Amelia and Grandpa Hall

Such a sweet meeting!

Christmas Moring.

I would have to say this year was the best Christmas ever! It was nearly perfect!! Eleanor has been so cute this season. We have listened to to Christmas music all day-everyday since the day after Thanksgiving and she now knows them all! Her favorite is Rudolph and Santa Clause is Coming to Town. Along with Christmas music, we have been watching all our favorite Christmas movies. Eleanor's favorite is The Christmas Story. She now has it memorized and like to play the Christmas Story. She makes me be the teacher and she plays Ralphie. She also goes around the house singing, "You'll shoot your eye out". Of course I had to introduce her to White Christmas and I'm so thrilled so loves the Sisters song just as much as I did when I was younger. Again, she has learned the words to that song and loves signing it all around the house.

Poor John had to work a ton this month. Most nights he did not get home before 10pm. I felt bad for him! I told him next year he has to take off the week before Christmas, no questions asked! He worked so much that we didn't even get to see the lights at Temple Square! He did make it home a few nights in time to do a quick drive to look at Christmas lights. (Another favorite from my childhood). Of course, John did a great job this year with the our Christmas lights. He seriously loves decking the house all out! Every year he adds just a little more. Pretty soon our house is going to look like the Griswolds!

Christmas morning could have been better! Eleanor came stumbling into our room right at 5am!! John wasn't too excited about her early arrival but I was (truth is I was already up and seriously contemplating going in and waking her myself!).

We had Eleanor open her stocking first and she was thrilled with her new underwear, bag of Cheetos and her bubble bath. I don't think she cared for all the other fun treasures. The first present she grabbed from under the Christmas tree just happened to be her most anticipated gift, a Zhu Zhu pet. When is saw what was inside she yelled, "A Zhu Zhu pet, just wanted I wanted my WHOLE life!". It was pretty entertaining watching the excitement with each gifts. I saved her other highly anticipated gift for last, a talking doll. She was beyond excited that Santa's elves were able to make her all her toys. Just for the record, here is a list off all Eleanor's favorite gifts:
Zhu Zhu pet
Talking doll
Hannah Montana Wig
Ellafun
Hungry Hungry Hippo
Tent, clubhouse and tunnel set
Makeup
Jewelry box with ballerina
Purse
Snow White
Peter Pan

Santa was pretty good to Amelia as well. He filled her stocking full of clothes and a few toys.

Once all the presents were unwrapped, we made our traditional Christmas morning casserole. It was so nice to just hang out together as a family all day listening to Christmas music and playing with all the new toys. I tell you, it really was the BEST Christmas ever!!

Christmas Eve part II

The guest have all gone home, John and the girls are out for the night, presents are wrapped, cookies and carrots are waiting and now I'm going to bed. Haven't been this anxious for Christmas morning in many many years. Merry Christmas to all!!

Christmas Eve Part I

Christmas Eve this year was a lot of work but a lot more fun! Poor John had to work during the day and I prepared my first turkey dinner. I was a little nervous I'd end up with a raw or dried out turkey, but thanks to my friend Tiffany and her advice, the turkey was delicious (and I don't even really care for turkey)! I stuffed the body with lemons, onions and fresh rosemary, turned it upside down and cooked it in a Reynolds bag. I really did not enjoy cleaning the turkey out and handling such a large raw bird. I told John next time he gets the honors.

We had most of John's family over for. The girls decided they wanted to put together a little talent show and then they all participated in our very nontraditional version of the nativity. Both Eleanor and Kaitlyn were Mary, Derek was Joseph, Amelia was baby Jesus, Ashely and Savannah were angles and Michael and Zack were the wise men. We also got to watch Derek show off his crazy dance moves and enjoyed a few great dance moves from Eleanor as well.



After everyone left it was too late to make cookies, so we just used a few from the neighbors and put some carrots out on the front porch for the reindeer.

When it was time for bed, I took Eleanor into her room and read her some Christmas books. While we were reading we heard Santa's bells ringing right outside Eleanor's window!!! Eleanor knew that Santa couldn't come in if she was awake so she closed her eyes and tried her hardest to go to sleep.

I remember watching a family home video oh my parents on Christmas Eve and I've always imaged how fun it would be getting things ready on Christmas Eve. I'd have to say, it was more fun then I could have imagined!

A day of firsts...

Today we took the girls to get their very FIRST PASSPORTS. I wish I would have scanned in a copy of each of their photos. They are both hilarious. Amelia is sticking out her tongue and has the best double chin! Eleanor looks like she's about ready to start crying. I'll have to scan in a copy of their passports when they arrive.

Dang Eleanor about got us in trouble while applying for her passport. Remember how she's been insisting that her name is not Eleanor but Savannah. Well she kept saying that while we were filling out her application and when the man was asking us if she was Eleanor and if she was in fact our daughter. Dang girl wouldn't stop saying, "No, my name isn't Eleanor its Savannah" every time we said the name Eleanor. She's lucky the guy didn't turn us in!

