It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

Snow, to me, means Christmas can come. It has been really cold but not too snowy, until last Saturday. Courtney was dying to go outside over the weekend, but her and I were both really sick. I told her she would have to wait. Today, there was another huge storm, so she got all ready and got to go play in her first snow of the season. She, of course, had to invite a friend over. They had a great time and are outside playing as I post this blog. Here's to the holidays!

Gingerbread Houses at Grandma's

While my brother was in town, grandma had all the kids over to make gingerbread houses. They really had a good time doing it. Even my 10 year old nephew, who is very artistic, got into it. They all did a really good job. It was fun to get everyone into the Christmas spirit. I think they like eating more of the candy than putting it on their houses but that's most of the fun.

Courtney's first dance recital

I was pretty nervous about the performance at the Festival of Trees. This is Courtney's first year in dance and they only started in October. She doesn't always want to go to dance but I think it's because it is from 5-6pm and she is pretty tired by that point in the day. The performance went great and she had lots of support there.

My brother and his four kids came, as well as my parents, and Dave even got to skip a little work to come watch. She did such a great job and we were so proud of her. All of these girls are in the ward, and all but one live on our street, so it is fun to see them dance together.
Her recital at her school is tonight, so hopefully it goes well.

Sleepy Head

Courtney likes to tuck her animals in before bed with her. I went in one night and wasn't even sure if she was in bed with them. Why is it that kids are so darn cute when they are sleeping?

Turkey Day!!

Being the smart person that I am, I took no pictures of our Thanksgiving. I knew it wouldn't be as fun to read without pictures but I had to do it anyway. Dave's entire family came to Utah for the holiday. It was so much fun. It's been awhile since we've all been together and it was a blast. I was so thankful to Wendy for teaching me how to make turkey and stuffing. Also, Courtney and Ali had so much fun playing together. Courtney and I had a conversation at bedtime one evening that went like this:
Courtney:Mom, I want Ali to stay for a hundred days.
Me:Don't you think Ali would miss her family?
Courtney:Ok, grandma can stay here too.
Me:Don't you think Ali would miss the rest of the family?
Courtney:Fine. Everyone can move into our house. That would be more fun.

We also did the Black Friday thing. I have always been a fan but am slowly converting the Bollard family. We went to the mall at midnight, stayed until 3:30, then hit Kohl's and ended up at Walmart. We got home around 7 in the morning. We got some good deals though. Our favorite was at Gymboree. They gave us our total, $116 or close to it, then said that we saved $167. That made us happy. And we know we got good deals at Kohl's.

Bob and Wendy were kind enough to watch the children on Saturday night so that the three couples could go out. We shopped, ate dinner at Olive Garden and went and saw Four Christmases. It was great to be together. A big thanks to the Bollard families for coming up and thanks to Megan for spending time with our family too.

We hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and find yourselves with much to be thankful for at this time.

The many faces of Courtney

Courtney couldn't decide what to be for Halloween this year. It was a pirate, then a monkey, superwoman, and on and on. I finally decided that I wasn't going to keep buying and taking costumes back. I told her that she had so many princess dresses that she just needed to pick a princess to be. At Disneyland, she opted for Snow White. Then she decided to be Belle for a neighborhood party. The ward party she wanted to be Cinderella. Then for her school party(did I mention we had a lot of parties this year), she wanted to be a fairy princess. You can see that her bear, Baby Courtney, had to get a costume and it was no other than a pirate one(even though she was very mad that I made her get the dress costume for girls, instead of the boy pirate one). Then she told us that she wanted to be something scary on Halloween, because she had gotten some fangs at one of the parties. So we made her a scary princess bride. She loved this costume most and I'm hoping someday, she will be a little princess but for now, it's all things boy and scary. I almost forgot to mention that she wanted to make her pumpkin a pirate, so we got away with not carving this year.

Gardner Village

We went to Gardner Village on probably the most crowded day of the year. We still had a great time. My niece, Abbie, was here visiting, so she is the "twin" with Courtney in a few of the pics. It was also my friend's, Karinne, birthday that day. We had a good time spotting all the witches and were pleasantly surprised that there were real witches out and about as well.

The Happiest Place On Earth

It really is the happiest place on earth for us. Well, when I say us, I pretty much mean Courtney and I. Dave does not think that walking around for 10 hours a day is a vacation, but you couldn't get me out of the place. We had so much fun! It was even more fun because Dave's brother, Brian, and his girlfriend, Megan, came with us. It was especially fun because Megan has never been before. Courtney being an old pro at Disneyland was careful to pick and choose what she really wanted. If a line was to long, she would say, "Let's just forget about this one." It was pretty funny. She did get to experience some new rides this year(yeah for getting taller!). She absolutely loved Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribean, and the Haunted Mansion. Her favorite is still the Snow White ride. I'm pretty sure she still liked meeting characters best. I don't think anyone could have been happier than when we met Captain Jack Sparrow. She even told him that she isn't a princess, but a pirate. It was hilarious!

Bowling

Courtney has a kind of obsession with bowling. She actually loves to bowl on the Wii. She thinks it is pretty neat that she can beat her dad, grandpa, and uncle at it. She's not as good in real life but still has a very good time. She started off strong but had to use the ramp about halfway through. She always loves it when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit.

The Circus Comes to Town

The circus is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen, and frankly, not that entertaining. Don't tell that to these two girls though. Courtney wanted to invite her friend, Haylee, to the circus with us and they had a great time! They really were troopers, but after almost three hours, they told us they were ready to go. We only missed the last 15 minutes or so, but they were both asleep before we made it to the freeway.

State Fair

For Courtney, the best part of competing for Utah's funniest kid was getting tickets to the fair. It was half price wristband day, the day we went, so we had to get one for her. I don't think a kid has ever been happier.
She loves going on the rides! She went on the slide at least 25 times, so we definitely got our money's worth there.

She likes the crazy rides best and gets kind of tired of kid's rides.
She even went on an adult ride(that technically, she wasn't tall enough to get on, but her dad was holding her so the worker wouldn't know) and it was totally her favorite one. She is definitely her father's child!

They wanted a group shot of all of the kids that participated for Utah's funniest kid, and this is our daughter. All I can say is heaven help us when she becomes a teenager.