Last week for FHE we bundled up and drove to Heritage Park for their Candlelight Christmas.

We rode on a train. It was freezing!! This is the face that Hannah gives whenever I say "Eyes on the camera." Nice.

Grace does NOT like her hood.

It was so cold on the train ride, but luckily, the houses were toasty and we stayed warm.

There were fun crafts, a puppet show, stories,

stores to play dress up,

and we were able to print our own Christmas card on an old-fashioned printing press.

In the school house we were taught a dance from pioneer days.

Pretty impressive, huh!?

They had a live nativity and an elf village.

One of Hannah's favorite things were the live reindeer. She kept saying, "Dasher?...Vixen?..." Trying to get them to answer. So cute.
We finished out the night with a visit with Father Christmas. Hannah whispered what she wanted for Christmas.

Grace had her first meeting with Santa. She was NOT a fan. I was surprised because she loved all of the characters at Disney, but not Santa! Hopefully he won't be offended and will still leave her a present on Christmas night!

Christmas Tree and Christmas Tees

This year we decided to purchase a small fake tree. Hannah and I made all of the ornaments. We made snowflakes and clothespin Rudolphs and tied bows on candy canes. It was really fun to decorate a homemade tree.

We bought our annual Christmas tees. Here is Grace (crazy eyed!) in her festive shirt. Notice the blockade around the tree. This keeps little hands from pulling off all of the decorations!

Here is Hannah striking a pose. This little one is so excited for Christmas!

Here is my attempt at getting a picture of the two of them together...yeah, doesn't work so well. At least you can see the shirts!

A Gingerbread Train(Wreck)

On Monday for FHE we built and decorated a gingerbread train that came in a kit. I had purchased it last year and we had never gotten around to making it.



It came with gingerbread cutouts, candy in bags, and frosting. The kit expired in May, so we told the girls, "Do NOT eat it!" Grace just sucked on the bags. The frosting was like cement, but we did the best we could! Hannah was in charge of the creative aspect.


I think it turned out pretty darn cute!
On a related note: We woke up in the morning to find that the engine walls were leaning significantly to the left. The frosting had dried to it was permanently crooked! Hannah, the eternal optimist, said, "The train is just dancing and shaking from side to side!"

Ride 'Em Cowgirl

When we were in Rexburg for Halloween, Hannah really wanted to ride my dad's horse. When we asked him I let him know that odds were she would not want to ride very long, but he was nice enough to saddle a horse. Well I was wrong! She rode for a really long time. By the end of her session, she was able to make the horse stop and turn in the direction she wanted! I was super impressed! I skipped riding the horse and instead opted for something more my style, the 4-wheeler!

After Halloween Comes Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was different for us this year. Because of bad roads and Chad's work, we decided to have Thanksgiving with just our little family. It was really fun to do something different. we could do whatever we wanted...like eating cheese balls at 9:30am!

This what our day consisted of...watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade,

Chad cooking his first ever turkey (which was delicious!),

Hannah colored beautiful place mats for us,

I tried new recipes and made things I had never made before (it all turned out great, if I do say so myself!),

of course we licked whip cream off the beaters,
and played WII!

Hannah really wanted to eat a whole turkey leg! She didn't, but made a good effort!

We finished off the day with a really fun game that Hannah made up all by herself, Tape the Feather on the Turkey!

It was a really fun day. We missed being with our extended family, but we enjoyed our first ever Chad Hurd Family Thanksgiving!

Halloween...in December

We had a some really fun Halloween activities. They started with a trip to a pumpkin patch with our cousins. We didn't pick a pumpkin this time, but I had fun taking some pictures of the girls in the bright orange pumpkins.

The next thing was our yearly tradition of visiting Gardner Village to see the witches.

We went to another pumpkin patch. This time we chose our pumpkins for carving. Even Grace picked her own pumpkin. Hannah was very picky about which pumpkin was perfect for her. She ended up with a great one, so her dedication was worth it!

We had fun carving our pumpkins this year. Chad did his awesome artsy pumpkin, Hannah did a cat, I did a flower, and we just wrote a cute BOO! on the pumpkin for Grace.

We spent the actual Halloween weekend in Rexburg with our families. We went to Boo at the Zoo with my mom. We had so much fun looking at all of the lights and pumpkins that we only saw a few animals. Hannah dressed up as a fairy and Grace was a flower in a pot. Grace had a really cute hat with flowers on it, but of course it only stayed on for a few seconds. I thought I had taken at least one picture of her with it on, but sadly I didn't.

There was a stage with music, so Hannah HAD to dance!

We had a fun party at Grandma Hurd's house and finished the holiday with some Trick and Trunk or Treating!

It was really great and we are thinking we may have to make Rexburg our Halloween tradition!

Look Who's Walking

Grace started taking a few steps back in October. After the cruise she became even more daring walking all the way across the room. Now she is a walking pro! She uses walking about 74% of the time. The funny thing about this little one is that she will NOT walk holding our hands. I remember walking with Hannah for a few months holding her hands. Well Grace is not that way! She is very independent and wants to do it on her own!