Letter to Santa

Yesterday I was having a hard time with Alexis. She couldn't be nice to her sisters and they kept fighting and she was being so dramatic..... So I told her that Santa was checking his list and I hoped she didn't get a lump of coal for Christmas this year.... then a few minutes later she gave me a letter and this is what it said,
"Dear Santa,
I do not need any presents this year because I have been mean to my sisters. So I guaranty I do not need any presents at all. My mom says I will get a lump of coal but I hope I get presents.
Love Alexis"
Then she drew a really cute Christmas Tree at the bottom of the page. She brought it to me and told me that I needed to mail it to the North Pole right away!

Princess and the Frog

This Monday for FHE we took the girls to the movies to watch "The Princess and the Frog". I thought it was really cute, and had the old Disney feel to it. The girls all loved it and had a lot of fun. Ryan and I found out that Brytlee is still a little young for movies, and she can't hold still for very long..... She kept kicking the seat in front of us, and a lady had to move because of it. I felt so bad....! After the movie was over, I went up to her and apologized and she said, "Oh she just has a fire in her, some day she will be the General Relief Society President"...... What do you say to something like that.
The girls are out of School now, and we get to just relax and hang out together. I love Christmas time and I am sad that it is going so fast.... They have been counting down the days and when they told me this morning there was only two more days until Christmas... I didn't know how to feel....

Snowman

The girls and I built a snowman today. They named it Frosty. (But Elizabeth said it isn't a boy, it is a girl Frosty)

This is a picture of the house that we are in right now. We are pretty much all moved in, but we didn't bring all of our things to this house. It is so weird not having anything up on the walls, and it still doesn't feel like it is our house, and I am not sure it ever really will...(because I am hoping our other house is done soon, and then we will get to move again) The girls are really loving the house, and having their own rooms. Elizabeth is so funny about it and has kept her room clean, and has made her bed every day. She is really loving having something of her own for once.

This last summer

I just found some of these pictures on my sister in laws computer, and thought I would copy them. I can not remember where I was this day, but there was some reason that I couldn't make it on this float trip....(I think I was selling jewelry or something) I love this picture of Brytlee and Ryan....

Harris Family

We got all the kids together for a picture with Grandma and Grandpa for their Christmas cards this year.

They all look so cute in this one!
This was some of the first ones we took

more of our trip

I just got a couple pictures from Annette from our trip to St. George so I wanted to add them
We saw santa! Brytlee didn't know what do do....
Elizabeth was shy
And Alexis was nervous... none of them were able to ask for anything, but we did get to take a picture with him.



This video is funny... we all went to a spin park that is by Sara and Brads house and I got on one of the spinning things and Brad got it going really fast. I thought I could hold on with out having to let go but once it started going it hurt my arms so bad.... I ended up getting a big bruise on one of my arms.... but it was still lots of fun

House update

We almost have the house all dried in... They have been working so hard, and everyday they show up and have to shovel all the new snow off of the roof, and then start putting the paper on again. I think that they should be done today.

Our Christmas Tree

The third day of moving into this house we had to put up our tree! Every year the girls get so excited to put up the tree and see how many times they can take off the decorations and then put them back on where they want them to go..... I don't mind to much anymore, just as long as they don't break anything. They did a great job this year with putting everything on, and we all had a great time doing it. (even though the rest of the house was covered with moving boxes....)

Ward Christmas Party

We went to our old ward one last time for our ward Christmas party. I have done a slide show every year for our ward and last night was the last one that we will be putting together. I have loved our ward and have made some great friends, and we are all going to miss everyone so much!
Santa was at the party and the girls were able to tell them what they wanted this year.

Brytlee was a little shy and just said yes to whatever he said to her..... but she couldn't stay away from him the whole night. She just sat in front of him and watched him for a long time, and then would try and sneak back onto his lap again....

Christmas with the Merrills

This last weekend we were able to get together with my WHOLE family! We had everyone together, and we are not going to be able to get together again before Christmas so we celebrated together a little early.
We woke up early-ish....and went to the pool house and ate breakfast together as a family.
Then the kids all got to open their presents from each other. Brytlee couldn't wait to give Tessa and Ava the presents from us.

Elizabeth loved her present!

Alexis got this beautiful Baptism dress from Aunt Sara, and she is in love with it! (and I am also!)
She wanted to wear it sooooooo bad all day, but I had to put my foot down and tell her no because I didn't want to get it dirty.....
All the kids and Grandma and Grandpa with all the presents.

