Gingerbread houses.

One of my closest friends, Jillian, threw the cutest gingerbread making party!  We all left our babies home and only brought our older kids.  Elna and Harriet LOVED it!  It was at Jillian’s parents house, so I was so very grateful that Holly was so willing to help me out—she helped Harriet while I helped Elna.  It was so fun and so messy and the girls just thought it was the best thing ever.  Jillian throws the CUTEST parties and puts so much thought into every single detail.  Thanks Jillian!  And thanks for taking such cute pictures!

As the mamas cleaned up, Holly read a Christmas story to all of the kids…or just the girls as it turned out, because the boys did a lot of this:

The difference between these girls and boys was pretty hilarious.

Kylie, Elna, Brooklyn, Hattie, William, Tyler, and Chad.

Look at these cute kids with their huge lollipops from Jillian!

My darling babies!

The finished houses!

The mamas—Stephenie, Brandi, Jillian, Katie, and me.  These girls mean so much to me--I am blessed to have such dear friends!

The eighties called.

 

Why have all girls if you aren’t going to match them as often as possible?  Right?  I love these 80’s inspired stretch pants!

I’m not s huge fan of the lighting in these pictures, but they are too cute not to post.

I love Elna’s “she’s so heavy” face on the right.

These girls have a sweet relationship and Elna is the biggest help—such a blessing!

November little things.

We went to go look at some property on a street where my friend, Jillian, had just bought some property.  We would love to be neighbors, so we were hoping to find some land or a house we liked.  We took a selfie to send to her.  As we were taking the selfie (left), Brian popped his head in it (right)

We found this house and saw a lot of potential in it.  It was pretty dated and I’m not a huge fan of colonial style homes, but we thought if the price was right we could live in it for a while, and then either do an extreme makeover or tear it down and rebuild, because the view from the house was incredible (see picture below):

Gorgeous view of Mt. Hood!  Unfortunately the price was not right.  Sad!

This is what dinner making looks like at our house when Brian gets home.  It’s a combined effort.  I don’t know what I would do without this guy!

The girls are usually happy to hold Georgia for us while we scurry around finishing up dinner prep.

This girl was excited to try out curlers!

Brian is such a rockstar at our house!

“Mom, why are their hashbrowns in the car?” says Hattie, about the bag of potatoes that I bought at the store a few days earlier, but forgot to take out of the car.

Playing with the phone camera in bed while Georgia was sleeping and we were waiting for dad to come home.

Pretending to sleep.

Watching Christmas youtube songs and being too sweet not to capture.

Bathing beauties.

Georgia’s happy place.

Teething baby who only liked to be held to sleep.

I’m not certain why I took this picture, but I’m pretty sure it was because Hattie said they were matching and asked for a picture.

My cute cousin, Marilyn, just started her 18 month mission at the Portland temple visitors center.  So fun to have her so close!

Sweet Georgia at church.

Her getup is a typical occurance at our house—her baby tied to her front with a blanket, a purse on each shoulder, a tutu, and a book (The Book of Mormon) in her hands.

Reading a new favorite book—a book I was given as a young girl—with all 3 of my girls. (Georgia is packed and sleeping)

Elna is such a huge helper and a fan of being outside (even when it’s freezing!)  Brian can almost always count on Elna to help with yardwork, and in this case, Christmas lights.  Harriet does not like the cold and is usually my little buddy inside when these two are busy outside.