Our Virtual Christmas Card!

Because I am lame busy I won't be sending printing these off or sending these out anymore. My weekend to do so just passed! But I wanted to share it with you still! Thanks for making if for me Kams!!

Cammie sent me a few of the pictures they took of our family at their wedding reception mid November. All the kids are looking! Yay!!

I thought this pose was so cute!! Too bad me and Justin aren't kissing too. You are all missing out, eh? :)

 Just had to use my cropping skills to get a closer look. :) Pretty sweet.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!

Where ever you are we love you and hope you have a beautiful Christmas season.

Love,

The Lo-Lo-Lows

(get it? Maybe that's stretching it a bit far...)

Snow!! and I'm Dreaming of a BROWN Christmas!

 A few weeks ago we had our first REAL snow that stuck for a while! The kids were SO excited. And we have a great backyard to play in and it was actually warm enough to and NOT WINDY so we went out! Woo hoo!! I even shovelled our whole driveway and sidewalk. My annual shovelling. Done. :) By the way, this picture makes me really happy because they are ALL looking and semi-smiling!! And snow is great lighting. Yay!

 My kids really like to eat snow. Oh, and I want to figure out how to keep their mitts on! So annoying!

 Zach pulled Kara around and I pulled Kate. Love how Kara is just trying to enjoy the ride while Zach keeps falling on his bum! Good brother. :)

 Cutie Kate. And I have to say, I am SOOO happy that the toques I made them last year match this year's coat PERFECTLY! A purple one and a teal one. YES!

 Santa came to our house and we all told him what we wanted. Justin says he wants money in his bank account after Christmas...yikes! We'll see what I can do!

Painting! Okay, i helped Kara a little. She wanted Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus. Afterward she ran and brought over her Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus from her toy nativity. Pretty cute.

AND NOW...

With this post about snow, I'd like to share a little ditty about how excited I am to be spending Christmas in CALIFORNIA. We haven't been back for Christmas since Zach was 8 months old...As beautiful as snow is, Christmas is possible without it. :)

I'm dreaming of a brown Christmas,

Just like the ones I used to know.

Where the side walks are clear

and sun beams are near,

there is no trace of snow.

I'm dreaming of a brown Christmas,

with every Christmas card I write.

May your pillow be full of down,

And may all your Christmases be brown.

:)

Thank you. Thank you very much.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! I love the decorations and the fun, and the MUSIC. I love the baking and making and not the shopping (but I am DONE and did tons online!! That's the way to go!), but the gift giving, thoughtfulness part I love. AND I LOVE THAT WE ARE GOING TO BE IN CALIFORNIA FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! SOON!!! :)

 Well, we caught the decorating bug EARLY this year. Like Remembrance Day early...November 11...a whole MONTH ago! This is usually goes against my American morals. You HAVE to celebrate Thanksgiving and THEN decorate for Christmas. Well, lets face it. I'm not in America anymore, we ate spaghetti on Thanksgiving, and we were leaving mid December and Zach REALLY wanted to put up the tree, so we did! We better get the decos up if we are going to enjoy them for a bit! And we have. I have loved every minute of my cozy decorated, yummy smelling, and Christmas music-ed home. :)

 Our tree is nothing like those beautifully coordinated and decorated trees you may see in most homes. I think those are amazing and beautiful, but for me and my style, I like the kids to do it and to have random ornaments. They get one from Grandma every year and are starting to build a collection. We can almost put some on the back side now! :) No. Not yet. They LOVED putting up their ornaments. I tried to make it a little less bottom heavy, so it looks semi-balanced, but it is cute. :) And fake...what? I said I'd never do that either!

 Here's a general picture of what you see when you walk in...

 My other place had a lot more ledges and places to decorate, so I was a bit concerned as to how it was going to work out here, but we managed to squeeze it all in.

 I love my Willow Tree Nativity. A lot. Simple. Sweet. Beautiful. I also highly recommend the Bath and Body works candles (when they are on sale). They make my whole house smell amazing. And we have a picture of the girls just days old with those 2 gingerbread men (given to me by two of my best childhood friends Jolene and Kristen! I was with Jolene when she bought it. She tried to hide it in the Target shopping cart...I saw it). Awww. I like memories.

