Ella's Birthday

Ella turned 4 on the 30th. Bleu had made an eggless cake the day before. However, one of the problems with eggless cake (we just learned) is that they crumble easily. So the cake wasn't beautiful and Bleu refused to use it for Ella's cake. So we ended up doing sugar cookies instead of cake (hence all the pictures of the kids decorating cookies). It worked out well since Bleu's mom had sent us a lot of stuff to decorate cookies with (it was meant to be a Christmas Eve activity, but we didn't get it until after Christmas). So we spent the evening decorating cookies and then having Ella open her gifts.

Christmas

We were expecting to have the kids wake us up early on Christmas morning so they could open presents. Instead, we woke up early on Christmas morning to the sounds of kids throwing up. Both Kaylee and Ella were sick. Ella seemed better after a few minutes. Kaylee still seemed sick for a while, but it didn't seem to bother her much. She would just open a few presents and then make a run for a bathroom. She was better by later in the morning.
Sicknesses aside, it was a great Christmas. The girls' big gift was a trampoline. Ella told Grandpa Morris that she wanted a “trampoline with a ladder”. Well the trampoline doesn't have a ladder, but she still seems to love it. So far there have been no crazy acrobatics or death-defying stunts, so I think we'll be ok.
Miley's favorite gift seems to be her baby doll. Of course the doll makes crying sounds and sleeping sounds and needs to have a pacifier or bottle to go to sleep. Even though she's only 16 months, Miley really seems to enjoy the role of being the mother. She's always hugging it and carrying it around with some proud look on her face. Of course, that is until she gets bored with it and she throws it on the floor.
Here are a few pics (Michelle, we even got the pic you asked for of the kids wearing the gifts you sent – we would've taken more but we couldn't get Miley to leave it on.)

Princess Ball

On Dec 22nd, a local charity threw a party for a 4-year-old girl in our ward with cancer. The party was to celebrate her last day of chemo treatments. The girl's name is Natalie and her cancer is now in remission. The party even got some local media attention. Here is one link:

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa081222_mo_princesssurprise.8a923e7.html

Unfortunately Miley was sick that day and Bleu didn't feel that great either. So they stayed home. So I got to take Kaylee and Ella. The party was really well done. They had food, dancing, and crafts for the kids. Kaylee and Ella really enjoyed the food and crafts. By the time they decided they were ready to dance, the party was over. But we had a fun time, and Natalie and her family really enjoyed it. Here are a few pics. I even included one of Miley even though she wasn't able to go.

Six Flags

We had some free passes for Six Flags that had to be used before the end of December. So we all went yesterday. It was a very windy day and we were hoping that it wouldn't be quite a busy because of the wind. No such luck. We spent most of the time on kiddie coasters - the thrill junkies that we are. The lines were pretty long, so we weren't able to go on a whole lot of rides. They also had some light shows and other Christmas activities going on. The kids had fun, we had fun, and we got quite a few pics, so we'll call the day a success.

Visit from the parents

Its been a crazy few weeks and I haven't had time to mess with the blog at all. So I'm just now getting to a post about Mom and Dad visiting us even though it was about 3 weeks ago.
Anyway, it was great to have them here. The kids loved everything minute of it - well except Miley. When Mom and Dad arrived Miley walked into the room, saw Grandpa, and started screaming. Can you really blame her? Of course I can't joke too much. By the end of the trip Miley was picking Grandpa over me. In the few days they were here, I think Grandma and Grandpa read about every kids book in the house to Kaylee and Ella and couldn't complete a full sentence without one of the girls competing for their attention.

Zoo

We took the kids to the zoo last Saturday. Here are some pics.

Shane's B-Day

I will Quote Ella that Shane turned "really Old" on tuesday november 4th. Hee Hee! It was Election day and I had the stomach Flu for the second time in a week. Yeah pretty much the day stunk for the poor birthday boy. We made it up to him on thursday. We partied hard with cake and presents. On saturday I took shane to a fabulous Mexican restraunt in Fort Worth. It was yummy food and a gorgeous atmosphere. Happy Birthday Shane!