I guess it's time to join the rest of you in the christmas season--Don't you just love this time of year? The tree is decorated, the garland is hung, and I'm am planning our Christmas Eve festivities. We'll have a lot of family to be with and I'm really looking forward to it. Grandma Johansson is even bringing some of her fabulous nativity costumes for the little ones to put on a show! I can't wait to read about what all of you are doing this year to celebrate the birth of our Savior. Happy Holidays!

Picking out our christmas tree

...and bringing it home!

Mikayla and Aubrey decorating their little tree.

We had another great Halloween this year. Mikayla decided early on that she wanted to be Dorothy and Aubrey just got the warmest costume that I could find for a toddler: a butterfly. I was planning for cold weather, but it was a very mild evening (although we did get rained on). The morning started out with getting Mikayla ready for school and watching her Halloween parade. My mom and dad were in town, so they came along with us.



There she is waving to us....followed by another dorothy.

Mrs. Earls afternoon kindergarten class.

The girls with Papa Craig and Grandma Cori right before Trick-or-Treating.

Grandma Debbie and Uncle Shane brought over a special treat.

I talked them into pausing for a quick picture between houses.

All done! Time to head home and get dried off!

It's always fun to enjoy halloween through the eyes of my kids. Aubrey was in absolute awe at every door she went to. She'd come down the driveway grinning and showing us her "treat". Such fun :)

Here's what we've been up to:

Mikayla started Kindergarten...Yeah! She has been waiting for SO long, it seems. Her first day was anything but dull: Her teacher put her on the wrong bus home! So, there I am, at the bus stop with my camera at eye level waiting for her to come off the bus...and waiting...and waiting. No Mikayla. Luckily, Kale was with me so he drove around to the other stops while I was on the phone with the bus dispatch. We soon found our little girl---the last kid on another bus in the neighborhood. I was worried that she would be upset, but nope. She couldn't have cared less-- She simply made friends with the bus driver. That's my girl.

Oh--You may have noticed that she has a broken arm. Yup. She fell off her scooter one night and broke her elbow. Poor thing! She was a trooper, though, and only had to wear the cast for 5 weeks. (I'm SOOO glad that's over.)

October 4th was Mikayla's 6th birthday. She decided (with some parental persuasion) to have a hawaiin-themed party this year. It was such a blast! The kids made lei's and learned a hula dance (thanks, Shea!) that they performed for all the adults. They were very serious about their dance moves. Check out this video:

After opening presents, we played some games and had cake and ice cream. My dad helped bake the cake and my mom helped decorate....cute, huh? (and easy, too).

I am so lucky to have such a sweet little girl to call my own. Here are some of the things that I love about her:

She does silly things to make Aubrey laugh when she gets hurt.

She is kind and loving to her friends. The other day she told me that "it is ok to laugh when someone makes a mistake ONLY if they are laughing too...otherwise it is NOT ok because it will make them feel bad."

She is fun to be around--Her giggle is so genuine and infectious.

She sleeps in until 9:00am!!!

She loves to learn. Today she came home from school with her new homework folder for the week and she sat right down to the kitchen table and got to work on it!

She includes her little sister in playtime with her friends. Aubrey gets to be the little sister when they play house.

She loves to sing and she has an adorable little voice. Here's a video of her singing I Am a Child of God when she was barely 2 years old:

We are so lucky to have her! Has anyone figured out how to make time stand still?? Because I'm afraid she is going to grow up in the blink of an eye. It's already happening too fast. I love you Mikayla!

Summertime

We have had such a great summer & I have been feeling guilty for getting so behind on what we've been up to. My excuse for not e-mailing pictures out to family is that I have this blog, but I haven't been keeping up on it.....so, we're going to do a little catch-up!

To start off the summer, Mikayla took swimming lessons. She learned to go under the water and swim short distances and she had a really great time. We'll have to take another course level for her to be able to swim on her own, though. Here she is with her goggles on waving to Aubrey & me.

In June, we went with the Wheat's to a carnival at the park by their house. We saw lots of interesting workers (it may be a job requirement to be missing at least 4 teeth) and got tons of cute pictures of the kids.

The 4th of July was a lot of fun, too. Kale & I took the girls to a parade--and we did fireworks that night.

(Mikayla and I decorated her scooter & Aubrey's stroller.)

Later that month we went to the American Fork Canyon for a picnic when Grandma and Grandpa Johansson & the Froebe's were in town. Mikayla & Mason searched for bears while Aubrey & Michael were quite happy to play in the dirt and rocks.

(Poor Aubrey had a run-in with my bed frame & got a nice shiner.)

What would summer be without a few trips to the Thanksgiving Point Farm & Gardens? As usual, the pony ride was the most exciting part for the kids.

Last, but not least, I took the girls to the zoo with my grandparents, aunts, cousins---& their kids. We really should go there more often--it was a lot of fun. Below is a picture of Mikayla with my cousin, Kylie. She was such an amazing help with my girls. Too bad she lives so far away--or I'd hire her every weekend!

Family Vacation

A few weeks ago we took a trip to California to visit with Papa Craig and Grandma Cori and to take the girls to Disneyland. We had such a great time being together as a family and we made so many memories. The whole vacation was wonderful---minus the 10 hour drive from Utah. Why is it that my kids don't sleep in the car?? Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures from the week:

Just arriving at Disneyland


I love my mom!

Roasting marshmellows----Yum!

Mikayla loved playing in the water


The best part of the trip was Disneyland. The weather couldn't have been nicer and the park wasn't very crowded either! Click below to see some pictures from that day.

Mother's Day

Mikayla's sweet preschool teacher, Ms. Sherri, helped the kids put together a really cute program last week to celebrate Mother's Day. They were so adorable...I thought I'd post some pictures. I am the luckiest mom!


McKenzey, Savannah, Mikayla, Bo, Hyrum, Addie, Abbie

Surgery Day

I am so glad that this day is finally over! Everything went well this morning when Aubrey had tubes put in her ears---Hopefully this will be the end of chronic ear infections so she can get back to being healthy. She was a real trooper and even though she was hungry and tired she still managed to flirt with the doctors and nurses. I think the worst part for her was trying to wake up after being under general anesthesia, but after an hour or so she was back to her old self. She is tucked comfortably in bed now--and that's right where I'm headed too!

By the way--Thanks to everyone for your prayers and words of encouragement (I'm a baby, I know).