she's got the moves...

our great friends brittany and taylor got married on saturday. the wedding was beautiful and lots of fun. makenzie enjoyed the dancing. here's a little video of her, sorry it's so dark. she was so fun to watch...

easy bake oven...

We all just enjoyed the brownie bites that makenzie cooked for Christmas dessert!

Merry Christmas!

ballerina girl...

we had a great christmas eve. more pictures to follow. just one quick look at a present makenzie got tonight that she is in love with and looks so adorable!

funny video...

we have some friends, travis and tiffany aicklen who pastor a church in visalia, ca. tiffany is a photographer too and met michael at a workshop and our families became instant friends. they have a little 3 year old girl and just had another baby girl last month. they are an awesome family and great friends.

travis made this video for a series he was speaking on this christmas season. it made me laugh, so i thought i would share it. i hope you laugh too.

advent calendars...

i love advent calendars. makenzie has loved doing them every day. it's the first thing she does when she wakes up. i think she is going to be sad when they are over.

the first one she does is in her room. this was mine from my childhood...


then she opens the little boxes that have a hershey kiss in them. it's always good to start the day with a little chocolate... :)


then she finds the flap to open to read the next bible verse in the christmas story. this is also from my childhood...


next she changes the number on the reindeer...


and last she moves the snowman to the next pocket...


we love all these christmas-y activities, what will we do in january!

an oldie but a goody...

i was looking at some old pictures on the computer last night and came across these. this was when makenzie was 3 months old. they just make me smile. some of my favorite pictures of her. i love makenzie's age and have loved every stage, but it does take me back and think, oh for her to be little again, just for a moment.

working hard...

uncle jeff is coming to town...

well makenzie is beside herself that uncle jeff is moving here to orange county. he spent a few weekends here finding a place to stay and told her he was moving. but then he would leave and she was so sad that he wasn't here to stay. so the last time he told her the next time he came it would be to move here. one day she woke up ready to help uncle jeff move. except it wasn't moving day and she was quite sad. so i told her that he would be moving here a couple days before christmas. she has been telling everyone that her uncle jeff is moving here right before christmas. i think it is so cute how excited she is. he is moving tomorrow and she is ready to help!

now if only the rest of the extended family would follow us here. then makenzie's life would be complete.

december 19...

today is our 9 year anniversary! hard to believe that we have been married 9 years. that is a long time! that makes me feel kind of old. we did get married young though, so maybe i'm not that old. :)

i'm truly blessed to have michael, for his love and provision for me and our family. i am so happy. i am so thankful for where we are in life and i look forward to seeing what the future holds for us together.

The gifts for the 9th anniversary: traditional is pottery and modern is leather. so, i'm expecting to get a leather couch from pottery barn. :) one of my traditions on our anniversary is to put on my wedding dress and make michael watch our wedding video. haha, just kidding :)

and yay, next year this time, we will be partying in iceland!!

i love you michael, thank you for all the years together.

nativity...

makenzie loves the christmas story. she loves reading her books about it. she loves the advent calendar that each day is a bible verse from the christmas story. she loves telling me the christmas story. it's just so sweet. i want to video her telling me the christmas story but my camera battery is dead. maybe another day.

tonight she drew a picture of the stable with baby jesus and the animals. so cute. she said she needed a star but didn't know how to make it, so i drew it for her. i labeled what the other things are in the picture...

christmas cookies...

makenzie made sugar cookies tonight. her class is having a christmas party tomorrow so she wanted to make cookies for her friends. i think they turned out pretty cute! we've never done this before, it was alot of fun. i think she will be proud to take them to her class. :)

always a party...

my good friend, hayley, and her husband travis are having their first baby in april. hayley is one of those girls that has wanted to be a mom since she was like 11. she and travis have been married for 3 years, so we have all been waiting for this for them. i know they will be wonderful parents and hayley will be a wonderful mom. she is so good at taking it all in and just embracing being pregnant and loving every minute of it. well, not the throwing up, but it's worth it. :) this baby is loved by many people already and we all are excited to see this phase of their life unfold.

well, the girls in hayley's family all know how to throw a party. and really any occasion is a party. whether it's graduations, engagements, someone is leaving on vacation, birthdays, weddings, or just because it's a thursday...all reasons to have a party.

well, hayley and travis knew they wanted to know the sex of their baby but also knew they didn't just want to text message the whole family as to whether it was a boy or girl after the ultrasound. so, last week they had the ultrasound and had the doctor write it down on a card for them. then today they went to a bakery and gave the card to the baker and said they wanted a cake made with blue or pink icing and then frosting to cover it. so, at the party they cut the cake to find out whether they are having a boy or girl. how cute is that idea!?!?! i have a feeling this will be a tradition for these girls.

here's hayley, cute as can be...


