Taylor Learns New Stuff

A few weekends ago, Kyle taught Taylor how to work on the car. She changed the breaks, rotated the tires, and changed to oil.

Good job working on your personal progress.

Merry Christmas

Late on these posts again. Here are some of our pictures from Christmas.

Gabs and Noah opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa Campbell...

The kids wanted to pose for some pictures after they had finished munching some snacks.

Imagine him saying, "Cheese."

Christmas jammies...

Gabbie got into many of her presents this year and opened them before Christmas. Her friend Galadriel the Elf left her a letter on Christmas morning to read. Santa was disappointed in her for opening the presents, but he knew she would make better choices.

Daddy and I got socks for each other this year.

Gabs got a puzzle, which she proceeded to loose a few pieces of on our road trip to VA.

Noah would grab the presents from both sides, try to rip them, and then when it didn't work he would hand it off to Kyle and say, "do it."

Hope you guys all had a wonderful Christmas too!

I'm Too Big...

...to break it into little pieces.

Real men eat it like this!

Who Turned Three in December?

Our little girl is no longer very little. She is a wonderful girlie. Here are some pictures from her birthday this year. We woke up early on the Saturday of her birthday, opened presents, ate some ice cream cone cupcakes and then headed down to San Antonio for a day at Sea World.

Here are some pictures from the unwrapping of presents...

Then on to Sea World where we got to meet the penguin family,

see Gabbie's favorite characters from Sesame Street,

and try to take a family picture at one of the shows, but someone wanted no part of it.

Gabbie loved seeing the divers and trainers swimming with the dolphins and beluga whale.

She even got to pose with a few of the divers.

And ride the roller coaster with Daddy.

We finished up a very long day with a break at the playground.

Now here are some of the things that we love about our three year old:

• she has a very active imagination and is always pretending to be something, most often princesses
• creative
  
• she tries to help and be involved in everything
• she loves to read and be read to
• she plays with her little brother all the time
• she is super tenderhearted and loving
• she is close to the Spirit and always reminds us when we need to be closer ourselves
• her curly hair
• her infectious laugh
• she always makes you smile, no matter what mood you are in
• how sensitive she is to other people's feelings
• she is a great big sister
• not phased by anything

We love you so much Gabbie Girl!

Santa Claus

The kids got to meet Santa Claus when they were at Grandma and Grandpa Christensen's house. This year neither of the kids were afraid of him. Gabs was a little hesitant at first but then she jumped right in. Noah was ready to go from the first sighting of Santa in the hall.

Is it my turn yet?!? Please, oh please.

Victory!

Even Aunt Taylor had to get in on the fun.

Wait, you mean if I actually talk to him I get a treat? Awesome!

Bye Santa. See you next year.

Grandma Christensen is awesome with having this arranged for every year. Our kids are so blessed to have so many wonderful family traditions.

Jazz Game

Kyle was lucky enough to get one of his wishes fulfilled while we were visiting Utah. His cousin called up one night and offered us some free tickets to the Jazz game. So, we decided Gabbie could go with us because she took a long nap. Noah had to stay home and go to bed though.

Aunt Nan and Daddy helped Gabs climb up the stairs from will call.

It was really loud and she wasn't one hundred percent sure if she actually liked being there.

Our cute little family without our little man.

When the Jazz won, they let down a bunch of streamers from the ceiling. Gabbie decided that she needed to pick as many of them up as she could.

Cute, cute girl.

Thanks for the fun game Cousin Owen.

Good Morning!

We got to get up early for scripture study with all of the kids' aunts and uncles while we were visiting.

We also helped make breakfast on those days where we didn't eat cold cereal.

Gabs got to help Grandma grind some wheat so we could make scones.

Thanks for helping us to learn while we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa.

Visiting the Temple

The week before we left for Utah, Tay received her patriarchal blessing. She got a strong impression from her blessing that she needed to go do baptisms for the dead in the Salt Lake Temple.

So we bundled up in some warm clothes, with the exception of Tay, and head up to Salt Lake.

Unfortunately, Utah was 'supposed' to be getting a blizzard. They shut down the temple and were only doing live ordinances that were already scheduled.

The kids were very good about just waiting around until Taylor got finished talking to the temple workers inside. Gabs did way good at being patient, probably because she was sleeping!

Well, at least we got to look at it, right?

Next time!