Digging December

Wow- not only did December fly by, but so did 2012.  It seems so strange that another year has already come and gone.  As always, I had a ton of fun pictures and videos that I wanted to share.  I hope you enjoy!

Garrett loved dancing to the music from the nativity stable!

Earlier this month, we received a package from Grandpa and Nana Harrison.  Tori was so excited to see what was inside!

It was a beautiful bell to remind us Who we really believe in and why we really celebrate Christmas!  Garrett and Tori loved playing with it- it did eventually find its way onto our tree!

Garrett was a great untangle-and-check-out-the-Christmas-lights helper!!!

Tori and Daddy did a great job decorating our front flower bed!

I just adore this picture of Tori!!!

Yeah for story time!

 I finally caught Garrett going down the slide!!!

A box of diapers makes a perfect place to sit and hang out for a bit!

Garrett is in heaven whenever a car is attached to the end of his hand!

One day we got to play with dinosaur robots during our Library's story time- they were really neat!  Tori was fine with our dinosaur as long as I was holding him.  And Garrett was fine until he started to move!

Garrett has a knack for waking Daddy up!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Allen sent us a new Christmas ornament this year! What could it be?

Hurrah- it is our family and Robin the Tree!!!

It's amazing how much room a cupboard has when you take out all the tupperware bowls.  This one will now fit Tori and Garrett quite comfortably!

The drawer under the stove is Garrett's new favorite place to hid his toys and any lid he can get his hands on!!!

I love it when my two boys get to have story time together!!!

I have no idea why, but Tori thinks this is a really comfortable place to hang out!

A few days before Christmas, we received a really special package for our family.  G-Gpa and G-Gma Jones made us an adorable bear to hang on our wall!  Even before it was all the way opened Jared was so excited.  His family had one of these bears hanging on their wall while he was growing up.  The fun part is that our bear has an accessory for every month!  Tori and Garrett (and me and Jared!) are going to have so much fun with our very special bear!!!

The package also included a present for Tori from Uncle Derek and Uncle Alec.  For Tori's Christmas present, they made her a beautiful necklace with Cinderella's carriage on it!

You guys did great- Tori loves, loves, loves it!!!

Every year we try to get a family photo in front of our Christmas tree.  With no visitors this year, I was a little worried that it wasn't going to happen.  But, we set the timer on our camera and gave it a shot.  I seriously think this picture is one of our Christmas miracles- everyone is looking at the camera AND smiling!!!  

Well, that's it for us- Allen and Co. signing off for December and 2012!  We are so excited to see what adventures 2013 is going to bring!!!

Count Down...

Today we headed off to the Children's Museum for another fun celebration- Countdown to Noon!!!  It was the perfect way to celebrate New Year's Eve and ring in 2013 with Tori and Garrett!  Throughout the museum they had tables set up describing New Year's traditions in other countries.  Here is Tori's bandanna she decorated while we learned about New Year's in the Dominican Republic!

While waiting for noon, Tori took some time to take care of the reindeer.  She took their food, put it in the bucket, and made sure this guy got a good meal!

On the other hand, Garrett took a ride on a reindeer!

Tori was so excited to have her picture taken with Rudolph and Clarice!!!  Rudolph was one of her favorite Christmas movies this year!

What cute kids we have!!!

Tori is getting to be quite the expert ice fisher-woman!!!

Garrett found some fun new things to play with this time around!

Tori loved showing off her catch!

Garrett waiting in line for the Yule slide!  Sadly, he and Daddy went down so quickly that I completely missed them on the slide.  (I loved all of the fun decorations throughout the museum!)

Tori and a ton of big snowflakes!

It was pretty neat  to have confetti shoot out when we hit the noon hour!

 Happy "Noon" Year!!!

Garrett had a great time playing with the confetti!

Hurrah for 2013!!!

Thanks so much to the cute couple behind us for taking a fun family photo!!!

No trip to the museum would be complete without visiting the Carousel.  This was Tori's first time riding an animal that moved up and down.  She was a bit nervous at first, but then realized that she loved it!!!

And this was Garrett's first time riding on an animal- he had a grand time!!!

Playing house in a real little house is pretty great!

