Christmas Party

Kayla goes the the greatest preschool! They had a Christmas Party for all the parents and families and the place was packed! The school is from preschool to grade 5. It's a cute little place that looks nothing like a school and more like a village. Here are a few pictures of the evening

They just had performances every 20 min for whoever was there at the time since it was an open house and people were coming and going all the time.

This is Mercedes "smile"

Sisters having a little treat

They had a santa there and luckily a professional photographer that got a

better picture than the one I got

Sweet little Kayla posing for the camera, they had all the kids bring a new teddy bear for the Orem firefighters to give away, incase you were wondering what was up with all the teddy bears!

Hawaii!!

Gabe and I were able to go to Hawaii the week before Christmas without the kids!! My parents were nice enough to come in early for Christmas so we could go just him and I. I was beyond stressed about leaving them but as soon as I got on the airplane I was totally fine! We went with Gabe's sister Charity and her husband Dan, we had a blast. Some guys from Gabe's work were there at the same time as well so we had a lot of fun!

First morning in Maui at this amazing breakfast gazebo.

Driving in the jeep we rented

Hanging out with the Pinnacle guys at The Grand Wailea

Gabe and I hanging out

We went on a Molokini snorkeling excursion and we were lucky enough to see a few whales breeching! Absolutely amazing!

Beautiful Charity hanging out on the snorkeling boat

Reflective Gabe

Gabe out snorkeling, the water was an amazing color

Also saw some turtles

Gabe and I also went on a Helicopter tour of West Maui and Lanai. I had never been on a helicopter before and it was breathtaking!

Charity and I boogie boarding! Greatest time!

Except for the part where I flashed everybody when I almost lost my top!

Little temple trip

My family and I took a little drive to the Mount Timpanogos temple on Sunday and it is so nice that it is soo close! What a blessing! Kayla always sees the temples from the freeway so we promised to take her, and now every night in her prayers she says "thank you for Jesus' house"...so cute!

Gabe and his girls

I love how Kayla poses for pictures, she cracks me up!

Halloween and such

We started off our Halloween weekend by going to Kayla's preschool to see their halloween program which was the cutest thing as you can imagine! Of course I forgot my camera so all I had was my iphone so the pictures are not great.

They split her preschool class into 2 so this is half of them!

Princess Belle doing her "princess' smile

On Saturday night we had a halloween gathering at our place so I just snuck out to take Kayla trick or treating. I love taking little ones around! Highlight of the weekend!

Just getting back from trick or treating, again the "princess" smile

Mercedes cute little leopard costume from the back

The 3 girls!

Mercedes and Karsyn (Mandi's little girl)

Happy Birthday!

Ok so I know that Mercedes birthday was a month ago but better late than never right? We had a little one year birthday party for her with our Utah family and as always was lots of fun! I can't believe how the time has flown by!

Mercedes LOVES stuffed animals!

Hugs!

Getting help from Kayla and Saylor

Blowing out her candle, kind of.

That actually wasn't her birthday cake but it was prettier than her sugarfree applesauce spice cake I made her! I know that I should just let her indulge on her birthday but I figure while she is young enough to not know the difference I might as well try! I got the recipe from wholesomebabyfood.com, it was a yummy cake and sugar free!! Great for the one year birthday!

These pictures were taken a few months ago but I never posted them! And I am in desperate need of some blogging material so I thought I would share them anyway. My brother-in-law took them for me and I love them!

She's Walking!

For some reason my iphoto is not letting me open it so there will be no pictures but I thought I would post anyway. We are still out and about in northern Alberta with Gabe's work. My girls and I just spent the last couple weeks in Calgary visiting friends and family and it was great! It made me realize how much I miss Calgary!

My girls are being very patient through this whole process. Kayla is easy to please as long as she is having fun she doesn't care where we are at and Mercedes only cares whether I am there or not. Mercedes now has a tooth and is currently working on her second one and is not enjoying it and neither am I, I hate teething. She is also walking now! She has actually been "walking" for a couple of weeks but I can now officially say that she can walk.