She was so excited to find "BIG TIGGER". What a great day 1!! Day 2 was MUCH better than day 1. I was totally thrown off by the darkness though. We woke up at 7, which seemed like 4 or 5. Here is a picture of the morning of day 2, it is SO beautiful:
Then Erin made a wonderful breakfast and we headed out "to town" (30 minute drive) to see Santa. Brenden told Santa he would write him a letter later, and Nolan said that he wants toys and candy. Halle wouldn't tell Santa what she wanted, but while in line we asked her what she would tell Santa and she said she wanted Mickey Mouse (we already have a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal, but nothing else Mickey related) and "Manny tool" (there is a cool Handy Manny toy with a tool set). So, there are some ideas if any of you are interested. Erin got some cute pictures while we were in line.
This is Ethan, the youngest.
The kids on Santa's lap. Halle was scared, but this went MUCH better than last year. Here's a reminder:
Then we came home and left Jared with all the kids to feed them lunch and put them down for naps. Lucky Jared. Erin and I went to a Pampered Chef party, which we were glad we went to since we were the only people that showed up. Erin bought me a Christmas present - an orange peeler that was 60 cents (20% off!!). Thanks, Erin! We came home and watched Transformers then headed back to town for the parade and fireworks. The parade consisted of trucks and cars with lights on them. Interesting. The parade was on the "frontage road" which I thought was a parking lot. While waiting for the parade (we had to get there an hour early to get a parking spot - yes we sat in the car to watch) we watched Shrek 2 and ate dinner in the car. Then we had to wait an hour for fireworks and watched Little Einsteins. The fireworks were pretty good, but I don't think these people have ever been to Utah for fireworks. So, they were good for Alaska, but maybe not so much for Utah. We got home and put the kids to bed then us adults played 4 rounds of pool. Doug and Erin suck at pool. Jared and I won 3 out of 4 games. I think we'll have a rematch tonight. So, now we're on the morning of day 3. This is what Alaska looks like at 9:45 in the morning...the sunrise was scheduled for 9:44 according to weather.com...
Haven't seen a moose yet. I'm determined I WILL see a moose. Right now our Thanksgiving turkey is in the oven. Yum. Doug is outside getting the snowmobiles ready and we'll go sled in the neighbor's yard (we got their permission last night) until our Thanksgiving feast is done. I am so excited. Alaska is beautiful and I'm loving it here. We'll be sure to take lots more pictures and share them later!
She was really thirsty after all of the trick or treating. She went with Aunt Janae and her cousin Alyvia.
After trick or treating she insisted on sorting her candy. This is as far as she got at grandma's house before we headed home. At home she took out every single piece of candy and sorted it all by herself. All of the Smarties (her favorite) were together, all of the M&M's, etc.
Moving on...Halle loves kissing Patch and he doesn't mind it either. They're so cute.
Halle in her "big girl bed"!! I forgot to take a picture when she was awake, and I just had to take a picture that night. She's such a cute sleepy head!
The next night I remembered to take a picture before she fell asleep. She did really well the first couple of nights. She would stay in her bed and stay asleep until we got her the next morning. She only fell out of bed (onto a bunch of pillows) two or three times a night. Then after that she just figured out she could get out of bed and open the door or read whatever book she wanted and collect every blanket and stuffed animal in her room. One time I went in and her book shelf was half emptied onto her bed. Anyway, two nights ago she came out of her room like 5 times in the first 30-45 minutes, then came out again at 10:15. The night before that she had the same habit the first 30-45 minutes, then got up around 3:00 and finally woke up for the day around 5:00. Needless to say, while we were very proud of her big girl bed, we have turned it back into a crib. She stays in bed, falls asleep and stays asleep the whole night. Maybe we'll try again in a few months.
She loves her Halloween candy. Last night she had a blue dumdum. She was so proud of her blue tongue.
Great Grandpa came to visit last week. Here is 4 generations - great grandpa, grandma, Jared, and Halle. She's eating a blue M&M - it's the only way we could get her stay still for the picture.
