Guess what's new with Anni...

It's kind of hard to see. I need to take a better picture. But little miss Anni got her ears pierced. Yep...she's a little lady now.



I forgot my camera on the big day, but my mom was nice enough to send me the pictures she took...

Eagerly anticipating her new bling...


She was so brave. There was about 3 seconds of crying before she got her sucker...then it was all good!


With Mycol and Riley...please excuse her stickyness.

One Awesome Daddy!

"They" say that with each passing year of marriage you love your spouse more and more. And I'm so happy to say that "they" have been right so far.  Even after a year and a half of dating, I knew I didn't know everything there was to know about Arnold. It's always a bit of a gamble when you choose to say "I do". Lucky for me there have been many moments since I got married that I've realized just how lucky I am. Sometimes they've been pretty major things, and sometimes it's just the little things.

Tonight was one of those nights...

It may not seem like a big deal, but it's one of those small characteristics that I love so much about my husband. The fact that he wanted to make Reese's doll house truly the "best" doll house ever, by wiring the whole thing with lights. He was worried that it was too dark, and he was sure that she would have so much more fun playing with it, if it was well lit.

Now that's one awesome daddy!! And one awesome doll house!

Mommy Reese

Me: Reese why are you growing up so fast? It's like you've gone from my little baby to a big girl over night. Can you just stop for a while and stay little?
Reese: I just can't mom. I getting so big and gonna be a mommy too.
Me: What!! You're going to be a mommy too.
Reese: Ya mom. I go potty myself. I get dressed myself. I do all things myself, so I gonna be a mommy myself too.
Me: You are very good at doing things all by yourself, but I hope it's still a while before you become a mommy. You have to be my little girl for just a little while longer.
Reese: ok mom.

....or a very very lot longer :)  I'll take "pretend" mom for now.

Reese Says...

Out delivering neighbor gifts today, we'd gone around our community loop twice. On the way back up the hill for the second time Reese said, "mom, are we almost going home yet? I'm running out of power here."

Reese watched the movie "Night at the Museum" the other day for the first time. Her new favorite word is Sacajawea. She finds ways to squeeze that word in any time she can. Only when she say's it, it sounds a little more like "Secondaweeda".

Reese snugged next to me as we started one of the movies she got for Christmas...
Reese: I love this mom.
Me: You love this movie?
Reese: No, this Christmas time. I just love all Christmas!

 At Costco I was looking at the seafood display...
Reese: I smell something mom...I smell something.
Me: It's the seafood. Does it smell stinky?
Reese: (while holding her nose) Ya mom...we gotta get outa here...something trying to hurt my nose!

Merry Christmas!!

Today is the "Real" Christmas Day, and I have to say...we made the right choice. It has been a wonderful perfect day. We had so much fun yesterday playing and hanging out. Today we slept in, church was beautiful and now we're home, Reese is happily playing (she's playing "church" with her barbies...too cute), I'm making a delicious Christmas dinner and we are just so grateful to be together as a family.

I love Christmas. I love the spirit of service, togetherness, love, compasion, and joy that Christmas brings. I'm actually a little sad that the season is coming to an end. But more than anything, I'm just so grateful for my Savior, for the Gospel, for my family and for all the blessings we have in our life!

Merry Christmas!

The Lego Story

While Arnold and I were Christmas shopping we walked down the toy isle with all the Lego's. Arnold sighed and I said, "what's wrong?" He then lamented how, although he loves his girls, he was sad that  he'd never get to play with Lego's. I assured him that girls love Lego's. I told him that I loved playing Lego's with my brothers growing up, and that we could definitely buy the girls Lego's.

His response, "Ya, I'm sure they'd like it, but it will never be at the top of their wish list. It will always fall far behind, dolls, barbies, dress ups, and all things girl."

I knew then and there exactly what the girls could get their daddy for Christmas...

...and it was a perfect gift. They spent hours playing with them yesterday afternoon and into the night.

