On Christmas eve, we woke up to a little snow. The girls were beyond excited. What a perfect way to start Christmas Eve. It was just a dusting of snow, and it was gone in a few hours.

My kind of snow. No shoveling.

After all our last minute Christmas preparations, it was time to decorate our gingerbread houses. This is one of my favorite family traditions. I loved it as a child, but I love it even more as a mom. I just love watching how much fun the girls have making their gingerbread creations.

Lauren & Mom’s gingerbread house

Sara & Grandma’s gingerbread house

Cailyn & Grandpa’s gingerbread house

Emily & Dad’s gingerbread house

I have spent years trying to duplicate the best sugar cookie in the world that John’s Dad introduced us to one Christmas. They are soooo good! I have tried just about every recipe I can find, to no avail.  I tried a new one again this Christmas, and I think they turned out pretty good.

I was just about to try one out to see how they compared to the real deal when there was a knock on the door. To my surprise, John’s Dad sent us THE REAL DEAL  (one dozen for me, and one dozen for everyone else!)

So now I could really compare the two cookies. We all did a taste test. While this is by far the best recipe I had tried, they just weren’t quite the same. The glaze was spot on, but the cookie still needed a little work. Did I mention I love these cookies? Ah… I was in HEAVEN! Thanks Dad!

The girls did a little Christmas concert for Grandma and Grandpa. Emily and Sara each played a couple of songs on the piano, and Cailyn played a few on her violin. Then it was time to open the traditional Christmas Eve present.

Don’t they look cute in their new pjs! Now off to bed!

We were very blessed to have my Mom and Dad come to spend Christmas with us. A few days after they arrived they decided to take a quick trip to Bend to visit my brother James and his family. It looked like the mountain passes were going to be clear so the girls and I decided to tag along for a day. It snowed a little bit on the way to Bend, but not too bad. We had a great time playing games and visiting.

No boys here! James and I were both blessed with all girls.

Aleea and Lauren are two peas in a pod. Here they are taping their mouths shut. Although my personal favorite was when they made tape mustaches.

The next morning we woke up to snow, lots of snow. Of course I forgot to bring my chains for the van, so going through the mountain passes was definitely out of the question. That left only one option, the long way home around the moutains. So worth it to have a little time with family.

It’s been about a month since Lauren’s ballet recital, but I’ve been on a blogging break (hmmm… I seem to take a lot of those) so I’m just now getting some pictures posted. I love dance recitals at this age. Every girl keeping their own time, sometimes doing their own thing… too cute! Lauren was concentrating very hard on what the teacher was doing so she was very straight faced the whole time. She was all smiles afterwards, though. Well, mostly smiles with a few silly faces thrown in.

Lauren’s sitting by me as I post these pictures. She’s saying ”Yes!  Go ahead… do it!” and then I’m getting my own personal instant replay.

Lauren would also like me to tell you that she had lots of fun because she got a Santa chocolate.

This was Lauren’s prayer at dinner this evening:

“Please bless me to sleep good tonight, and to not have bad dreams, and to dream that it’s my birthday, and not something badder…” 

When I tucked her into bed tonight I told her to be sure and tell me what kind of cake she has in her birthday dream. 

Her reply was, “Maybe I won’t have cake, maybe I’ll have something yummier…  and orange…  like pumpkin pie!”

Me: Lauren, how was preschool today?

Lauren: Good. Did you know Miss Kandy has a daughter?
She helped in our class today. Did you know… she has bracelets on her teeth.

Me: So you had fun?

Lauren: Yes! I give it five hundred forty fifty two stars.

My little pumpkin is off to her new preschool. She loves it! Which is a vast improvement over last year, when we had to drag her kicking and screaming… literally. The preschool is very well suited to her. It is a very calm environment with a good teacher to student ratio, 1:7. Let’s face it… she’s the baby of the family and requires a lot of attention. That’s what comes of being doted on by mom, dad and 3 big sisters.

Yes. That’s a magic wand you see. I mean… a pumpkin that has eyes, a nose, a mouth and can walk around must be magic, right?

I know what you are thinking… where in the world are the Bosworths?

Why are they not updating their blog?

Sorry if you’ve missed us!

We’ve been busy with this…

And this…

And this…

And this…

And this…

 And this…

Not to mention that I’ve been like this…

 Since I’ve started taking classes again towards my nursing degree.

So, we are still here… on this planet… most of the time J

We are back in the Northwest!

Thanks Grandpa Boz for coming along for the ride and making sure we got here safe and sound…

And for making sure we didn’t miss out on the fall berries!

While most of you are still on summer vacation, here in Arizona we are already back into the school routine. The girls only get 6 weeks of summer vacation. I personally think it’s the perfect amount of time. Long enough to get a lot of fun activities in, but not so long that the kids get bored.

So here are some of the fun things we did this summer:

Trip to Utah #1

We headed to Utah to visit my Mom and Dad over the 4th of July. We were lucky enough to be joined by my two brothers and their families, and my sister and most of her family (We missed you Aldo, hope you had fun in Peru!) It was so good to see everyone.

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house.

We went camping with the cousins. Who cares that we got rained on? We still had a lot of fun. Can anyone say SMORES! (Emily, 7 was way too many!!!)

4th of July at GG’s, of course… eating, playing games and watching fireworks.

Trip to Oregon

Next we headed to Oregon to campout in our house there (we were between renters). While we were hoping to escape the heat, we weren’t quite prepared for the cold temperatures that greeted us. When John flew in to meet up with us (he didn’t make it to Utah), we had him bring some sweatshirts and jeans for everybody.

Hiking in the coastal mountains.

A trip to the Cannon Beach… one of our favorite spots.

This was Fluffy the dogs first trip to the beach. He was so excited!

Trip to Utah #2

Next we headed back to Utah to spend a few more days with grandpa and grandma before heading back home.

I was very excited to be able to get together with my best friends from high school/college. Thanks Amy for putting it together! Loved seeing everyone!!!

Then it was back home to swim in the pool everyday until school started.  That’s our summer in a nutshell. Fun Times!

Yes, it’s true. We are moving back here

Part of us feels

Part of us feels