here's a video of the results...



so excited for you guys, love you...

aren't we cute...

we went to a christmas party tonight where we had to wear an ugly christmas sweater.

aren't we precious....

plans for next year...

so michael and i were talking about plans for our 10 year anniversary (this week celebrates our 9 year) and we decided to go somewhere awesome and throw a party with our friends and family and have a photographer there to take pictures of us since photography is way better now than when we got married. i love our wedding pictures but looking at what michael does now it does make me wish we had awesome portraits of us like that. so, i'll throw on my wedding dress and do a "day after" session...10 years late...haha...just kidding.

so, michael decided we are going to iceland for our 10 year anniversary!!! :)

turns out it's really not that cold in december in iceland. it is so beautiful there. we just got the jcrew catalog and it looks like iceland in the pics. michael decided then that he wants to go there. we actually already have been to iceland. we were in the airport there on the way to sweden in 1994, the year we met. so, it is definitely time to go back...

christmas carols...

makenzie's favorite christmas carol is "the little drummer boy". she loves it and has it memorized. every time we get in the car we listen to it. she sings it so loud, it is so cute. she even gets out her drum and sings it around the house. she told me yesterday she is the little drummer girl, since she's not a boy. :)

tonight we went to a live nativity here in town. it was the nearby christian school junior high praise band putting on a performance with a nativity scene. they even had real donkeys and sheep. they read the christmas story from the bible and stopped when there was a corresponding christmas carol. it was really sweet. and thankfully they sang "the little drummer boy". the first song they sang was "mary did you know". the girls were doing a solo but makenzie also knows this song so she sung right along and very loudly. the lady next to me must have been a mom to one of the girls because she was video taping. i'm afraid makenzie's voice might be in the background too. :)

a magical night...

last night makenzie and i went to disneyland to see the christmas parade and see the fireworks and snow. it was so much fun. it's SUCH a great time of year to go to disneyland. it is so beautifully decorated and so much fun. makenzie loved the parade. the fireworks show was one of the best i've ever seen. they play christmas music and then end it with fake snow falling on main street. it is magical. i didn't even think to take the camera out during the fireworks - i was enjoying it too much, but here are a couple pictures from the night.

waiting for the parade...

the tea cups...


EVERY time she has to knock on mr. rabbit's door...

the christmas tree...

last week we put up our christmas tree. makenzie had so much fun decorating it, she was sad when we were done. here's a couple pictures of her hammin' up in front of the tree...






tonight we were driving listening to a cassette tape (haha!) of amy grant's OLD christmas album. there's one song where it says "you don't have to be a child to love the mystery" and makenzie asked me what that meant. i said, it just means christmas can be fun for everyone and that i love christmas and all the things that go with it and i'm not a child. and she said, ya christmas isn't just for kids, it's for everyone. and she said the cutest thing. she said, "but the bestest thing about christmas is that jesus was born". so cute!!

fun at the beach...

michael has a wedding in houston this weekend and so we had to drive him to the airport EARLY this morning. we left just before 5am and got back just after 7am. i was so tired in the car and makenzie was falling back asleep. i convinced her to stay away till we got home and we could go back to bed at home. i told her to go back to sleep and then we would do something fun. it worked out great! she slept until 10:00!

so, we decided to go to the beach to play in the sand. we live only 20 minutes from laguna beach and hardly ever take advantage of that. it was beautiful 72 degrees. i am beginning to wish i lived in a place with a colder winter. but today was beautiful and we enjoyed it. we took a picnic lunch and played in the sand.

picnic...


chasing the seagulls...

working...

the sand snowman...



sandcastles...

you have to dig a hole...

jumping in the hole...


notice the time?!?! phew, i almost lost my streak!

my wacky little girl...

so, after last week and the video clips of herself i showed makenzie how to work the video feature a little better on the camera. and this is what she came up with today. what nonsense, haha! silly girl!!



not sure what's with all the "go to the bathroom and wash your hands" and why didn't she move that hair in front of her face!!

gotta make it work...

today makenzie told me her princess gloves were too big- that her fingertips weren't long enough :) she asked if i'd cut them off. so, i did and she was much happier about the gloves.

now they are hobo princess gloves...

making a gingerbread house...

jeff is here this weekend and wanted to make a gingerbread house with makenzie. makenzie and i did one last year and she loved it. she remembered it all year and has been asking to do another one since june. so, she was quite excited about it!

makenzie's christmas list...

makenzie wrote her christmas list to santa today. how cute is this!?!?!

poor copper girl...

our little copper girl is hurt. :( we can't figure out what's quite wrong with her. i'm thinking it is her back maybe. she doesn't want to go up and down the stairs at all. she isn't one to wimper much with pain, so it's hard to know. she is eating ok, so i'm hoping this isn't anything too sad.