All I want for Christmas

How perfectly timed was this tooth loss?

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" was his favorite song this holiday season!

Straight up frozen.

This is what happens when you buy a Christmas tree in Idaho Falls.

Justin brought it home, unwrapped the chord holding it together, and it stayed just like this.

FROZEN SOLID.

Yep folks, nothing is holding it together in this picture. It's literally straight up frozen.

It fell to reveal a gorgeous tree by the next morning...after it had thawed. 

Olaf

Frozen has made quite the impression on our girls.

Piper sings "let it go" CONSTANTLY and its adorable as it gets!

and ali affectionately names every snowman Olaf.

here is the first of the season.

and here is a more current creation.

chocolate chips and all.

yes we decorate with chocolate.

I am my mothers daughter.

Cole it quite the snowman master as well.

the next morning arms and facial features are always missing...

begging the question, What does Olaf do at night?

Ali Jo goes retro.

A 50's day at school meant a chance to get into character.

You know ali and I were all over that!

and it of course led to a photo shoot.

to show off her letter-mans sweater.

sweet chuck taylor's.

and over the top personality.

the 50th day of school never looked so cute!

Witches brew and an Avenger too.

For Halloween this year dad wanted to go old school.

so after a tiny bit of convincing, ali embraced the role of a good old fashioned witch.

Not that it was hard to convince her to do anything daddy wanted. 

and once she knew crazy hair and make up were involved it was a done deal!

We searched high and low for the perfect basic costume to bring dad's vision to life...

When all was said and done we decided to piece our own together.

So the dress was a walmart find. the hat was from a costume store (and I just hot glued it to a headband).

The tights we had from a last halloween clearance sale. and the shoes were a find of my mom's from several years ago that miraculously fit this year...it was costume kismet!

She rocked that classic costume like nobodies business!

But a theme must be had, so what was piper to be?

well, every witch needs a black cat of course!

again, super basic...but hilariously executed by pipes.

When you asked her what a kitty said she responded with the most perfect little "meow"

and Cole...oh the traditional theme went out the window.

He is not so easily convinced and his love for all things Avengers was too deep for us to crush with our own agenda...but believe me we thought about it!

Halloween day they wore costumes to school and that night, though showered in icy rain, was magical and oh so fun.

these two ran from house to house, while piper watched from the car that rolled on at speeds on of 0.2 miles an hour.

They are at the perfect ages to make this kind of thing amazingly enjoyable as parents.

It was the happiest of halloweens.

Back to School

It was time for

and

to go back to school!

so we had a back to school dinner.

(disclaimer: I stole all these ideas from some wonderfully awesome mother online)

It fell on FHE night which was perfect.

We talked about our family theme for this school year.

(I even found this online...loved it. It was perfect for a new year of adventures)

They chose to have spaghetti, which I hardly ever make. and we had corn grown in our very own garden!

It was TONS of fun. and we will definitely be making it a tradition.

Then the next morning it was off to school!

Cole is going into the 2nd grade. He has Mrs. Cousin. Love her already.

Doesn't he look old?

Ali waited "patiently" for her turn.

Afternoon Kindergarten takes a while to roll around when you are THIS excited.

I think she aged crazy fast in the week leading up to kinder cause I swear she wasn't this old five minutes before that.

I dropped her off and she marched right in without looking back.

just like she belonged and had done it a million times.

She has Mrs. Hale. We love her already too.

and this was her face after she rode the bus home with her brother.

It was a good day!

Mommy however looked at the clock a million times missing her kiddos.

Piper slept right through Al's entire time at school. 

I think my smile was as big as this when I had them home again.

"Shushi"

Ali got to choose the daddy daughter date festivities...

"SHUSHI!!!!!"

They had sushi and he took her to get a manicure. 

How stinkin' cute is that?