Family Traditions

This will be our first family Christmas completely alone here in California. (well, with no family around) I really want to start some new family traditions this year, especially because Ellie is more aware of the season. I want to know what your family's holiday traditions are, or were growing up, that you really look forward to every year. Any fun traditions?

We wish you a Merry Christmas...

Happy Holidays from our girls

Merry Christmas!

Love, Ellie and Maddy

Pulling ornaments off the tree is my favorite thing to do!!

Meeting Santa

Joy to the World

If all goes accordingly, we should actually have our Christmas card to you before the actual big day this year. (Come on, Maddy was 1 month old last year at this time! You were lucky to have gotten one at all!!) If you are interested in recevieing our adorable Christmas card to hang on your fridge and paste forever in your scrapbook after the holidays :) , please email me your latest home address. Many of you have moved this past year, and it's too hard to keep track of you all! Thanks! --Alicia

Two beautiful little girls, one adorable white dress

Alicia and I commented the other day that our blog was dieing on the vine...in an effort to keep it alive I thought I'd share a few pictures of the girls.

Post originally written by Alicia....

Grandma Trish made this sweet little hand crocheted dress for Ellie when she was a baby. I was so worried that Maddy had already outgrown it, but to my delight it fits her perfectly, and she looks just as adorable as her older sister in it! This dress will definitely be a family heirloom someday.

Ellie Maddy

We are thankful...

We went to Utah for Thanksgiving--it was such a fun time. Maddy had her first airplane ride--she was awake all the way up until we landed and then she zonked out from all the excitement! While there, we were able to do and see so much! The biggest events, besides the TG feasts (of course), were that our nephew Trent got baptized, and we were able to attend Erin, my BFF's wedding. We had a blast visiting with our extended family, so many of our old friends, visiting BYU, Fred's gym, pigging out at 2 TG dinners, shopping, having playdates, and mommy and daddy even got to sneak away for the weekend (thanks to Aunt Leanne!)

Maddy's first plane ride

The girls were so great on the plane--(the lollipops helped...)

Maddy fell asleep -- right as we were landing in Utah!

Madelyn Jane turns ONE!!

Our sweet little baby girl turned ONE today!! I can't believe that a whole year has passed by so quickly. We have had an amazing journey this year having our two adorable little girls in our home. We are so very blessed to have precious little Maddy in our family. She has the most amazing personality, is such a joy to be around, and is such a wonderful daughter/sister--Happy 1st birthday Maddy!

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY...

Maddy--3 hours old

Maddy and Mommy--1 hour

Daddy-Daughter Time

Sweet Sisters

TODAY.....

Maddy loves her birthday balloons



Being my cute, happy self

Time to open presents!!! I love to ooh and ahh over everything!

Taking care of my new baby

My ice cream birthday cake--yummy!

Bring on the cake!!!

First bite...

I LOVE being one!!!

Things that go BUMP in the night...

The girls have had a fabulous Halloween season! Every day leading up to "fright night" Ellie would ask when it would be Halloween. Well, we can't believe that it has now come and gone! Below are some of our holiday festivities. (Sorry about the blurry pictures--my camera is really misbehaving lately...)

Daddy and the girls at the ward trunk-or-treat

The girls at the pumpkin patch

Our carved pumpkins

Ellie's Halloween Adventures--as Ariel from The Little Mermaid

Right after her 2nd chocolate cupcake!

Not the best picture-- really fuzzy--but here is Ellie in Ariel's full glory

Pictures of Ellie from all the festivities

Maddy's First Halloween--A cute little white bunny rabbit

Maddy's October Festivities

Halloween is such a fun time for our family. We love all the parties, visiting the pumpkin patches, dressing up, carving pumpkins, decorating our house, and don't forget all THE CANDY!! I don't know who has eaten more candy--Ellie or Mommy!!!

Time to go home!

Just a quick update for everyone. We learned this morning that a number of our neighbors have started returning home and that no homes in our community were damaged. As I understand it, all the utilities are currently on so we will probably try to go back tonight or tomorrow morning.

Thanks for all the calls and concern.

No news is good news --RIGHT??!

Thank you so much for all the concerned phone calls over the last few days! Mark said the phone never stopped ringing for more than about 20 minutes today. We are still here in AV--day 2--playing the waiting game. It is killing me- just sitting around here waiting to find out whether or not our house is still standing. As far as we can tell, we are still good... I get so depressed just sitting around here watching the news about all these houses that are up in flames not far at all from our house! It is so devastating! I feel so horrible for all those families who have already lost their homes to the fire. They are saying this is the worst fire in SD county history! To relieve some of the stress, I went shopping today and bought the girls and myself some new clothes (including swimsuits so that we can hit the beach tomorrow). I guess when we left so early yesterday, I never imagined that the weather would get to high 80's. I only brought long pants and LS shirts. Anyways--we will keep you updated as events unfold here--if we even hear anything--the news here is so vague... Thanks for keeping us in your prayers!
PS Happy Birthday Ang!! Love you!
PPS You can continue to call us on Mark's cell. Call my old cell and I have Mark's # on there...

