Glad to be home!

We got back yesterday from a trip to California to celebrate Christmas with my family. I didn't get the camera out much during the trip, but managed to get some pictures while Kara was giving us a violin 'concert'.

Some pictures (pictured below, Grandpa & Grandma, cousin Norah, Brooke, and Kara):

Brooke's Art

I love Brooke to draw... she is so talented. She can sit down for less than two minutes and come up with something like this:

Merry Christmas!

We had a great and relaxing Christmas this year. This was the earliest I've ever been finished shopping and wrapping presents! :)


Some pictures of our Christmas morning (which happened on Christmas Eve this year).

The girls waiting to start opening presents:



















Brooke waiting to open a present:
























Kara waiting to open a present:
























Excited for what she got:
























And so was she:
























Amber was patiently waiting for her turn:



















Amber's present from Brooke (it lasted 5 minutes):



















Brooke's reaction to her favorite present:



















Kara's reaction to her favorite present:
























Stockings (which they got on Christmas morning, the real one):



















They were still tired and thought the flash on the camera was a bit bright:




















Amber trying to help unload the stocking (well, just inspecting every item that came out by sniffing it):

Merry Christmas!

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday! :)

We had a family talk...

We had the talk with the kids. Not that talk, but the Christmas talk. Now that Brooke is 9 and Kara is 11, we thought it was about time.

Brooke's reaction: almost no reaction. She just said she already knew that.

Kara's reaction: at first she laughed, then after the shock set in the tears flowed... so sad!

This means that we can open Christmas presents on Saturday and save stockings for Sunday... gives the kids one more day to enjoy their presents! :)

I will be trying this method this week!

Found this method for cleaning microfiber couches off of pinterest and I am itching to try it! Hopefully it works as well as the pictures show....

http://chrisandrobinsnest.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-clean-microfiber-furniture.html?showComment=1323700783057#c8803005553443621255

Brooke's photography

In the state of Utah there is a reflections contest every year in the school system. This year's theme was "Diversity Means..." and the kids all were asked to create something to go along with the theme. They could enter anything in one of several artistic categories: Music (writing/performing a song), Art (drawing/painting), Photography, Composition (short story, poem, essay), etc.

Brooke chose photography. I, like a proud mommy, thought she was super creative and deserved to win! Brooke chose to finish the theme by saying "Diversity means it's ok to be different". She carefully arranged m&m's on this plate and took several pictures.

This one was her favorite:




















Once the picture was loaded into the computer, she had me help her crop out the plate and zoom in. She started clicking around in the software and saw that she could change the color and keep just a portion in the original color. She got so excited. It was fun to watch her work on this!

Here is a her final photograph: (pretty good, right?)

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We had a great one this year. Here are some pictures of Brooke's costume parade and a few pictures of the girls (and Amber) before we went Trick or Treating tonight!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Carving...