a little update on the status of raegan's nudity

yes, she still is undressing... here is how we found her last night! whenever she can, she takes her clothes off. just this morning, she came running into my room with nothing on... she had taken off her pj's (and put them in the dirty clothes hamper... lovely), and she had taken off her diaper (and put it in the trash... fabulous). i must say she is a smart girl, but she just can't keep her clothes on. i find myself telling her repeatedly throughout the day to put her pants back on. she really is very silly and maybe one day she will grow out of it.

the beach, sand, and good eats

a few days ago, aaron called and asked what we would be doing the 3-day weekend. we were not too busy, so him and some friends came down for a visit. grace and raegan were so excited! grace kept asking when uncle aaron was coming. when i told her that i was going to be leaving to play bunco she said, is uncle aaron coming to babysit? she couldn't wait to see him!

aaron and his friends stayed with some people in rancho palos verdes and then aaron stayed the night with us on saturday. they had a pretty good time. saturday, they went up to beverly hills and saw tim mcgraw and faith hill... then headed over to chinatown. there they picked up some sweet chinese clothes....



sunday, aaron hung out with us and then we headed out to the beach for a bonfire. it was pretty cold and bryan told me he would pay me $300 to run into the water with my clothes on... i declined. we had a pretty good fire, some yummy brats, hot dogs, and s'mores. yum. afterwards, aaron drove back with his friends and we bid him farewell until we head up to utah in february.

a quilt for grace

i have been thinking about when we move and having the girls be in bunk beds and i thought it would be fun to make their bedding. i called my friend, sarah, and asked her if i made the quilt tops, would she take them to her mom to quilt them on her quilting machine. she agreed, and the project began. i headed over to joann's to look at their fabric (they were having a sale), but nothing struck me for their room. the next day, i went to m & l discount fabric store... hello? awesome. they have soooo much fabric to look through, raegan and i were there for almost 2 hours picking out the colors. i found one print that i loved and decided from there that the girls room would be red and blue. i was looking to get away from the very girly colors of pink, purple, etc. i love the fabric i found and here is grace's completed quilt top. next project... raegan's quilt top!

persuasion

ok, i know that i am supposed to be reading the screwtape letters for our book club... but let me tell you, i am obsessed with persuasion by jane austen. this past sunday started 'the complete jane austen' on pbs's masterpiece classics. the first movie they showed was persuasion. love love love it. i dvr-ed it, and i have probably watched it everyday. oh my goodness... so good. so, of course, i decided to read the book. hello... can you say fabulous? i practically can't stop... i knew i loved jane austen for a reason. to be honest, i am mostly familiar with pride and prejudice and sense and sensibility, which i adore... so i am very excited to get film versions of all her works. next sunday is northanger abbey. check out all of jane austen on masterpiece classics. i especially recommend checking out the men of austen. love them!

matt's farewell dinner

last saturday, matt invited us to join him in his farewell dinner before he goes on his mission. he decided that he wanted to have lobster from the crab cooker. yum! we all got together to eat down in newport and had a blast. after dinner, we headed over to the beach to watch the sunset. we are so proud of matt and are grateful we were able to be with him before he leaves.





sunday, we drove up to yucaipa to be there for his setting apart. it was a very spiritual experience. before he was set apart, the stake president had us tell matt our feelings about him, something we may have never told him before. man, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. matt is an awesome kid and will be such a great missionary. we will miss him dearly. matt went into the mtc on wednesday (16 january) and is going to chile on his mission.

ballet and tap, here we come

i decided that this winter i would put grace into a dance class. the class they offer for her age is a tap and ballet class. she seemed very excited about going, but when we got there, she became very nervous. luckily, she has a good friend, paige thompson, in the class as well. when paige arrived, she was ready to go up with the class and start dancing. she sticks to paige like glue. paige has taken the class before and she is a good example to grace since she knows what she is doing already. i loved watching them dance. it was very fun. we have since learned that she has another little friend from preschool in her class. analeisa was even more scared than grace. grace and her are starting to become better friends, so i hope it will help analeisa to not be so afraid.

the new years eve bash

on new years, we had 2 families over for a little party. the roberts and the laytons. the place was going crazy with kids and games and guitar hero and the shocking duel. unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures at the party, but managed to take lots of video of the shocking duel game. the video here is bryan and danny. you will see what i mean about him being a big baby. he lets go before he feels the next level. fear of the unknown, i guess. anyway, it is pretty funny.



after games, and as the new year was approaching, we sent the boys out to get the fireworks ready. they had a whole show prepared, but since it was soooo cold (probably around 20 degrees outside) my fingers wouldn't work to take a picture. the show was great though. grace was the only one of the toddlers able to make it all the way to midnight. she had taken a late nap around 6 p.m. so she was ready to go. we had a fun night, and i am grateful that we have such good friends.

new years eve eve

the day before new years eve, we had some friends (the franks) over for dinner and games. we ate yummy stuffed sopapillas and played catch phrase, guitar hero, and again, the shocking duel. we had a blast. tracy and chuck frank came with their two kids, jordan and tanner. we have some good video of nana and tracy playing guitar hero, but i thought a picture would say it all. they were so funny playing. danny and i like to play against each other since we were about the same skill level (he was a little better than me). aaron would beat us so badly it wasn't funny! he plays really well on the hard level and bryan was the best of everyone on medium.

the shocking duel

for christmas, aaron got this game called shocking duel or something like that. anyway, you hold on to these handles (like a joy stick) and you get shocked. each player uses one hand and as the shocks get stronger, you see who can hold on the longest. aaron and my dad could make it all the way through.... bryan was a big baby... rachel didn't make it past level 1... nana made it pretty far... i never got past level 4, but the funniest of all was danny devine. we have a video of christmas morning and danny and aaron were the first to do it. all i can say is... hilarious!

christmas eve traditions/christmas day adventures

finally christmas eve arrived. growing up, we had a tradition of opening one present on christmas eve. usually new pajamas that we could wear that night. we have decided to continue that tradition for our children now. all of the girls (grace, raegan, and aurora) got the same pjs. it was so cute! they were very excited to open a present the day before christmas. i was surprised how excited raegan got. she loved tearing that paper off!



christmas day came the next morning, just as expected. since all of the kids are younger, there wasn't that 6 a.m. rush to wake up and open presents. we actually had a very relaxed morning and started opening presents at about 8. there was complete chaos while presents were opened, paper flew everywhere and by the end, there was a big mess! grace and raegan loved their presents. we have decided as a family tradition that each year our children will only get 4 presents... something to read, something to wear, something to do, and something to play with. we hope that it will help them focus more on the savior and not so much on gifts they will get. they had a great time. here is a picture of nana and papa with all the kiddos, then one of grace and raegs on christmas morning.

missouri snow

we arrived in missouri for our wonderful christmas vacation on 15 december. bryan had an extremely long break from school (4 weeks), so we decided to spend 3 weeks in missouri. just a few days before we got there, an ice storm hit and most people lost their power for several days. by the time we arrived, the storm was over, but we still had a snow storm. nannie, aunt pam, hannah, and sarah were there as well as rachel, aurora, and ty. a few days after we arrived, we took the kids out to play in the snow. i think they enjoyed it very much. grace had played in the snow last thanksgiving at park city, but it was raegan's first time. bryan, hannah, and sarah took them sledding and they built a snowman (sorry, no pictures). they had a blast. we took them out again a few days later. then, the snow melted. we had a really great time hanging out with nannie, aunt pam, hannah, and sarah. i was so glad they were able to spend a few days with us before christmas.