Map to Santa's house

Luke knows the way to Santa's house AND has it all drawn out on the above map. You have to go over a red bridge, past the yellow library, over a big blue rock, past the green North Pole, and past the cookie place which is a giant brown chocolate chip cookie. Then you will finally be to Santa's house. It's purple.

As you can tell, this map has gotten a lot of usage already. Luke and Halle love to ride around the basement on their bikes and Luke carries this map and tells Halle to follow him as they hit each stop on the way to Santa's house in the different corners of the basement. Luke has a wonderful imagination and Halle does too and follows right along with him. I'll hear him call, "Come on, Halle, to the North Pole!" and she'll respond, "Okay, Lukey!" And off they go on their bikes. Too cute.

Letters to Santa

Here are Luke's letters so far this year to Santa.

Luke's Christmas card to uncle Jake on a mission

I love the card Luke made for uncle Jake on his mission in South Korea this year. I asked him to tell me what he wanted to say to Jake and here's what he said:

"Dear Jake, I wish you will love Santa. I am asking Santa for a Thomas Shake Shake Bridge and a cooking thing with a fridge and oven and a bike with a red helmet. We saw Santa at the mall. I like snoopy. We like a show on Disney Channel called Jake and the Neverland Pirates that has your name in it.
Love,
Luke"

Thanksgiving 2011

It was a St. George year for us this Thanksgiving. The weather was beautiful. Our little indians, Luke and Halle, had a great time down there as usual. Both Luke and Halle had an indian feather hat Cory's cousin made of them, but Luke refused to where his for more than 2 minutes, so I wasn't able to get a picture of him in it!

Dad's creepy mustache

Daddy grew his beard out for no shave November and when he finally shaved it he left the mustache for a few hours just for fun. Too funny/creepy not to remember :).

First snow fall

We had our first big snowfall and the kids couldn't wait to play in it. So we got them all bundled up and ready to go. Halle had lots of fun trudging around and mostly eating the snow. Luke also had fun trudging around making footprints.

He has been talking about making a snow angel for a long time and was very excited he was able to do that.

Daddy went outside with them and started making a snowman. But the kiddos got tired and cold, and didn't last too long. So good old Daddy stayed out there and finished up the snowman himself.

The kids had been inside, changed into their jammies and warmed up with me for awhile by the time Daddy was done. But he still wanted them to come out to take the picture with him of our first snowman of the year.

Halloween 2011

Here are Luke and Halle in their firefighter outfits all ready to go trick or treating.

Yes, this year the kids matched. But I didn't force them to or anything. They both love firefighters and both wanted to be them. Actually, originally I only bought the firefighter costume for Luke. He loves firefighters and when we saw it he wanted it right away. But when we got it home Halle was very disappointed that she didn't have one also, so we had to pick her one up too. It was actually really fun and cute to have them dress up the same.We had a really fun Halloween. Halloween was on a Monday this year, so Cory's work did a trick or treat at the office on Friday instead. So we went downtown to Goldman's offices and did the trick or treat on Friday afternoon which the kids loved.

Then, Monday we went and did the trick or treat at Azteca (my work) but the kids know it as Grandpa Sheldon's work because he works there too but he actually has an office and sits at his desk and passes out candy, so it makes more sense to them when I said we were going trick or treating at Grandpa's work.

Then, later that night I made chili and scones and my mom and dad came over to hung out. They also brought Satish and Manju and their little girl Powni. They are a family that recently moved here from India and my dad works with Satish and was basically the reason he was brought over here. So we've been getting together with them here and there.
We went trick or treating and of course the kids loved it. It was a pretty nice night. Not too cold. About halfway through the lower part of our neighborhood, all the sudden Halle layed flat down on the cement. Poor girl was tired! It was really funny to turn back and see her just laying there.
The kids had a blast and can't keep talking about Halloween, and of course, trick or treating. Luke is already planning on what we'll be next year. He says he wants our whole family to be ghosts. We will see!