HE KNOWS IF YOU'VE BEEN BAD OR GOOD.....

Abby & Ally on Santa

Abby & Ally with the baby reindeer

Ally & Emma

(we even ran into our neighbors there)

Ally decorating her cookies

Abby decorating her cookies

This year we decided to skip the mall and go to visit Santa in downtown Elk River.....They had a small petting zoo, cookie decorating, hot chocolate & apple cider, and of course Santa Claus. It was alot of fun and the weather was perfect. Ally even sat on Santa's lap, which was a big improvement from last year. She didn't talk but Daddy helped her tell Santa what she wanted. Abby of course told him everything she wants. And the best part is it was FREE!

..................SO BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

ABBY'S CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

She was so excited to wear her new Christmas Dress

The Whole Class

Mrs. Lisa, Abby & Mrs. Amy

Abby, Daddy & Ally with the gift she made for us:)

Abby had her Christmas program at preschool. She did a great job and it was fun to hear all the songs they sing at school.

TRIMMING THE TREE

Ally putting all the bulbs on one branch

Abby

Abby putting on the star

Yea we are all done!

Christmas tree brownies for dessert

On Monday night at Abby's request for FHE we decided to put up our Christmas Tree. She has been seeing other houses decorated and kept asking when we were going to decorate. I love that she is starting to remember from year to year some of the things we always do as a family. We usually do it the Friday after thanksgiving, but since we were at the cabin we didn't have a chance to. So we got out all the boxes from the basement and started decorating. Ally loved putting the bulbs on and she always put them all on the same branch....I think I have pics of Abby doing the same thing at this age. Abby has finally realized that you decorate the whole tree and not just the bottom. After wards we had Christmas Tree brownies for dessert. I love this time of year (minus the cold), but I love all the yummy food and the spirit that surrounds this holiday. Now I can start my shopping....I am so jealous of those of you who are finished already...you make me sick!

THANKSGIVING AT THE CABIN

Ally & Papa

Ally & Grandma

Abby helping make the fruit salad

Ally helping make the fruit salad

Abby & her olive fingers

Ally & her olive fingers.....all she ate was olives & marsh-pillows (marshmallows)

Abby and the baby Abby

Ally's favorite thing to do was block the hallway and say

"can't go through"

This year for Thanksgiving we went with my parents up to the cabin for 5 days. It was so fun to just relax and do nothing, except watch kids. Which if you ask my Dad all we did was watch them make messes:) Which we did eventually clean up, right after we (my mom & I) finished our game of cards. Just ask my Mom how much cheating she got away with?? We really had a great time hanging out with family. My uncle lives up there so we got to see him and some of his kids too. One of which just had a brand new baby named Abigail, which my Abby insisted on holding the entire time. She is really cute, congratulations Jessica.

PLAYING IN THE LEAVES

The girls always have a fun time playing in the leaves every fall. However this year we had such a busy October that we never really got around to raking up the leaves...which doesn't really matter because they all just blew away this year and we don't get a whole lot anyway. But I still wanted our yearly pictures for the scrapbook, so one day after the dusting of snow melted we went over to Grandmas and auntie Jen raked up a big pile for me to throw the girls into for the much needed pictures. Ally didn't mind at all, but Abby was sure her mother was crazy for making her pose in a bunch of cold wet dirty leaves.

Thanks auntie Jen we love you!

DAYTONA BEACH

We had the opportunity to take the girls to Daytona Beach for a few days. They both loved the waves and the beach. Ally was a little hesitant at first, but then you couldn't keep her out of it. Abby was off and running as soon as she saw the water. Our hotel was right on the beach so each morning we got up, put on our suits and went down to the beach. The girls had fun looking for seashells, and I was just happy to be somewhere warm! The hotel had a pool too, so when it got dark we would just pack up and swim in there. Literally I don't even know why we packed clothes.....we were always wearing our suits.