Christmas Morning 2011

I wish we'd gotten a picture of the girls coming down the stairs, but instead Arnold took video and I was carrying Anni. Maybe next year we'll have two sets of hands.

Reese's first words from the top of the stairs, "mom I see a bean bag chair...a purple bean bag chair!!!" As she rounded the corner she said, "Where's my doll house?"

Reese has been asking and talking about a doll house for months. Every night she has talked about the awesome doll house that Santa is going to bring her. We knew she would want to play with it right away, so we had Santa put it together, ready to go, in her play room. The thing is huge! Tall and heavy and needed to be anchored to the wall. But Santa did wrap the box and leave it upstairs with a fun note.

When Reese asked were her doll house was, I asked her if maybe is was wrapped in that big box. But we still made her unwrap all her other presents first.

The girls had so much fun unwrapping everything! 

Movies and Wii games from Uncle Kit! Barbies and barbie clothes from each other.


New snuggly blankets from Grandma & Grandpa Thiebaud.


This little Xylaphone that I picked up on clearancce for a couple bucks has turned out to be a favorite!


Just look at that crazy happy face.


Reese picked out a pink rocking horse for Anni. She had to show her how to use it.


Anni loves it!


Check out that those splits. Anni was determined to get in on the unwrapping action!


She loves her stand and play music station from Grandma & Grandpa Nordfelt.


They both love it!


After all the presents it was finally time for the doll house!


As soon as Reese saw the picture she started to get really excited!




The note tells her that it's all put together and waiting for her in her in the play room. As soon as I read that part, she took off. She didn't even wait for me to finish the note. I should have known that would be the case.




Her first words, "Wow!! That's Awesome!! The most awesome doll house ever!!" Then she said, "I play with it right now. Mom go get my barbies!"  Which I did, as soon as she said "please".




Next to the doll house she said that her Scooby Doo hoppity ball from Grandma & Grandpa Nordfelt was her favorite.




I love it when my girls can share.




Anni likes her toy standing too.


I'd say Christmas morning was a huge success!

Santa Came!!

Yep...he came!

Christmas Eve!

Although today is only the 23rd of December, it's actually Christmas Eve here at our house. Mom and Dad made special arrangements with Santa to come a day early. Many have asked why, so I thought I'd explain.

Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, and I actually love it when Christmas falls on Sunday. I love that we get to dress up and go to church, take the sacrament and be reminded of why we celebrate Christmas to begin with. That's why Arnold and I decided to make sure Sunday was a peaceful, non stressful, spiritual day. We knew that wouldn't happen if we had to get up, see what Santa brought, open presents, eat breakfast, and get ready for church all within a couple hours. Since both our girls love to sleep in, and being woken up early only causes grumpy irritability we knew that moving Santa and presents was our only option. We considered waiting until after Church...but then we knew we'd be dealing with an hour long wine fest and possible tantrums. We couldn't do Santa gifts before church and open presents after, because they were kind of tied together this year and we wanted the "big" gift from Santa to be last.  Anyway, way too long of a story, but that is why tonight is Christmas Eve and all preparations are under way to welcome the "big" guy tonight.

We always start out our Christmas Eve with a very special Family Home Evening. We watch the Nativity and talk about Christ and why we celebrate Christmas. Then we sing Christmas songs and open a few little presents. They always include new pj's and something fun to do for the night. Tonight it was a new movie.

Seriously, is there anything better than clean little babies in new snuggly pj's?? I think not!




Reese got some new slippers to go with her new pj's.


After our movie and snack we make sure and put out a very special and magical key for Santa. We don't have a chimney...so he has to get in somehow.




Then we put out cookies, milk and a carrot for Rudolph.
Reese putting the final touches on her special cookies, just for Santa.


When I got the carrot out for Rudolph I didn't wash or peel it. Reese said, "Mom, we need to make it all nice and clean for him." I explained the reindeer liked the skin left on their carrots.

Christmas Activity Advent - Day #23

Let's make cookies for Santa!