Emma Playing in the Snow

Sliding down the hill backwards :)
We are running out of places to go with the snow. This little hill is at the center of the cul de sac and is reaching up to the height of the basketball net. It's fun for the kids to slide down, but if we get too much more, the plows won't have any safe place to put it!
Emma wrestling with a sled.
Emma and her friend Jaydon playing in the snow.

Yesterday, Kahiwa was all excited to once again go play in the snow. Right away, Ka'iulani offered to stay in the house and watch the baby telling me, "Winter is my WORST season!" I know she enjoys digging tunnels and playing in the snow, I think it is more the frigid temperatures we have had for the past 5 or 6 days that she doesn't like.

Snow Pictures For Aunty

View from the front door this morning.

The big pine tree in the front yard.
View from the driveway.

Ka'eo's Aunty Christine loves snow, so this morning I took a few photos so she could see what the yard looks like under heavy snow. We still have snow falling, and may get up to 6 more inches before this round of snowfall is over. That's on top of the approximately 18 inches we already have. Many of the snow drifts are up to 4 or 5 feet tall.

The Domes

In the Tropical Dome.
Admiring the ornaments on the Show Dome Christmas tree.

The girls with one of Emma's friends, Claire, and her little sister, Katie.

The Mitchell domes are one of a few places near us where you can see flowers blooming at this time of year. They have 3 domes, an arid climate dome, a tropical dome, and a show dome that changes themes 4 times a year. At Christmas time they always have beautifully decorated trees and poinsettias.

Children's Christmas Musical

Our church does a great job getting the kids involved in the Children's Christmas Musical. Below are pictures of the girls, each one had a little role, and they were so excited to be a part of it.

The Kingdom Kids Choir Performs "Christmas Starr"

Alyssa was very excited about their "dark entrance" this year! For the first time, the children entered from the back of the balcony in the sanctuary, in the dark with flashlights glowing. She was so proud of their dramatic entrance.

Singing her solo in "I Adore You." It was the longest solo she has ever had, and we were very proud, she did a beautiful job!

This is Alyssa's third year being part of the Kingdom Kids Choir, and she looks forward to the Christmas Musical each year. They practice each week from September to December, and she enjoys it very much. This year's performance was called "Christmas Starr."

Emma as Mary in the Nativity Scene

Shyly walking onto the stage.


Each year in the Children's Christmas musical, the Kindergarten class gets to play the characters in the Nativity Scene. Kahiwa was so excited, she was wishing for weeks ahead of time that she could be Mary. She did a great job and had fun.

Rebekah Playing the Tuba

The two year old class practicing with their teacher, Mr. Dave before going on stage.
Rebekah's class, one of her favorite little playmates is the blond boy in the front left corner, Sawyer.
Bekah and Mommy on the stage with her class.

The two year olds sang Feliz Navidad and had little motions that went with the song. I was surprised to see that Rebekah's favorite part was a tuba solo, she was very enthusiastic about playing her pretend tuba! All the childen (and parents too, were wearing their pjs)

Jingle Bus

Every Christmas season, we have a tour of our downtown area called the Jingle Bus. For $1 you get on the coach and tour four area parks that go all out with their Christmas decor, and you get a little history of the city along the way. When you return to the beginning of the tour there is hot cocoa, cookies, and coloring books waiting for you. It's become a fun family tradition. I couldn't get any good pics of the lights as it was snowing on our tour, but it was still fun. We got 6 more inches of snow last night bringing our total to well over 18 inces. It is higher than Emma and Rebekah's heads in many areas.

Christmas Carol Bears at the Mall

The mall downtown, where the Jingle Bus leaves from, had a really cute display of Teddy Bears singing Christmas Carols. All the Bears had names such a Bentley, Belle, Ella, and Violet. They even played instruments. Rebekah was a little leery of bears that could move and talk, but the older girls loved singing along with them.

Snow Day...Hooray!!!

Christmas vacation started a day early for us when we got 12 inches of snow overnight. School was cancelled and the girls could not have been happier to have the extra day at home to play and relax! The snow was beautiful to look at, and fun to play in, but very heavy to shovel. All of our girls enjoy the snow, but I think Emma likes it most of all.

Thank You, Aunt Laura!

Yesterday a box arrived from my Aunt Laura and she had sent the girls such a cute Christmas gift! She gave them the cutest little snowmen aprons (I unfortunately couldn't get Rebekah to leave hers on), a snowflake mold cupcake tray, and a dry erase calendar board and magnets to help you plan your holiday baking. Well of course, with the snow day today, they couldn't have arrived in better timing! Alyssa planned out the next two weeks for us on the calendar, so we should be set :) The girls woke up this morning ready to bake, and the aprons looked so adorable! Thank you, Aunt Laura and Joe!

More Baking Pics

Rebekah's favorite treat to make was the brownies. She kept thinking she was being sneaky tasting the batter, but when she realized I was watching she said, "This tastes...this tastes...DELICIOUS!" Alyssa and Emma loved the seeing how the snowflake mold came out on the top of each cupcake. All three girls thought they were experts at cracking the eggs, and although we did have one egg that Rebekah decided to smoosh in her hand, they did surprisingly well at seperating the yolk from the white part.

Christmas Baking

I knew the girls would be so excited to bake, and they kept taking turns measuring and adding the ingredients having lots of fun the entire time. There were a few spills, but nothing major! Usually Emma is the only one who stays with me throughout an entire process of baking something, it must have been the cute snowflake molds and aprons that kept them excited the whole morning!!

Christmas Artwork from School

While we waited for our cupcakes and brownies to bake, I photographed the girls with some of the Christmas art projects they have brought home from school recently. The small red and purple paper thing that Alyssa is holding in her hand is a candle holder made with paper that came from Germany. She was really proud of it, and Emma was very pleased with her coloring too :) !

Finished Product of our Baking

After spending the morning in the kitchen, we had 7 little plates of homemade goodies for our neighbors.

Christmas Crafts

We had a busy weekend making gingerbread houses and painting ornaments. The girls were probably eating as much candy as they were adding to the house, but considering they didn't use a kit for a prepared house, I thought they did a cute job designing their own. The ornaments they painted were a steal on clearance at JoAnn fabrics store, if I would have known how much fun the girls were going to have painting them up, I would have bought several more! You can see the two younger girls very proud to show their painted ornaments, and below Alyssa's cupcake already hanging on the tree (Ka'iulani ran off before I had the chance to take her picture with hers.)