Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow!

My mother-in-law sent us this cool packet of "Insta Snow". The kids loved playing in it- they are feeling nostalgic for a white Christmas, so we improvised!

Staging a "white-out" blizzard! (she was wearing flip-flops and look how green the grass is!) And my funny atempt to throw snow on myself, smile, and click the button to capture the "AZ snowfall". Selsun Blue, anyone? ;)

Santa Baby, Hurry Down the Chimney! ;)

Oh, the weather outside is DELIGHTFUL!!! ;)

The post title really has nothing to do w/ the pics, but it really is nice weather so doing the traditional Christmas things has been a little weird this year. Here's the annual "Gingerbread House Decorating" pics.

Sorry he's in his undies, but I just had to snap a pic of this crazy stunt. I don't know why he just all of us a sudden wanted to climb the walls in the hall- but, maybe he's gonna have a future in the circus. (Luckily, no babes were harmed in the process of taking the picture). ;)

Love from a purple monkey.

I am thankful for....

My two silly girls (and Tinkerbell undies!) My little boy who's such a sweet brother!

Brandon's family that came for Thanksgiving. This is a picture of the cousins having a tea party together. I'm thankful for my cute little tupperware tea set, too! ;)

My fabulous Sister-in-Laws who are the sisters I never had and always wanted!

And last, but not least, the one and only Brandon Webb!

We went to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple- isn't it so great that Brandon's not wearing and jacket and his bro. is wearing shorts. Much better weather than last yr. in SLC wearing snowsuits! ;) I am thankful for the wonderful AZ weather!

The Final Cut

We took some family photos today. It was beautiful outside! Oh, man... it's hard to get 3 kids to hold still, smile, look at the camera, etc. But, we did manage to get a couple decent ones. Here they are:

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Here is the obligatory post-halloween blog:

Ethan is crazy is about Star Wars these days, so our Halloween pretty much followed the theme.

I know, I know, it looks a little like Dora the explorer,

but obviously this is supposed to be a Darth Vader pumpkin.

(We also learned that in Arizona, pumpkins last about 25 minutes from the time of carvage to complete decay into a teeming pile of orange mess. Duly noted. We'll remember that next year)

"When nine hundred years you reach, look as good, you will not"

Since Mariah is too young to have an opinion on her costume,

she got to be Yoda to round out our Star Wars trio.

This is young Obi Wan Kenobi in a pre-trick or treating picture.

He made quite a haul this year, and spent the morning of Nov. 1st puking his little Jedi guts out.

Hayley humored Ethan and went as Princess Leia.

Of course, what goes around comes around, and next year,

Ethan might have to dress as one of Cinderella's stepsisters.

October Tribute Cont.

Our "hike" around the lake.

Roasting hot dogs. And later- smores, of course!

Our tent (that we borrowed from our fabulous neighbor!). But, only 3 outta the 5 slept in there- Mariah was being a "noisy neighbor" to our fellow campers so Brandon took her to the van where she slept half of the night.

This is how I spent the whole camping trip- holding her. Crawling babies aren't condusive to camping- neither are crying babies. She's still so dirty and bug-bitten, regardless. I can't believe we were camping in OCTOBER. It was so nice!


I've been trying out new hairdo's on Hayley. I'm trying to expand my repitoire (sp?). I had to take a pic. of this cause it reminds me of a cute picture of Brandon's mom where she has her hair in braids and is about the same age- they look alot alike!

We're so excited for Halloween- I've already been scoping out the King Size Candy Bar Neighborhoods! Brandon and I went to a Halloween party last weekend and the theme was something SUPER - so, he's Super Mario and I'm Super Glue. We're such dorks- but, we had a good time! ;)

Where have the days gone?

I can't believe I haven't posted since Mariah's b-day. Here's a quick recap of the past 3 wks.

MORE painting: BEFORE pics-
More painting- BEFORE:

AFTER:

Camping trip. We took a picture of this tarantula and then went down the road to a diff. camping spot!

Fishing at the lake

Mariah's 1st B-day!

I can't believe she's one already! Here she is sporting some new birthday duds (I got Hayley matching capris and shirt- I couldn't resist, it was on clearance!)

More b-day duds- yes, she's playing w/ the darts from Ethan's "police gun"

First cupcake. YUMMY!

This is her new stroller/walker. She still can't walk- so we're hoping this will help! I'm not sure, though, because this morning she was trying to climb inside and wouldn't push it! My cute, lazy baby!

Ethan planned her "birthday party" which consisted of: pin the diaper on the baby game, a crawling race, and ring pop party favors! ;) What a fun day!

Date with DAD!!!

Since Brandon's been gone a lot with his first year of Residency- the kids have been missing their dad! He got home yesterday from working a 30 hr. shift and after having a little siesta (sp?) he took the kids on individual dates. First it was Hayley's turn. She wasn't feeling very peppy, but she was excited to go. Out of all the things they could do she chose to go and pick out a toy for her date. Here she is sporting her new baby doll backpack. When they got home- she ran into the bathroom and "tossed her cookies". Besides that, they had a good time. ;) Ethan took Hayley's lead and instead of going to get icecream or going fishing at the lake- he went to the toy store and picked out a little lego policeman car. I didn't get a picture of him with it, but I did snap a shot of him doing one of his favorite activities (rocking chair aerobatics).

You'll have to scroll down to the previous blog to see what these two pics are all about. (I can't figure out how to add more than 4 pics to the blog at a time. So, these are meant to go w/ the rest).