Christmas

What a magical time. I love teaching my girls about our Savior's birth. We decided to start a new tradition this year. As I was reading the Christmas story to Ellie in early December we decided that since we are celebrating Jesus' birthday we would make him a cake (don't all kids associate cake with birthdays). On Christmas Eve we always have some kind of telling of the Nativity, whether it being watching Luke 2, or reading it from the scriptures, or reading from one of the Gospel Art Pictures. So this year we had a new video to watch cued to "O Holy Night". It was beautiful. Then my brother-in-law had a wonderful idea that we could each share something we are grateful that our Lord and Savior has done for us this year. It was a really special time for us to all reflect and remember Jesus. Even Ellie said she was grateful for Jesus' love. After which we had cake to celebrate His birth (of course we left a piece for Santa Claus). I am truly grateful for the gift this season brings, my Savior, who gave us an example and way to return to our Father in Heaven and live as an eternal family.

Our Christmas was wonderful. We were able to celebrate with family in Idaho and yes it was a white Christmas. It snowed the Tuesday before Christmas and when Ellie woke up and looked out the window she said, "It is a Christmas snow." She had been watching Frosty the Snowman a lot and I think she thought it was magical. We visited the great-grandparents and had a lovely Christmas morning with our homemade gifts (everyone grumbled a little about making gifts, but they turned out wonderful and my vote is to continue with that, but I may get out voted--we'll see). When we were getting ready to leave I told Ellie to gather up all of her toys so we could pack and she excitedly said, "we get to take them home!?" What a sweet child who only ever asks for "one present" and doesn't even assume she gets to take them home (I'm sure this will change, but for now I love the innocence).

Girls opening presents of adorable pajamas from Grandpa and Grandma Moore.

At the airport on the way to Mimi and Grandpa's.

I love having a little one to dress for the season since my 3 year-old can be difficult to get to cooperate.

Lila received the Little People farm from Santa Claus and it is a hit at our house.

The very desired Mac the truck to go with her Lightening McQueen set.

I am not for sure what this face means . . .

Playing Wii Mario Kart.

Lila got to meet great grandma Buckley for the first time. What a ham--I only had to say Lila and once she saw the camera she was all smiles.

Girls on the airplane home.

 Like I said magical times.

Message from Lila

Can you see it?
XO
I love you too, my sweet pea.

'Tis the Season

The holidays have really come upon me faster than usual due to our extended hotel stay, so I had considered not doing a Christmas card, but I am really glad I took the time (even though it is still electronic) because as I looked through our pictures of the year I got to reflect on all of our blessings and all of the wonderful adventures the year has brought us:

*The birth of our second beautiful daughter, Lila. Who is always quick with a smile and has such a cute hesitant laugh. She is a busy-body and definitely livens our household, but I cannot remember life without her.
*Ellie is growing up way too fast. She has a cute new hair-cut, is a wonderful helper, and has a vivid imagination.
*Adventures with two children and two pets which sometimes do not get enough attention and at other times get too much attention from the girls, like Zoe being fed fruit roll-up by Ellie which ended up mainly in her hair and Sushi II almost suffocating by too much food being dumped in her bowl courtesy of a friend.

Yeah, the year may have had a rough last quarter with our house flooding, but I am truly grateful for the treasures in life that are eternal like my family, friendships, and the love of my Father in Heaven which can be felt all year round, not only as we celebrate the birth of His Son, Jesus Christ. May you each feel of His love this season and throughout the new year!

Love,
Steve, Britney, Ellie, & Lila Moore

More Pictures

I was going to title this "More, Better Pictures", but I cannot really claim that they are better so at least you get to see more.

Lila--I tell you she really is a mover. I was trying to keep her happy while I organized my closet and she loves to try to touch the floor while in that chair. Needless to say she is always buckled up!

I really cannot get a good picture of the granite. I guess you will just have to come over and check it out in person.

Steve's pimped out garage with all of the old kitchen cabinets. I'm sure he will be an organize freak now. :)

We're Back

After spending 73 nights in a hotel, we officially checked out and moved back home the day before Thanksgiving, November 25. The carpet was laid on the 20th and we had been moving things back in (THANK YOU to all who helped!), but without countertops (which means I had one working bathroom sink and was washing dishes in the bathtub) we were still kind of roughing it--don't get me wrong it was so WONDERFUL to be sleeping in our own beds and to be able to put the girls down in their rooms and then do a project around the house which was not doable in the hotel as they could hear anything and everything I tried to do from dishes, to watch a movie, or visit with Steve. Well the countertops were installed yesterday so my in house plumber, Steve has been working on getting the faucets and dishwasher hooked up. YAY!! In celebration I cleaned all day (I still feel like there is some of that construction dust and dirt being tracked around) and cooked like crazy tonight. Here are some before and after shots for your enjoyment.

NOTE: We didn't take a lot of pictures of the water in the house because the Restoration company said they would give us a CD of all of the pictures when the job was done. Well due to our falling out we are still working on getting those pictures.

All the moisture in the air caused the eucalyptus to bleed. It took three coats of primer to cover that up.

Eventually the garage was filled with our belongings and the damaged cabinets and all sorts of stuff that has to come out of the house during the construction process.

Most of our belongings, which have now been cleaned from 2.5 months of dust and moved back in.

Steve took this picture just before we took the old countertops out for bulky pick-up--say goodbye! I have been wanting to replace those countertops since the day we moved in (for the first time) five years ago.

"Hello my precious." I said this once while rubbing the granite and Steve chuckled, but it truly is beautiful and I love my level bar it really opens the room up.

Steve said we should clean up and then take pictures, but I wanted to show us truly enjoying being home. Besides I have so many projects to finish it may be a while before the house is truly in order.

We extended the entry way. I should have turned the light on, but you get the idea and I'm still looking for rugs.

The purple bathroom. We were going for a more brown color, but it works.

However, we did choose a for sure brown color for Lila's room. I am still working on hanging the decor, but I had to show you the cute tree that will go nicely with her animal theme.

Ellie was so sad her room was not painted a special color that I decided to get online and let her choose a vinyl decoration we could put up in her room. She chose bubbles. She loves to "bam" them, which means she tries to pop them like she does real bubbles.
I hung drapes in my room today.

Master vanity--oh so nice. It is countertop height and has the beautiful granite (the company did our master bath for free--we had to pay for the undermount sinks which are rectangular--I'll take some better pictures of the granite and post later).
My plumbers hard at work. Ellie had to get all of her tools to help Daddy. She laid out the instructions and asked Steve if he was on number three. Steve responded, "Kind of. I'm not really following the number." To which Ellie gave him a confused look and asked if they should start at number one.