Happy Valentines Day!

In this house, there is lots of love, and pink, and sparkles, excess hair and all things girly. Dad handles himself pretty well. And there is no question that he loves his little girls.

A little Valentines Humor from our family. 

Marlie. She's growing up too fast (and obsessed with red lipstick!)

 Aubrie. The one and only individual picture I was able to squeeze out of her. Annnnnd, her eyes are closed. That pretty much sums her up right now!

Happy Valentines Day!

New Years in Colorado

It was SOOOOO cold in Colorado. We arrived 5 days early, chasing after one storm and trying to beat another. The girls wanted to play in the snow so very badly. Chris and his dad bought a tube and we attempted to go sledding- no matter how cold it was. They blew the tube up in the cold garage. Once it hit the ice cold ground it started to shrink. Wind chill that day was -5 degrees. Yup. We're nuts. We lasted about 10 minutes until our toes, hands and faces were all so numb we had to go in. We tried again once Shayleigh and Great Grandma Moran got to town. It was a balmy 20 degrees  by then (I never thought 20 sounded warm until then!)

 

 

We celebrated the Giesey family Christmas on New Years Eve. It was great to have so much family together! We had Chris' parents, Grandma Moran, Josh, Ali and her kids Lily & Riley and finally Shay! The girls had been talking about Shay for weeks before Christmas so completely excited to see her.

Marlie got her first bow. Papa and Daddy were so proud and excited for her! (They were like little school girls, really.) Papa set up a target bag in the garage so she could try it out. She did pretty well her first time!

Shayleigh, Lily, Marlie & Aubrie played so well together! They are the 4 musketeers. And they can hardly wait to get together again in the summer.

 

Mima and Candie took the girls ice skating. That was an adventure! Again, it was super cold out. Poor Aubrie didn't last very long before her toes hurt so bad. Shay did great and actually got the hang of it and was skating by herself before we left. Marlie had a harder time but she kept on trying and was able to go a little ways by herself before we left as well. They all want to try ice skating again!

These little things made skating so much easier (and therefore fun!) for the kids. They loved sharing it and feeling a little more stable.

Marlie eventually had to get back to Utah to go to school. But we left Aubrie behind to have some fun Mima & Papa time. She was a trooper! She played with Shay until she flew back home and then enjoyed a road trip alone with Mima. Meanwhile, Marlie got some one-on-one time back home with mom & dad. Candie and Marlie got manicures!

Christmas- the full monte!

I love Christmas time! So much wonderfulness going on... Pictures always do say it best. 

 

 Santa at our ward party. He mind as well have been an evil villain handing out creepy spiders for all Aubrie wanted to do with him! No sir.

Marlie whispers to Chris after she sits with Santa "Dad. I know that's not the real Santa. That's just one of his helpers." But she was still so happy and excited to see him there.

Decorating the tree is always and exciting time. Good thing we don't have more than 2 kids... everyone likes to help place the star on top!

We heard an ad on a local radio station that they were collecting items to give to certain less fortunate families for Christmas. We thought we could unpack a few boxes of toys that we haven't seen in 8 months and give a few away. Some things were really hard to give away (like the doll in the next photo) but we donated a full BIG box. I was so proud of the girls!

 

 We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Nancy & Uncle Dan's house. After dinner we drove back to Candie's mom & dad's house for a Christmas sleepover with the WHOLE family. It was sooo much fun to all be together this year! 8 adults, 3 kids, and 4 dogs.

Christmas morning was typical...fun, crazy, magical, noisy, doggy, yummy, sleepy, messy, and great!

It snowed quite a bit Christmas Eve. We were so excited to have a white Christmas our first year in Utah. After breakfast we headed out to try out our new snowball makers and snow brick maker that Santa brought. And of course there was the epic creation of the sledding hill down the side of mom & dad's house... all the way down the walking trail past their backyard. We rode down again and again until we were too hungry and cold to go anymore.

We ventured home later that afternoon and had our own little family Christmas. Even Briea enjoyed herself. The girls got their own MP4 players this year, complete with the soundtrack from "Frozen" and recordings from the Disney storybooks from Chris' childhood. They listen to them every
night when they go to bed.

 

Now, to pack up and get ready to go to Colorado before the weather gets any worse. I guess we are leaving a few days early...