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.

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!