Christmas Dresses

Kensley

Kensley has always been deathly afraid of Santa Claus. We even had to promise last year that Santa wouldn't come anywhere near our house! No presents from Santa allowed! This year, she was much more excited about Santa and wrote him and "his wife" letters pretty much every day to let them know what she wanted. She still wouldn't go anywhere near him, of course, but, realized getting presents was much better than being afraid. Her list: Roller skates, skateboard, basket for her bike. She also wanted a helmet, but he left that out! Waiting to dive into her presents.

Pyper

Pyper was in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks after she was born last year which means she spent her first Christmas in the hospital. So, even though this year was technically her 2nd Christmas it really felt like her first to us. I kept almost buying her clothes that said "Baby's First Christmas" and then I would remember it wasn't! We are so happy to have her with us!

Pyper getting to know her new dolly. This is my favorite picture for some reason. I think it is so cute.

Christmas Morning

Christmas PJ's

All the Beals Grandkids in their new Christmas pj's.

She's a Natural

Pinata Time!

Growing up, we had a pinata every Christmas Eve decorated like Santa Claus. Thanks to Stephen's family for carrying it on and making this years' pinata! :o)
Pyper wasn't really interested in the pinata and really had no idea what was going on, but she got her turn anyway!

Christmas Eve

Kensley with her cousin, Josie, trying to stay warm.

Butterfly Cake

Kensley decided that we should make a butterfly cake for Pyper's birthday party. I had seen directions online in the past and decided to google "butterfly cakes" in order to make the perfect cake. Well, we have been having issues with our computer, but little did I know to what extent! I clicked on a link that looked promising and, to my horror, instead of seeing images of cute butterfly cakes I was looking at some serious porn! I screamed and immediately shut down my computer. I now have some disturbing images burned into my brain, none of them having anything to do with butterfly cakes! So, we were on our own.

I let Kensley decorate her own cake and this is her finished product.

This is my finished product....a cake decorator I am not, but Pyper didn't seem to mind.

Birthday Candles

Pyper had no idea what was going on, but became very entranced with the candle and kept putting her finger in the flame. Kensley kept screaming about it, but Pyper didn't get hurt!
I love this look! I'm too sexy for this cake!

Yum!

12 Months Old!

My little baby turned one! She is 20 lbs 4 oz and nothing but trouble !

Zoo Lights

Arctic Slide

Kensley was begging to go on this slide the whole night. She pouted constantly all night about it. We told her she could ride it later and I even tried to convince her to go on the carousel instead, but she wouldn't be convinced. So Kensley and Daddy went for a ride before we went home....
This is her afterwards. She was terrified!

Look Who's Walking!

Pouting Princess

Kensley got mad at Dad for something, I can't remember what, and stormed outside to pout. This is how I found her a few minutes later.

Girls Only!

This is really old news, but I wanted it in my blog...so here it is! On the weekend of September 24th, I got to participate in our annual girls only weekend. Sometimes it doesn't happen every year, but we always try to make it happen. This time, all my girls came to me and we celebrated in Scottsdale. We stayed in a nice resort thanks to Debbie and her great connections and wished we had more time to just sit and relax in our pj's. We stayed up way too late every night laughing and talking and I came home from the weekend needing even more rest than when we started. Thank you to my father and mother-in-law for watching my kids so I could go.

We started the weekend off by attending a session at the Mesa Temple. We ate, shopped and shopped, ate, shopped some more, went to the movies and ate some more.

Dinner Theatre

We went to a matinee at the broadway palms dinner theatre and saw "Church Basement Ladies" Never mind that it was senior hour and we were the only ones our age, it was hilarious and fun! Lunch was okay, but the company was great and it was good to laugh!

The Sugar Bowl

I had been to The Sugar Bowl YEARS ago when I was still single and remembered it being yummy so we tried it again. After much deliberation on what to eat and wanting to save room for dessert, duh!, we split blt sandwiches and ended up with the same desserts all around. A chocolate brownie sundae...we all chose our own unique flavor of ice cream and we all chose both hot fudge AND caramel. Why not?!