Hailey's first birthday celebration. Presents! Both us and Paul's Dad gave her blocks as gifts. Now the girls have enough blocks to build a city if they like!

I made us an ice cream cake and covered it in whip cream.

Hailey's yummy cake!!! She really dug in and enjoyed herself, after a little initial encouragement by me.

Hailey's fish birthday cake.

Paul's dad came to visit. It was so much fun to have him here and the girls loved reading stories with him!

Paul and his girls.

Yes, Aubrey really is this cute! She is so positive and helpful. She is also very polite. She rarely forgets to say "please" and "thank you" and always lets me know how cute I look.

We went to the Washington DC Temple and it was amazing. It is enormous inside and out and absolutely beautiful! I am the little shivering dot in front of the temple.

Valentine Cake

We are going to my brother's house this weekend to celebrate Valentine's Day. I thought I would make a cake for the occasion. I don't think this is the best cake I've ever done, but I definitely learned a lot from it. It was inspired by a baby shower cake on coolest-homemade-birthday-cakes.com. Aubrey enjoyed helping make the cake.



I also let Aubrey help decorate the cake. The little white ball on the bottom edging is Aubrey's contribution!

My Sweet Girls

Here are my girls and I, nestled down for a nice story!

Hailey's Aunt Carrie bought her a new Sunday dress. Doesn't she look adorable?! What a cutie!

The Snow Storm!

We had a two-part storm hit the East coast. Part one of the storm Paul and Aubrey went out to play but decided the snow might be a little too deep! While outside Aubrey met the neighbor's dog, Honey. Aubrey loves dogs and talked about Honey long after their meeting!


Part Two: Dad and Aubrey decided to venture out again and here is their fabulous snowman!!!

Philadelphia

On Saturday Paul and I went to Philadelphia and toured Independence Hall and saw the Liberty Bell. We were both so grateful for the sacrifice of our nations first leaders and the risks they took for our freedom. We are so grateful to live in this country and have this opportunity to visit these historic sights. Our tour guides were wonderful and incredibly knowledgable. (The picture of the room is the signing room where the declaration of independence was signed and where the constitution was drafted.)

We're Here

We are here in Delaware and made it safe and sound. We actually made the trip from Iowa to New Jersey in one day. Thanks to my father-in-law and his wonderful Christmas gift (dual screen portable DVD player) the girls were well behaved and did great on the trip. For the next week and with the help of our wonderful family we moved into our apartment and cleaned, unpacked, and got everything in order before Paul started working for the judge. The girls had a rough adjustment period but they are doing really well now. Paul is really enjoying working for Vice Chancellor Parsons and we have had fun meeting new people and observing all the differences between the West, Midwest and the East. It is amazing how different each place is that we move to and yet how good and kind the people are no matter where we go. I am so grateful for good people who go out of their way to make us feel at home, no matter where we live!

Moving

As many of you know, next week we are moving to Delaware. Paul is doing an externship with a judge in Delaware for his last semester of law school. We are thrilled for this opportunity to move back East, be closer to family, and see the many historic sights. However, we are sad to leave Iowa. We appreciate all the love, support and friendship we have felt while being here. We will miss our midwest home but are excited to move on to a new adventure!

Merry Christmas!

Here are the girls in their Christmas outfits from Papa J.

Matching christmas PJs! I make Christmas pjs every year and we open them on Christmas Eve. This year I made matching pjs. The girls and I have pink leopard print while Paul has brown leopard print. Paul is such a good sport!

Here is our Nativity cast! Great story, great actors!

Here is Mary laying baby Jesus in a manger.

We had friends over for Christmas Eve and reinacted the Nativity story. Aubrey was Mary, Hailey was a sheep, Paul was Joseph and a shepherd, and one of our friends was the donkey.

Hailey the sheep.

Here is a picture of the Nauvoo temple. This is our last visit to Nauvoo for a very long time and it was fun to be there while it was snowing. The Nauvoo temple is beautiful and we will miss it.

Paul took Aubrey sledding and she LOVED it! I think she gets sad when she has to come inside, but it is so cold that she can't stay outside for very long.

Happy December!

This was our Thanksgiving craft. We made a measuring stick so we can measure the girls' height as they grow. We bought the giraffes already painted from Hobby Lobby so it was a pretty easy activity.

Here are our beautiful Christmas stockings that my mom and sister helped me make this summer. It was so fun to see them hanging on the wall this season and get to use them for the first time! I love Christmas and fun Christmas stockings!

This is Aubrey in her Christmas dress one Sunday morning.

Hailey wasn't quite sure what to think about Santa, but she was pretty certain that his beard wasn't real.

We had a visit from Santa at our ward Christmas party and Aubrey was terrified. Even sitting on Paul's lap she was upset.

Thanksgiving

I know that this post is a little late, but here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving. We invited our friends Jared, Jennifer, and Tanner Jackson as well as Cameron, Bree, and Payton Andrew over for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great time and managed to go a whole night without spilling anything.

We also built gingerbread houses with the Hachtmans. This year's gingerbread house was different than in past years. It was HUGE!! We used almost a complete box of Chex cereal to cover the roof. It was a lot of fun and we are glad the Hachtmans were willing to offer their house for the festivities.