 Another sentimental decoration is our stockings. My mom makes them! She's made one for EVERY person in our family. That adds up to 37 with 3 on the way!! I think they are cute. I hung them with care...with those 3M won't hurt your wall things. They better NOT! We'll see. Yikes.

 The tree! All those boxes underneath are empty. But it looks cute!

 And my star. I finally found a star I liked. It has glitter all over it though, so it is messy putting up and taking down, but I really like it too.

I also have this nativity for the kids to play with. It is fun to watch them play. Usually it all just gets knocked off the table and makes a mess, but it's worth it for the few minutes they do play with it.

 I couldn't find the Simon Dewey print of the Baby Jesus in the manger I wanted, but this one was in the back of the Ensign and I liked it too.

 There is something magic about Christmas. Really. Even though people make it crazy with all of the sales and shopping and busy-ness, you can't deny that it is a celebration of an amazing birth that occured thousands of years ago for our salvation. I love sitting on the couch in the dark and just looking at the tree and feeling all of the love Christmas brings; from family, from friends, and from God.

Merry Christmas Everybody!! It is only 2 weeks away. Goes SO fast.

Alumni!

It's that time again...American Thanksgiving rolls around and instead of eating turkey we watch old men play basketball!!! Cardston High School hosts an Alumni Tourney every year. Now that we live so close Justin has no excuse not to play! He had fun and their team won the championship!

 That's my stud shooting the ball. What a man. I really do love watching him play. Even though I was there I still didn't see much basketball. Between keeping track of the 3 kiddos running around and chatting with those sitting around me I didn't see much! Yikes! You did awesome though hon. I mean, you were named an "All Star." Good work. :)

The Champs. :)

See you next year guys!

Or maybe I won't...I'll have 4 kids then.

A Very Merry Unbirthday!

Since we were going to be in California on the girls' real 3rd birthday we decided to celebrate a month early! Their birthday is just too close to Christmas anyway, so it was perfect to have an excuse to get to celebrate early and give them their big present we brought back with us from Utah. Can you guess what it is???

 

A doll house!! A HUGE doll house. Bigger than I thought it was going to be, but they'll grow into it. They loved it!!! Especially that first day. We moved it into their room now so they don't see it much. I need to make their room into a big girl room and hopefully they'll go in there and play more because I don't really want to put that big thing in our front room. :)

This is one of my favorite pictures of the year. :) Karen came up from BYU for her Thanksgiving break. We all love and miss Karen! She stayed at our house for an afternoon one day and the kids had a blast playing with her.

Bummer I can't make them smile AND keep the camera centered, but that night we had pink, purple, and white cupcakes with delicious strawberry frosting. Yum. These girlies are so fun. I seriously cannot believe that they are (almost) 3! It has been a fun crazy few years. Everyday is a party. They play very well together. When it is just these two it is easy! Adding the 3rd wheel makes me have to be more of a referee, but with the 2 it is like they have their own built in playmate and it's always been like that. They are used to playing together and share pretty well. I just love them and their distinct personalities. Kate is hilarious in everything she does. I love her little voice in how she pronounces things. She quotes movies and songs all of the time and is quite the actress. Kara is a sweetheart, but still has that sass in her. She LOVES babies and is so excited to be having one of our very own. She still asks "to be feed" and loves to hang around and cuddle. We love our girlies!

See they do look alike! :)

Ha ha! I think these post-candle-blowing extremely satisfied smiles are funny. Same expression on both of them. HA!

She approves! Cutie.

"Show me how old you are..."

Nope...not 2. Not 4...

3!! It's a hard one to do!

You tell 'em Kara.

A VERY MERRY UNBIRTHDAY TO YOU GIRLIES!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Robbie and Cammie's Wedding!! a.k.a. Whirlwind Utah Trip

Mid-November we made a whirlwind trip down to Utah for Robbie (Justin's younger brother) and Cammie's sealing in the Salt Lake City Temple.We left and went partway Thursday evening, finished the rest of the way Friday getting there at 4:15, just in time to change and get to the pictures/preception at 5 pm. The sealing was Saturday morning with a lovely Lionhouse luncheon, and then that was it! Then we left Sunday morning and drove THE WHOLE WAY. Yuck. But the roads were beautiful, so I can't complain! In that time we also saw all of Justin's family, my sister and brother and their fams, and my parents. Whew! Busy!

