Getting Ready for the Big Day

Hello there! So I decided it was pretty sad that I had changed my background three times since the last time I posted--each time intending to do a couple posts, of course, but never getting it done. So now I am trying to catch up! I'll be adding more from Christmas, hopefully in the next few days...
We have been doing a few fun things lately getting ready for Christmas. For our preschool group we talked about snow and snowmen and then for lunch we made a snowman pizza--we thought it turned out pretty cute!
You can't see it very well, but Mr. Snowman has pineapple for eyes and a mouth.

Ever year Santa comes to visit at a house a couple blocks away. They announce it on the school's message board and everyone is invited to come see Santa and get some free hot chocolate. It is done outside, so it was very cold, but definitely fun! Aubrey wouldn't even get close enough for a picture--she was terrified! :)

The same night we visited Santa, we loaded back up and drove around looking at Christmas lights. There is a timed musical display in Shelley and two that we know of in Iona. This is one of the places in Iona that we thought was particularly impressive. David loves his Christmas lights and decorations, but I don't know that we'll ever get quite this technical about it!

Growing UP

The girls have hit a couple of major milestones lately, so we thought we'd share:
Olivia had her first haircut a few weeks ago...
Before...

During...she was soooo excited to get it cut and had been asking to get it done for quite a while.

After! It wasn't any significant amount, just a couple inches off the bottom to even it up, but it looks so much better and is so much easier to brush through now--hooray for haircuts!

Aubrey has started walking; this is a video of when she first started to get the hang of it.

Turkey and Pies!!!

Ever since my college days with dear LeAnne, it has been a tradition to make a "thankful turkey," in the days before Thanksgiving to remember what we are thankful for--big and little things from family and the gospel to snowflakes and chocolate. This was the first year Olivia could really participate and understood what it meant to be thankful.
Some of the things Olivia was thankful for:
Dad
Mom
Grandmas and Grandpas
Ice Skating
Our Shelley house
Her body

One of the very fun parts of Thanksgiving this year for me was making pies with my wonderfully fun sister, Miranda. We made a total of 11 pies late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Here are some pics of our masterpieces: cheesecake pie, coconut cream, chocolate peanut butter, regular apple, dutch apple, strawberry rhubarb, huckleberry raspberry, and pecan. Later, when we got to Andrew and Brenda's, we baked pumpkin and cherry (store-bought-gasp!) ;)

Oh man, now I'm hungry! The pies were great, but the company was better--we had a great time with all of David's family (minus Gram and Grandpa on their mission in New York)--thanks to Andrew and Brenda for hosting all us craaaazzzzyyy people!!!