Do I have to get up?

This is what my bed looks like most mornings, except I'm usually packed in between all that girliness. Kira and Brynn are always begging to sleep over night in my bed. "Your bed is so much more comfortable than ours, can we please sleep here?!" Seth actually went out of town two weeks ago and I told Brynn that she and Kira might get to sleep in my bed with me. Well, then I made the mistake of telling Kira this right before bed. There are no "take back's" with this child. If you say you're going to do something, to her, it's as good as already done. She can't take a change of plans very well! So right as we're about to get all cozy in my bed the baby waked up crying, well screaming and I can't calm her down. Brynn knows at this point the baby is going to have to come sleep with me. She's not happy about it, but she knows there's no use fighting it. Kira sees this as unacceptable and starts throwing a tantrum. Why did I say they could sleep in my bed? I finally convince her to sleep somewhere "special", on the couch with the ottoman pulled up to her feet. She was sold. I was tired. I, for one, prefer these perfect morning moments of lovliness where we can all be comfy and push off the rest of the day at least for 5 more minutes!

Super Hero Day

So the school sponsored a "super hero" day and the girls really wanted to dress up so we scrambled to find something for them to wear before they went out the door. Kira was, of course, Rapunzel. One of her friends gave her the Rapunzel wig for her birthday. She was a little afraid that her friends were going to laugh if she came to school with hair down to her knees, but she wore the wig all day, except for P.E. and somehow figured out how to get it back on all by herself. We struggled a little to find Brynn something unique to wear. Our dress-ups don't really fit her all that well anymore, so she decided to be the "incredible pink and purple girl". Brynn said there weren't many kids that dressed up in her class anyway.(getting too cool I guess!) Well I sure love my girls, and they are both my heroes any day of the week!

Double the Fun

There's my beautiful Brynn! On January 30th she turned 11. I still can't believe that, even now! Although she has always acted many years beyond her age. Brynn is thoughtful and kind and can most often be found doing something for someone else. I miss her when she's at school. I'm having such a fun time hanging out with her and talking with her about her day. The other day, Brynn came up to me while I was doing the dishes and said, "Mom do you know who my best friend is?" "Who", I said. "It's you", she said and gave me a big hug. Wow, how did I get so lucky! And Brynn I feel the same exact way:). Brynn has also vowed not to grow another year older. She wants to stay young for as long as possible. I love that goal, because I'm keeping this girl here as long as I possibly can!

Brynn decided to have two parties this year. One for her ballet friends and one for her school friends. Seth thought I was crazy for having two parties, but I love parties and I wanted Brynn to have all of her friends over, I just didn't think about the mess that 2 parties makes!

This is a bunch of hungry girls playing Mad Gab. We were waiting on Seth to bring the pizza. They had also played the dance game on x-box. It's really only meant for one player, but because these girls are dancers all 8 of them got up and danced in unison. The girls she dances with are such great friends. They spend so much time together they have really gotten to know one another well, and figured out lots of ways to be silly together as well.

Here they are acting out an impromptu play for me.

Posing in our movie room. These girls sure know how to have fun. Work hard and play hard! That's the life of a ballerina I guess.

Brynn requested banana splits for this party, although this was the only picture I snapped of them!

Party #2 school friends

Playing the dance game on-box. This group had spirit. Whatever we were doing they did it with excitement and a lot of volume!

This party and the last had a bit of a valentine's theme. This game involved picking up conversation hearts with chopsticks and putting them in a mason jar. It's harder than it looks:)

Brynn opening presents with her friend Claire standing by. She got some really cute things.

There was cake at this party and it looks like little sister is enjoying it a lot!
Brynn we love you so much! Thank you for being the special person that you are.

Our Christmas...

The first gift of Christmas? A baby jack-in-the box of course! Alayna found this box when I was getting out decorations and she played with it the whole Christmas season. The girls would slide her around in it and she tried really hard to get in it all by herself. Not very successfully though!

Kira's birthday was December 8th, a Wednesday. We didn't have her party on that day, but she did want to take the whole family (minus busy Alayna) to the movie Tangled. This was the tree that was in the theater. The movie was a big hit. Can't wait to see it again!

Oh Mrs. Peeps!! This year we got a little visit from one of Santa's elves, Mrs. Peeps. She came in the mail with a letter that explained how she worked:
"Soon after she gets here she moves only at night. To high places, low places,she stays in plain sight. She holds very still when she thinks you are watching. Her magic is precious, it fades with on touching. She waits and she waits without making a noise. She waits until Santa arrives with the toys. So you better be nice and mind what you say, because Mrs. Peeps will tell Santa when he comes in his sleigh."

So that is cute Mrs. Peeps. We did wake up to her in a new place every morning! Well almost every morning! And if she didn't move, there was always a good reason, like she must have really liked that spot, or maybe she was afraid to move from such a high spot:) Kira was the most distressed if she didn't move. I found sitting with her head on the table by her cereal bowl one morning because Mrs. Peeps hadn't moved since the night before. And if the baby found her and played with her Kira just couldn't handle it. "No one is supposed to touch her!" But my favorite Mrs. Peeps morning was when we woke up and found only Mrs. Peeps eyes, noes and elf hat poking out from the bottom of the couch. Come see us next year Mrs. Peeps, that was sooo much fun!

