Holiday Lights and Baby Reindeer

I'm trying to get caught up on December so I can move on to January, so here is a quick peek at a few things we did to add to the holiday fun...

Christmas in Utah isn't complete without a visit to Temple Square to see the lights and the nativity.

One of our favorite December outings was Christmas in the Village at Gracie's school. It is always fun to see the programs after spending a few months hearing Gracie sing all the songs they were learning all the time.

We also got to see some of Santa's reindeer. The girls were a little disappointed that the reindeer only came close enough to pet once, but it was fun to see a girl reindeer and her baby. We had a discussion about which reindeer was the husband/daddy. Then we finished off the evening with hot chocolate floats (not as yummy as we hoped).

Let it snow!

We heart snow around our house. The cold temps don't keep us from having fun during the winter months, and we had some serious fun sledding with our friends Jim and Becky in December.


Becky was such a great sport since the girls insisted that she (and only she) could pull the sled down the hill.

Then Scott had some fun of his own...

A great big man – entirely made of snow

The morning the girls woke up to the first big snow, they were so excited to go play in it (long before the sun came up and early enough that Scott hadn't left for work). Scott helped them throw their snow clothes over their jammies and they all headed outside.

Scott helped make their first snowman of the season. And they all had fun eating snow and throwing it at each other.



Much more Macfarlane winter fun to come...

A Best of Both Worlds Halloween

We would like to thank Disney for providing costume ideas for our children this year. Gracie was going to be Jessie from Toy Story until we were at the Halloween story trying to hunt down a Jessie costume and she saw a Hannah Montana costume. From then on, it was Hannah or bust. And Gracie wasn't just Hannah on Halloween; she also got to dress up for gymnastics and school. And the perfect Hannah Montana she was!


Our little Ellie Bean was Minnie Mouse this year. The dress has been hanging in her closet for months, and she was SO excited to finally get to wear it. So excited that she didn't want to take it off when we got home from a Halloween party Saturday night and then she wore it all day Sunday, even during her nap.


We went to the Halloween party with Brian and Becka, who went as Ghostbusters.

And because we were unable to give our undivided attention to the Giants in game three of the World Series, we thought it was fitting that Scott dressed up as SF Giants Pitcher Brian Wilson (fear the beard!!!), and I went as his biggest fan.

We had a great time, and Gracie even won the prize for the Best Looking Kids Costume. Hope you had a great Halloween too!

A first for everything

When Scott went hunting this year, Gracie very seriously gave him permission to shoot one deer and only one deer. It's a good thing that's the way it works since he got his first deer!

A little of this and that...

What have we been up to lately? Well...

Gracie played in the rain...

Ellie started doing this all the time...

Gracie continued to act far older than her actual 4 1/2 years...

Ellie mowed the lawn...

Scott and the girls took a trip to St. George so Candice could run the St. George Marathon...

We spent the weekend in St. George and had a great time with Boyd, Kamille, Connor, Kody, Taylor & Dallas...

Gracie ran with Mom...

and we found this really cool flower in our backyard.

Terrific Two...Take Two

Our little Ellie turned two on September 5th!! At two, our Ellie Bean is this tiny but feisty little thing. She is smart and stubborn, serious and so tenderhearted.

Ellie had a great time celebrating her birthday with all her "cousins." She LOVES everything Toy Story right now and chose a Toy Story cake.


She loved her cake, but wasn't a big fan of everyone singing Happy Birthday. She shook her head and then covered her ears until we were finished (she does this when we sing at church too). But then she was happy to blow out the candles!

Her Jessie and Woody dolls from Grandpa and Grandma were one of her favorite gifts.

And yes, she had a cast on her arm for her birthday. After a black eye in all her first birthday pics, we were hoping the cast would come off before this year's event. Let's just hope this doesn't become an annual thing in our little Ellie Monkey's life!

Of course, we also had to document Ellie at two with some pictures.