After presents we were able to swim! My girls all love the pool, and could have stayed all day.

big girl bed

Brytlee is finally in a big girl bed! I didn't want to take the crib down in the other house because it is so nice to have her in it to take a nap and I know she isn't going to get out and get into things, and I knew we were going to be moving so I just put it off until then. So she is doing really well in the bed. In the morning she has not figured out that she can get out of bed on her own. She will lay in her room and just yell for us to get her up.
But nap time has been a different story. The first day she pulled everything out of her closed and played for two hours really quite so I thought she was asleep. Today she dressed up and pulled all her shoes out of her closet. Soooooooooo naps are going to be hard!

House Update

Ryan and his dad have been working hard on the house in the snow and freezing cold. The roof is almost done, and the room above the garage has all the sheeting stuff on the floor.

Brytlee's Testimony

On Sunday I was able to bare my testimony in church, (but Ryan would call it a thankfulmony) I had to get up and tell our ward how much I loved them and thank them for all they have done for our family because it was our last week at that ward. (and in the middle of my testimony, I spaced out and started into a prayer and said, "I am so thankful for all that thou has blessed us with".... I am such a dork)
As soon as I went and sat down Brytlee stood up and started walking and said, "it's my turn now". I didn't really think that she would be brave enough to go up so I just waited for her to turn around and come back running, but she didn't so I followed her up. When she got up she started talking right into the mike as close as you can get and you couldn't understand a word she was saying, so tried to pull her back and help her say what she needed to...... but instead she said, "I love you, and then I helped her say, I love my teachers". It was really cute, and she was very happy she was able to do it.

Smooth Move

I have not said anything because I didn't know if it was still going to fall through, or if the people were going to back out, but we have sold our house. It is closed, and we are all moved out and are living in a house that we bought from Mike and Hailey. (It is right next to the house we are building) It is really nice to be able to walk to our house to go and work on the new house, and the best part is I will get to see Ryan more. I am glad that everything worked out so well, and I am so glad that we are all moved out of the other house, and it is all cleaned up. Thank you so much to all the people that helped me, (Judy, Julie, Alecia, Leo, Denton, Chase and Shawn) I couldn't have done it without you all. I will have some pictures as soon as our computer is all set up.

Gobble Gobble

Thanksgiving day! We had such a great Thanksgiving this year, we were able to go to St. George and stay at Brad and Sara's new home. (And for the dinner, we had our own personal cook)

The kids could not wait until it was time to go swimming. As soon as they woke up they had to race down to go to the pool. Then they would eat, and go back to swimming, and then eat, and swim. Alexis has been swimming really well for awhile, but I couldn't believe how much Elizabeth had improved in just a few days. She started swimming like a fish, (but if you said that to her she would correct you and tell you that she swims like a mermaid)
We all went as a family for a ride on the Rhino, dirt bikes, and four wheelers. It was so beautiful, and the kids all loved playing in the sand.

Grandpa worked hard digging holes, and then filling them up with kids. I think he was busy doing that for 30 min.

little Ava, she is such a cute little girl!
Sara and I had to tried really hard to take a really good picture!!! I think Sara won



Greg was in a little accident on his dirt bike. somehow he wrecked and hit is hand on the ground and it tore his little pinkie into pieces. He had to have surgery on it, and if you is really careful with it and doesn't bend it for six weeks he should have a good recovery.Sorry for the sick picture.....


In all the excitement of getting back to the house and getting Greg help, when the dust settled we started counting heads and came up 2 short. Hayden and Cache....were nowhere to be found. We panicked for a minute until we came outside and heard Cache snoring under a blanket.. It was so cute. We had to wake them after an hour or so, and they were still tired.
We all went to Pirate Pizza and had a great time. The Pizza's were ginormous, and the kids all had so much fun playing all the games and winning tickets so they could get a prize....








This was a Live Nativity at the outdoor ampa Theatre. It was so awesome. They had live horses, donkeys, sheep, and a camel. It was good for me to get in the true meaning of Christmas now.

St. George Temple
I helped Sara a little on her cute little decoration above her table.. I love it, and I am going to have to try it out.

Poor Greg. I am so glad that is is alright, and he had his helmet on. We had so much fun on our little vacation, and I am so glad we went. Ryan stayed home to work on the house so it was hard not being with him over Thanksgiving, but I am glad I went. It was the first time in a long time that all my brothers and sisters have been all together for a holiday. We had all the grand kids there but Tesa, so we had a pretty good turn out.
We also had fun going to the Black Friday sales, and doing some other shopping. I got a lot of my Christmas shopping done so I am glad I went, but it sucked getting up at 5 in the morning.