Christmas in AZ 2011

We started out our Christmas with a visit to Santa. The girls loved seeing him and telling him what they wanted :)

Uncle Lan (aka coolest uncle) brought snow down from Show Low for the kids to play in. Lets just say it was a huge hit!
They had so much fun playing in the snow even though they were freezing!

Everyone got in on the snow ball fight action!

Mayli even built a little snow man :)

The kids love their Uncle Lan! A little too much maybe :)

Uncle Lan introduced the famous art of Leg Wrestling! Here is Tori vs Jax :)

Mayli vs Tori

Papa Nik and Jennifer came over and got some lovin too! The girls loved the gifts from them :)

The Nielson Family got together on Christmas eve to take a family shot. This is the best one on my camera, hopefully Auntie Anne got some good ones too.

After the annual Nielson Christmas eve party we got to go see the temple lights! They were so beautiful and I love going and being reminded what Christmas is really all about.

Christmas Eve all ready for bed in our new Christmas PJ's!

I love Christmas morning! The girls were so excited to see that they got what they wanted from Santa and some other fun stuff from mom and dad and grammies and papas. Here is Mayli with her Princess musical alarm clock!

Here is Tori with her Alphie robot!

Zoe with her My Pal Violet!

Daddy spoiled Mommy this year with lots of goodies! Here is my beautiful new watch :)

Daddy got some fun stuff too including this movie he has wanted for a long time! He also got a new Raiders hat after a little joke from Barry and my mom of wrapping a Broncos Hat. You should have seen his face!

Grammie Lori made all the grand kids a blanket with their names on them! They love them so much and are so cute!

We had a wonderful Christmas thanks to both our families! We love you all and are so greatful for all you do for us! Hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas!

Surprise!

Since we live in TX away from both families when we found out we were having baby #4 we decided to try to keep it a secret. It was SO hard but really fun to surprise everyone at Christmas time! Here is the 1st time my mom saw me when she picked us up at the airport :)

Happy Grammie!
I had alot of explaining to do ;)

We went on to surprise Aj's family and the rest of mine while we were in AZ. It was fun and we are so so excited for another sweet little girl to be joining our family in March!

Tori's 5th Birthday!

My sweet Tori turned 5! I can't believe how big she is getting. The Friday before her birthday they celebrated it at her preschool and she wanted popsicles for her treat. We woke her up Saturday morning by singing to her and then she got to open one present.

Her new outfit was her present. Every girl needs something new to wear on her birthday!
Then off to Chuck E Cheese we went to have her party! She wanted a Rapunzel party but since there were so many boys coming she decided on Toy Story :)

Some of the party goers getting their party hats on!

Zoe had been begging for a cupcake all morning so I finally gave in :) She love it!

Tori blowing out her candle!

Thumbs up from the birthday girl :)

There were 15 kids there, pretty crazy but lots of fun!

Opening presents was fun but all the kids were more interested in playing the games so we made it quick! She is pretty excited about this one :)

After her party we went to her choice of lunch at Olive Garden then went home where everyone took a much needed nap! Then more presents from Grammies and Papas and us at home where she got her beautiful Rapunzel dress and dress up shoes. All the girls had to get in on the fun :)

Love you Tori Lynn!

Playing together!

Of all the places my girls have to play this is were Tori and Zoe can be found most of the time! I just love that my girls all play so well together :)

Zoe's 2nd Birthday!

My sweet Zoe gets to be in a big girl bed and she loves it! It has been a very easy transition and I am so greatful. Look at that hair! Here she is smiling after we sang her awake :)

She loves her little car we got her, she calls it a choo choo :)
A little Lion King book from Tori!

An angry bird stuffed animal from Mayli!

Her friends Brynn and Bo came over and gave her balloons. She loved them!

Playing with her little people car she got from Grammie Lori!

Such a sweet little 2 year old (most of the time!)

Papa Nik sent a giant cookie that was perfect to celebrate with that night. Cookies and ice cream, doesn't get much better than that!

Love you sweet Zoe Jane!

Melting Pot!

Aj and I LOVE the Melting Pot and we had a gift card that we needed to use before the end of the year so to celebrate my birthday we decided to take the girls. We didn't do all 4 courses but they loved the cheese and the chocolate of course!

Mayli and Tori enjoying the chocolate covered goodies! The staff was so nice they gave me some sparkling cider to celebrate and gave the girls extra strawberries for dipping :)
Zoe and Mommy enjoying the goodies too! It was lots of fun to let them try it but since Mayli's statement on the way out was "it was good but not as good as McDonalds" I think we will keep it to just Aj and I :)

Halloween 2011

We had such a fun Halloween this year! We got out our decorations as soon as Oct came and the girls could hardly wait to decorate pumpkins. They wanted to paint theirs, here they are being very focused on their job :)

Silly Zoe loved getting to paint her pumpkin too! I think there was more paint on her and the table but oh well!
Daddy loves carving pumpkins, here he is being very thoughtful about what to make his look like.

The finished products!

Mayli and Tori knew exactly what they wanted to be so we got their costumes early so they wouldn't sell out and it just about killed them having to wait to wear them! Zoe didn't care so she got to wear something we already had :)

My cute little witch Mayli

My pretty little Jesse/Tori

My sweet little fairy princess Zoe

They had so much fun at the ward trunk or treat (best idea ever) we were there for about a half hour and they got way more candy then they could ever need! Here is Mayli looking over her loot!

Tori inspecting her goods!

Zoe couldn't have been more excited! She would have eaten it all that night if I would have let her :)

Gotta love Halloween!