Christmas Vacation and the family

Over the river and through the woods...counting the time before and after our trip to Idaho and Utah, we realized that within a two week period our girls had seen all of their cousins on both sides of the family. Here are some pictures of the beginning of our trip and who we saw. I'll put another entry later of all the fun things we did on this trip.

Snow on the way there...we saw a lot of this white stuff on this trip.

Can you say "low visibility"?

We did get some lovely views along the way. I also found a new pastime..."inmotion pictures". I discovered that taking pictures from a moving vehicle is a fun way to pass the time.

Our first visit...
Putting together a puzzle with Great Grandma H.Second visit...having a good laugh with cousins Caden and Ava.
Third and longest visit...Playing with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa H.'s house.
Having some girl time with Aliysa and Courtney. (Thanks to the L family for introducing us to the spiral curling iron. We're gonna be getting one of those for ourselves soon.) Look at those lovely curls!
Group photo of the cousins. This picture was a "sit down", "smile", and be done in less than one minute. Not bad for being so fast and with hungry and tired kids. Ashlie did not want to pose so she is off to the side.
After staying at Grandpa and Grandma H's we went to stay with Laura and Kevin. We got to be at their home one night and another unplanned night since the road was closed and we had to turn back after 100 miles of travelling.
The girls with cousins Tyler, Logan and Emma.

Merry Christmas!

We hope you are enjoying your holiday season.

Yummy, yummy...

One of my girl's and my favorite Christmas traditions to do together is baking little gingerbread men and women. (Aaron likes this tradition as well since he gets to be the expert taste tester for us.)
All my girls take turns rolling out the dough and cutting out various people and shapes with cookie cutters.

The "fruits" of our labor...

Thinking we needed a little variety in our eating delight, Alia crafted this gingerbread mermaid.After that spark of creative genius...Madelyn and Ashlie joined in the fun making:
(top row, L to R) M's Angel, Ash's Angel with turbocharged wings, A's Angel, and M's shooting star.
(bottom row, L to R) A's wedding couple, A's monster, and M's star of Bethlehem.
We had a great time baking, laughing and creating happy memories together.

Christmas is in the air...

We've been decorating for Christmas this past week.

Decorating the tree and ...
the finished project.

I have a lot of surface area to decorate in my living room and I'm having fun coming up with different ideas to decorate the ledges for the holidays.

Since we had just moved recently we still had some leftover empty boxes and a big newspaper end roll. With a big spool of ribbon and a few extra trimmings...ta da...cute little boxes all fancy for Christmas and a great thrifty way to decorate.

I used to never have a place to display these cute Christmas tins. Now look at how cute they are up there.
The wooden mittens are a craft I made at one of my first Relief Society Enrichment activities. Yeay for Relief Society.

Pretty Princesses

We took some princess photos today and I thought I would post some...

Kissing a frog...

On your mark, get set...

GO!
Today's recreation activity..."gunny" sack races.