VDay 2012

Nothing too exciting this year but here are a few pictures:

Sophie had a blast at her preschool party.

 Pretty tulips and chocolates from my honey!

Disneyland with Sophie

Our friends the Roes invited us to go with them to Disneyland and thanks to the awesome military deal they are having right now, we went!

We had a blast with Caleb, Meg & Cole and were able to see Phil's cousins Matt, April & Charlie for a day too. The weather so SO perfect. 75-80 degrees!

We had a little set back when the first ride we went on (Pinocchio) scared the crap out of Sophie. She was crying and saying she wanted to go home until (I swear by divine intervention) we came across these leather bracelets that can be engraved with a name and charms. I told Sophie that they were "brave" bracelets and when they put the name on it they also put special superpowers that will make her brave and then she can go on any ride she wants. It worked like a charm and the rest of the trip was fabulous, phew!

Sorry, you missed out Caitlin, but we'll go again in maybe....5 years?

Annual Girl's Trip 2012

We had another fun weekend in SLC! Didn't take very many pictures but enough to prove that we did what we should have: eating and shopping. :)

At a Thai restaurant:

Taking a break from shopping at the mall:

A Hike Before the Snow

Yesterday, a hike in the foothills...

Today, just enough snow for a baby snow princess...

Christmas Day

We had our own little Christmas in the morning and then went to church. The service turned out beautifully! My choir sang: 1. Still, Still, Still 2. O Little Town of Bethlehem 3. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (with bells on the organ) 4. O Come All Ye Faithful (with strings). The spirit was so strong! Phil sang even though he didn't have much of a voice, darn cold. I was so happy to have Ben, Trisha, Dad & TJ there too!

I really like Christmas being on a Sunday. It was so nice to feel the spirit and have a full hour dedicated to the Savior. I think there should always be sacrament meeting on Christmas no matter what day of the week it is!

Then we spent the rest of the day at the Masons. Caitlin was more concerned with climbing on the boxes than opening them up!

I meant to get a picture of Phil's mom with her gift but forgot. When her dad died last year, she gave Phil one of his rings. We went to find out if it was a real diamond/gold and it was so we used the money from the gold to set the diamond into a pendant necklace for her. She was totally blown away and I was so glad we thought of it!

Here are some totally random quotes from Sophie that I don't want to forget:

Me: "How many cookies should we leave for Santa?"

Sophie: "Only a couple so he won't get stuck in the chimney." (A side note: She thinks smoke detectors are chimneys.)

"Mom, now we have TWO people watching us: Santa AND Jesus!"

Christmas Eve

We began our celebration with a yummy brunch made by Aunt Trisha and Christmas at our house with my dad and TJ.

Papa & TJ gave Sophie this giant colorable playhouse that we all enjoyed decorating:

My musical scarf:
Caitlin got her favorite thing: books!

Papa with his new Tshirt and here is the story behind that:

We were at the Avett brothers concert in Sun Valley. I asked him if he ever buys band Tshirts at the concerts he goes to. He replied, "No, but if they had a tshirt that just said "Wow!" I would buy it!" Alcohol may have been involved since he has no recollection of this but I googled and found it for him. :)

My siblings and I put together this beautiful song called Holy, Holy, Holy. You must hear the Sufjan Stevens version if you haven't! Every Christmas gathering needs a musical number, right?

Then we went to my mom's. I'm so sad because none of the pictures we took there turned out. Trisha, my mom and I delivered cupcakes, then we ate our traditional clam chowder (my Grandpa Goodsell's recipe) with bread bowls for dinner and then opened gifts. Grandma Peterson was there too!

Sophie got a Vtech InnoTab which is essentially an IPad for kids! I won't ever have to entertain her again. :)

Decorating Sugar Cookies

I have a sugar cookie recipe passed down from Grandma Peterson that makes 8 DOZEN. It took us all night, but we did get them all frosted.

P.S. We need a new camera. These pics are no good!