Finally, Teeth!

They are small, but they are there! Hunter has two little teeth that he has worked very hard to cut! One whole month of a lot of tears and discomfort and here they are. Unfortunately this of course is not the end, I can already see two more coming. Not to mention the other twenty-something that have to come in over the next year! 

So tired...

Ella Starts Dance!

We decided to get Ella started up in dance this year and she loves it. Well she loves the idea of it... Every Tuesday she gets all excited about dance and she gets her leotard on and her dance shoes, and the whole way there she is chatting away about dance. BUT as soon as we walk in she becomes a spider monkey attached to my legs. I am hoping she will become more comfortable as the time goes on. My friend who owns this dance studio does the cutest things with the girls, this week was bring your bear to dance week, and all of the girls got to dance with their teddy bears! They also have fairy day, Valentines theme, and a mommy and me day. Here are some pictures I was able to get after I scooped her off of me!

Funny Things Ella Says Part 2:

Ella: (pointing to her dolls bangs) "What are these?"

Mckinley: Curls

Ella: No, no, these.

Mckinley: Bangs?

Ella: Yeah, I want bangs.

McCall: I love your dress, but do you know what is really beautiful? Your heart.

Ella (looking down at her dress): I don't see a heart on my dress.

Christmas morning

Brittany: Ella, come quick, Santa came!

Ella: I don't want to talk to him.

Mckinley: Oh Ella, I am pooped!

Ella: Oh, do you need to go change your panties?

New Years

So for New Years eve we had a fun little party up at the cabin. It was pretty relaxed with lots of food and games. Our cousins came up with their kids as well as some friends, so it was a really fun night. Although we did miss the count down because the clocks were wrong in the kitchen and when we went to watch the ball drop with our apple cider toast we heard, "Welcome 2009, Happy New Years". Oops, next year we will go off our cell phones.

For New Years day we went to the Elk Reserve where they take you on a sleigh ride out to where all of the elk hang out. It was really cool see these animals up close, unfortunately it was really, really, cold!

Cabin Fun Part 2:

After all of the excitement died down from Christmas day, we spent the rest of the week, through New Years, playing at the cabin. We had lots of fun baking, playing more card games, American Idol on the Wii, and enjoying the snowy weather.

This is Ella and me getting pulled around on the sled. Ella loved it so much she went three times and every time she was laughing and screaming with delight.

Here we go on our third trip around. Ella did not get sick of doing this.

Don't take offense to our snowman flipping you off, he didn't mean to!

This is our "organic" snow man. I say this because he was made with pine cones, sticks, stones, and one tiny baby carrot. I think he turned out pretty cute, I only wish we could have built him a little family, but we did not have enough scarves and gloves to go around.

Ella helped with the building of the snowman, but she mostly ate snow and I think she really enjoyed it.

My mom's Christmas gift to the guys was a couple of snowmobile rentals for the day. They had fun speeding around and jumping them off of things.

Everyone had a great time playing like kids in the snow. It was a hassle at first to get all bundled up and then have to do it again with Ella (twice because she had to go to the bathroom) but it was so worth it, once we were out playing and running around.

Ella was a little sad when we told her it was time to go inside, but she did cheer up when Koko had Hot Chocolate waiting for her inside.

Another activity that we enjoyed at the cabin was baking. Ella really loved helping and getting involved. We really did bake up a storm and now I have no desire to bake anything until next Christmas.

This is Ella with my aunt Sue and my mom baking cupcakes. These guys stayed home while the rest of us took a day trip to Jackson Hole. Needless to say Ella LOVED this idea because she really loves her Koko.

They are making cupcakes, which is something Ella had been wanting to do with her Koko since Thanksgiving! So my mom got her this kit, and they spent many days baking together.

Christmas Day

Christmas day was filled with presents and fun! Once everyone was awake we all opened our gifts and exchanged our gifts with one another. This year for Christmas Mike surprised me with a wrapped tile, and told me that we were getting our bathrooms tiled while we were up at the cabin. I was so excited because I hated our bathroom floors before and I knew this was going to be a very nice upgrade for us. I got Mike a bread machine for his Christmas present (I don't think mine was as cool) and I told him that I would make fresh bread for us (something he did say he really wanted). 

When Ella woke up and I told her that Santa came, she told me, "I don't want to talk to Santa". She still does not get this whole concept yet, but anyway she really loved opening her stocking and was so excited to see tootsie rolls and a coke inside. After her stocking, she was over opening gifts and we decided that she could be the helper and pass out gifts to everyone else. It ended up taking her almost 4 days to open her gifts and I learned a valuable lesson: Before they are four years old (maybe older)  just do a stocking, they don't even care about the other stuff!

After we opened gifts we all relaxed and enjoyed a nice peaceful day. We played games, watched movies and ate, a lot! It was great and I have to say I was a little sad when it was all over, now we have to wait all year to do this again.

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we had most of the family together and we had a really nice evening. We had dinner, read the scriptures as a family, and then had a service project. It was really fun and it was a great way to celebrate Christmas.

We had a big turkey dinner with all of the fixings and I love my family's recipe for stuffing and sweet potatoes. This is one of my favorite meals!

One of our family traditions is to open a Christmas popper before we start eating. Inside is a paper crown we wear through out the meal and usually a small toy and a paper with some jokes or riddles on it. 

Ella enjoyed lots of rolls and her crown! Hunter was fast asleep and working desperately to cut a tooth!

Koko and Tatu love their grandchildren and they love them back.

After dinner we read scriptures and had a wonderful impromptu lesson about the Bible from my dad. It is really neat to hear him talk about the scriptures because he has so much knowledge about it. 

Ella and Michael reading scriptures

The boys in their handsome Christmas sweaters

After we read the scriptures we did a service project as a family. My dad does not like getting gifts, so the kids decided to pool our money and buy supplies to make newborn kits. Then that evening we assembled them as a family.

We ended up making 12 newborn kits that the Humanitarian Center will ship out to those in need. The kits include things like blankets, baby gowns, soap and socks.

This ended up being one of the highlights of the night because I think my parents really appreciated the thought and it was something we could all do together.

Even Ella got to participate and she was so helpful. I think this is something we will have to keep doing every year to help teach the kids about service.

Before Ella went to bed she put out a plate of cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for Rudolph. I don't think she even really gets what she was doing, but I think half of these things I just make her do so she will see it in her scrapbook later on :)

At the end of the evening my dad made us cherries jubilee for desert and even Hunter woke up for the special occasion!

"On A One Horse Open Sleigh..."

One of the Highlights of this trip was the Sleigh Ride with Santa. For My Christmas gift, Mike arranged to surprise me and my family with a special sleigh ride with Santa around the neighborhood we were staying in. It was so fun because it was snowing and we were all singing Christmas carols. It was a really special memory that definitely made it feel like Christmas time!