Sneaking off to the Zoo

Since the office was winding down the week before Christmas, we slipped away to the zoo to enjoy the good weather and also visit a friend in the hospital near the zoo.  It was so fun to spend an hour there and enjoy the animals and use our membership that we do not use enough!

These baby elephants were so fun to watch as they played in their watering hole.

Taylor "walked" her dog through the whole zoo. A gentleman asked me if he could take her picture with her dog! It was so cute!

Got to love these girls. How I loved having extra time off to spend with my girls.

The final countdown to Christmas....

Tatum is 8 Months!

Our little bringer of joy is now eight months. She is chatty and ever so happy. She has her four top teeth coming in and is trying to munch on everything. Everything tastes better in vanilla yogurt. She is scooting on her tummy and just started the army crawl. She is sleeping through the night again (hurray!) and is a good napper too. She has the best smile and shares it freely. She loves to chase her sister around (in mom's arms) and both girls squeel. She is at a such a fun stage - please do not grow up too fast!

Christmas Dresses

 Thanks, Grandma Turner, for our beautiful dresses!

Church Christmas Party

 As part of our church Christmas party, they invited the children to dress as any nativity character. I thought we would dress Taylor as an angel but she insisted on being Mary. And she announced that Tatum could be a cow - since she had the costume from Halloween. So Mary and a cow it was! Taylor loved being up with the other children! It was so sweet! And our friend, Emily, was great to take Tatum on stage and hold our cow!

Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

 Christmas trees up, decorations out, festive clothes on....

One fun idea we started was reading a Christmas story each night. Johnathan wrapped 24 Christmas books from my collection (my mom gives us one about the nativity each year which helps in the collection!) and Taylor opens one each night and we read it. The Brannings had stopped by and were visiting in the kitchen. I heard voices in the living room and this is what I found - Taylor & Mason reading Grinch. Love it! And thanks Johnathan for such service in wrapping all of them!

Thanksgiving Weekend Wrap-up

 Just a few more pictures to share from the Thanksgiving holiday. We packed the fun in and loved having the boys home. We finally felt complete - Johnathan back and baby Tatum's first holiday season, we loved having our family all together. We also took some fun family pictures that I'll post soon. Jordan had to leave first since he had to get back to BYU but Johnathan stayed longer since he has down time before starting BYU in January.

Taylor was so excited for the rain (we've been in a drought!) so she could wear her raincoat. Jordan got a cool shell for his birthday (Johnathan braved the crowds on Black Friday to get it at REI) so they were testing out the rain!

 Rushing Jordan off to the airport

 Downtime at the park....

 Don't you love how well John and Tatum match? I love that outfit on her!

What Happens When Your Big Sister Gets A Box of Band-aids

Fun with a Fast Camera