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.

snowball fight!

my mom sent us this hilarious jib-jab card! i had to post it!

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yes, we've elfed ourselves, too!

click here check out the horspool elves!

so, my mom sent me this email where she 'elf'-ed everyone she had a picture of, so we decided to elf ourselves. very cute! i have seen it on several blogs and have decided to jump on the bandwagon.

just a side note... little raegs decided that she was going to learn how to climb out of her crib yesterday. after a few weeks of trying to climb over and getting stuck, then climbing over, but not thinking she could get all the way down and crying until i helped her, she finally made the jump and climbed all the way out. i told bryan and he said... 'cool, now we can get bunk beds'... i said... 'there goes my sanity'... just kidding... sort of...

grace and raegan have officially mastered ‘the picture smile’

and there it is... the picture smile... the smile we all smile whenever we hear the words... 'say cheeeeeeeeese'.

yesterday, we had the girls wear their christmas dresses for the first time. they are so cute (i just wish aurora was here in her matching dress... ah, but soon we will all be in the great state of missouri!) well, we tried to get some pictures... grace and raegs really didn't want to smile so much... mostly, they just wanted to be silly and mess around. of course! so, here are the pictures we got.





yum, raegs must think buttons are scrumptious... unfortunately, this was the best smile we got out of gracie!

after bry left for his meetings, i put raegan in the crib while i took a shower. when i was done getting ready, this is how i found raegan...


grace had thrown almost every toy we own into the crib. raegan was buried. literally. i could barely get her little legs out... they were covered with toys! after i took raegan out, i had grace climb in there to take the toys out... who knew we had so many stuffed animals!

i heart byu football

saturday, byu played their last regular season game against san diego state. mike, amber, bryan, and i made the trip south to watch the team. while we were driving, we saw this crazy rainbow outside... it had been raining off and on all day. it was so bright!


well, byu won the game 48 - 27 and we had a good time... byu is now ranked number 17 and will play ucla in the las vegas bowl on 22 december. go cougs!

late night shenanigans

so, yesterday when raegan woke up and i went to get her out of her crib, i was surprised to see... she was naked. yes, naked... not just out of her pajamas, but out of her diaper too! yikes, that could have been a disaster! what was she thinking?!

then, last night bryan went to check on the girls before we went to bed and grace was so cute in her little bed, cuddled up with her baby doll. oh, how sweet.


next, we go and check out raegan. yes, she has started the undressing process... her snaps are undone and her arm is out! that crazy kid! we managed to fix her clothes while she slept, just to make sure there wasn't a middle-of-the-night-undressing!

thanksgiving... giving thanks for all we have... especially a visit from aaron, tay, and aubree!

this past week, aaron, taylor, and aubree (tay's new fiancee... yippee!) drove down from provo for a thanksgiving visit. they arrived on tuesday night and left on sunday. wednesday aaron, tay, and aubree took a trip to knotts berry farm, then we all got together for some yummy chinese food and a movie!

thursday, we headed up to yucaipa. we spent the day eating and eating and eating... oh, and watching football, of course (go packers! we love brett! or at least i do!) grace took a drive up the driveway with grandpa on his motorcycle! she loved it! thursday was also a day for birthdays... happy birthday to dad and kira!


friday we attended the temple and matt went through for the first time! what a great experience! aaron babysat grace and raegs and about 15 minutes after we left, she pooped! uh oh! luckily aaron is a real man and changed the diaper! but i think he is forever grossed out! that afternoon, we headed over to brooke and tami's for kira's 5th birthday party! we, of course, caught the tail end of the lsu/arkansas game! yippee for an lsu loss... clearing the way for the tigers...

aaron and i headed back to cypress friday night and did some after-thanksgiving-day-shopping. saturday, we watched more football... byu beat utah in a crazy game, then mizzou beat kansas in a crazy game! missouri is now number 1 and hopefully they can hold onto it this next week. saturday night we went down to the beach for a bonfire with taylor and aubree. taylor proposed to aubree earlier in the afternoon and we were so excited! we had a good time hanging out and eating hot dogs and s'mores. yum!

sunday, we headed back up to yucaipa after church so aaron, tay, and aubree could drive back to provo. we will miss them, but we are so glad they got to come for a thanksgiving visit!

gracie, gracie, you're so fine...

a few weeks ago, we took grace to get her pictures taken for her 3rd birthday. well, we were really pleased with how they turned out, considering i can't get her to take a picture to save her life. well, maybe she would take a picture to save her life, but it is really hard to get her to smile her non-picture smile. here are the results of what a professional stranger can do. (i think stranger is the key word). our little grace is really growing up!

the adventures of grace and raegan

things have slightly slowed down around here after halloween and the ward activity and such, so we have tried to get back into our normal routine. (just in time for the holiday rush, i know!) here are some things that have happened in the last week.

about a week ago, grace was really struggling to finish her dinner... did i say finish, i meant start... i think she had taken one bite. i told her that she couldn't leave the table until she ate her food... she kept saying, 'i want to go to bed.' i kept saying, 'no.' well, i left her in the kitchen so i could do something with raegan (who finished her food and was able to leave the table) and when i went to check on grace's progress... and this is what i found...


grace, dead asleep at the table... i guess she really was tired! well, once she woke up, she did eat 3 bites (pathetic, i know) and was able to go to sleep for real.

on saturday, this is how we found raegan. alone in her room... sitting on her changing table... eating the lotion. yum. lotion everywhere (hair, clothes, eyes) and in need of a bath. fortunately, we waited... there were worse things to come.



