Christmas 2009

We had a most wonderful Christmas this year! Tate and Hailey were at a perfect age. They were both so excited for Christmas, and for Santa to visit our house.Little Carson enjoyed his very first Christmas.

Tate was way excited to see what was in his stocking!

Hailey asked for Barbie and the Three Musketeers, she was soooo happy.

Carson was most thrilled to chew on this bow !

Check out Tate with his Star Trooper gear on !

Hailey got more Ponies then she could ever wish for!

Carson loved opening his gifts and tearing off the paper.

Tate was in heaven with all his Star Wars Legos, and his new U jersey.

Here is Hailey with her Grandma, so sweet!

Here is my lovely Grandma Pantuso she is such a wonderful person. Couldn't live without her!

What a bunch of cuties! Chad and I are so lucky to have these three monkeys around. I look forward to many more Christmas's for years to come.

Christmas Eve 2009

We always go to a family party on Christmas Eve. We have dinner and fun with gift exchange, and even a visit from none other then Santa himself!

Tate telling Santa that his wish for Christmas is Legos !!!

Hailey heard some of the other little cousins say they wanted make-up for Christmas, so when it was her turn she said the same thing. She's not ready for make-up yet, but I'm sure the day will be here before I know it.

Look at those cheeks!!!

Tate and Hailey made sure to leave out cookies for Santa before they went to bed.

I'm the Gingerbbread Man !

One of Chad's favorite things about the month of December is eating gingerbread cookies. He asked me for weeks when I was planning on making them. I decided to make it a family activity and we all made them together!

Chad helping Hailey to cut out all the fun Christmas shapes.

Tate can do it all by himself!

Can't forget the cinnamon candies !

Hailey making sure to put them in just the right spot.

I love how yummy gingerbread cookies make your house smell while they are baking.



The best part ......eating them of course!!!

Lights at Temple Square

We had so much fun celebrating the Christmas season by visiting Temple Square to see all the beautiful lights! We went with some friends of ours, the Patten family. The kids were soooo excited to get together, especially when there was snow involved.

Tate, Drew, Eliza and Hailey. They had a great time stomping through the snow and sticking their mittens in the freezing water.

What a great big bro. Tate is to his little sister.

Chad was so great to push little Carson in the stroller while I kept track of the other two. Carson was as snug as a bug!


These two are great buds. They loved seeing each other.




I think they all licked the snow at some point that night.

We had a great time!!! Yeah, a family picture with all five of us!

Perfect Imperfection

I love this time of year !!! Tate and Hailey were soooo excited to help decorate the tree this year. They were having so much fun I decided to let them put the ornaments where they wanted to. As you can tell in the picture, the tree is beautifully decorated on the bottom half of the tree (as far as their little arms could reach.) I thought it was so cute I left the tree that way for a week before filling in the top half. How lucky Chad and I are to have such wonderful kids.

Witches and Pumpkins

Halloween is just a few weeks away so we went to Gardner Village to the "Wee Witches Weekend" to see all the fun witches and other fun Halloween things! The kids had a blast with the music and dancing. It was such a great day!

Here are Tate and Hailey with one of the nice witches. They were both a little skeptical.

How cute are they! Wouldn't it be fun to have a swing like this!

What's a party without balloons!

This picture shows how completely happy Carson was the whole time we were there. I just love this little guy!

The day was so perfect and sunny. We'll have to do this again in years to come!

They wore themselves right out. Fine by me!

Cookies and Milk

Hailey is just too cute for words! After she came home from preschool she asked if she could have some cookies.( Chad and Hailey share the same passion for Oreos dunked in milk.) I said it was fine as long as she washed her hands and face when she was done. She came in afterwards looking like this. I said " Hailey I told you to wash you hands and face when you were done." Hailey replied "But mom I already did!"She makes me laugh everyday!

ABC 123

I cannot believe Tate is old enough to go to Kindergarten! He is so excited to be in school. After 3 years of preschool he should be ready for all the new experiences Kindergarten will bring. He was a little nervous his first day , but I know he will love learning and making new friends.

Here Tate is with his friend Blake working on puzzles. This was the day Tate met his new teacher Mrs. Bauer.

What a good lookin' kid with his backpack all ready for his first day!

Here is Tate with his teacher getting his name tag.

Here are all the kids waiting in line to go into there classrooms.Tate we're so proud of you!

Stars and Stripes

For the 4th of July we had a fun B-B-Q at our house with the Pantuso side of the family. We had lots of fun and the kids loved the fireworks !


Chad did a great job of entertaining the kids while we waited for the sun to set.




The scouts came around to collect the flags they had set out for the holiday and Hailey fell apart when they took the one from our yard. She yelled "They can't take our flag, it's still the 4th of July!" She was in tears , so Chad took her inside to get out another flag we had. Here is her proud moment bringing it out with her dad.




Hailey loved watching the fireworks , just didn't want to listen to them.





On the 24th we were invited to go to the parade in Bountiful with some neighbors. It was perfect because the parade was less then 3 blocks away from our house so we just walked down and watched. Here are Tate and Hailey waving to people on floats . Carson slept soundly through the whole thing.




The kids got sooo much candy that day , as you can see Hailey was so busy eating it all her mouth was too full to smile :) That night we sat in our driveway and watched a great fireworks display. We had a lot of fun and hope to do it again !