Snow.

It's been snowing for the last two hours like CRAZY! I'll take pictures and post them later!

First Christmas present.

When we went to England this last May, we ran into our new favorite store, Cath Kidston.



Mom describes it as Laura Ashley on steroids. You can order from the US online, so I decided to take a look at their Christmas line. Oh boy. . .too cute. Mom has been wanting new mugs for hot chocolate and soup, so I found these little Christmas mugs at Cath Kidston. When they arrived in the mail (addressed to 'Miss Sarah Rayner -- so English), I couldn't resist not giving them to Mom right away. I figured, since they're Christmas mugs, we better enjoy them now. But the real reason I gave them to her early is because I couldn't wait. I just love giving her presents early! (And she loves it, too!)

They each came in a little Christmas tin! Too cute!

This is the only present I have given her early. . .there is one present that is really exciting that I will give her at noon on Christmas Eve. She keeps wanting me to tell her what it is and where we're going, but I won't give it up. She will nonchalantly say, "What are we doing on Christmas Eve?" just to try to catch me off guard. What? It's like she thinks if she randomly brings it up in a conversation that I'll say, "Oh yeah! We're going to. . ." Yeah right, Mom! :) I can't wait for Christmas Eve!

Family pictures.

Our wonderful friend, Sister Ashby, took our family pictures for us a couple of weeks ago. We haven't had our pictures taken for years, especially with just the three of us girls. It was so much fun, but now we can't pick which one to put in our Christmas cards!

Canon Beach.

For Halloween weekend we took a little trip to Canon Beach. Mom had a couple of gift certificates from her boss to stay at the Ocean Lodge, so we decided to stay a couple of nights there. We got a corner beachfront room, so we had a view of the ocean from every window!



We had so many gorgeous views from the balcony. . .the first few minutes in the morning were taken up with taking tons of pictures.



Haystack Rock was right outside our window. Mom kept saying, "Hey! We can walk to Haystack Rock!" Yes, we could, except for the fact that it's surrounded by water!



Every time we stay at the coast, we take a little drive to Astoria. It's kind of become a tradition to go see the Astoria Column.



This year, we decided to actually climb it. We had never done it before, but it was so fun.



Views from the top!



Down in the parking lot, they have this sort of Indian replica thing. We have yet another tradition where we always have to take silly pictures climbing all over the rock. I know, we're kind of crazy. Okay. . .a lot crazy.



We took a drive to Indian Beach and Ecola State Park. We got some of the prettiest pictures.



The last day, Emily had to search the beach for seashells. . .it's one of her favorite things to do. She found so many this time and even a clam shell that was completely whole and still in one piece!



We had dinner at Mo's (the best clam chowder ever!) and saw this lovely sight out of the window. What a perfect ending to the perfect day on the Oregon coast!

Good news.

Emily and I had a classical piano competition on Saturday and there were tons of different students participating. We both felt like we did a good job, but not good enough to win.

Well, we talked to our piano teacher today and she got the results!

Emily and I both got first place! Woo Hoo! Way to go Emily! This is only her second competition and she won! We're so excited we just want to tell everybody and run and yell down the streets of the neighborhood!

Ethan's family photo shoot.

Ethan and his family came out to visit over General Conference weekend. They made sure to bring matching outfits so I could take their family pictures at the park. I love how they turned out! (Except they look kind of grey on blogger. . .they don't look that way on the computer, though.) (And, yes, Ethan and Linda, I will make a CD of all the pictures and send it to you.) :)



Cute Mikaela and her Daddy.



I love this picture because they both have the same expression on their face!



Andrew was WAY into this whole taking pictures thing. He loved hanging from branches and jumping around. I love that little guy!



Cute baby girl with her cute little hair.



Some of my favorites.



I kept shaking Mikaela's stuffed animal by the camera to keep her occupied. It made for some really cute pictures!



Some of the cutest pictures were taken on the bridge. There were too many cute ones, so I decided to just pick my two favorite to spare you from looking at 1,000 pictures!



Andrew wanted to take picture in this tunnel by the creek and he came up with his own poses. . .it was hilarious!

And this last picture might just be my favorite one. It had the potential to absolutely perfect, but I kind of like it how it is.