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.

Prepare to be blown away...

I always get really excited for SEP conferences because it is awesome to watch Brighton converse with his Chinese teacher. The first time Justin and I went, we were speechless. I even teared up a little. We had our first conference for this school year last week, and it did not disappoint.

I wish I could have posted a longer video, but it was too big to upload... so here's a short clip of Brighton reading to us in Chinese.

Have I mentioned how much I love the Chinese Immersion Program?

Cause you gotta have friends

Justin had to go out of town for work so I decided to take Brighton to the RSL playoff game, and I let him invite a special friend to come along. It wasn't the greatest game... they only tied which put them out of the playoffs and ended their season, but I was loving watching these boys enjoy being there so much.

Speaking of friends, I haven't had a chance to post these fun pictures from a pumpkin patch outing we had just before Halloween. I love these pictures of Chelsea with "her bestest friend in the whole wide world" (her words). And I have to admit, he is one cute kid. Thanks for the awesome pics, Wende.

It makes me happy that our house seems to be a popular gathering place because I get such a kick out of watching my kids interact with their friends.