A Simple Christmas!

Christmas was exciting with three little ones this year.  We had so much fun watching bright eyes gaze at all the lights and gifts.  I love watching Christmas through children eyes again.  It makes it so magical and beautiful.  We enjoyed every moment of it!

All ready for church just before Christmas arrived.

Our three most precious and beautiful gifts under the tree.  I am so very grateful I have been blessed with them.  They truly are the best gifts I could ask for.

I really didn't do well at taking pictures.  I think we were too busy with the excitement of it all.  It was a wonderful Christmas and Aliyah was so kind to only require one item from Santa...Little Mermaid barbie (he may have thrown a prince in for her as well :))

Simple Joy

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Christmas time is always so wonderful.  We have been filling this month with fun activities and yummy treats.  I created an advent calendar with a different activity every day and we have loved creating new things and spending time together.

We have taken Christmas photos...

Had a snowball fight...

Made marshmallow reindeer...

A paper nativity...

We also attempted snow globes, writing a letter to Santa, watching a couple Christmas movies, looking at Christmas lights, having a hot chocolate bar, and making yummy goodies and delivering them to our neighbors.  Overall, it has been a fun Christmas season.

Clarissa has been smiling and laughing so much lately.  She just melts our hearts!  It is always so fun to have a new little one in the home during the Christmas season.

 

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope your homes are filled with joy and peace.  We are so grateful for the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the example He set for each one of us.  He has brought so much peace and comfort to our family.  We hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Two months!

Time flies too quickly, and Clarissa just keeps on growing.  She turned two months and loves tummy time (even rolling once...Aliyah was so proud), loves grabbing hair, smiling and being snuggled.  She weighed 11 lbs 12 oz.  She is just so rolly polly.  I love it!

The other two kiddos entertain themselves well with all sorts of things while I have a few moments of snuggling a baby.  They love dressing up, dancing, coloring, playing house and horse races together.  It always warms my heart when they decide to play nicely together.  I hope they will always treasure each other.

 

Clarissa's Blessing

We had a beautiful day for Clarissa's blessing.  She was gorgeous as was her blessing given by her father.  In it she was promised to be our family's peacemaker and she has already proven to be so.  She is so sweet and patient.  We were able to have Papa, Grammy and Natalie there.  We sure missed having all our other family being there, but definitely know they were thinking of us and we were thinking of them.

We love our Rissa Doll!

Clarissa and Mommy

I had a blast making her blessing dress.  It was so simple to make.  Aliyah picked the fabric and I was so thrilled with how it turned out.

 The whole family

 

 Just a couple more pictures of our cute girl.

Halloween

I always have good intentions, but seem to really fail in keeping up.  So, to make up for it I am on blog overload tonight.

Clarissa turned one month.  Her pediatrician was so amazed by her weight gain.  Little does she know my babies have no problem with being round and squishy. :)

 

We quickly moved on to celebrating Halloween.  It was simple and SWEET!  We enjoyed a ward trunk-or-treat and were invited to trick or treat with some friends at the military base where it is safe and the people are very generous.  That explains why we had way too much sugar at our house.

Joshua was a made up super hero (the back had his initials JAW, every boy needs a cape) and Aliyah was the adorable cowgirl.

Clarissa was a mad bunny by this point.  She was so cute, but was so tired after all the trick or treating.

We were able to carve pumpkins together.  The kids were a hoot.  Joshua really didn't like cleaning it out.  All he would say is "Ewwww..."  Aliyah was proud of her witch.  She was sad when they had to be tossed.

Three Weeks

Make sure and see what else we have been up to since the birth of sweet Clarissa.

I can't believe that she is already almost a month old.  We have enjoyed having her in our lives and love enjoying the soft, snuggly baby stage.

You are so loved, baby Clarissa!

She is chunking up so nicely and has the most squishable cheeks.  I love this girl!

Happy to be Four!

Aliyah turned four and is happy to finally be four.  She wanted a friend cowgirl birthday party, but we kept it simple with a couple friends coming over for dinner and cake and ice cream.  She was is heaven all day and luckily lets me get away with being simple and cheap.

Aliyah always wants to help me with her cake.  She wanted a horse cake so I finally tried my hand at fondant.  It was messy, but so easy.

Aliyah put the horse on for me, so it ended up being about buried.  Also, I had two little helpers pick at it before we ever got around to eating it.  Other than that, I was happy with how it turned out.

A couple days later we surprised Aliyah with her very own horse ride.  She had a blast and didn't stop smiling the entire time.  She never wanted to leave.  She was hoping she could take the horse home.  Sorry girl...maybe one day!

It was such a fun place to visit and had such fun animals to see besides the horses.  They even had a pet pig that was trained to sit.