It will be a hot time in the old town tonight....

Fire, Fire, Fire....around 5:30AM we received a phone call letting us know that people in our area were starting to load up their cars to evacuate due to a wild fire that was quickly spreading west. We loaded up the car with our pictures, computer, documents, etc. and headed to Orange County for refuge. 4 hours later we made it to Orange County. The traffic was like a scene out of Independence Day where everyone is fleeing the city.


As of now, we think our house is safe. However, the fire has burned 145,000 acres and is 0% contained as of 7:30PM this evening. What is making this fire so difficult to control are the Santa Ana winds that are gusting up to 90 miles an hour and making fire fighting from the air nearly impossible. The below map shows the the fire area (red) and evacuation area (pink) and where our house is (Click on Image Below to enlarge).



If you want to see this map live, go to: http://media.signonsandiego.com/fires/
Also, if you want up to date news, go to: www.signonsandiego.com

Alicia does not have her Cell Phone, so if you need to reach us call Mark's Phone.

We'll keep you posted as we know more.

Bathing Beach Beauties

Today was a beautiful San Diego day. We decided to head to the beach and called some friends to join in on the fun with us. The girls (there were 6 all together) had such a fabulous time playing in the sand and getting messy together. Maddy especially loved getting down and dirty in the seaweed! What a gorgeous day!

CPR on a lizard

I am not exactly 100% sure what this picture is all about, but I thought it was funny. I am also not 100% sure that this thing was even alive at the time... I just hope my brother Tom didn't have to give it mouth-to-mouth...YUCK!

Flash back to the 80's!!

On Saturday night, we went to a rockin' 80's party! It was totally awesome! We had just as much fun getting our costumes together as we did partyin'! There was a dance floor, fog machine, games, karaoke, tons of food, great 80's music, best costume contest, and lots of PARTYING!!! Check out our rad costumes!

Deb's Twin

I bought my entire outfit, minus jewelry (which I stole from Ellie's dress-up box) at Charlotte Russe in the mall--80's really have made a come back! Mark thought I looked like Deb from Napoleon Dynamite--my friend thought Jem (she was my Rocker).

Mark sportin' his sexy Mullet

Mark was really loving getting to relive his mullet days. When Ellie first saw Mark wearing this she started screaming and called him a "monster!"

Mullet Madness!!

Singing along to "Name that Tune"
The 80's Gang--What a gnarly night--Fer sure, dude!!

We are FAMILY--I got all my sisters and...TUBBY?

I found this old picture of Ellie and it just makes me smile! Tubby--the adorable mint green stuffed hippo (for those that have NEVER met Ellie)--joined our family on Christmas day 2004 and is the fifth member of our family. Ellie and Tubby were never separated for a full year and a half, as I am sure you all remember--and she still can't sleep unless he is nearby. He even went to preschool as show and tell the other day. We love you, Tubby!!

Two wild hippos--ready for the attack...

What are YOU going as for Halloween??

Last year Ellie went as a gorgeous Cinderella for Halloween-or "CinderELLIE" as she liked to be called

The year before that she went as a beautiful fairy princess

For Ellie's first Halloween, she went as an adorable Minnie Mouse

So this year, Ellie really wants to go as one of her other favorite Disney princesses--Ariel. Ariel is a good costume choice for a number of reasons, 1--because Ellie already has red hair, so we won't have to purchase a wig or hair dye, 2--we already own a couple of Ariel dolls, shoes, a phone, camera, crown, etc--all the Ariel accessories a girl could ever want to go with her costume, and 3--we already own a Disney store Ariel costume-- so we will be saving the big bucks by not having to buy a new costume or related items. However, I personally am not a big fan of the commercialized store bought costumes--I prefer the homemade ones. I grew up with these amazing homemade costumes and the 3 costumes Ellie has worn in the past are all handmade ones too. I think she should choose a more creative, less cheesy costume. Even though I am sure, just out of sheer ease (not to mention laziness on my part), she will end up in the already owned Ariel costume, I didn't want her to rule out some of these runner-ups. The costumes for consideration for our girls' trick-or-treating pleasure are as follows---

The girls can wear their pj's and mess up their hair and go as

DIRTY CLOTHES

A starfish trainer at Sea World

A professional Bocce Ball Player

A sea lion

The girls could go as a "sister-tandem-surfing-championship duo."

Maddy could wear my old baby clothes and go as me in the 80's

A kitty cat--MEOW!

A Mrs. Field's cookie tester.

Minnie Mouse--(again for Ellie)

Love-a-Lot Bear (A Care Bear)

(this costume is actually one my mom made for us when I was little--much cuter than anything you can purchase at the store)

A baby doll

My Little Pony's long lost twin

A giant spider

An angel

Fern from Charlotte's web

A Gymnast

An Explorer or Sea captain

A professional dirt bike racer

A diva

Beach bums

A farmer

A veterinarian

Or my personal favorite--Shrek and Princess Fiona (Just who would be who I am not sure...)

So what's YOUR vote??

I'm sure when all is said and done, Ellie will still choose to be Ariel this year!!