christmas games

 we played a few games on christmas like pit and this silly game, hope to play a few on new years eve!

                               so you put a paper plate on your head and listen to the directions

                                        draw a christmas tree, add ornaments, and a star on top

                                   next draw a fireplace with a mantel, draw stockings hanging on it

                                             go back and place presents under the tree

                                               then take it off and laugh at your creations!

i forgot the point part but threw the paper away. your supposed to assign point values to each thing and see who wins but we just laughed! if you have any fun new years eve ones please leave a comment!

Christmas 2011

i hope you had a great Christmas, we had a nice, relaxing, fun Christmas with everyone home. i think it will be the last for a few years so i was very grateful!

 we woke up on sunday and got ready for church. church was so nice with music and spoken word. i thought it was nice to be at church on Christmas but the kids who had to wait to open presents until after church were a little ancy! ellie looked adorable as usual!

 we were laughing that everyone just wants their picture taken with ellie!

                                         she is teething terribly and wants anything/everything in her mouth, she thought caleb's tie was perfect!

                         baxter is ellie's protector. he wants to be wherever she is. ellie doesn't mind him at all,

                                                 she'll just look at him!

 then we ate breakfast. hashbrown casserole, oranges, cinnamon rolls and juice.

 matt is sitting on our present from scotty and ki that hasn't been opened yet, wonder what it is?!

              she is almost 4 months old and she likes to be up and moving!

            she opened her first present with grandpa. a bumbo seat from my mom, great grandma or GG!

                          she liked it sometimes and others not so much but she's never been in it and i'm sure will get used to it, especially when food can be placed on the tray!

 caleb thought baxter had to have a present so he wrapped  a bone. after he got it out and ate it he came back looking through the other wrapping to make sure there weren't bones in there too!

 we finished opening presents before giving the kids their big gifts, daddy bought them Ipads!

 caleb didn't speak the rest of the day unless he was asking about an app. he didn't get an iphone when we all did so this is a new thing to him! we did play a few games together but otherwise he was pretty involved with it.
kiley and scotty made us a bench. it is so beautiful. it is a solid wood white washed bench that they carved a family tree into and sealed so it can go outside or inside! it is supposed to be for our new house that i don't think we're ever getting!

 i love it! the fact that they made it makes it so special, i cried when i saw the top.

 caleb bought me a new printer/scanner that i have wanted for a long time so i can use old pictures on the computer, i was impressed!

 matt and i don't really exchange gifts, we get much more joy out of buying them for the kids and we pretty much just buy what we want but he got me a new iphone cover which is so cute. i love anything with pink on it!

 we got ellie a bunch of board books, she loves reading. she sits and looks at the pictures and listens. she gets quiet and relaxed and really loves it and there's nothing i love more than reading books to ellie!!!

 i had to buy some hawaii board books so she will know hawaii! this one above is aloha zoo and she likes it.

more pictures to come but these take so long to load. get ready for a new year, 2012, can you believe it?!

white elephant party!

we had our yearly white elephant party with the mozo's. it's always a good time.i didn't take a lot of pictures and the lighting was terrible but here's a few anyway.

 ellie is teething and grandpa's thumb is her favorite chew toy. she bites and it's hard but it feels so much better to her.

 matt got a lovely bear soap dispenser and hand towels. i got an elephant sarong which i traded for a medical flag. kiley and scotty scored with the movie date night and a jon mozo print!

 makana got scotty and ki's footy pajama's. amber kept opening barbies, it was hilarious. the fought over gift was a justin beiber doll and toothbrush!

 chris always gives gifts after the white elephant exchange. look at these stylin' outfits caleb and kana scored! hilarious!

kiley and scotty came to our ward christmas party with ellie. she was all christmasy in her tree shirt i made her, her jeggings and her red leather shoes that were kiley's when she was a baby!! is she cute or what?! 

ellie loves surf video's she's mesmerized by the blue waves. her daddy's girl!

it's the end of the year

i can't believe the year is coming to an end. i thought i better check my 11 in 11 goals before i make new ones for 2012! 12 in 12?

1. improve photography. take a class, learn online, read the manual, something.did not accomplish this goal. i decided i need a new camera, mine is several years old and i want something sleeker but i really enjoy using my iphone camera.

2. learn sewing. i am enjoying trying to figure things out and want to learn to make more. i did learn basic sewing. i made ellie several blankets, cloth diapers, drawstring bags, a small stuffed toy, and a christmas shirt. my goal is to be able to make simple dresses for her or skirts for me!

3. volunteer at theraputic horsemanship (hopefully this summer) a dream. last summer got away from me so i did not accomplish this one either. maybe this summer when i have more time.

4. do something fun/outside my comfort zone/or new!i did do zumba which was for sure outside my comfort zone. we did a lot of fun things this year but my biggest was hiking koko head. 1000 stairs. it was tough but something i am glad i accomplished!

5. improve my fitness/lose 5 lbs. including yoga but adding more especially cardio.i did so good in the summer, it's just hard when i'm working, i lose my motivation, it's still a life goal that i will for sure work on again this summer!

6. advance in technology. matt wants us to get an iphone, nikki wants me on facebook, these are all things i avoid but i guess at some point you have to keep up with technology so you don't fall behind. i phone and facebook, check.

7. improve spirituality. i feel like i have done this some working at the temple but i need to work more on serving others.i did learn this is an ongoing process but have enjoyed working at the temple.

8.be the best grandma ever:) it has been amazing. now i have to learn how to be a good long distance grandma!

9.travel with husband. favorite thing! we got to go to chicago and st. louis, fun trips.

10.print my blog into a book. i have meant to do it for soooo long, i don't want to lose all this suddenly and be sick about it! still working on this one!

11.keep organizing house. i used to be a little obsessive about this and now i am behind. we may move someday and i don't want it to be a mess! i did pretty well with this one but again, it's an ongoing process.

i will try and set my goals for the new year and see how i do with those!

photo shoot

we wanted to take our Christmas pictures this year somewhere a little different. Amber found a sunflower field and we thought that would be awesome! we love the beach but thought this might be a little easier and it was so pretty!

amber did a great job especially considering we had a baby and a dog, they are a little hard to work with!

i'll let you scroll through and enjoy for a little bit. click to enlarge.

i'm most grateful to Amber for her candids. it shows real life and expression. i'm really grateful we had these taken because Kiley and Scotty have made the decision to move to California by early Jan. It has been hard on us getting used to the idea of not seeing Ellie weekly. she is the most loveable girl in the world! her blue eyes just melt your heart and you are in love! there have been tears and there will be more ! as for Kiley and Scotty we will miss them terribly too. I have had Kiley close for all these past years through college and her first year of marriage and i know i am lucky for that.Scotty is always so helpful and happy and they are just so much fun to have around and we will miss them stopping by to eat chips and salsa and glasses of ice water! we love all 3 of you! we are glad we have this moment in time captured!