Early Bird

My wonderful little 5 year old use to have a thing with waking up at 6am every morning even if she didn't fall asleep until 11 the night before. That phase ended (thank goodness) and was a thing of the past. I thought for sure I was in the clear. Unfortunately I was wrong. Her new time is now 5:30am each and every morning. The first couple of mornings I thought it's ok she's just not tired anymore. Now it's been 3 weeks straight of this early bird behavior and I can barely keep my eyes open past noon each day. What am I going to do? We have tried EVERYTHING from punishments to more exercise during the day. The Super Nanny has even been a recent booked checked out from our local library. She is clearly not getting enough sleep for a 5 year old. What to do?

Christmas Highlights (almost a month late)

We had a lot of fun this past Christmas. I'm still trying to wind down from it all. Rhaegan is at the perfect age for Christmas and the concept of Santa. She is a true believer and will stop at nothing to try and make everyone around her believe too. We of course taught her about the true meaning on Christmas and she is still blessing The Savior's birthday in her prayers. The week before Christmas was spent tying up any loose ends and preparing for the big day. We spent a lot of time together as a family and enjoyed reading a bunch of Christmas books to the girls to get them ready.

Christmas morning was so much fun. Watching Rhaegan run downstairs wondering what Santa has left for her was a moment to remember. She had sent him her list and was crossing her fingers as she bounded down the stairs. She was so excited to see her very own reading chair and her own camera! One that takes real pictures as she would explain it. Of course she saw what Marlee got and wanted that as well but we made sure she let Marlee enjoy her presents for herself.

Then the mother of all gifts was opened...Grandma knows her granddaughter

I'm not quite sure what Rhaegan is wearing but she apparently thought summer was the next big surprise. Marlee got that elephant from Santa which was a huge hit.

We of course had to do a little sledding (and by we I mean Shae and the girls)

This picture is priceless! For those of you who know Shae know how crazy it is to see a dog curled up next to him.

Gingerbread houses were made...of course some were better than others (Nick)

Marlee loved relaxing with Rowdy. She tried to play with Snarky but she is a little more temperamental so we thought Rowdy was the safer choice. I don't blame Snarky, though, I wouldn't like to be jumped on all day either.

Rowdy just loves kids I think

This was the only present Marlee opened Christmas morning. After it took her a little while to opened it she was too annoyed or overwhelmed with everything she refused to open any more. We had Rhaegan "help her" finish by at least lunch time.
It was a great Christmas. We hope you all enjoyed your holiday season as well.

Christmas 2010

Our Christmas was wonderful this year. We had Krista and Josh down from Michigan and Nick of course lives down the street. Unfortunately Quinten and Kate and their family weren't able to come. We really missed having them (the girls especially missed them). We all received some amazing gifts and really enjoyed spending time together as a family. I really wanted some pictures of the girls in their Christmas dresses so of course I had Krista capture a few. As you can see from the picture below Marlee wasn't too into the whole photo shoot at first. But after a little bribing she started cooperating.

I only wish this was how they acted towards each other everyday.

This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it. Krista tried to pose Marlee which you would think would have been an impossible task. It must have been an "I'm going to listen to adults" day for her.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well. And Happy New Year!!