Our little Snow White

If you know Anya, you know that she loves Snow White.  So it was only fitting that our little Anya had a Snow White birthday party.  We were pleasantly surprised that so many of her friends were in town and able to come considering her party was just a few days after Christmas.  

The kids all decorated cookies

And got their faces painted by my talented sisters.

Our Anya sure does keep us on our toes.  This girl is so smart, she is like a little attorney, always arguing her case. She is our talker.  We always say we know she is asleep when she stops talking. She is doing great with her first year of preschool and ballet.  We are actually quite impressed how much more graceful she has gotten over the past few months since she started taking ballet.  She loves to sing and dance and is our resident comedian.  We love our Anya girl and are so proud of her!  

Joyeux Noelle

We had such a wonderful Christmas Holiday.  Since my sisters were all with their in-laws this year my mom and her gang all came to our house for Christmas.  We absolutely loved having them here, especially since it was our first Christmas away from Florida.  

                                                 

                                 

These kids make my heart smile!

                                                   

                                     

On Christmas Eve we went to the Gingerbread Village at the Ballantyne Hotel.  It was incredible what people had created out of gingerbread. 

 A member of our ward (our Home Teacher) made this replica of the Salt Lake Temple.  So amazing!

Twas the night before Christmas…

We started a new tradition this year for Christmas, Jacque the elf.  He watched the kids everyday so that he could report to Santa if they were naughty or nice.  Each day he was hiding in a new place and the first thing the kids did in the morning was look for him.  They loved it and it definitely helped them to be nice rather than naughty.  One rule is that the kids couldn't touch him or he would lose his magical powers.  So on Christmas morning when he appeared with a note saying they could all hold him before he headed back to the North Pole, the kids were thrilled.  They each took their turn and cherished the moment.  

Of course we had to make the traditional Christmas cookies!  

Christmas morning fun!

 Liam loves his new big boy swing!

Christmas is extra special in our house with this birthday girl.  Anya turned 3 on Christmas and she was so proud.  We tried to separate the Christmas presents from birthday presents so she would know it was still her special day.  

We are so grateful for Christmas and the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  We hope we can carry the joy this holiday brings us throughout this new year.  

School Christmas Program

The girls had their school Christmas program.  It's always a joy to watch their smiley faces!

Still attempting to get a good picture of the 3 kids together!

Christmas Ballet Recital

I remember going to a ballet shortly after Charles and I got married.  He thought it was so boring and said he would never let our daughters do ballet.  I finally convinced him once we had little girls that they had to do ballet.  I'm so glad I did because these girls just melt my heart when they dance!  They had their first ballet recital.  Given it is December it was Christmas themed.  The winter recitals are typically low scale so the kids can get used to dancing in front of people and the Spring recitals is where they go all out.  For Isabelle's recital it was just her class and one other class.  They each had 2 pieces, one ballet and one tap.  Isabelle was a little star on the stage.  Her smile never left her face and she was so graceful and did so good.  Her teacher was so impressed with her that she recommended her move up to a higher level after only doing ballet for 3 months.  We are proud of her too.

For Anya's recital it was just her class.  They did a few different songs, the first two of which she stood there frozen.  But finally she got into it and did great.  She was so proud of herself and we were so proud of her too.  

 Anya and her teacher Ms. Cindy

O Christmas Tree

Traditionally we get our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, but since we were on our cruise we had to wait a few more days.  This year I was so excited to get our Christmas tree and decorate our new home.  I have always wanted a really tall tree, but have always been restricted in the past by our ceilings.  Now that our family room is open to the second floor, the sky was my limit.  We set out to get our tree, but they didn't have any of their big tall trees left.  They told us to come back in a couple days. Two trips later we found our perfect tree, 10 feet tall and beautiful.  It sure took a lot more lights to cover this tree.