A Surprise Trip

On January 25 I received a package in the mail telling me that my girls and I were going on a spontaneous trip 2 days later to San Antonio. My mom had been working on an Stake Activity Days activity for the 10-11 year old girls in her stake. I had been helping her compile some of the things they needed for their projects and she decided to surprise us by flying me down to help with the activity and Mikkele to participate, and Hallie was a free lap rider so she got to come along as well. Grant got to stay home with Jeremy and have some male bonding.

Mikkele didn't know what was going on until I checked her out of school that day. She had been having a little bit of a rough week at school, so I told her that we were going on a girls day out. On the way to Salt Lake, she kept trying to guess what we were going to do. When we finally stopped for lunch at our favorite bakery I showed her what my mom had sent in the mail....

This was Hallie's first time on an airplane. She kept calling it a car. She did pretty good on both flights. She got a little nervous on the first take off, but just held onto me tight and was just fine. We brought lots of books and toys to help keep her occupied. She was a good girl. And Mikkele had perma-grin the entire time from Salt Lake to San Antonio!

No one except my mom knew we were coming down. So we surprised my dad when we showed up for dinner at Alamo Cafe. And then surprised Aaron and Brittany after dinner.

We had great weather while we were there. It was about 75 degrees on average every day. It was perfect for riding bikes and scooters and trips to the park!
My dad was out doing a bunch of yard work on Saturday and he always wears a straw hat when he's outside working. Hallie found it after he was done wearing it and thought she needed to try it on. What a cute little girl!

Short sleeves and flip flops were a must. And since we would be in flip flops we had to get pedicures :) We all got mani's and pedi's. We really felt spoiled on this trip!We ate at all of our favorite restaurants, plus a few new favorites.Hallie enjoying a rib from Rudy's.
Mikkele having some creamed corn from Rudy's.

We had some good visits with Aaron, Brittany, and the kids. Mikkele got to have a sleepover with her cousins one night. We miss not being able to see those guys on a regular basis.

We were also there for the Roberts family monthly birthday lunch. It's always a treat to sit through one of those. I'm sure everyone wishes they could be a fly on the wall at one of those. ;)

And of course the Activity Days activity. It was a huge success! Everything went really good, and all the girls had a great time! The theme of the activity was "Your Happily Ever After". It was based on a talk given by President Uchtdorf. My mom was just called to be the Stake Primary President right before we got there, so she will have lots of opportunities to plan more of these fun days for the girls.




On the way to the airport to head back to Salt Lake, we stopped by one of our favorite landmark as kids, the big boots at North Star Mall. The girls and I got out and took some pics. Mikkele even climbed onto one of them. They are even bigger up close!

We had a great trip! Thanks mom for having us down to enjoy the weekend with you!

Christmas 2010

Christmas this year was quite different from years past. Usually we hurry and get up, open our presents, and then rush off to grandma and grandpa's house. This year we stayed home and people came to us! It was great! Adam and Jessie and Alisha and Albert came over and we had a great time.

Another thing I haven't had around at Christmas time for a long time is a toddler. And this certain little toddler likes to get into everything! I had debated about not decorating, or just decorating the top half of the tree, but i devised a plan instead so I could decorate and she would stay away from the tree. A blockade! And it worked...well for the most part at least! We couldn't use the fireplace, but it was well worth it!

Everything laid out and waiting for the kids Christmas morning.

Mikkele opening a family gift. (Sorry it's sideways.)

MIKKELE

Santa brought Mikkele a new camera, Dance Dance Revolution game and controller pad, nail polish and a nail polish dryer, and a jacket.

Look how excited she is peaking into the box from Justice. Really she's just excited that the box says Justice. Little did she know that the box contained.....

SOCKS!!!
That Grandma Roberts is pretty sneaky! There was more than just socks and even if it was just socks, they are Justice socks so that makes it a way awesomely cool present. She loves anything Justice!

She got a lot of really cute clothes and girly things. How did I get such a girly girl???

GRANT

Santa brought Grant another ice cream for a year certificate since it was such a big hit with him last year, all the gear he needs to go skiing (more to come on this) and a fun pull behind sled.

The girls gave him some yummy snacks.

Hallie is a little jealous of Grants sled...can you tell???

HALLIE

Santa brought Hallie a shopping cart with some groceries, 2 magnadoodles, some moon dough, and an Elmo DVD.

She kicked Grant out of the sled for a few minutes while she opened some presents. Good thing Grant is such a good sharer.

Trying out her shopping cart. (Santa didn't think ahead very well about all the little pieces that for some reason don't end up staying in the shopping cart.)

And of course she found some candy in the stockings and had to have some right then and there before we had our breakfast.
And speaking of breakfast...we had our traditional strawberry waffles. They never disappoint!

Everyone had fun trying out Mikkele's new D.D.R. game. Even Grant and Hallie got in on the action!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve over at Grandma and Grandpa Dorene's house. We had dinner and then exchanged presents since we wouldn't be getting together on Christmas. Mikkele is old enough now that she knows that we always get new jammies on Christmas Eve. She had begged all night to be able to open hers so she could get a little more comfortable. She finally got her wish and immediately went in to change.

Hallie was a little disinterested in opening the presents. She would start helping, then get distracted and move on. Mikkele got to help open a lot of presents between Hallie and Grant.

Mikkele also go spoiled by her Grandma and her Aunts/Uncles/Cousins. I love her reactions to presents. She always has the best faces. She's still in love with Justin Bieber and is super excited about the puzzle and activity book, as well as the CD that has a JB song as well as many of her other current favorites.

Hallie loves "dodo's"! Grandma and Grandpa gave her a whole house of little dodo's. Her favorite game to play is take the dogs out and let mom put them back.

Grant always get lots of yummy treats for Christmas, since his favorite thing is FOOD!

After all the present opening we went home to get the kids in bed so Santa could come. We had one extra elf helper this year....Mikkele :)

Snow Days

School was canceled the Tuesday and Wednesday before Christmas because we had so much snow! Mikkele was super excited! She spent most of her break from school outside playing in the snow. We even got Grant and Hallie out in the action a few times.

We spent a good majority of the first day clearing driveways and sidewalks in the neighborhood. We would get a driveway cleared and move to another one and by the time we were done with that one we would need to do the previous one again. The pic above is one of our neighbors with his snow blower showering Mikkele with the snow.

Hallie all bundled up and ready to play in the snow.

Hallie thought it was fun to slide down the ramp. It makes a perfect little sledding hill. Our post man doesn't think it's as fun as the kids do though.

Catching snowflakes with her tongue.

Mikkele and Hallie at the top of the sledding hill, ready to go down.

Grant had a good time being pulled on the sled around the yard. There was a few times that Mikkele went around a corner a little too fast and dumped him into the snow. He just giggled and said "MORE"! He loved it, but got cold really fast. A slight disadvantage to not being able to be up and moving while playing in the snow.

Mikkele's Christmas Concert

Mikkele is in choir this year at school. The 5th-8th graders put on a Christmas concert on December 16, Jeremy's birthday. They sang a trio of songs from A Charlie Brown Christmas and then a couple other songs that were more native to different countries. The kids did a great job! Grant really enjoyed listening to the kids sing and kept saying "more" after each song was over. Mikkele got to stand next to 2 of her best friends, Rietta and Kensi.

I tried adding a video, twice, but it is being a pain. So no video...sorry.