So this is one of my favorite pictures of Peter and I. We had been married about a year and this was the first time we had been back to Washington after we moved to Rexburg. We were really enjoying having our feet in the Ocean again. 
Peter reproduced the picture in Watercolor for my Christmas present! Isn't it beautiful? We just got it up and framed and I am really enjoying looking at it while I sit at the computer. I love you Peter!
Well Christmas has come and gone. We had so much fun! We are so blessed to have been able to spend Christmas with all of our family. The week before Christmas Katie, Darin and Kya were able to come to town and on Christmas eve we got together and opened presents together. It was a wonderful day. Violet and Claire are really into opening presents this year, Violet especially. Violet made sure everyone had help opening their gifts.
Peter with Kya. She is growing so fast! and she has the cutest little cheeks. It was so fun to be able to see her last week. The next time we get all the cousins together the youngest babies will be more than a year old!
Violet and Claire loved playing with Kya, and Violet was really excited that she got to hold her. 
Beautiful Kya sitting with Uncle Peter. Peter is a major sucker for cute little girls. He wanted to keep Kya.
Violet on Christmas eve in her new jammies and showing off her smurfs! Violet loves her little smurfs!
Claire's jammie bottoms fell off. Here she is waiting for Peter to open her hammering tool. She loves this toy and works all day with her little hammer set. Tink tink tink is a sound we hear all the time now.
Kya opening her own "gggssssk" the tradition continues, I wonder what name she will give her's. Katie still calls her raggedy anne gggsssk :)
Kya opening her own pop up toy. This is the best toy, all the kids love it!
Violet was all tuckered out after presents, and it was only Christmas Eve!
We went home and watched the Grinch and took a nap on the sofa. When Grandma and Grandpa got home from the the airport they came over and we had our own version of a "christmas story" dinner and had Panda Express take out for dinner. It was a great way to spend Christmas eve and I think we may make it a tradition.
Santa came to visit us! We all got so many wonderful gifts and the girls had so much fun opening their presents from Santa.
Violet and Claire each got a new baby doll. They are such good little mamma's. Claire carries her baby around and pats her on the back.
Claire bringing me a present to open.
Santa brought Claire a toy Piano! She loves it and both she and Violet have been playing us beautiful music ever since.
Violet in the Christmas Tree Forest at my Parents house.
Claire taking care of her baby.
Violet and Claire helping grandpa open his gifts.
Santa brought Grandpa two little kittens for Christmas. They are so sweet and cute and we just love them (yes even Peter loves them) We brought them into the kitchen so the girls could watch them and play with them for a little while and they had so much fun. The kitties like to hide in this little drawer under the oven and Violet and Claire had so much fun watching them in there.
Come out and play kitties!
Sunday was John's Birthday and we went over and had Famous Dave's BBQ! mmmm...Ribs and Brisket. Happy Birthday John!
The girls ended the evening by sitting down in their matching red chairs and watching the Care Bear movie. It was a fun Christmas weekend and I feel like we partied and played from Friday Morning till Sunday night! I am so glad that Peter has this week off so we can recover from all the fun, I'm beat! This weekend we are going to the beach for New Years eve and then up to bothell to meet baby Porter and be their for his blessing. 
Well Santa came a little early this year. On saturday we had a piano delivered. I found it on craigslist for free. I'm very excited about having a piano, and I am working to remember my childhood piano lessons. I have found a lot of great help online and I'm going to go find all my old lesson books at my parents house soon. Hopefully soon I will be able to play like I used to.
The girls are loving the piano too. Don't tell them but I think Santa is bringing them a piano that is their size, so we can all practice together :)
The other night Peter and I were getting everything ready for bedtime and the girls were running around playing when it suddenly got very quiet. Peter bet me that they were in the fridge and I bet him that they had found a stash of chocolate. We were both right. I had a bowl of dipping fudge in the fridge and they found it and were enjoying a little sneaky treat! I guess I will have to dip the rest of the fudge in chocolate chips :)
What little stinkers! Well we are really excited for Christmas this year, I think the girls are a great age for Christmas. Violet knows all about Santa and is trying to be so good so he will bring her presents! I think she gets an A for effort.
So I was sitting down paying some bills the other day, and I realized that it was December 10, 2010. That means that it has been 5 whole years since I graduated from college. It was such a great day, it didn't feel real, school had been such a huge part of my life up until that point and I can't believe it has been so long since I was in school. This is a picture of Peter and I after the ceremony, we had been married for almost 4 months.
Here is me right after I graduated. I didn't know then that I would be using my college degree to run a household and raise two beautiful girls. I think the most important thing I learned while in school was how to learn. I learned how to research topics and take that research and form an opinion. I have used this skill to learn how to do a broad range of things such as how to bake a potato (I'm not joking I didn't know how), how to find a job in a tiny town called Rexburg and how to take care of my kids ( It is in this field that a bulk of my research and study has been ....I'm still working on it). Learning really is a never ending process and just because the subject matter has changed greatly (although I have used my anthropology experience to conduct fascinating observations on the life of a toddler) I am amazed at how much there is to learn everyday. So...It's been 5 years since I left Western but I really consider my education there as just the tip of the iceberg.
In other news we have been having lots of fun this month and we are ready to start celebrating Christmas. First we went to Grandpa Hatch's birthday party. He says 79 is his preferred driving speed not his age. Here he is carrying Claire around singing his song that he sings to all the babies "the streets of loredo".
Here is Claire at our after-Thanksgiving party eating some pumpkin pie.
Here is me and Peter in front of the start of the Christmas tree forest at my parents house...I will have more pictures of this soon. Diana tells me that tree number 8 is up and ready to decorate...it is so pretty.
This is after Thanksgiving dinner. Claire with a holly mustache. 
Violet and Grandpa putting together a little foam gingerbread house together. Violet loved it and kept playing with the little gingerbread man.
Violet tried on some of Grandma's Jewelry and was playing in the mirror. Violet loves dress up.
Claire fell asleep all bundled up in the car on the way to Grandma's house.
This is Claire pulling a key out of the wall (not pictured me pulling my hair out!!!). I let the girls leave it in so I could record it, mostly because I knew that no one would believe me if I told them and that someday they will complain about something their kids did and I am going to send them this picture and say it is proof of karma....oh my what must I have been like as a child? Better yet....what was my Mom like as a child? maybe it comes from Dad?