Home Evening our family decided to visit Temple Square. We love seeing the lights and there is always such a nice feeling on the Temple grounds. Here are some of our pictures. Enjoy!
We were a little thrown off because I planned to park at the Mall across the street and guess what? it’s not there! I guess we missed that living on the other side of the country. There were also less lights than there used to be - are they conserving energy? But it was still very very pretty and a great family outing!
December 10, 2008
A fun weekend
Last weekend we had fun doing holiday things with the kids. We did more decorating around the house, watched a few holiday movies, and did some fun activities.
On Saturday morning the girls made Gingerbread Houses! This is always one of my favorite holiday activities and this year was no exception. This was Jaycee’s 3rd year making one, and Rylee’s second. I thought they did a great job, and we had a lot of fun!
Jaycee especially was very into it and was very strategic with where she placed her candies. Rylee on the other hand was more interested in eating the candy. She had a lot of fun at first but it got old to her after a while. But they both did a beautiful job!
Then on Saturday night we headed out to Pleasant View to hear our beautiful niece Emily Sing and attend Tammy’s Stake’s nativity program. It was really cool. They had hundreds of nativities to look at and a scavenger hunt for kids, plus activity rooms, a live nativity, and live performances. 
We took pictures of the girls in a nativity scene, and they were so cute. But check out the baby Jesus. Who was in charge of bringing that doll? it is as big as the girls, and what is up with the mop head???
December 7, 2008
A Phone Call To Santa…
Our Vonage phone has a service where you can call santa from your vonage phone and leave him a message. We thought it sounded like fun, so the girls called him up tonight (along with their cousins that were over), if you want to listen to their messages you can. Also, anyone that is interested is welcome to borrow our phone to do the same thing (you would obviously have to come here).
Rylee got a little shy when it was her turn, so Jaycee grabbed rylee’s lips to mimic her talking and told santa what Rylee wanted.
The girls really enjoyed calling santa and listening to his message about what he is busy doing this time of year. They both were really excited to tell him what they want for Christmas so the elfs can start buidling their presents in the workshop.
December 6, 2008
Our poor little Rylee…
Thursday afternoon I took our cute little Rylee to Primary Children’s to see her original orthopaedic surgeon. For some reason I was really nervous about the appointment and kept telling everyone that I had a feeling things still weren’t right with her hip. I have no idea why I felt that way because she has been walking normal, running and climbing good, and doesn’t really seem to complain about her hips much. But still in the back of my mind things just didn’t feel right. At her appointment we as always did multiple pictures of her hips. Her right hip is the one we did open surgery on in the past (the left was fixed with a closed reduction), and it’s been the one that has always been “diseased” and behind on development. I was surprised to hear it was looking well, not good, but it is developing in the right direction, so doesn’t look like we need to worry about it much.
- Rylee
I was shocked to hear that her LEFT hip is now out of place. I mean, it was out of place when she was born, but has looked good since after her closed reduction and first body cast, which was off at 4 months old. So, we are once again faced with a good possibility of surgery for Rylee and yet ANOTHER body cast. The doctor is giving her 6 months because her bones have been calcifying now that she is 2 years old, and surgery is very difficult (they actually have to saw and break her bones and reconstruct them because they are no longer soft). There is still a chance that as her acetabulum further calcifies it could grab and pull the femoral head into place, but right now they are not aligned so who knows what the chances of that actually happening are.
So, needless to say, I am expecting to be a nervous wreck until June and we might be spending next summer with a 2-year-old in a body cast for 8 weeks. Can you imagine???
