The most wonderful time of the year

One thing (of many) that I neglected to mention is that we had family photos taken by Darcy Case while we were in GJ for Thanksgiving.  You can look at proofs HERE if you are interested.  (You will get to see one of them on our Christmas card.)  Thank you, Darcy!

You might notice that our smiley little baby McKinley would not even crack a tiny little smirk for the photos.  It was serious business for her, I guess.  Never fear, I have shots like these to remember the smile:

Here she is grinning while she eats her new favorite, homemade teething biscuits.  The cub scouts were here yesterday and saw the ziploc bag with the teething biscuits, then asked if we had a dog. :)  They look that delicious I guess.  Maybe if I wrapped them in pretty wrappers?  McKinley also loves sweet potatoes, winter squash, and rice cereal, but so far does not like bananas or applesauce.  I've been having fun this time around making my own baby food with the uber-blender, then freezing it in an ice cube tray into single servings.  It's easier than I thought it was going to be.

Rachel decided 7 days ago that she wanted to be potty trained.  YAY!  Only 1 accident in the whole week!  And now, only 1 child in diapers!  YAY!  Rachel is so excited about Santa this year.  She got to visit him at the ward Christmas party last Saturday - this is her "say cheese" face:

Also visiting Santa - Kinley, Ella, and Caleb (holding flat Stanley, who visited us for the weekend).  Apparently for Kinley, Santa is also serious business...

 

(You might notice that Santa's helper had to help him fix his hair between Kinley and the other kids...)

Rachel only wants an Ariel mermaid barbie - 2  year olds are so easy.  Ella asked for Barbies and a 4-wheeler (whoa - deja vu from last year?!).  Caleb wants a lizard.  Oh, and an iPod.  So he can play plants vs. zombies whenever he wants.  (Because we are kind of mean and have passwords on the iPad and desktop.  Wait, we're not mean.  We just want you to exercise your little creative brain in a variety of ways, buddy, not only play video games.  But when you're a 7 year old boy, that's mean.)

And, last of all today, I love when the kids set up the nativity.

Everyone looking at baby Jesus. :)  Love it.