Denial

Nala just won't accept the fact that she is much bigger than she used to be and some things don't work anymore...

case in point

Better late than never!

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's the middle of January already. Christmas is going to be here again before we know it but until then, here is what our Christmas 2009 looked like...

Grandpa Taggart and Allie shoveling the snow

We spent Christmas Eve with Ryan's family. We had a huge delicious brunch and opened presents.

Jeff, Brenda, Saylee, and Cameron

Ryan's mom made all the girls these cute aprons. They have so much fun together!

Brayden

Ryan's mom also made gorgeous quilts for the girls. They are each a little different and so cute. Allie loves it and sleeps with it every night. Thanks Grandma :)

On Christmas day we headed to my parents house for round #2. Betsy and Steve came into town from San Francisco! We missed our brothers and their families this year but had fun with just the girls.

Allie has recently discovered The Littlest Petshop and is addicted.

My sister's husband Steve is a master screen printer these days. I don't know it yet but I'm about to open the sweetest shirt ever that he made for each of my sisters and I...
If you don't watch Friday Night Lights, shame on you. Thanks Steve!!

Do you see what Steve is holding? It's our favorite appliance right now. When my family gets together we have game night EVERY NIGHT. Come about 9pm, we are sitting around the table for hours playing card and board games. This year we had delicious hot cocoa from the Cocoa Latte while we played our games. If you don't own one you should. I was lucky enough to get my own from Ryan. Thanks babe.

Betsy enjoying her gift from us

Our cute Mom and Dad

A few days after Christmas we had a party with our Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. Here are a few of the ladies.

Some of the younger ladies

If the dogs weren't doing this...

They were doing this.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Our little dancer

Allie started dance this year and just had her first recital. It was The Nutcracker and she was a mouse. It was such a cute show and all the little girls did great! All of the grandparents were able to come and so did her great-grandma Mary! She loved having everyone there, thanks everyone for coming and supporting our little dancer :)

The Avondets, Taggarts, McRaes, and Heywoods

We love going to Sophie and Emma's dance recitals every year and Allie was so excited that they got to come to her first one this year

Are you feeling crafty?

A couple of years ago I got this gift that would be so simple to make...it's a cute dish with star cut-outs and on each star is an activity to do each day in December as a family. They say all sorts of things like "sing a Christmas song," "decorate Christmas cookies," "do a good deed for someone else," "share a favorite Christmas memory" etc. I have added several that I know Allie would enjoy and that's the best part, you can make them say whatever your family would enjoy the most. Most activities are short and sweet so it makes it easy to take a few minutes out of every day to spend together. Just thought I'd pass this along in case you're looking for a little Christmas fun :)

Ryan and Allie belting out Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

I love December

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a great holiday weekend filled with family, friends, food, shopping, and decorating. Here are some of the fun times we had...

We started out at the Taggarts for an early dinner. We told ourselves we would eat light since we still had dinner at my parent's house after but that did not happen.

Ryan's BEAUTIFUL sisters and Mom; Brook, Kim, Brenda, Mom Taggart, me

Jeff, Saylee, Preston, Allie, Joe After eating we went to Kim and Joe's to shoot some stuff. This was way out of my comfort zone but I actually liked it after the first couple shots and I even hit a couple! We shot clay things, I'm not sure what they're called...can you tell I don't do this often? Here are the guys; Joe, Dad Taggart, Ry, Tyson, and Jeff.
and here are the girls Allie took cover with Grandma and didn't leave her side
afterwards we headed to my parents house for dinner #2 Bets this is for you...Lucy is still kickin'. She enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast as well! Jen and Joe Kiara and David Jake enjoys the turkey legs On Friday we headed to In-N-Out. One just opened up not far from my parent's house...woo hoo!!!!!After Jen and I hit Target for some Black Friday shopping, we all headed to the tree farm to pick out our Christmas trees! I have never and will never have a fake tree.It was cold On Saturday we went to "Fantasy by the Bay" at Willard Bay with the Minster famLiz, Brandon, Tayge, Allie Ryan tried very hard to get that dinosaur right next to me in the pic And finally, Sunday night we went to the Ogden Christmas Village...it was fun and COLD. Can Utah be any colder? I'm still not a fan of the cold Our cozy Christmas tree
We hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones...we know we sure did.

Letter to Santa...Check

Our little Allie does not waste any time. Last week we were at Macy's and she saw the big red mail box next to one of the Christmas trees and knew exactly what it was there for. She got right to work writing her list to Santa

She is only 4 and so far only knows how to write her name so she told me what to write and I was a little disappointed to hear that she wants another Baby Alive (the potty baby), which is what she got last year for Christmas. The same one that we sold at a garage sale earlier this year because she never played with it! But hey, it's up to Santa, not me. She was very proud of her list and the fact that she got to personally send it off to Santa
I love my girl

It's his BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday Ryan!! You're amazing...we are so lucky to have you. Welcome to the 30's babe ;)

Love you!!