Birthday Party Fun!

I didn't take many pictures at Jensen's birthday party but I did snap these cuties!

Elf Night 2016 aka The Mystical Magical CandyCane SlimJim Forest!

We recently took our annual trip to the Mystical Magical CandyCane SlimJim Forest!  And it did not disappoint!  I know you know the story and the routine, so for now just enjoy these pictures!

Gingerbread House - Troll Style!

The girls have been obsessed with The Trolls ever since their date with Uncle Dan and Aunt Erin so it was only fitting that this year's gingerbread house was in Troll style!  They worked hard and worked together to create a masterpiece!

Winterhaven 2016!

We celebrated Emmett's birthday at Winterhaven last week and had a blast!  The girls fell asleep on the way to the festival but woke up for plenty of "tailgating" before the walk through the lights.  It was chilly but beautiful and fun!  Nothing says Christmas Time like walking through the festival of lights!

Milk and Cookies with Santa at the Stillwell House

A few weeks ago we had a playdate with friends Emma and Ryan at the Stillwell House for Cookies and Milk with Santa!  It was a great event complete with face-painting, balloon animals, arts and crafts, and lots of yummy food.  The kids enjoyed milk and cookies and the grown-ups enjoyed a tamale bar and coffee!  Of course, the highlight was the visit with Santa!  It was a great event that we would definitely do again!

Safety Hold Class

I recently attended a refresher course for the safety hold, that we sometimes have to use at school.  Someone snapped this picture so I had to share it.

 

Beto's Sister Beta

Our house elf, Beto, is not able to join us this year.  According to his letter, there are some girls somewhere else who are not making good choices and he's trying to help them.  Fortunately, he sent his little sister, Beta, to our home.  We think she's cute and we think it was really nice of Beto to make sure Shyla and Harper are taken care of.  Also, she followed us all the way to Scottsdale this weekend, so she's really on top of things!

Shyla's First Reconciliation

Shyla has been studying for her First Reconciliation and we celebrated it last week.  She, although a bit nervous, was super excited and did a great job.  It was a fairly quick evening but very important and we are so proud of our girl!

Quick Weekend to Scottsdale

We just got back from a quick weekend in Scottsdale.  We had one night left with our timeshare that we didn't want to waste, and I decided to do the Hot Chocolate 5k.  All-in-all it was a nice weekend.  We crammed a lot into a few short days!

We left Saturday morning at about 9am and made it as far as Marana!  There we decided to stop at the new outlet mall because we hadn't been yet.  We did some shopping and the girls played a little bit.

Our next stop was the expo to pick up my race bib and sweatshirt.  This was a fun one because there was lots of chocolate available, the girls ran around a lot, and we even played imaginary baseball on a miniature field.


























































Since we weren't sure if our room would be ready yet, we decided to grab a late lunch at 5 & Diner.  The girls got to hula hoop outside!















There were no vacancies at my favorite, Kierland, so we stayed at the Desert Oasis.  It was nice, but Kierland is still my favorite.














We spent the evening at Christmas at the Princess, which was located just down the street from our hotel.  I had planned for my friend DeAnn and her family to meet us there, which delighted Harper because she and Delaney were good friends in preschool.

This was a fun event!  There were lots of Christmas lights, Christmas trees, and activities such as a carousel, ferris wheel (which we didn't do), tubing, and a train ride.  The girls wrote postcards to Santa and put them in the mailbox.

The girls got to meet Princess Noel and Selfie the Elfie!

Unfortunately, Shyla was tired or hungry or cold or overwhelmed or all-of-the-above, and she was acting out because of it.  We had to cut the evening short, drive through Chick-fil-A for dinner and go to sleep.

But it was fun while it lasted!

Then Sunday morning rolled around and it was time for the race.  DeAnn, Kennedy, and I did it.  My time was just over 35 minutes which wasn't bad for not training much at all, and I was proud that I ran just about all of it.  At the finish line, we got these mugs with chocolate, yummy things to dip in the chocolate, and delicious hot cocoa!







When it was time to head back to T-Town, we made a stop at the nearby playground to let the monkeys play for a bit and then grabbed lunch at a delicious japanese restaurant!  It was fast, furious, and fun!
(Now we're getting ready for the week ahead and I'm nursing a cold.  It's going to be a long one!)

Gilmore Girls!

The day after Thanksgiving was the release of Netflix's 4 revival episodes of The Gilmore Girls.  So, of course, we had a viewing party!  We had fun watching, the food was delicious, and we stayed up way too late.
You'll notice there was only one boy who stayed for the party.  Ha! Ha! Mike!