Christmas Party

Santa Claus showed up at our ward Christmas party on Dec. 8th and the kids loved him! I was unsure how Ash would respond to a strange guy with a beard but I think all our books about Santa helped. Both kids sat on Santa's lap and Emily told Santa what she and Ashley wanted, 'Polly Pockets'. Both girls will be getting the same so there is less fighting.
Our Christmas travels are underway and we are having fun. We left Utah to Arizona on the 13th and had a great trip. Uncle Garrett got home from his mission to Iowa and he got to meet Ashley for the first time. Emily was very young when he left so she didn't remember him and they also needed to get reacquainted. We went to a Bedford family reunion party on the 15th and had a fun time reuniting with Maegan's cousins and their kids. They called the reunion 'Winter Olympics' and the day was filled with fun and games. Emily, Garrett, Wesley and Grandpa David all won medals for different events. Fun times. We heard Garrett's homecoming talk, which was excellent. Emily threw-up in the middle of church all over mom and Grandpa which made for a really memorable day.
We left from Arizona to Texas on the 18th and have had more fun with the kid's cousins.

Painting Emily

Emily loves to paint. She especially loves to get her hands in it and move it all around. She'll paint with yogurt, lotion, hand soap or anything she can (i.e. diaper cream is not a fun medium to clean up). The only time I let her paint is during Ashley's nap time, otherwise it is a gigantic mess. She started out with 6 different colors but by the end it was a purple-brown. She had her art shirt on and it all washed off her skin pretty easily. :)

Gingerbread

We bought a gingerbread house kit and we had a great time making it! The girls had a blast opening and eating all the little candies. I think Emily ate more candy that night than she did on Halloween.

The Game

BYU vs. Utah Football, November 23rd in Provo, Utah. Kevin was in town for Thanksgiving and wore around his red jacket all weekend for good luck. Bryan and Spencer were decked out in navy and all 3 headed off to the game, kick off was at 12pm. They sat together on the row dividing the BYU and Ute fans, and the heckling was intense. The last quarter of the game was exciting- both teams had their chance to win. BYU ended up victorious. Luckily the rivalry between the Hanks' men was all in good fun. The atmosphere at Bryan's office wasn't so friendly.

Monday Night

This is our normal Monday night family home evening. Mom and both girls start at the piano with the "Family Night" song. Then comes a prayer, lesson, game/activity and we finish with treats. To our kids, it's the best night of the week! This last time we had a lesson on saying family prayers, we colored pictures to remind us to pray, we put up our Christmas tree and had root-beer floats.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving Grandpa David, Grandpa Hanks and Uncle Spencer came to celebrate with us! We had a good fried turkey thanks to Bryan and the rest of dinner turned out too. The girls were thrilled to have new people to play with. On Saturday Grandpa Hanks, Bryan and Spencer went to the BYU vs. Utah football game and all had a good time. Here Emily and Grandpa David are being goofy and having fun.

Mr. Maestro

Bryan has finished memorizing his piano song, Dark Horse by David Lanz. He started learning it probably over 2 years ago. He now has all 10-11 pages completely memorized and plays it very well. He plays it quite often and the girls love dancing to it. This picture shows his grand finish- tongue out and hands flying!