Christmas 2009

We had an AMAZING Christmas this year!! Here are some of the fun things we did!!

Dibble Christmas Party


Abigail, Lauren and Raiyah singing Jingle Bells & Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer for the program!



Beckstead Christmas Party




My Grandpa Beckstead made these for everyone in the family!!



Chrismas Eve.. My cousin Sean came over and gave the girls his present to them.. They LOVE Sean!!


Christmas Eve we went over to the Grandma and Grandpa Flanders and had a Christmas dinner and opened presents!!





Getting ready to go to bed so Santa can come!! They didn't go to sleep until 11pm though!! They were TOO excited!





Christmas Day!!!
Abigail received a new "real" camera from Santa this year. Now she has a better camera than we do!! So we let Abby take the pictures this year!

This is at Grandma and Grandpa Beckstead's house Christmas Morning...

Jason, Sally and Elyse

Daddy and Lauren


Robin, Brett and Kylie

Christmas afternoon we went to my grandma and grandpa Browns house...

My cousin Lynnette and Abigail

Grandpa Brown in his new silly singing/dancing hat!!

Christmas Evening we went to Aunt Mazie's home for Christmas dinner and more fun!!

Aunt Gina and Abigail

This is why Lauren isn't in most of the pictures!! She fell asleep in the car on the way to Aunt Mazie's house and then slept through all the craziness for at least 2 hours!! I finally had to wake her up!!

Abigail and Uncle Matt

Abigail and Uncle Bryan

We listened to a Christmas story told by aunt Nina!!

Abigail and Grandma Flanders

Our cute little family (Lauren is still half asleep!)

Playing the fun instruments and having a parade!

Trying to get a cousin picture.. this is the best one I got!! (but it is missing a couple of the older cousins)

Lauren and Raiyah dancing!!

Abby and her new friend (cousin) Mykell!!

Grandma Flanders playing her violin

Grandpa Flanders and Lauren

Grandpa Flanders and Abigail

Lauren with the GRINCH!

Sledding and Gingerbread Houses/Train

Abby and Lauren both thought it would be fun to pretend to sleep in the snow!! :)



In Murray, we didn't get TONS of snow, so this is the little snow"woman" we built! They all had a blast!!


I am so sad!! My camera's battery kept running out, so I missed taking pictures of the best part of sledding!! By the time I got the camera back Abby was still having a blast, but Lauren was SO tired!! They both did LOVE it though!!



This year we decided to buy Abby and Lauren each their own gingerbread thing. Lauren wanted to do a house and Abby wanted to do a train. Here are their cute creations!!

Abigail's Preschool Christmas Program and Echoes of Christmas

It was so much fun watching Abby sing in the Christmas Program at her Preschool on December 15th, 2009.

Lauren was SO good while we were waiting for Abby to perform.

Abby and her friend Evelyn!!

Abigail and I went to "Echoes of Christmas" at Liberty Park to see Grandma Flanders be an angel!! It was a beautiful program!!

Abigail and Uncle Matt

Abby and Grandma Flanders

Abby trying to make snow angels!!

making Christmas cookies

We were able to make Christmas Sugar cookies with some amazing friends this December. Lauren was actually sick this night so she stayed at home with her daddy and made a gingerbread house. We missed them, but at least both the girls had a fun time with what they were doing!!

Kenshin and Bethany

Madeline and Abigail

Abigail's 5th Birthday!!

We had a few different parties for Abigail's 5th birthday. First we celebrated it with the Flanders, then we had a Princess party and then we had a party with the Beckstead side.

At Grandma and Grandpa Flanders House

Abigail and Raiyah ( I love this picture)


Abigail's Princess Party. Princess Amerah came to Abigail's birthday party and Abby was SOOO excited!! All the girls had a great time!! Princess Amerah is absolutely amazing!

Abby and Aliaya listening to Princess Amerah's story

Abby doesn't get overly excited about things, so it is these little smirks that help me know she LOVES every second of her party!

Abby was a little nervous to be the center of attention. They were all singing Happy Birthday to her.

Everyone doing "goofy" faces!!

Lauren absolutely LOVED Princess Amerah too!!

Celebrating Abby's Birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Dot's house.