Sorry for the blurry picture, but there is a cute story. The Thursday night drive, Kara was cold and Zach literally gave her the shirt off of his back. :) I don't know how she did it, but she got it partway on over all of her straps and everything. :) We made Zach put it back on for safety reasons, but I thought it was pretty cute. What a good big brother!

(For those of you who know Zach this was easy for him though. He'd rather run around shirtless any day! Every night right before I tuck him in he takes his p.j. shirt off. He says he gets hot. What a little man.

We all got crazy and delirious as our trip was nearing an end. This is a Kate special from somewhere in Utah...(Her father taught it to her by the way...)

At the reception Friday night. The kids all looked so cute dressed up! The girls even had little wands. It was fun to see Claire and Jaxson, the cousins the kids never really get to see!

Curly haired Claire. I love it. She is so grown up!! So cute.

The preception was at the Scera Playhouse in Orem. It was decorated beautifully...but not too kid friendly! YIKES!!! We stayed for pics, food, and then left early because our kiddos were going nuts in there! And so was I!

The best part was that table directly behind the kiddos...the candy bar!! Full of lots of little Canadian and American delicious candies. PB M+Ms...mmmmmm.

The kids with the happy couple! They are so great for each other!!! We are happy for them. I love this picture, mostly because of how Robbie is holding Kara's head. Way to get her to look Robs! :)

And it wouldn't be a Utah trip without feeding the guinea pigs at Katie's house! The kids LOVE the guinea pigs. It is cute to watch them with them. Almost makes me want to get them something pet wise. Hmmm. We'll just have another baby instead. :)

Justin reading scriptures with all of the kiddos before bedtime.

The big day! The sealing was beautiful! Wonderful advice and lessons. And Robbie was hilarious. So in love those two. I am so happy that these 2 are finally married. They met freshman year, he went on a mission, she went on a mission, and now they are together again at last. They really are perfect for each other and I am excited for them and their new life. I get so mushy and sentimental at weddings. I want to get married again (to Justin of course! Just rewind) so I can appreciate that whole time more and not be so lost in everything that was going on. Have all of those new fun love feelings. Not that I am not more in love with Justin now than I was then. It is a better, deeper, more real love, but I miss the excitement and chills and "Oh, he's holding my hand" tingles. And the newlywed time of life, living with your be:)

The girls LOVED Cammie's dress. Me too! I twas gorgeous and fit her to a t, and she got it for like $120 or something?!! WHAT?! Kate just kept going up to her and looking at her and hugging her. :)

Kara just playing with the snow and ice...and maybe eating some.

 At the luncheon we were really worried about bringing the kids to a fancy place. They did pretty good and even got to sing their "L.O.V.E." song again. Kate always seems to make friends with random people. Usually older men. In this case it was Cammie's Uncle I think. :) Zach went up to him confused and asked "What's your name? Why is my sister sitting on your lap? Do you have any kids? Do you have games on your phone?" what a protective older brother!

Not only did Robbie write an awesome poem for his new bride, but he also sang to Cammie!! Be still my heart! It was so sweet/funny. I am now making Justin write me a song and sing it to me at our next anniversary. Got that hon? :)

After the wedding festivities we met up with one of Justin's old missionary companions/roommate when Justin and I started dating, Ben Jones. They chatted it up for a bit. Ben is in med school now too! Good to see him again.

The girlies by the reflecting pool at the Salt Lake Temple.

Beautiful temple.

A few minutes into our drive home from the temple. And...they're OUT! So tired. Poor necks. I am still trying to think of an invention that would prop their heads up without it being a strangulation hazard.

That night we went and played around with cousins. They jumped on the air mattress (which I think ended up popping! Um...Claire did it! :) ) and ran around with their little cousins while we all visited.

Yay for cousins! Claire, Zach, Jaxson, Kara, and Kate. Look tired?? HA!

And a picture with Bama and Papa. Almost all of the grand kids. Missing 3. Jason and Kamry got to have a weekend trip to Utah away ALONE so Talia and Jace were still up in Edmonton with their great grandma. And Baby Benson is only a month old now so Richard, Leslie, and Benson stayed in Edmonton too. Come March to May 4 more little ones will be added to!!! Wow.

I just have to say though, I especially love this shot of Kate. :) And I can't believe how much Claire and Jaxson have grown since I saw them last Christmas! They weren't even 1 then though! Crazy.