Weekend in Providence, UT

This last weekend we went up to Providence, UT (it's right next to Logan) and spent a fun and snowy time with Ryan and Martina Davis and their family. Emma was in heaven to be with her best friend Grace. The guys took Emma and Grace on the 4 wheelers and sleds on Saturday and this is the result when they came back. All of them were soaked all the way through their snow clothes. The girls had bright red faces, but man they had a great time. Saturday night we went to their ward Christmas party and it was fabulous, great job Martina (she was in charge)!! This is Emma and Grace enjoying the YUMMY food!!

The theme was Christmas around the world and they had a production of different people performing things from around the world. Emma and Jax loved watching all the different dances and songs.

Thank you Ryan and Martina for letting us invade your beautiful new home for the entire weekend. We had so much fun and LOVE spending time with you guys. We miss you and can't wait to do it again!!

Chugga-Chugga Snow Choo-Choo

Our kids and dogs LOVE the snow. So with the last snow storm they took the opportunity again to play outside. Their favorite thing is when Ryan plays snow train with them. He goes first and they have to follow in his footsteps. After a little over an hour of playing outside, Ryan gave Jax one more ride and then they all came inside to thaw out with warm hot cocoa (one of Emma's favorite cold weather treats)!
Seeing their joy makes putting up with the snow and cold that much easier!

The Mis-Adventures of Jax Brimley

The other day we went to help at Emma's school and had some time left over before she was out so I let Jax play on the playground and he was in heaven. The only problem now is that every time we go to the school he thinks he gets to play. He is getting so big it makes me sad. So freakin' cute!!
He wouldn't even think about letting me catch him on the slide so all I could do was get a quick picture of the event.

Autumn Splendor

One of my favorite things about owning a 60 year old house isn't the constant remodeling we are always working on, it's our beautiful mature trees. I have to say they are probably my favorite thing about my house. Right now Ryan is saying he hates the trees. But there is something to be said about how beautiful my yard looks with the brown and gold leaves that are scattered all around. Although this is coming from the person who lives here that doesn't clean them up every weekend in October and November. Thanks Ry for putting up with the mess. Jax is helping Daddy rake the leaves. Although I think he made more of a mess than he did actual cleaning.
Emma looks forward each year to piling the leaves and taking running jumps into them. This is only one of the small piles we've collected this season.

Trick-or-Treat

I don't know about you, but I personally LOVE autumn and the holidays in this season. That is until I have put the Halloween costumes on one too many times. This year we did the church Halloween party, Emma's Waterford Institute party (her computer class she takes), her school costume parade, trick-or-treating at Ryan's work, and then finally Halloween night. All of these events were on seperate days too. Plus Emma's cute friend Carlyn, who lives down the street, is having a post Halloween birthday party and Emma get's to get one more use out of those tights that I love putting on and taking off. I guess I should be grateful that we get ample use out of our costumes each year though. ;-) We had a really fun Halloween, despite my tantrum. I love watching the kids get all dressed up and seeing how excited they are for each new experience. We had fun at all the parties and Emma is already talking about what she wants to be next year and then the year after. As long as there are no tights involved! Hope you all had a happy Halloween too!
Emma and her foofy witch costume!! It's one of my favorite costumes she's had yet.

Aarr matie!! Jax was a pirate again this year and just like last year he wouldn't keep his hat on. I love having such a small peanut that can get 2 years worth of wear out of one costume!

How do I top this next year?!?!

For Emma's 6th birthday party she originally wanted to have a horse themed party. Then she tweeked it to wanting a Hannah Montana/Horse birthday party. Well how do you incorporate both those items, so we had to pick just one. So I made a few phone calls and we were fortunate enough to get "Miss Hannah Montana" to come and Rock Out with all the girls. This is all the girls waiting, not so patiently for Hannah to make her debute.
Hannah came in and all the girls got totally quite, they were so in shock that they didn't quite know what to do or say. It was the first time I've seen that many little girls in one place all speachless.

Hannah posing with the girls. Unfortunately not all of the girls were there yet, but we got most on them in the group shot.

Hannah and the girls Rockin' Out!!

They were learning a dance with poses.

Emma was speachless when "Hannah" wanted to get her picture taken with her.

After the dance and singing session we broke into 3 groups. One group decorated purses that we had gotten for each girl to take home, one group painted our nails, and the other group got to play outside for a few minutes. Splitting into smaller groups made each project less stressful and each girl got to take her time at each station. It turned out so great.

Hannah stayed and sang Happy Birthday to Emma with all of us.

She even helped us enjoy a cake with her picture on it.

The party was a complete success and the girls are still talking about how "Hannah Montana" came to Emma's birthday party. Now I'm just worried about how I will ever live up to such a fantastic party in the future. Oh well, at least I have an entire year to start planning.

Two Teeth Down

Emma lost her second tooth. Her other tooth, again, was already coming up behind the tooth. So we had to wiggle it ALOT and get it to come out. She was really afraid this time around and we couldn't figure out why, when she was so easy going with the first one. The Tooth-Fairy came that night and left her treats for being so brave. We are hopefully going to be more proactive about any more teeth that need to come out and get them out BEFORE the other teeth are already coming in. She is getting so big and loves when her teeth fall out. As you can see from this picture she had just gotten done crying about having to pull it out. ;-)