White Christmas...

I know that it is way past Christmas now but I have been so busy lately that I haven't made time to get our blog updated.

Hope you enjoy!

The Saturday before Christmas we had our ward Christmas Party. I thought the girls looked so cute in their matching dresses but I could not get a picture of them together. So I had them hold a present (which was not the best idea) and Minster wanted to hold the one she got from Aunt Judy. So of course Iya had to do the same. Minster was SO excited to open her present from Aunt Jude. She sent everyone their own individual gift. It was so sweet! We thought FOR SURE Iya would SCREAM when we put her on Santa's lap....but she didn't! She just stared at him while Minster did all the talking.


The Girls

So we left on the 23rd for Oklahoma and were so happy we came then because there was a huge snow storm on Christmas Eve. The winds were in the 40's and it was snowing all day. It was just amazing how cold, snowy, and windy it was. Dad and Isaac had to go feed cows and were gone for 5 hours and had several near deaths experiences! It was amazing they made it home. When they got back Dad was so cold...

Brookelynn and Emma played Princesses with the girls and as always they loved it! It is officially Minsters new favorite thing!

Iya in her cute tinker bell outfit

The windows looked so festive with the snow on them.

Brookelynn and Iya

Preston and Iya

Isaac and the girls dancing to Christmas music

Iya and Granny

Minster was so ready for bed after dinner when it was time for our Christmas program. She only wanted Granny

Christmas Morning! Santa found us in Oklahoma! The girls both got BIKES!!

Iya loves her new puppy

and her new bike

playing with her new toy from Uncle Alex

Helping Granny make breakfast
Nice hair!

HAPPY on IYA'S bike. She said that hers is "broken" and that "Santa brought me the wrong one" so we have to take her bike to Walmart to "get one like Iya's"

Me and Monte on Christmas morning. He got me the Carheart vest I'm wearing.

Minster in Grandpa's truck on the Saturday after Christmas. We went to go see Grandpa's land.

Iya in the truck loving being out of a car seat

Can you believe how much it snowed in OKLAHOMA! This is Uncle John's Creek which runs right through Dad's land.

Isaac and Preston played in this snow drift that was just along the road. It was really deep. On Christmas day when we were on our way to dinner at Bryan and Donna's house we got stuck in the snow in the van. It was crazy, we were just going along and all of the sudden the road in front of us was completely covered in a snow drift. We got completely stuck! This farmer happened to be outside right where we were and he started up his tractor and pulled us out. It was so nice and we were so grateful. My Dad and Alex both got stuck too-in separate trucks. The snow was just crazy-the drifts were so deep!

When Puppies ATTACK!

How could something so cute cause crying, screaming, and pandemonium......

She made it!!!!

If you didn't notice her hair -is is all pulled out from the first time she ran and got knocked down and mauled by the puppies. It took three times for her to be completely taken down before she was ready to go inside. And they called it puppy love...

Christmas Tree

So for some reason I cannot change the order of these pictures! Anyway, I just wanted to share some fun ornaments we have on our Christmas Tree. This is definitely one of my faves! If you can't tell what it is, its Ralphie from A Christmas Story. Ya gotta love it!
We bought this ornament this year for Minster. She LOVES horses for those that didn't know. (just a side note.....ITS ALREADY BROKEN!!)
This ornament is what our Christmas tree is all about "Cowboy Christmas" :)
I made this one for our little cowgirl in 2007. I just love the memories of picture ornaments.

We got this one from Cabela's last year. The story behind it is.....Monte bought me a cowboy Santa for Christmas the year before. I never took it out of the box, we just put it away with our Christmas stuff. So last year we got it out with all the Christmas stuff and ...... THERE WAS NOTHING INSIDE!!! Monte bought the "display box" with the display ON display!!!!!!

So we took it back to Cabelas and tried to explain that we bought an empty box LAST YEAR and they took our word for it.....but they had no more cowboy Santa's. So we used our in store credit to buy some cowboy ornaments.....
We bought this one this year at Atwoods (comparable to D&B) There is really nothing special about it other than I thought it was cute.

This is one of the first cowboy ornaments that we bought and I just love it.

And here is the tree......in our new "cowboy room"

I decided to make another picture ornament this year and here is how it turned out.

FYI we count BSU as a cowboy ornament :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

For Thanksgiving we headed down to my parents house in Oklahoma. We left after work on Wednesday night (along with the whole state of Kansas!). The interstate was very busy and there were 2 sections of one lane construction that were very slow going. But, we arrived her safely. That night we watched Transformers and went to bed late. The next morning the boys left to play football (of course!) and mom and I prepared thanksgiving dinner. I made homemade pumpkin pies for the first time-usually Monte's mom makes PLENTY every year but, this year was definitely full of many firsts. I slaved over the pumpkin pies for hours trying to make them perfect....but, in the end I BURNT THEM!! I was so so so devastated!! My mom's oven is really weird and not normal so it was really hard to cook anything in it-especially delicate first time pumpkin pies!!!!

Minster was being a little turkey of her own before dinner and actually fell asleep right before we ate. I was sad to not have her awake and with us for dinner but she would not wake up and even if she would have, we all know she would not have been a happy camper!!

This is all of us right before we ate. We were a small group but very happy and grateful to be together. It was fun to have Alex home this year but Judson was very missed. We each had the opportunity to say something we were thankful for. I hope we can make that a tradition and continue it in the future. I felt so happy to be together and very grateful for that opportunity. Iya was very happy and ready to eat!

Brookelynn is such a great Aunt to the girls. She plays with them and is always so helpful.

The typical Monte with his eyes crossed!! :)

This picture of the house was actually taken the day they moved in. This picture was taken from the cowboy room towards the dining area.

After dinner we cleaned up and headed over to Brian and Donna's house for some pie. The next two days were watching none other than football. The best game by far was the Boise State game. It started at 9 our time and all the kids were asleep before halftime. Saturday afternoon we packed up and went home. It is about a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive (depending if you have to stop for crying little girls). When we got home we brought up our Christmas stuff from the basement and put up our Christmas tree. Pictures coming soon........