HALLOWEEN

Here are all of our Halloween Festivities this year:

First we went with Grandma to her ward's Fall Festival at church. It was a lot of fun. They had tons of games for the kids to play, Abby's favorite was the cupcake walk, I think we brought home at least a dozen cupcakes. The kids came home with their buckets over flowing with candy. We could have stopped there, but why when there are more opportunities to over indulge in sugar:)

Ally-the wicked witch

Abby-Dorothy

Abby playing the duck pond game

Ally pinning the mouth on the mummy

Ally trunk-or-treating with Auntie Jen

JoDell you did a great job on the party, Abby still talks about how much fun she had there!

Next we went to a Halloween party for our ward at church. They had a few games to play and then of course more trunk-or-treating. The kids came home with more candy in their buckets:)

Abby & her friend, Bryndie

Ally-the wicked witch

Then we decided to decorate a Haunted Cookie Mansion. They kids had lots of fun putting this together and sticking all the decorations on. It was a lot less mess than cookies:)

Abby, Ally, Grandma, Gabe, Francis, Elijah & Me

Elijah kept wanting to eat the frosting, so when we were all done my mom just squeezed it all in his mouth. He loved it, I was getting a stomache ache just watching.

The finished product

This is Abby & Ally in their shirts from Auntie Julie. Abby had a party at school and got her face painted and of course, more candy! Thanks Aunt Julie....we can't wait to see you in a fe weeks:)

And Finally there was trick-or-treating, we invited grandma, the boys I nanny and their mom over for pizza beforehand. We all had a wonderful time. Suzanne was our make-up artist, and this time we really turned Ally into the wicked witch, green face and all. The kids had a ton of fun going out and getting candy, and Abby of course would have kept going all night if I would have let her. She really loves trick-or-treating. Ally on the other hand kept wanting to go back to her house and eat her candy:) Do you blame her?

Our jack-o-latern pizza from Papa Murphys

Benny-flying monkey, Suzanne-Zombie-mom, Gabe-Rapper-mummy, Francis-soldier, Elijah-???? Sorry I can't remember what he called himself.

Suzanne applying Ally's make-up. It was more like a wrestling match trying to get her to hold still.

Ally-the wicked witch, and Abby-Dorothy

Elijah, Gabe & Abby

Ally, pulling the wagon.....hopefully she doesn't come home with the wagon full:)

Ally & Our neighbor, Angela

Abby & Ally trick-or-treating

Abby & Grandma

Grandma took Abby around the whole neighborhood, and Abby still wan't ready to quit. she filled her bucket up like 3 times. I brought Ally home after just our street, she was ready to start eating.

Abby & Daddy

Daddy stayed home to pass out the candy, but then joined Abby & Grandma to finish up the neighborhood. Daddy carried Dorothy when her legs got tired following the yellow brick road. For some reason though this Dorothy just wanted more candy, she didn't care about finding her way back home;)

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween, I know we certainly did. The weather was perfect, and we got enough candy to last all year!

PUMPKIN PATCH

On Friday night we took the girls to "Berry Hill Farm" to pick out pumpkins. Smiles were hard to come by for Allison, she was not a happy camper, until the end when the guy with the pumpkin head made her laugh. Abby had fun trying to pick out a pumpkin, and after much deliberation she picked one that could be mistaken for an orange. The girls enjoyed seeing the animals, and for Allison the best part was pulling her own wagon, the one she picked, not the one Daddy got for her. She decided that she just wanted popcorn, and "no dumpkin!" So Daddy picked one for us, and Abby got her "orange" (good thing we don't actually carve the pumpkins) and we were on our way home.

Ally & Daddy looking at the sheep...I think.

Daddy, Abby & the sheep.

Ally pulling her wagon, of which no pumpkins were allowed to go in.

Abby & her friend, Emma

Mommy, Ally & Abby picking out a pumpkin

Abby & her orange......I mean pumpkin:)

Abby & Ally...I think I see a half a smile!

Finally a smile....and its time to go home!