Reesie and her snow.

I love this sweet girl! We happened to be ready for church a little early one Sunday and I was able to get some candid pics of Reese playing outside. She loves to eat snow! I love capturing these candid moments. 

Ice Castles

In January we went to the ice castles in Midway, Utah. We have been wanting to go for the past couple of years and we finally went this year. On specific days, they even had Elsa and Anna at the ice castles so the girls had to wear their dresses. The castles were absolutely amazing. It was so incredibly cold, but definitely worth the drive out to the castles. They even had ice slides for the kids and even the adults. Reese wanted me to go on the big slide so I climbed up to be with her. I was trying to show her what to do when I slipped and fell right on my butt. I was laughing so hard as I slid down the ice slide. We were freezing by the end, but it was such a fun day!

Later that night, we had a little teaching moment that the kids will hopefully remember.  When we got home, our friend Stephanie, that came with us to the ice castles, called and asked if I could find her ring in our diaper bag. It was so cold that she thought it might have fell off when she was pulling off her gloves or changing Ren's diaper. I cleaned out every inch of my diaper bag and found nothing. Stephanie had searched every inch of their car and couldn't find it. Let me add that this was a very nice ring. I told the girls what was going on and asked them what we should do. Reese said that we needed to pray and she said a sweet prayer and asked that somebody would be able to find Stephanie's ring. Stephanie had wrote a message to the ice castles on FB and within an hour, they responded and said that someone had turned in a ring and it was Stephanie's ring. They also said that people call all the time asking about rings that were lost, but this was the first ring that had ever been turned in. The ironic thing is that someone found a diamond in a castle full of diamonds. The snow is slushy diamonds. It was a neat opportunity to teach our kids that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers.

Christmas Day 2015

Christmas morning was so much fun! Reese woke up bright and early and was so excited to open gifts. She was so patient as she waited for her siblings to wake up. When we gave her the go ahead, Reese was so excited to run into Nora's and Ren's room to wake them up. Reese had asked for a LalaLoopsy oven, Nora had asked for a baby doll nursery, and Ren did not care. The girls were so excited to open their gifts from Santa and Ren loved playing in the boxes and tearing up paper. Ron got the kids some sleeping bags for camping and they were so excited! The kids wanted to have a campout in the living room all week with their sleeping bags.

We also had one of Ron's friends over Christmas morning for breakfast. He moved to Utah about a year ago and Ron met him through racquetball. After talking to him for a little bit, we realized that he did not have any family in Utah and would be by himself for Christmas. The kids and I had fun buying J a stalking and a few gifts for Christmas. As it turned out, December 25th also happened to be J's birthday as well. The kids thought it was great singing Happy Birthday on Christmas.

After breakfast and opening up gifts, we went down to grandparents house to open presents and spend some time with cousins. I love getting together with my siblings on Christmas. It was such a great Christmas. We came home exhausted from a wonderful Christmas day.

December 2015

I have been trying to catch up on my pictures for quite a few months now. We had so many good memories with our children in the month of December. It was so much fun to celebrate Ren's first Christmas. He is such a happy boy and I loved all the lights and decorations. The girl's loved meeting Santa, decorating the tree, and playing in the snow. So many wonderful memories!!