Girl's Night Out

Last night Chelsea and I had the opportunity to see Ballet West's production of the Nutcracker, thanks to the thoughtfulness and generosity of Aunt Suzie and Uncle Greg. They had a couple of extra tickets, and were so sweet to think of us!

Just before leaving

It was perfect for Chelsea because she is very familiar with the story and the music, and I had never seen her so entranced by a performance. The dancers were magical!

She picked out a Snow Queen figurine to remember the evening

And one last picture with the giant Nutcracker

We had such a lovely time, and I think this is going to have to become an annual tradition. Maybe Siena will be old enough to join us next year!

Another Monkey Hat

And doesn't it just go so well with the princess dress?

Some more random things...

London is sitting up on her own now. Love it when they pass that lump-on-the-floor phase. She is much happier and more content to be able to look around:

I got a fun pattern for a sock monkey hat because I wanted to make them for all of my little monkeys. And then Brighton informed me that he was probably too old to be wearing an animal hat. But you've got to admit, it's pretty darn cute:

Being the germ-a-phobe I am, I am pretty proud of my teacher/neighbor/co-worker/visiting teacher gifts this year:

Christmas tissues, hand sanitizer, and Vitamin C drops

All with a tag wishing them a very healthy Christmas!

Random happenings from the last week

London started drinking out of a sippy cup by herself last week. Although it probably isn't worth mentioning to everyone else, we think it's pretty cute.

We decorated gingerbread houses. This year we had one for each kid so that they wouldn't fight over what goes where:

It was fun to see their individuality and creativity come out. I especially love Brighton's thatched roof made out of Chex:

From left to right, Chelsea's Brighton's and Siena's (with a little help from me)

Some random pictures of kids in Christmas sweaters. I still need to take some of London and Chelsea...:

And last Saturday our cute babysitter Allie, who is a fabulous dancer, invited the girls to come and watch her big Christmas recital:

I wish I had gotten a better picture, but there she is in the middle with her long, long hair

The girls loved it!

Christmas Outfits

Anyone who knows me knows that I have this ridiculous obsession with coordinating my kids outfits, especially for church, and ESPECIALLY for holidays. Well, I was pretty excited when I found these darling outfits on the clearance rack at Janie and Jack after Christmas last year. By then we already knew we were expecting a girl, so I was able to get one for London as well.

So I had to get a picture of the four of them before church. Thank goodness Dad was there to make them laugh.

Every Christmas tree you could imagine

The Festival of Trees is held right by Justin's office, so we met up with him after work to check it out yesterday. There are so many beautifully decorated trees there that it is almost overwhelming, but it sure gets you in that Christmas spirit.

This was Chelsea and Siena's favorite, a Wizard of Oz-themed tree

There were literally hundreds of trees

A rare picture of our four kids together

And I just had to add this picture-- only a baby could wear a head-to-toe sweater and look perfectly adorable!

It's Christmas at our house

I love how cozy and festive our house looks at this time of year. Last Christmas we went with a more minimalist approach because I had really awful morning sickness and it was the most I could do to get our tree out. And next year I'll have to keep the glass ornaments in storage since I'll have a toddler around. That's probably why I went a little over-board this year... but hey, you can't ever have too much glitter and glitz at Christmas, right?

I love to get a sniff of that wreath every time I open the front door

I bling-ed out the chandelier in our entry

Our family room

Our front room

We added a stocking for London this year

I LOVE this advent calendar that Grandma Allen gave us this year. Each of these darling envelopes has a card in it with a scripture that leads up to the Savior's birth

The one tree that the kids get to decorate all by themselves without any help from me. It has all of their hand-made ornaments on it. As hard as it is for me, I do not adjust or move a single one :)

It is always a treat when we pull out the Little People Nativity and our collection of Christmas books

I love that it makes the kids so happy

It will be sad to have to take it all down in January

Half A Year Old

London turned 6 months on Saturday. I know, it's already Wednesday and I'm just getting around to doing a post about it. On Monday she had her 6 month check-up and here are her stats: 17 lbs 12 oz, 25 1/4 inches tall-- 80th percentile. She is a happy little chunk, and we adore her to pieces. She has a little bit of stranger anxiety so some of you sweet people who have tended her may not agree, but as far as I'm concerned she is the easiest, most good-natured, and pleasant baby around. And don't you just want to smother those chubby cheeks with kisses?

And here are a couple of color photos to show off those gorgeous blue eyes:

Love, love, love this girl.

Happy Thanksgiving!

After a warm and mild fall we had our first big snowstorm. So the kids started the day by shoveling and playing in the new snow.

It was my very first time to host Thanksgiving. We had our feast a little later than the norm because we wanted to give the Millers enough time to join us, which was actually really nice. We grazed on some yummy appetizers, and I had all day to cook our dinner.

For the first time since we bought it, we used the extra leaf for our table. It was fun to have such a big group all sit together at one table.

It was a fun Thanksgiving, and a great day to remember all of the countless things we are blessed with.

Mom's Getaway

It was nice of Justin to take a couple of days off from work and take care of the kids so I could get away for some quality "sister time". He was even OK with keeping London, but I knew he and the older three would have more fun if I took her with me, so London and I took the trip out to Bloomington, Indiana to visit my sister and her cute family.

We spent our time eating yummy food, crocheting, shopping, and talking, talking, talking. My mom even flew out for part of the time.

It was so fun to get these two cousins together. Norah and London are only 3 months apart. But you wouldn't know that London was the younger one by the looks of those chubby cheeks:

On one of the days, we went to a quaint little town called Nashville (not to be confused with the one in Tennessee). It was fun to walk around and look in all of the cute little shops and sample some tasty treats.

London was such a good baby the whole time

Some pictures of Nashville:

This cute little shop had the yummiest fried biscuits with Home-made apple butter:

Delicious!

Lillian and Blake live in Bloomington because he is going to graduate school at IU. They have an excellent music program there. It is a fun college town, and surprisingly pretty ethnically diverse. They took us to an awesome Indian restaurant there, and it rivaled some of the best curries I've ever had:

On one of the days we also went to a farmer's market by their home. The weather was amazing-- in the low 70s-- and so their growing season is a lot longer than ours. Lillian and my mom made a fabulous Sunday Dinner with their findings:

It was so fun to hang out with my sister for a few days. You just can't beat a girl's weekend that involves good food and late night chats.