E-L-M-O!!!!!!

Kate's favorite person- her Grandma- who she asks for every single day bought us tickets to see Elmo's Green Thumb at the E center. It was so fun for all of us to see Kate's reaction. At times I thought she might hyperventilate!

We couldn't get Kate to stop hugging Elmo to turn around for the picture. This was the display right inside the doors and Kate thought this was it. Little did she know what she had ahead of her!

Our seats were on the sixth row right on the floor. I have the funniest videos of her dancing and freaking out. One of these days I will get one of them on here....

Then of course after her Grandma spoils her with an Elmo stuffed animal that is almost the same size as her!

What a good day this was!

Mimi's pajama party

This year my mom decided to have a brunch pajama party for the little kids and their moms since they aren't quite old enough to sleepover with the bigger grandkids. The kids had a blast playing in Mimi's playroom while their mom's visited, a fun little craft and opening jammies! Kate is so lucky to have these two friends in her life! She loves them so much!

Bonneville Stake Live Nativity

There is nothing better to help remind us of the true meaning of Christmas than the live nativity our stake puts on each year. Our ward decided to have our christmas party the same night and then walk up to the Stake center together. We had such a great time. We love our ward and all the great people we get to spend so much time with!

This is the nativity our ward set up on our ward's beautiful grounds. It is so pretty to look across the pond at the little nativity and Kate loved looking at it every wk when we would go to church!

Walking up to the Stake Center

The nativity is so authentic and well done. If you don't live this way it is totally worth the drive!

There are people selling food and live chickens as you enter the city...

real animals including chicken, geese, sheep, camel, and a donkey

they even have a real newborn baby.....

Ty just had to snap a picture with his friend Marty Patch who was the guard as you enter the city

I am so grateful for my Savior especially at this time of year. It is so fun to teach Kate all about that special night a long time ago!

Christmas Recital

Well it's that time of year to break out the Christmas music! However all my student's have been working on their Christmas songs since October so they would be ready for the recital! They all did a fabulous job and it was a great way to start off the season!

Here are a few of my cute students. I always forget to take a picture but I grabbed a few just before they left. Aren't they so cute? I am so lucky to have such great students!Kate even got to come this year!
Then directly after the recital we decided to stop at the tree lot to pick up the perfect tree. It was SO cold and we were all in dress clothes so I am pretty sure we made record time.. maybe five minutes to pick it out, strap it to the car, and be on our way!


Kate was extremely helpful this year balancing the tree!

It is so fun to have a toddler this time of year with all their excitement. Last wk she came home from church and was skipping down the hall saying "HO HO HO Happy Halloween!" Maybe she gets all the holidays a little mixed up but she sure nevers lacks enthusiasm!

Thankful

We have so much to be thankful for this year. When I really start to think about it I am overwhelmed with the blessings we've recieved. I remember at the beginning of 2010 thinking this needs to be a good year cause the last two have been REALLY hard in so many ways. Looking back over the past 12 months I really can't think of anything I would have changed. It has a been a wonderful year! In fact I sometimes let fear get the best of me and worry that this is just the calm before another storm but I am just living day to day and enjoying every minute of it! My life is so full of love because of these two people.... I am thankful everyday they are mine!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving up at Poppy's cabin in Midway. Andrea made an amazing turkey (best I have ever had) and we ate ourselves sick! The sun came out for a few minutes and Kate, Ty and Max decided to go sledding. I broke my back sledding so I am not a big fan so I just watched from inside by the fire! :)

Then the day after Thanksgiving we decided to get out of the cold and head to the new Chapman/Ivory home in Paradise Valley. We had such a great time. We got to see alot of Ty's family and hang out with the Ivory's!

I did a terrible job taking pictures on this trip so here the few I took:

Kate was concerned about the sun shining in her eyes and I didn't want to ask the lady next to the window to close her blinds so I pulled out Kate's handy glasses and she wore them the entire time!

We did alot of shopping and here Kate and Mark are picking out their dessert at the Nordstrom Cafe.

Out at the pool.... It was still a little chilly!

All in all it was a great trip and when I go back in February (counting the days) I will do much better with pictures!
Now bring on Christmas!

More Halloween

I know we have all moved on to Thanksgiving and are making our Christmas lists but I wanted to document all that we did this Halloween. We were so busy and I have to admit I am so glad I don't have to put that Jester costume on Kate one more time! But we sure did have fun while we were at it!

Once Kate saw the spooky face painted kids at the Trunk or Treat she was done. Her body was shaking she was so scared and she was crying "bye-bye" until we left!

This was before she saw any scary guys with cute Jessy and her little dino Graham

Fishing for prizes very seriously

Every year I do a Halloween piano recital/carnival. I do it at my mom's house and have all my students wear their costumes to perform their Halloween song. Then we play Halloween Bingo and musical tombstones. It is nice to be able to see my students fun personalities other than just at their weekly lessons! I took pictures before everyone got there and then I got busy and didn't take any of my students... I am so bummed! They all looked darling!

I had to post this picture because I am so proud of the banner I made. I admit that I probably don't have a crafty bone in my body so I am thrilled with how it turned out!

The Prizes!

One afternoon Brecken and I decided to head out to Gardner Village. I haven't been out there for a few years so it was fun to take Kate and show her all the cute decorations and funny witches!

This is what Kate does when I say "say cheese!"

Kate and her favorite Brecky!

Last but definitely not least Megan and Annie throw the best annual Halloween party! Here is a picture of some of the girls. I wish I would have gone around and taken a picture of each couple cause the outfits this year were hilarious!

Olive Oyl (Priscila), Sonny (me), cruiser (Bitty), Knocked up housewife (Meg), Buttercup (Sarah), Snookie (Lindsay), Witch (Sabrina), Witch (Brooke)

Drum Roll please............... Introducing Sonny and Cher! and their tired little Jester of course! I know Sonny didn't have curly hair but we were desperate and threw the outfit together about five minutes before. Ty took his costume very seriously and I don't even have a full length picture to show his high heels! He was HILARIOUS!

Introducing........

our little jester!

We have had such a fun halloween this year going around in our costume! Kate LOVED her silly hat and would run up and down the hallway in our house singing the "silly hat" song from Barney. Ty's mom had an awesome Halloween party the week before Halloween that sort of kicked off the festivities and then we pretty much went non- stop from that point on!

Here is Kate doing the dancing game on the Wii. She is OBSESSED with "who let the dog's out?" and knows the whole dance by heart!

The whole crew from Alice in Wonderland. Jack was even the bunny with his clock. So Funny!

Helping dad carve pumpkins.....

All the cousins:

Becky went all out this year! Each kid got two pumpkins... one to carve and one to paint. Then everyone got to decorate their bottle of orange soda. Karen made these cute spider treats.

and she didn't even forget the bubbling cauldron! Karen almost fainted after inhaling all the dry ice since it took me so many tries to get this picture right!

Happy Halloween!

Family Pictures

we finally did it! I have been wanting to get our family pictures taken for awhile now and I am so happy with how they turned out. I was really stressed about who I was going to have take them since I have always had Bobby Whitney do it and she was taking some time off. But I got a few recommendations and after looking at her blog I decided to use Sara Bateman. She was fantastic and great to work with. Kate was even talking about her on our way home. Here are a few (or should I say alot) of my favorites: