Christmas 2012

 Kids getting milk, cookies, and carrots ready for Santa and the reindeer.

 A Christmas morning hug for mommy!

 Samantha opening up her tablet from Santa (which was a cheap piece of crap and has now been traded up for a Kindle.)

 Alex coming into the fun.

 Checking out his piece of crap that is also now a Kindle.

 He was pretty happy about it though.

 They both were excited.

 Look how grown-up and big they are!!!  My babies!

 The glorious Christmas mess!  See if you can spot Samantha on her tablet.

 Alex quickly got to setting up his legos.

 Alex doing Legos, Samantha on her tablet.

 In the late morning we headed to Grammy's for brunch and presents.  There were enough presents to keep anyone happy for years!

 My beautiful Samantha.....even with dark circles around her eyes.

 Grammy telling the kids to start the madness. 

 The present-opening madness.

 Cute cousins.

 Richele's butt.

 Grampy being a sweetie and playing Go Fish with the girls.  Heaven forbid we play with toys we just got at Christmas, let's pull out the ages old card game!!

It was a fun, fun Christmas with lots of good food, good gifts, and awesome family.  We missed Andy's family this year as his parents were in Wisconsin visiting Dave and Pam.  We should get to see them in a couple of weeks though.  After our fun time at Grammy's house we went home so Andy could get started on the Prime Rib. We had mom and dad over for Prime Rib and Yorkshire Pudding and games on Christmas night.  The kids had a blast as did the adults playing dominos.  

And now, we are starting a New Year.  I look forward to all that 2013 will hold for my little family!  Especially the much anticipated London/Paris trip in 4 months!  Woo hoo!!!!

Thankful list

Alex wrote this list at school: things he is thankful for. Melts my heart!!!!

Fall Break Yellowstone trip 2012

 Andy's favorite mountain range....the Tetons. 

 Alex at Jenny Lake

 Samantha at Jenny Lake

 Family at Jenny Lake

 Samantha at Old Faithful.  Didn't get a shot of Alex because he was sick and unhappy!  Stomach flu.

 Some pretty pool Alex and I didn't get to see because he was by the car throwing up.

 Alex all better the next day with a bison.

 And a couple of elk.

 Mommy and her baby.....and some elk.

 Pretty waterfall on a pretty drive.

 The fam.

 Kids at a waterfall.

 Samantha's first try at photography.

 My new bison friends.  We were CLOSE and it was awesome.

 Steamy.

 Steamy and cold.

Gorgeous waterfall and "grand canyon"

Abby Kat

We got to babysit Abby for a night while kami and chad went to Vegas for a concert. We had a lot of fun and she was an angel! She fell out of bed a couple of times and cried out, but other than that she did well. She obviously sleeps like her mother!!!

She and the kids had a picnic lunch on the floor watching all the Pixar short films.

After picture of cabinets

Before cabinets in island

Overheard

I just heard this conversation between Andy and Alex:

Alex, "Boys are stronger than girls."

Andy, "Usually boys are stronger than girls, but the minute you tell a girl that you are stronger than her, she's going to beat you up.  So it's better just to keep quiet."

Wise words my love, wise words!

 

First day of school!!!

 Alex is starting first grade this year!  ALL DAY SCHOOL!!  He is very excited!

 Samantha is starting third grade and is also very excited!

 The "twins" walking to school together.  

Wicked

Because I have the sweetest husband around I was able to enjoy the play Wicked with my baby girl. Andy was supposed to come with me but he thought Samantha would love the play and decided to give her his ticket. She was in heaven!!! We went to lunch before the 2:00 show and I think Samantha loved being the only kid in a group full of her favorite adults. It was so much fun to watch her cute face as she marveled at the scenery, costumes, and special effects. I LOVE that she is at the age where she wants to go to these type of events and she is mature enough to sit through them. She came home, slapped on her iPod and sang Defying Gravity about 600 times!! I love this girl!
Thanks Andy for taking care of your little girl and making her extremely happy!
Oh, and while we were gone andy took Alex to Hang Time to jump around, then to lunch, then home to play cards! Andy taught him kings corner. It was a mighty successful day for the Higham family!!

Wicked

iPad and math games bring the world together.

Samantha's baptism

Andy's parents couldn't be in town for the stake baptism day, so we arranged with our neighbors to have her baptized in their swimming pool on her birthday!  It turned out really fun and great and there was a great turn out of friends and family.  Samantha was a little nervous and after it all you could tell she was a bit overwhelmed, but she looked beautiful and had a great experience!