Devine Family

aurora got a haircut. i can't believe she agreed to it b/c every time i have talked to her about cutting it she says that her hair must be long like a princess! but more unbelievable than that was her comment after she saw how short it was. "can you cut it shorter...like aunt zennie's!"

the new 'do:


aunt zennie's hair: (beautiful hair! but see why i was surprised??)

we went up with a bunch of danny's cousins to go tubing. the hills were big and fast and we had a lot of fun, until our feet fell off and then we had to go home. man it was cold up there! here are a couple pics:
aurora (in pink) and danny (behind her) on the ride up to the top of the hill.

ty was too little to go down the big hills and this was his "hill" (what a joke) that he was allowed to play on. so we snuck him up to the real hill. and he hated every minute of it.(didn't get a picture)

after days and days and days of snow...we finally got a "packing" snow. and what does that mean?
SNOWMEN!! we made a whole family: (ty is kind of hidden over there on the end...and we had to trap him on a mound of snow to get him to stay still for the picture)

danny is very proud of his mountain o' snow:

the kids looooove the big slide and there are even stairs that lead up to the top!

and for scripture study that night we had our nativity play. aurora and ty loved taking care of baby jesus while they listened (not really) to danny read the story from the scriptures.

we had a fun christmas, with just our little family of 4. here are some pictures of the presents:
aurora loves her baby doll and alice in wonderland dressup

ty got some fur real pets

another dress up!

ty loves his book from grandma

hope everyone had a very merry christmas!

we spent christmas eve with danny's aunt and uncle, and all their kids. what a fun time we had! dinner, games, stories, puppet nativity, making ornaments, presents, and santa! thanks for having us spencer family!
here are some pictures:

aurora loves to play with her friend, dax. he is all boy and she is all girl. but they still have a good time together. here they are playing: dax is explaining cars to aurora; and aurora is explaining how amazing her skirt is.

"here let me show you how it twirls!!" (dax not so interested)

i think they both have a little crush (ok, so i made them pose this way...but don't they look sweet!?)

ty and dace are kinda, sorta friends. they exchange glances in passing every once and awhile.

OUR TRADITIONS:

1) we started a tradition last year (thanks sis) for gifts. we get the kids 4 gifts each year and that way they won't be expecting a lot and they will know the real meaning of christmas. here are the 4 gifts: (1) something to wear; (2) something to read; (3) something to play with; (4) something to do (craft, game, puzzle, etc). this is one tradition i really hope lasts!

2) another tradition i thought would be fun to start is acting out the nativity story. aurora loooves to dress up as mary so it should be fun :)


3) this is also a new tradition this year. i made a little baby bed (for baby jesus) and for every good deed, aurora and ty get to put one piece of hay in his bed. i explained to aurora that jesus will need a soft, warm bed by christmas morning. she has been reminding me every time she makes a good choice. ty doesn't understand what he is doing but he loves putting the hay in. i like this tradition b/c when we make good choices and do good things we are not only helping ourselves and others, but we are helping jesus also. (got the idea for this tradition off the delilah radio show...cheesy, yes, but a good tradition none the less).


ok, on to some holiday cheer. got a problem with little kids taking the bulbs off the tree?? put them in a cute vase instead! i have a few of these right around the tree and i love how it looks. all i have on my tree this year are lights and a string of popcorn(thanks grandma). (amazingly the kids haven't touched the popcorn.)


mistletoe! some neighbor kids were selling mistletoe for $2 (but danny of course talked them down to $1) and i love it. right by our front door for everyone to enjoy :) i want to do this every year!


MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!

aurora was singing "the church of jesus christ" and "baptism" today, and it went a little something like this:

"i belong to the church of jesus came to john the baptist in judea long ago..."

oh i hope you can appreciate the cuteness without hearing her voice...it was stinking hilarious!

not that any of you are all that interested, but i thought i would let everyone know that ty is back to sucking on his doggy. don't know why, don't care why, all i care about is that i am sleeping a lot more peacefully. i'll worry about the grossness of this habit at some future date.

i learned how to make these from bakerella.blogspot.com. its a fun baking blog. and i decided to post a couple pictures b/c i know danny won't appreciate their cuteness. hopefully some of you will :)

most of you know how much ty loves his little doggie/blankie. loves it so much that he sucks on its little arms like they're a pacifier. well, i should say USED to suck on its arms. i don't know what happened but the little guy won't have anything to do with sucking on it anymore. he still loves to snuggle it but that is as far as it goes. i don't know how to explain it...
at first i was glad b/c it is quite a weird and gross habit. but now he sleeps a lot less and cries a lot more when we put him to bed. arggg...i'm sure i'll be glad in the long run, but for right now i am still trying to shove the little arm in his mouth just to have some peace and quiet around here.

just a few cute shots of aurora and ty

before church...could his hair be any cuter all combed down??

aurora was pretty oblivious to the mtc experience. she just wanted some leaves.

after leaving aaron at the mtc we went to the wilk on byu campus. ty just wanted to know where to find his favorite donuts...

some pics of dropping aaron off at the mtc. he will spend 3 weeks in the provo mtc and then head down to the peru mtc for another 6 weeks. he is in the arequipa, peru mission.
texting friends until the last second

mama will miss her baby

lookin like a missionary now!

outfitted with his tag and dork dot (or "celestial dot" as the mtc mission president called it)

man its been nice to have a big house when family and friends come to visit. my bro went into the mtc on wednesday and we had a great time with my family in town. on sunday night we had a farewell party with a lot aaron's buddies from freshman year and with some friends from the track team.

mom, aaron, dad

the boys always goofing around

big group shot

hand shake at an appropriate distance :)