Islands

Every Christmas Eve Matt's family goes to this restaurant Islands for dinner. Before we go we usually doorbell ditch little gifts and chocolates to people who might need a little Christmas cheer. This is a picture of Matt's dad, Amy and her husband Jared, and Matt's brother John, waiting for our yummy food!

Olivia waiting for some cheesy fries.
Matt, me, Matt's mom, Matt's sister Ashley, and Maddie.
Another picture of Amy, Jared and John.
We love the traditions we share with the Carpenter's and look forward to them every year. This year was especially fun because instead of doing lot's of doorbell ditching we knew of one family who could use a little boost. I was able to go with Matt's dad on Christmas eve morning at about 6:45 to do some of the shopping, and it was really great. It felt like I was on a game show, I was shopping for two kids and just kept filling my cart! I loved it! We doorbell ditched the stuff that night and then headed out to dinner. It always feels so good to help those around us, Matt and I felt really blessed to be a part of this little adventure with his family.

Christmas In San Diego

For Christmas we went to San Diego to be with Matt's family, we were there for three full weeks and had so much fun! Here we are before church on our first Sunday at home. I always like going to our home ward when we go home, especially during the Holidays. It's always fun to see our old friends.
Whenever we go home I love to visit with my older sister and her family. Her kids are so darling and play really well with my girls. We went over to play one day and we walk into the kitchen to find Olivia had climbed up onto the table and was eating candy off of their gingerbread house! We were dying laughing! She was so thrilled with herself , and her yummy little treat!
Over the break Matt and I had so much fun hanging out with his family. One night we went with his brother John, sister Amy and her husband Jared, and Matt's little sister Ashley to get frozen yogurt. It was so nice of Matt's parents to let us put our kids to bed and go out with everyone. When we got back Amy, Ashley and I had a girls movie night in the family room , while the boys went to a movie at the theatre.
It was a lot of fun to watch a movie just us girls. Ashley is getting so much older, I can't believe it!! I think that Amy and I lasted about 20 minues into the movie before we fell asleep. Ashley is so cute, I think she stayed up and finished the movie all by herself.
This is Amy's husband Jared...or "uncle Jerry" as we call him! I'm not so sure how he feels about this, but when the girls call for him it's really cute. Olivia had a lot of fun reading Christmas books with "Jerry", and I think he had fun too! Our little girlies are so lucky to have such great aunts and uncles who love them and love to spend time with them.

Christmas, Cupcakes, and Jammies

My friend Sandee and I got our kids together before Christmas break to give each other a little gift and decorate cupcakes.
Olivia and Blake being cute, sitting on the counter eating tons of grapes.
We let the kids decorate the cupcakes and they had so much fun. There were sprinkles all over the place!
Olivia and Blake and their cute little cupcake faces!
I got the girls some new Christmas jammies and they looked so cute I just had to get a picture. Pictures taken after the bath always make me laugh, the girls both look like "slick rick" with their wet hair. I love it!

Hot Chocolate

Hot chocolate has become a very popular treat this year in our house! Maddie is in love with the stuff almost as much as Matt and I. Here we are at Dan and Ashley's enjoying some of the wonderful chocolaty goodness! Dan and Ash had these great mugs that looked like s'mores -Maddie was obsessed with them!
Please don't judge the dishtowel bib, I just couldn't risk ruining her cream sweater dress!
Maddie and I having a date in my bed watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It was so fun to have a little date with our drinks and a movie. Maddie is just my kind of girl, I love spending special time with her.

Getting Ready For Christmas

Before we left for Christmas break Maddie was invited to a party to make gingerbread houses at her little friend Ava's house. Ava is in our Ward and also takes dance class with Maddie, they are really sweet little friends.
Maddie and Ava eating their frosting straight from the bag.
The finished product.
This is the best picture I could get of Maddie with her little house. I think the house lasted about five minutes before she ate most of it!

Thanksgiving Part Three

While we had Matt's brother here we wanted to take him to see some of the sights...there are so many pictures!!! Here is Olivia getting ready to "go bye bye" in the car!
The first place we went was Alamo Square where the famous "Painted Ladies" or "Full House" houses are. There is a really fun park in the square too, so we stayed for a while and let the girls play.
Olivia loves the slides, and the swings. She could back and forth between those two all day!

While we were playing I looked up at John and noticed there was a butterfly just sitting on his shoulder!! I thought it was so neat I had to take a few pictures. It loved John too, it stayed on his shoulder for what felt like ten minutes!!
Such a cute picture of uncle Johnny! The butterfly looks fake or something, how it is just sitting there. It flew away right after this picture.
We were trying to get some pictures of Matt and I and the girls...but we know how that goes, so we tried to take some of just the girls. Olivia hammed it up for about ten minutes!
This is honestly the greatest picture of Maddie, it captures exactly how she was feeling about taking picures!!!
Matt and Uncle Johnny with the Painted Ladies.

Matt and John at the Golden Gate Bridge...I was in the car with the girls circling around the parking lot.

We took John to Ghiradelli Square which of course meant we had to have a Kara's Cupcake. They are the yummiest things ever, we love them!!! Everything that they use to make their cupcakes is grown locally, which is kind of neat.
Maddie and Johnny devouring their cupcakes!
All of us in front of a cute Christmas tree decorated with huge, fake Ghiradelli chocolates.
This is just for fun Olivia loves to climb in the toy baskets, I thought it was a cute picture. She always climbs in while there are still toys in it and then continues to throw eveything out under her.

Thanksgiving Part Two

During Thanksgiving weekend we went to see "So You Think You Can Dance" on tour with Dan and Ashley. It was so much fun! Matt and Dan had gotten us tickets for our birthday's back in August. We were so grateful to our friends the Budd's, in our ward for watching our girls for us so we could go. Matt's brother was still at our house and was so nice to just hang out that night while we went.
Ashley and I outside of the Oracle practicing our dance moves! The show was so good, I wasn't really sure what to expect but it did not dissapoint!! I loved watching all of the dancers, they are so amazing on t.v. but that doesn't even compare to watching them live. I am dying for the new season to start!!!
We were so excited to go, we don't go out very often without our girls so it was really fun to hang out with our great friends like we used to before all the babies came along. Thanks again to the Budd's for making this possible for us. We felt so bad asking them to watch our kids over the holiday weekend when they probably just wanted to be doing stuff as a family. We really appreciated it!
On the way home we stopped downtown for about 30 seconds to take a picture in front of the big Christmas tree in union square. You can see the snowflakes in the windows of Saks in the backround, it was really pretty. I love this city, we are really going to miss living here.