Those silly people!

Here are some crazy pictures of our crazy little family.
Here are all the Christmas pictures we took trying to find a good shot of us to put on our card. They're all pretty fuzzy for some reason, so we picked the one where the seagull looked good. (it's not here, it's on the Christmas card and, yes, the seagull is real)

Then, one day, Elle decided to walk, or rather, dance in her daddy's shoes.

And finally today, Chris and Elle had WAY too much fun with empty wrapping paper rolls! I''m not sure how, but Elle's arms completely disappeared in one shot!

HOW many days 'till Christmas?

On Monday, Elle was so sad that there were eight whole days until Christmas! (it seemed like it's SO far away--to her that is)
Luckily, we've had a fun-filled week to make the time go by.
On Tuesday, we were invited to the bishop's house to make gingerbread houses. As you can see, Elle had a blast!
On Wednesday, we went to Disneyland and California Adventure for eight hours. It wasn't very busy and we got to go on rides twice in a row. We were very happy that she was finally tall enough for Indiana Jones.
At one point, Elle wanted to choose the ride we went on next, so she asked to see the map. We stopped a few times for her to get her bearings and look at the map, but we finally made it to thunder mountain, which we rode twice.
Thursday (today) we went shopping for Connor and Fletcher and then she wanted a couple things for Chris. When we were getting the gifts for Chris, she said, "This is finally fun!"
After lunch, we went ice skating for two and a half hours. It was Elle's first time. I was impressed at how well she picked it up. She still fell, but we both had a great time. It was really fun, but very cold. We decided that we'll bring gloves next time.
Tomorrow, we have a tentative date for a museum with Elle's friend. This month hasn't seemed slow to me, but now it has gone by amazingly fast!
Hopefully, it feels like that to Elle too.

The disillusionment of Elle

The other day, Chris put the antenna up on Elle's little TV so she could watch Shrek the Halls. (We never watch TV here)
The next day, Elle asked me if she could watch TV again. I said sure. A few minutes after we turned it on, Elle came running out all excited. "There's a little boy standing in the street and there's a lot of WATER! It's been raining really hard!" Apparently, she was watching the news. And it was very exciting.
Later, we let her stay up and watch another Christmas special on TV. When I asked her how it was, she said, "They kept coming and saying, 'News at 11! News at 11! News at 11!' All the time! And then they kept showing the SAME ads over and over!" She hasn't asked to watch it again.
AND. . .
Yesterday, Elle asked me the BIG question (no, not that one, she's still young) "Mom, do YOU believe in Santa?" I told her she could believe in Santa if she wanted to. "Who REALLY puts the presents under the tree? I wanna know the TRUTH" she said. So, I spilled it. She took it really well. I told her how my niece was furious with her parents for lying to her all that time. Elle told me she wasn't mad. I think she liked the idea of being in on a special secret. I told her it was still fun to pretend. After all, her own grown-up aunts were upset the year Santa didn't come and all the gifts were from Mom and Dad.
Later she asked, "So, who eats all the cookies? Do you and dad eat ALL of them?" I told her we usually just put them back. She said, "This year, I'll only put TWO cookies on the plate for Santa." She seems happy about the whole thing, but I, on the other hand, am so sad that she's no longer a believer.

Happy Birthday to me!

It's my birthday!
That's me with the candles. Just add twenty-seven more candles to that pink cake and you have my age today. 30! Yea! (I think)



I'm number 8 of 8 in my family. I'm the baby in my big sister's arms.














And apparently, I was always small.

more Thanksgiving

We had the traditional cranberry-that -looks-like -a-can, so we decided to spice it up and make it look like a candle instead. We also had the traditional crowded kitchen.

And the traditional ninja .
The table was beautiful.
The host was
gracious.
















The kids were well-behaved.
And the leftovers were plentiful. All in all, it was a great day!

Thanksgiving--better late than never

Grandma and Gradpa Harvey came for Thanksgiving this year. Grandma, Elle and I went to the skirball museum. It was prety fun. They had all sorts of creative animals like this alligator (or is it a crocadile?)











Elle loved all the attention.
Chris is carving a yam (you can see the lips) for our yam casserole. (It was very good).
No one saw his art work since we just cut the thing up with the rest of its family.
Grandpa had the honor of carving the turkey.

I'm back!

After a long absence, I am back to blogging! I've been volunteering at the school's book fair for two weeks straight. I lived at the school. It was fun to be at Elle's school and all, but I'm glad it's over.
1 MORE WEEK OF SCHOOL!! yea! Then we're off for 3 yes, Three, whole weeks!