Bringing in The New Year

Rachel and Nathan came and stayed with us for a few days and were able to celebrate New Years with us.



We had a fun little party with the kids. We had party hats and blowers, danced around, and pulled the party poppers.


Then Dan and I went over to the Thatchers for a fun New Years fiesta! They went all out with the Mexican decorations, food, rockstar margharitas, and even fake stache's for the guys.





Then of course the wives had to try them on ;)


We passed the time by eating all the delicious food, and playing games (in which Tara had a few memorable moments) Once midnight came Dan and I decided we're too old to party much longer so we headed back home. Thanks for the awesome party Thatcher's, we're looking forward to next year!

Let it Snow

Kaitlyn absolutely LOVES the snow. Whenever it snows she begs and begs to go out and play in it. Whenever she gets the chances she will run and jump in even the smallest pile of snow. So I decided it was about time let her go outside and get soak up all the snow time she wanted. And boy did she have fun. She was singing, dancing, twirling, throwing snow in the air, and making snow angels.
Then she got cold.

Christmas Festivities

This was the first Christmas since Dan and I have been married that we did not travel to be with either of our families. And to be honest it was really nice to just stay home and enjoy the holiday with just us and our kids. (Don't worry we still love our families, but traveling at Christmas time with kids, presents, and such is just no fun)

On Christmas Eve we made and decorated sugar cookies for Santa.

Then we ate donuts and watched Rudolph


Followed by opening a Christmas Eve present. (I think they were pretty tired by this point)

After a good nights rest the girls were ready to see what Santa had brought.


Well Makenzie needed a little convincing to get down the stairs.


But as soon as she saw her very own stroller she was so excited. She of course didn't want to stop pushing it to open any other presents, but she decided that opening the other presents then loading them up in the stroller was pretty fun too.


Kaitlyn was just in Heaven with all of the new things. It was also so fun to see how exited she got when someone was opening the present that she picked out for them.

Although we always enjoys receiving gifts, we know that the best gift we received was long long before we were even born. It's easy to get caught up in the commercialism of Christmas but we're trying to teach our kids the true meaning of Christmas (the Little People Nativity set helps alot -Thanks mom) Here's to hoping that they remember that it's not about the presents but celebrating the birth and life of our Savior.

Thanksgiving

We spent a few days in Mesa for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving morning we had our own Turkey Trot at the elementary school in Dawn's neighborhood.

Makenzie helped pass out water as the runners passed by. And by helped I mean she drank/spilled the water until she noticed the playground, then she went and played.

Kaitlyn was such a cute little turkey trotter. She is very competetive (gets that from her dad) and ran the whole time, I believe she even 'beat' Grandpa on a few of the laps.

We had a huge Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt Steph's house. It was so fun to get together with all of our extended family. Then the following day we all got together again for my Aunt Shauna' s wedding! Isn't she gorgeous?


It was so fun to be with family.

Halloween

For Halloween this year we thought it would be fun to take the girls to Cornbelly's

We had a lot of fun strolling through the corn maze

...riding the tractor train

and preactically scaring the girls to death by making them go through the dragon. They were clinging to us for dear life.

After a whole afternoon of fun they were pretty tuckered out.

We took our Lil Bo Peep and her sheep trick-or-treating.

Once around the block and we called it a night.

Hiking the 'Y'

When we got back to UT we decided it would be fun to go and hike the Y.

It was a pretty steep hike and Kaitlyn got pretty tired, and Dan carried Makenzie up practically the entire way.

But we made it to the top! (well to the bottom part of the Y)

Kaitlyn informed me that this mountain is stupid. When I asked her why she responded with " because it has no pink on it" I think it also has to do with the fact that she got pretty worn out by the hike.

Maybe we'll try again next year???

BYU vs OU

The day Dan was looking forward to all summer... The first BYU football game of the season. We stayed out in Texas an extra week so we could watch it live in Jerry Jones' new stadium.

The stadium is quite amazing! Dan's brother's and Dad all came to the game with us.

Let's just say that that was the most exciting game I think either of us has ever been to. Go Cougs!

Owen & Alyssa's Wedding

At the end of August we all headed to AZ for Owen and Alyssa's wedding! We had such a blast hanging out with all of our family. We spent the days hanging out at the pool and late nights playing games. The day before the wedding we had a nice family temple trip. It was so nice to go and be there with my family.

I never manage to get any pictures of Dan and I with the girls, so while we were at the wedding we attempted.

We had a blast at the wedding.

And we were glad when the newly wed couple decided to join in on the fun. ;) Welcome to the family Alyssa, we love you!

July

For the 4th of July Dan reserved a pavaillion so we could have a bbq and watch the fireworks at the lake. It's no big surprise but I managed to only take 1 picture of the entire day, so here it is.

After the fireworks show at the lake, a few of us headed over to my parents house to make our own fireworks show in the empty lots behind their house. Dan got a kajillion fireworks and I think our show was better than the show at Grapevine Lake. Emily managed to snap a shot of one of the biggest fireworks that went off that night ;)


We ventured out to the Children's museum in Dallas. Getting there was fun...note to self don't try to drive on any Dallas highway during rush hour. But once we got there the kids had a blast.

It's so much fun to live by cousins!

The June Haps

We started off the month with a visit from Grandma Liddle. We enjoyed spending some quality time playing, reading, shopping, and watching movies together.

The next event of the month was finding out that Makenzie was going to be a big sister! I think she looks a little terrified by hearing the news, or it could have been the gorillas at Rain Forest Cafe.

We also celebrated Kaitlyn's 4th birthday! It was really fun to have all of her cousins in town to celebrate with us. She was also grateful that Dawn was there to make her the strawberry-banana cake, shaped like a heart, with pink frosting and sprinkles that she had been talking about all month long.

And of course we had many days filled with ice cream, shopping and of course long days at the pool.

Happy Birthday

...to my little DIVA

We love the way you
have your own sense of style
know exactly what you want - and how you want it
remember EVERYTHING
love and take care of your little sister
tell imagintive stories
light up our lives

Texas

So we've been in Texas for over a month now and last night was the first time I actually busted out the camera. I just couldn't pass up this shot...

NASCAR and Indy Car in the middle of a pond...nice. Granted this is just right outside of the Texas Motor Speedway, so I guess what else should I expect.


Dan got tickets to the Indy Car Race for his office as an incentive. It was nice to actually spend an evening with (or just near) my husband.

Shaq was there too...He was the one who said "Start your engines"

My sisters also had tickets to the race so I actually spent most of the night with them while Dan was mingling with guys from work. Although it was soooooo loud (we had to wear ear plugs) it was almost like playing a game of charades

The APX crew


We're having a lot of fun here in TX and now that I've finally unpacked my camera maybe I'll get back to updating the blog regularly. But please, don't hold your breath