Another first is Amelia has her FIRST COLD. Poor baby is all stuffed up. Even when she's sick, she is still so pleasant!! Just check out the grin on this girls face!!

Our final "first" for today was mailing off Eleanor's LETTER TO SANTA. She wrote one last year, but we never actually mailed it off. Last night Eleanor wrote her letter to Santa with her list which included:
Zhu Zhu pets
My own house in Arizona, not Mimi's
A purple door for my house
A doll that talks and chases my cousin Zach
A dog

I'm pretty sure Santa won't be delivering all her wishes, but he'll do his best!
While we were waiting for our appointment for the passports, Eleanor got to put her letter in the mailbox. Her excitement was great! She asked if Santa was behind the wall waiting for her letter. I had to explain to her that it was being mailed to the North Pole and that he wasn't at the post office. I forgot to bring my camera, but her is a photo just a few hours later. Every time I take out the camera to get a photo of Amelia, Eleanor asks to get her photo as well. It's actually a nice change, she used to do anything to avoid getting her photo taken!

Amelia's Ear.

I love this photo because it shows Amelia's little ear. Her left ear has grown together at the very tip and I love it!

It's official...

We are heading to London! John is going to be working in the London office for a few months and we are all going over with him. John will be leaving on January 4th and me and the girls will leave as soon as we get their passports. We are so excited for this fun adventure!!

Sleeping babies

This is what I'm sitting next to as I type...

It's so sad...

Amelia does not like it when I eat chocolate!!

Eleanor's First Dance Reital

Eleanor just finished up her first session of dance class. She and Katelyn took tap together on Thursday mornings. The first few weeks were a little difficult for Eleanor. Apparently Eleanor is not a morning person and 9:30 was just too early for her. She would complain about how her "dance school" is too hard and would often fall asleep on the way there. I finally got smart and started putting her to bed at a decent time on Wednesdays and she stopped complaining and trying to sleep while holding the dance bar.

It's been so much fun having Eleanor and Katelyn see each other once a week. They have developed quite the friendship. When you mention to either one of them that they are cousins, they will correct you and say they are "best friends". I don't know how it started, but every week they have to bring the other some little surprise. It's adorable!

Katelyn is quite the little dancer and likes to make sure Eleanor is paying attention and doing all the steps correctly. A few weeks ago their teacher told them that Santa Clause was going to be watching them and that was the best thing she could have told Eleanor. Every since that day Eleanor has paid attention and works so hard on getting every step down!!

Last night they had their recital. To be honest, I was a little nervous about it. I made sure to give Eleanor a good nap before because I knew she'd fall asleep in the car on the way up and would be a beast!! She got a good nap, but it put me a little behind schedule and I was stressed out there would be traffic and we would be late. I was also nervous John wouldn't make it. This week has been crazy for him. He has been home before 10 pm only once this week!! Poor guy is worn out!!
Anyway, we all made it on time!

Mindi and I had to leave the little girls backstage before their performance. It was so cute seeing them all dressed up!! Don't ask me why, but I was a little nervous about leaving Eleanor backstage. I think I thought she would be a little scared or confused with so much commotion. Boy was I wrong. When I went to pick them up after their performance I asked what they did while they were waiting and she said, "we just hung out with some big girls and talked". I guess some of the older girls were in charge of watching them and Eleanor thought they were just amazing!!

I must admit, I had one of those proud mother moments when I saw Eleanor walk on the stage. It hit me that she is really is a big girl!! She looked adorable and she had the biggest smile on her face. You could tell she was loving every second of it!! She did great on the dance and even threw in a few extra twirls. All year she's been struggling with putting up three fingers during a certain part of the dance, and last night it took her a few extra seconds to get all three fingers up and in the air. I loved it!!

When it was all over she kept asking if she could go back on stage and dance again. I'm so glad we put her in dance this year and that she got to have her recital. It was such a big deal for her!!

Santa's Reindeer

Last year we discovered Santa's reindeer are Thanksgiving point between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We took Eleanor last year and of course being Eleanor, she remembered they were there and wanted to see them again.

I had talked about it all day and she was so excited to go see the reindeer. But as luck would have it she fell asleep about an hour before we were going and was not in the best of moods when we woke her up!! She was pretty ornery the most the time. It didn't help that the reindeer did not have a "shiny red nose". She kept asking where Rudolph was. Finally we convinced her he was flying Santa around checking on all the little kids.

This holiday season as been so much fun with all of Eleanor's excitement!


Eleanor spent most of the evening looking up in the sky to see if she could see Santa and Rudolph.

We met up with Kelly, Christy, Carter, Landon and little Mason. Carter and Eleanor have a little crush on each other and it's so fun watching them together!