Benefit Concert at Hillcrest Jr High

Abigail had 2 concerts in December. The Festival of Trees and a benefit concert that was held at Hillcrest Jr High. Luckily at this one I got some better pictures!!!
YEAH!!

Here is Lauren watching "Frosty the Snowman" on daddy's phone. We had to get there kinda early, and she was such a good little girl to wait!!

Abby Loves doing different poses for the camera.. haha

Lauren and Aunt Brenda after the concert!!

Lauren was being chased by uncle Matt. Ended up being an adorable picture!

Festival of Trees

So this was the last time that Abby performed at Festival of trees for a while. (We are taking her out of dance for a little bit and going to see if she is interested in trying something new for a while) I am sad that we didn't really get any pictures of her onstage though. Where we sat, the teacher was blocking our view of Abby *tear* But I was able to move to the back and video it instead. :) Here are some fun pictures that we did get while walking around looking at everything!!



They loved the "barbie" tree.. weren't so excited about the picture though

Abby LOVES "Nightmare before Christmas" So we had to get this cute picture

November 2009

Well.. Lauren and Abigail were actually sick for the first 2 weeks of November so we didn't really do much. But when they got better, we went to the aquarium a couple times, made little turkeys for a craft project, celebrated Thanksgiving with family (I didn't get any pictures though *tear*), we decorated the Christmas tree and we just had fun.

I found them under the table reading books!!

Decorating the Christmas Tree!! The bottom half is pretty full and I love it!

Making Turkeys for an art project




Another day at the aquarium!!

Laurens favorite part is the shark tank! Abigail's favorite part are the jelly fish and eels!!

Everyday they beg me to go outside and play!! They don't care one bit about how cold it is!! (well, Lauren does after about 15 min.. then she wants to go inside and get her blanket!! :) )

October 2009

We had a pretty eventful month in October.. Here is a glimpse at what we did...


We went to Wee Witches Weekend at Gardner Village with our friends the Rasmussens

We did a scavenger hunt to find all the different witches

They did a bean toss game and they both did really well!!

Abby doing a little dance!!

We went to Gardner Village with wonderful friends!!

Abby really enjoyed riding her new "big girl bike" She was so proud of herself and we were proud of her too!!

Abby and Lauren were just plain cute!!

We went as a family to Wheeler Farm and the girls LOVED riding the ponies!!

Mommy was able to go to Witches night out with her friends Sara and Shawna!! She had a blast and the girls thought it was so fun that mommy was dressed up like a witch!

Lauren fell off the bench at church and hit her head. She had to get it glued. Lauren likes to call it her "ouchie" She is my brave little girl!




We went to Engh Gardens and the girls loved to play on the pirate ship and go through the hay maze. This is such a fun place to go in October!

Bethany, Kenshin, Abby, Sara and Lauren

Lauren's First Haircut on October 23, 2009. I think I cut about 4 inches off the back. No more mullet for her!! :)

Playing in the snow!!

We got a pass to the Aquarium!! The girls LOVE this place!

Trying to touch the stingrays

Making carmeled apples for Family Home Evening

They were SOO yummy!!

We went to our Ward Halloween Party. There was face painting, decorating cookies, different games and a donut eating contest.

Abby getting her face painted. Lauren didn't want hers done.

Abby's dance class. They invited the parents to come watch them do a little performance in class and then they trick or treated with their friends.

Rasmussen Halloween Party

Donut Eating Contest.. Both Abby and Lauren didn't want to do it :( But the other kids had a fun time!!

Then we got the daddy's to do it too.. It was fun to watch!!

On Halloween we went and visited Grandma and Grandpa Brown, then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Becksteads house for some trick or treating and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa Flanders for a bonfire and a yummy dinner. What a fun Halloween!!

Lauren wanted to be a BLUE witch for Halloween.. but she settled for a Purple one.. haha.. it had blue in it though and she loved this costume!! What a cute little witch!!

She wanted to be a witch for all of Octobers fun things.. but when it came to Halloween night, she wanted to be Snow White again!! So cute!

September 16th to September 30th, 2009

We went to the Zoo with Grandma Joanne on her birthday September 16th.



Robin's baby shower on September 26th. Brett and Robin went to the temple the day before to be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.



September 29th: Abby had a fun time on her field trip to the Discovery Museum with her preschool.

We went to go see the changing of the leaves up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was So beautiful up there!