Sisters

I love it when they love each other.

The beginings of stories...

I find these all over the house; the beginings of stories.  Little bits of Olivia's imagination sprawled on pieces of paper.  They lay on her desk, on the counters, in her backpack, on the end tables, in the church bag.  There is always a cast of charcters with little detailed drawings, their ages, and their obvious personalities.
She writes first chapters and second chapters, but rarely goes beyond that before she has already started another story.
This one begins like this:

Mary Courten always felt something would happen when you went into Queen Isabella's castle.  Her elder brother, Eric, claimed he'd seen Queen Isabella talking to a mirror.  Her Mother, Father, and Lily laughed at him, obviously they didn't believe him.  But, Mary had a different matter.  She talked about it, had nightmares about it, and she always thought about it.
I love finding these little treasures.  Sometimes they make my entire day.  Such a creative little mind this sweet girl has.  I'm sure she will finish one some day.

Guess What?

Someone went to Sunbeams on Sunday.

We now have another little primary girl.  Abby was so excited to go that Sammie whisked her away after Sacrament meeting to the primary room and she never looked back. 

A New Little Guy

My mom always referred to baby Luke as "the little guy" before he was born.  Luke is the newest addition to the Boyce cousins.  Now we are even with 3 girls and 3 boys.  The girls loved little Luke.  We went to his blessing last Sunday and had a lunch at Dianna's mom's house afterwards.  It was so sweet to see a little newborn.
The girls loved to chase their cousins around.  It's been lots of fun for them now that Brennan and Noah are getting a little older.

Snow Snow Snow

We took up a trip to my parent's house the second week of Christmas break.  We met everyone up at the cabin in Tahoe.  (My parent's share it with my Aunt and Uncle and another family).  It was their week, so we drove all the way there from home.  It was a bit of a drive, but we were excited to see everyone and the girls were so excited to see snow.  They have never seen it before , and see it we did.  Abby asked me why all the houses were decorated with icicles.  We got to do our sibling gift exchange all cozy inside the night we arrived.  The next day we went out and played in the snow.
The snow was so powdery that it was too hard to make a snowman, or even snowballs.  But it was perfect for sledding.  It was so awesome to just sled right out the back door.  The snow was so deep and piled up on all the rooftops.  The girls had a blast.  I loved their rosy cheeks when they were trudging through the snow up to their waist.  Joey got so soaked playing in the snow. After being freezing cold, he was content to hold our new little nephew, Luke.  Such a sweet little guy.
It was a wonderful place to be together and I'm looking forward to many more trips there all year round.  Dianna and Nate took some great photos.

Jammies!

What is Christmas without a new pair of pajamas?

Nativity

A family in our ward does a live Nativity every year.  This year the girls wanted to be a part of it, so we arrived early, got dressed as angels, practiced a couple of songs, and then sat in the cold for a while until it was their turn.  They had lots of fun.  Abby was so serious about it and Sammie felt a little redemption from her school performance.  It was sweet watching them sing.  I did feel a little strange when friends would ask what the girls were dressed up as and I would reply, "They're little angels."

Merry Christmas!

We had a beautiful Christmas with Joey's parents.  They came down to visit for a few days.  The house was all decorated and we munched on party foods.  We did a little Christmas program on Christmas Eve with just our little family.  It was a fun night of stories, music, and scriptures.  I was surprised how quickly the girls went to bed and fell asleep.  One minute they were downstairs and the next, they were snuggled in their beds and asleep.  Their new jammies must ahve put them in tired state.
I made the girls matching jammies this year and a pair for their dolls.  I don't know how it got done, but I got to work on them early and I had so much fun doing it.  They were so excited to see the little jammies on their dolls.  Such a perfect gift for my girls.
On Christmas day we, or Joey rather,  woke the girls up at 6:30.  Happy that they were still asleep, I was willing to sleep longer, but Joey had everyone out of bed and downstairs.  I scrambled to get myself out of bed.  Christmas felt just as magical for me as it was for the kids.  I had so much fun watching them open their gifts.  Here is what Santa brought: 
Abby got a Cinderella Doll, a Bitty Baby, a double stroller, and Little Golden Books
Sammie got a bike, a Merida Doll, a sweatshirt, and Ivy and Bean books.
Olivia got a Doll Bed, a BYU sweatshirt, an American Girl outfit, and Dear America books.
They got so loved by grandparents and had so much fun opening gifts from them.
It was a wonderful holiday for us. 

(Playing with paper dolls from grandma Jackie)

(Sammie on her new bike)

(Joey got a new bike too!  He hasn't had a bike since High School.  He and the girls have already been on rides around the neighborhood and to the school.)

(We loved having grandma and grandpa here. We opened gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Boyce too.  The girls are wearing their new "comfy" outfits.)

(Olivia sporting her new sweatshirt.)

I got to go shopping for Christmas.  It was so much fun and I got so spoiled :)