Our tree. We were lucky enough to go down to Manti canyon and look for trees again this year. We went along with Erin and Jeremy's family and Chase and Jen. There's was plenty of snow this year. Each time the men wanted to really take a good look at a tree they would shake it really hard getting snow all over anyone in the area. Seth and the girls found this one, and also discovered it had a bird's nest laying inside the branches. Fitting this one inside was a little tricky, but we sure do love this tradition.

Our little Ute fan getting all wrapped up!

Gingerbread House time!

We waited so long to do it that the house itself had started to crack and the icing was too hard. So the girls, improvized and used this chocolate pillsbury frosting. All for the fun of it anyway, right?

Soooo tired!

I don't remember what we were doing here, but I love this picture! Life isn't always perfect, but I think these girls really do have a lot of fun together.

This is Christmas Eve and we are visiting our friend Kema who lives in an assisted living center. My family has been friends with Kema since I was a teenager. Kema was born without the use of her legs, but has the best attitude and funniest personality. I'm so glad that my girls are able to get to know her now. We sang Christmas carols along with my nieces and nephews and chatted with a few other people that lived there.

This is my friend Nan on the left and my mom on the right. Nan and her daughter Emma Lea share a portion of a home with her sister and her mother. They really don't have very much, but they make the most with what they've got and truly want to give gifts to everyone. For example, this year, even though they didn't have money for gifts, they got fabric and made pillowcases for all my girls and hand painted them. It's the thought and the time that goes into those kinds of gifts that impresses me. Every time I leave Nan I want to be better and I want find a way to give more.

So after visiting Kema we all went to Nan's and Emma Lea's. This is my brother Austin playing for everyone. He wrote a really pretty arrangement of the songs "How Great Thou Art" and "Some Where Over the Rainbow". It's always a treat to hear him play.

We all brought Emma Lea one or two gifts. She decided to open a couple while we were there. She was so happy!

Christmas Morning!! Showing off some new stuff...

A little overwhelmed? The girls were so excited to see her open gifts that they kept helping her open them. It took her a while to really play with anything though. Just too much, too fast!

Dr. Kira is in the house! Santa really delivered this year with a full dr.'s outfit with working stethascope. The cute thing was we had too see both families on Christmas day so she did two separate unveilings of the costume. She got fully dressed for both families in another room and came out and surprised them. She has since brought this outfit on play dates to friends houses, or wears it around the house when she's feeling the need. I wonder if it will be next years halloween outfit too since it is rather large!

Here's the winner toy for the baby. The stationary steering wheel. It is really cute to watch her drive it, and sway her head back and forth, although it is loud and never really stops making noise, even after you've stopped playing with it. In fact, the other night I found it in a laundry basket under some towels. When I asked Seth what it was doing there he said he couldn't get it to stop! So he put it under the laundry? There is an off button, just too hard to find when you're desperate for quiet I guess.

Christmas morning at Grandma Julie's
Kira with Nichole and Brynn with Anthony

Brynn and Ty
These 2 were 3 years old when Adam and Cori got married, where has that time gone?

Food Please!!

Up at Grandma Jill's. Everyone helping little baby Tripp open presents.

Alayna was being too naughty to sit with the rest of the family, so daddy took her up to play the piano.

The Bailey/Charchenko nativity scene. Aren't these costumes fun? Jill and her sister Dana came up with them. Kira was rather insistent on playing Mary. No one gave her really any competition for the role so she was thrilled and then Tyne was an angel and the boys were wise men. I think Brynn was herding the cute little cows and sheepies.(Alayna and Autumn)

Our Little Cow, I think this is the only picture I got before she started taking the costume off.

Radiant Mary

The whole crew. Chase played the inn keeper and Jed was Joseph

Baby Tripp played baby Jesus, but he's kinda pouring out over the side of that manger a little!

Here is Levi, Tyne, Brynn, Hunter, Tagg and Kira
We had just gotten our extended family picture taken and were polishing off the day with some Burger King. We loved being all together as a family, especially since two family don't live in Utah.

Seth heard me say it like 5,000 times throughout December. "We have to take the girls down to see the lights at temple square." We actually made it work, amazing! We were able to meet up with Don and Jill and Dru and Adam, it was great to see family one more time. All the baby had on was her poncho and hat we got her in Italy and a long sleeve shirt underneath. She didn't seem that cold when we got to the car, but 24 hrs. she had nasty croop in her lungs. She got over it really quickly though. Man that little sweet girl's been sick a lot!

Christmas was fantastic! All of it, the family, the friends, the meaning behind it all. I hope with each Christmas that goes by my girls are able to feel the lasting warmth and goodness you feel from giving. I just hope they don't grow up too fast, because right now it feels pretty close to perfect to me:)