Cousin Fun

For Christmas, our kids got some new sleds!

But unfortunately, not accommodating weather to use them.

Finally it snowed . . . and there was no school . . . and cousins were staying at our house!

Christmas 2013

The kids were pretty sure Santa came this year!

We open our stocking stuff first.

Halle liked her special present!  

We gave her a pet birth certificate to fill out once she decided on a name.  

She is thinking about naming her Elsa.  Her birthday is October 19!

Austin got spider webs, Pop the Pig (a game he wanted) and Legos.

Abby got jewelry, a watch, cute snow boots and snow pants, and nail art pens.

Gwen got a new dress, boots, and a nail dryer.

Christmas dinner was an awesome candlelight dinner.

My parents, my Grandma, and my Aunt Phyllis were able to join us.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve


We had a family Christmas Eve dinner at Lisa and Alex's house.

Lisa made this awesome soup,  Grandma brought little smokies (which we love)

and then we had our Fales tradition of cold cut sandwiches, chips, olives, fun drink, etc.

Aunt Phyllis handed out fun gifts to the little kids.

Lisa and I played our Sleigh Ride duet we had learned for my student's piano recital.

I didn't mess up as many times this time :)

We acted out the nativity.

Well, the kids did . . . sort of.

Austin wanted to be Joseph because that is the role he played in his preschool program.

Hailey was going to be an angel, but when things got started, fought Abby for the role of Mary.

It was pretty funny!

We ended the night with our traditional pajama gift.

This year, I made pajama pants!

They were pretty easy actually!

New Pet

For Christmas, Halle has asked for a dog for the last 5 or 6 years.

I am NOT a dog person, so . . . she has never gotten one.

Sometimes I think about the movie Lady and the Tramp, and really want to give Halle a puppy . . . in a box . . . as a gift under the Christmas tree.  

But then I have to remind myself about the day after Christmas. . . and what having a dog really means.

And when I do that . . . I remember that a dog is out of the question.

I was visiting a neighbor sometime toward the end of October, 

and she was telling me how they had been given a guinea pig.  

She showed it to me, and told me how she took care of it.

It was actually a pretty cute animal, and it sounded like something I could take care of.

I went home and thought how maybe we could get Halle a pet after all.

Not a dog, but something more than a goldfish.

I did A LOT of research.

I needed to know what I would really be getting myself into.

I checked out a couple books from the library, and spent a lot of time on-line.

After all that, I still felt like this could be an animal that I could handle!

I checked out KSL classifieds and stumbled on a baby girl guinea pig being sold . . . with the option of the owner taking care of her up until Christmas Eve!
She had the colorings that I liked, and was still too little to have any real bad habits to break.

My Aunt Phyllis offered a cage.  She also offered to watch her for a couple days before Christmas (to keep her in hiding)!  It all worked out perfect!

So we did it!  

We bought Halle a guinea pig and picked her up from her owners the weekend before Christmas.  

She was 9 weeks old when we picked her up!

We dropped her off with my Aunt Phyllis who would take care of her until Christmas Eve.

My parents were visiting for Christmas!

They brought her down to us on Christmas Eve.

Ben took the kids out for a little while in the afternoon 

so my Dad could sneak our new pet into our basement.

We snuck her in and felt pretty sneaky!


It was kind of like bringing a new baby home.

We had all these pet supplies and were so excited . . . and yet not really sure how it would go:)

We'll see how this goes! 

 I know this might seem silly, but getting this pet is REALLY adventuresome for me!

Orchestra

Abby plays the violin in her school orchestra.

This is her second year.

Here she is performing at her school Christmas concert!

Pumpkin Patch

Every year for at about the last 5 years we have gone to a pumpkin patch during Fall Break.

I look forward to this as soon as school starts!

This year the weather was so nice on the day we went.

We were there for hours!

The kids picked out their favorite pumpkin.

They ran through the hay mazes . . . and ran around and jumped on the top of them!

The corn pit was a pretty big hit too!  

We took a tractor ride.

The kids played with some friends that come with us every year.

And then it was time to go.

I love that my kids look forward to this every year!

Heber Valley Railroad

Ben had a birthday!

To celebrate this year,  we took our kids on the Heber Valley Railroad.

They had never been on a real train before!

And Ben and I have only been on this train once . . . when we were dating!

This train ride was so fun!

Gwen told me how she had asked people at school if they had ever been on a real train.  She was pretty excited to finally go on one!

Austin liked looking out the window.

Our train left at 7pm which was nice because it was still light outside for about the first 1/2 of the 90 minute ride . . . and then it got dark.  We liked being able to experience both!

Music was playing on this train . . . which was great!

I didn't feel like I had to keep my kids quiet.  

We were on the rowdy train!

The conductor passed around a microphone.

Abby was okay with a little performing!

We ended the night with some homemade cheesecake.

Happy Birthday Ben!