about 20 minutes later, this is how we found raegan... alone in her room... sitting on her changing table... eating lotion and diaper rash cream. yum again. lotion some places... diaper rash cream everywhere (hair, eyes, clothes) and raegan really in need of a bath. apparently we weren't strict enough in our punishment the first time (i think we laughed, took pictures and a video... and we wonder why she did it again). the second time we were more strict... she hasn't climbed up onto her changing table since... but it's only monday. i think we had to wash her hair 5 times before everything came out... yuck!

the last day of soccer

about 2 weeks ago was grace's last soccer game... if you can call it a game. they still need a lot of direction while playing! her and jax had a great time playing together, but i think they need a soccer break. we got some pictures of the class at the end and then of grace and jax with their coach fabian grassini. he worked really well with all the kids. of course, on the last day, grace was having a moment and spent the last 15 minutes laying on the ground, so we don't have too many action shots of her. oh well!

the very extended horspool family reunion

on 03 november, bryan's parents hosted a huge family reunion at their home. it consisted of all members of the horspool family... many of whom we did not know. there were horspool's who traveled all the way from salt lake. it was really fun to meet many new family members and see how everyone was related. there were two brothers who came named mike horspool and brian horspool. wow... another mike and brian! so, we had our mike and bryan take pictures with them. brian horspool was even appropriately dressed with a usc shirt on! it was pretty cool!

medieval times

for our ward activity in this month, we had a medieval times night. the ward was divided into 3 kingdoms and bryan and i were asked to be king and queen over one kingdom. we named our kingdom, the magic kingdom, in honor of disneyland. we decided that for our crowns, we would use mickey mouse ears. being king and queen was a ton of fun, we had to try to get everyone assigned to our kingdom to come to the activity and support our team. once we got there, we ate dinner... pure medieval style - no silverware... all finger foods. yum! then, we joined our kingdom for the competitions. we had the javelin throw, bow and arrow, jousting, rescue the queen's crown, and breech the moat. how fun! our team, was full of spirit and we had the most people attend. yippee! we didn't end up winning the competitions, but it was a very close race.

halloween with the wizard of oz

finally, halloween came... i swear, we have been doing halloween and trick or treating for 2 weeks! i think grace thinks it is a neverending holiday! well, on halloween, we dressed up in all our costumes and went to the trunk or treat. we had a blast walking around and everyone thought the girls were so cute! bryan and i got to wear our costumes and we completed the wizard of oz... here we are, the wicked witch (costume made by grandma horspool... which everyone loved...), dorothy (costume made by nana... everyone thought she was the cutest) with toto, the scarecrow (costume made by me... i thought he looked smokin'), and the cowardly lion (bought off ebay for more that it is worth, i'm sure)! most people didn't understand that we went together as a set, they were too interested in the girls! maybe if i had painted my face green.... hmm.... there is always another year.

family night at pa's pumpkin patch

i took this picture on sunday and just loved it. we can actually see raegan's face! finally!

moving on... so, monday before halloween, we went back to pa's pumpkin patch for family home evening with the earl's. we again, had a blast! here are grace and jax being super cute again! look, he has his arm around her! we also took a family picture, but of course raegan isn't looking at the camera. am i surprised? not at all! bry said, it's a picture that shows her age, almost 18 months with no desire for pictures! totally true!



all the kids wanted to ride pa's equivalent of the teacups... you know, really dizzy, spinning, super fast... throw up if i don't get off... well, this picture pretty much sums up grace's facial expression for the whole ride. eyes, rolling back in her head... head back... we thought she was going to lose her dinner!


here is grace once again, petting the pony... then on the bumper boats... i worried a little that she would go overboard, but she loved it... up until the end when she bumped into the wall and hit her mouth on the steering wheel... it was very funny, but oh so sad... she had to get off at that point...



and of course, raegan... she couldn't ride many rides because she was too little, but there was a bounce house for little kids... bryan put her in that while we were waiting in line for the bumper boats, but she hated it. i think she cried the whole time and wouldn't leave the net at the entrance... what a wimp! here she is just sitting by the pumpkins!

pumpkin patch and trick or treating with preschool

well, things have been so busy lately, that i have like 20 events to blog about. i will start with the earliest. grace's school trip to pa's pumpkin patch in long beach. awesome is all i have to say. grace and raegs had a blast. we mostly hung out with alison, jaxson, and mckenzy, and grace and jax were hilarious on the rides. grace was a little frightened at first, since she has never been on rides by herself. we always go with her at disneyland. she was, of course, a natural and loved every minute of riding with jax!

here is raegs just hanging out in the stroller.


this is grace and jax on the first ride of the day!


we then headed over to the pony rides! grace had a blast and it was so hilarious how much she liked to pet the pony. she just kept petting it and was having so much fun!


the big slide, awesome, of course.


now, raegan and grace on the carousel... i think raegan was scared. pa was in charge of this ride and let raegan ride for free, she didn't love it like gracie!


ok, finally, the fun picture stops. hilarious. i love the first one because you can't even see grace's head... she is just too short.




grace and jax just crack me up. they are totally best friends and love playing together. they have their moments, of course, where they don't get along, but all in all... they have a great time. we will be very sad to leave them next year!

ok, so moving on to the preschool trick or treating. on thursday before halloween, grace's class went trick or treating to the los alamitos senior center. how fun was that! the seniors really loved looking at all the children dressed for halloween. here are grace and jax as dorothy and diego!


this picture of their whole class is awesome... there were 3 cinderella's. obviously the princess of choice!