November

One morning we woke up to like a 1/2" of snow...of course Claire instantly wanted to get her snow stuff out and play in the snow. So we got both girls ready and let them go out. Here they are so excited to go outside.
The girls had fun looking in the window at Bryan and I, so we decided to take some pictures (the only problem is you can see my reflection with the camera)...Here is Claire-
Here is Mia- she got so excited each time she looked in the window and would see one of us...her whole face would light up.
On Black Friday, we took the girls to see Santa and two of his Reindeer. As you can see the girls loved it....well Mia did as long as the reindeer stayed a safe distance away from her.
Here are the girls with Santa! They were so happy to see him and he was so great with the girls.

It's Fall!!!

Ever since it got cold Claire has been anxious for the leaves to turn colors and fall. Last year she got her very own rake to help with the leaves, but with an early snow last year she was never able to use it. She was determined to use it this year. As the leaves started falling she kept asking and asking if it was time yet...so we decided to shake the two little trees we have in the backyard and help the leaves fall so Claire could use her rake. She was in heaven!!Of course Mia couldn't let Claire have all the fun; so she did some raking too (well if you can call it raking).
Then the real fun began...JUMPING IN THE LEAVES. I love watching my kids play in the leaves. Claire just loves to jumping in them too!!
This was the first time Mia could play in the leaves and she wasn't all that sure about them. However, after watching Claire for long enough she decided maybe it was an ok thing to try. She eventually had fun with the leaves.
After a great time raking leaves, jumping in the them and then doing it all over again...it was dark, which meant time to clean up. The best part is both girls loved helping clean up too!!!

Halloween

This post will have a lot of pictures because we have had a lot of fun this Halloween. Here are the girls in their outfits on Halloween day. They were both so excited to wear them.
Bryan's cousin and his wife host a Halloween party each year, on our way to their party this year we saw this on the side of the road. I have seen the aftermath of a car on fire, but never one actually on fire. It was crazy!
Of course we had our annual family pumpkin carving day. Mia even helped us take the pumpkin guts out of her pumpkin and Claire wasn't so sure she liked taking the guts out. After a few hours we were able to get all four pumpkins carved. It was a fun time. I bet you can't figure out who carved what pumpkins...
Mia was a cupcake for Halloween. At first she didn't like to have the hat on, but she really loved it once we were out in the cold. This is the best picture we got of her in her costume.
Claire was Rapunzel. Thanks Grandma Lois for making her such an amazing costume and for finding her a Rapunzel wig (we braided her wig and added flowers to it). She was so excited she got to wear her costume four different times. This picture is from her preschool Halloween party. She loved every minute of it. She looks so cute too!!!
I am not much of a Halloween person, I prefer to sit home and see all the kids in their cute costumes. However, I will dress up for the family party, but the costumes I choose are usually simple. This year LeeAnn and I decided to be Jem from Jem and the Holograms and Pizzazz from the Misfits. I think we did a pretty good job with our costumes...what do you think? If you don't know the cartoon then google it and see how we did!!
Bryan was Ron Burgundy from Anchor Man. I think he did a great job. He wasn't loving his wig because it wasn't styled like the package said it would be and that bothered him because he wanted it to be perfect!!
We actually took Claire trick-or-treating this year, our friends brought their two kids and we all went out together. Claire had a good time, but surprisingly we didn't even make it around our whole neighborhood and she was ready to go home.
At the end of the night we took the girls up to trick-or-treat at Grandma Lois' and Papa Don's....Mia showed us that she knew what was supposed to happen with the Halloween candy and she kept doing it over and over and over. It was too cute not to tape!!

Hair Cut

Obviously this first picture has nothing to do with a hair cut, but it does have to do with hair... Claire loved that she had green hair when she put on this witch's hat. This girl makes us all so happy!!

We finally did it... Mia got her first hair cut. Her bangs were so long in front, her sides were getting really long and there was one really long strip in the back. So we finally decided to get a trim. Here she is before...

... and after. No there isn't a huge difference. However, she can see now, her sides aren't as long and now that long strip of hair in the back matches the rest of her hair in the back. Now she really does look like she has a little A-line cut and for the most part it is completely natural.

Thanks Aunt Janelle for giving Mia her first hair cut!!

Pumpkin Patch

This past week Claire's preschool class visited a pumpkin patch. She was so excited to go; Mia got excited too. There were so many activities for the kids to do and they loved it. One of the activities was a barn with animals that they the kids could pet. Claire loved the llama. Her babysitter does a fun little llama finger-play that Claire loves so she was so excited to see there was a llama...apparently the llama was excited to see her too.
The kids were also able to climb a hay bail pyramid and run through a hay bail maze. Claire loved it so much. She was the second one from her class to make it through the maze. She was so proud of herself.
When we were out in the pumpkin patch the kids were told to walk out and pick the pumpkin they wanted. There were so many pumpkins I thought Claire would really look around, but she walked five feet and found the pumpkin she wanted...she refused to even look around at any of the other pumpkins.
Here we are on the hay ride ready after picking out pumpkins. Mia loved Claire's pumpkin so much we decided to pick her out one too. Mia was so proud of her pumpkin. She wanted to carry it with us every where we go.
At the end of the day I had two happy girls who were thrilled to have their very own pumpkins!!

Preschool and Lessons

Claire officially goes to a preschool. This year we enrolled her in a local preschool. She goes twice a week and is loving it. She did make me feel really good the other day though, she told me she missed me teaching her preschool. I asked her if that meant she didn't like her preschool. She answered by telling me that she still loves her new preschool and she wants to go there, but she also wants me to teach her. It certainly made me feel good!! Here she is ready for her first day of preschool.
We signed Claire up for another round of swimming lessons. She was so excited and she got even more excited when she found out her friend Teancum would be in her swim lessons too. They are currently the only two kids in the class. It is so cute to see how happy they are swimming and spending time together.

She is One!!

The other day we were eating dinner at my in-laws, we had Mia in a hook chair (buckled in) at their table. I went to start my dinner plate and kept coming back to give Mia bites...after a few times of doing this I came back to find this...

This post is about Mia, but I had to include at least one picture of Claire....Here she is at one...

...now you can compare Mia at one on the same rockin' dinosaur.

Here she is on her official birthday. Thanks for the cute birthday outfit Aunt LeeAnn!!

On Saturday September 3rd, we had a pool party to celebrate Mia's first birthday. Thank you to all those that could attend to help us have a good day. We had so much fun. This is Mia with her first cake of the weekend. She wasn't so sure of it...Bryan had to help her figure out what to do.

She did love the ice cream though. Thanks Grandma for sharing your ice cream with me!! (We were so happy to have my mom and dad come up to celebrate this special weekend with us. We were all so sad to see them go back home.)

After Mia's birthday party we came home and put the girls down for some much needed rest time. Then we watched the BYU vs Ole Miss football game. After that it was another birthday party...this time at Chuck E. Cheese. Claire had so much fun playing all the games. What a great day we had!!On Labor Day we were able to go out on the river (thanks to my father-in-law) and enjoy the tubes, wake-board, water and sun. It was a fun day... Mia knocked my mom's prescription sun glasses in the river by the boat launch...Bryan and my father-in-law went back with masks to where we thought they fell in and in one dive the glasses were found...
Here are the girls, Bryan and Aunt Terin going on their tube ride.

We had such a great weekend. I didn't want it to end. I am selfish, but I wanted my parents to be here longer. Although I am grateful they could come up for the few days they did. We ended the visit with some more cake, pie and ice cream. This time Mia didn't need any help knowing what to do with her cake. She loved every minute of it!!