Tori loved this snow globe- especially when she figured out how to make the snow fall inside!

Happy New Year- here's to a fantastic 2013!!!

Tons of Tori

For the past few weeks Tori has been dancing, reading, and singing so much!  I finally started trying to capture as much on video as I could.  So here is our little lady in all her entertaining glory!!!

We are loving Tori's new dance moves!!!

Tori singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

Tori's rendition of "Deck the Halls"- one of my favorites!!!

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Tonight Tori read the Book of Mormon to us.  She did an awesome job, especially in reading the princess chapters!

This one is a bit long, but Tori read this entire book (Olivia Helps with Christmas) to Daddy!  It has been so fun seeing her 'read' to us and loving books!!!

We sure do love our little Tori-Bear and all the fun new things she is doing!!!

Let it Snow!

Today we were hit with a "blizzard!"  Yes, we did get a ton of snow (about a foot and a half), and it was really windy, and the roads were bad.  But as far as blizzards go, it seemed pretty weak sauce.  Jared may disagree with me on that one since he was outside for quite some time digging out our driveway!  Anyways, we really enjoyed our day- especially since they cancelled swim/dive practice so Jared got to be here all day with us, too!
Garrett and Tori looked so stinkin' adorable all bundled up and ready to go play in the snow!!! (This was my most favorite gem from today!)

Garrett's happiness lasted until we stepped outside.  He was NOT a fan of being outside in the snow!

So, while Garrett took his morning nap.  Jared, Tori, and I played in the snow for a bit.  Tori and Daddy had fun blazing a trail through the snow!!!

Tori loved trudging through the frozen tundra!!! (It was at least up to her thighs!)

It is great having Daddy around to block the wind and keep you warm!

After our snow adventures, we came inside and busted out Tori's new water table!  Daddy was super nice and filled it up with warm water.  Then we put down a few towels and let the kids go to town!

Tori loved dumping water everywhere!

Tori and Garrett had a ball!!!

Garrett especially enjoyed splashing water all over the place!!! (Our floor ended up being really clean today!)

Check out our sopping-wet boy!

And here is a picture of our crazy dog that loves to frolic in the snow!  It's hard to see- but Prince had snow clumps stuck all over him!

Hurrah for snow days- we thoroughly enjoyed ours!!!

Our Very Merry Christmas!!!

Our Christmas was wonderful this year!  And yes- between Santa, and all our family we were very spoiled!!!

We were so grateful that Santa took a picture of our tree for us!

When Tori first woke up, we told her we needed to go downstairs to see what Santa had brought.  She looked at us and said, "oh, he won't be here for hours."  It took a while for us to convince her that Santa had already been here.  Here is some video of her first Christmas morning reactions!  (It was so fun that we could share this with Grandma Harrison and Aunt Anna!)

And here is a video of Garrett discovering his train set!

Tori was so excited to see what Santa put in her stocking!

Hurrah for fun Santa presents for Daddy!!! (Tori was such a great helper!)

We caught our little candy cane thief red handed!

Garrett was content to just go with the flow and take his time with each present!  It was hilarious watching him pull off a teeny tiny piece of wrapping paper with each swipe!

Mommy got some awesome gifts this year as well!!!

Garrett loves his new Woody doll!

And Tori was in heaven when she opened up Belle!

And it just keep getting better- hurrah for Cinderella and her carriage!!!

As soon as Tori opened her butterfly wings, tutu, crown, and wand she had to put them right on!  Yeah for more dress-ups!!!

Garrett had a blast playing with his fun new toys!!!

What a day for our little Cinderella- she had a ball with everything!

 I think she likes her new dress:

Tonight, we took Garrett's train set into his room and spent the evening playing with it as a family!  Tori loved helping Daddy build new tracks!

Garrett loved playing with all the train cars...

and sitting right on the tracks!!!

What a fantastic Christmas!  This year (for the first time) it was just our little family.  It was a little strange not being with the rest of our family.  But we were also blessed to be able to skype with almost every single person in our families throughout the day!  It made it seem like we weren't really that far apart!  Thanks so much for all of the amazing gifts- we felt very loved today!!!  We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas, too!!!