MISSY MOO & her MOO COWI am not really sure why we started calling her this but I just know that it stuck. We had started calling her Missy and somehow we just started started calling her Missy Moo.
It just seemed to fit her. I think that she has those big brown eyes that look up at you.
By the way doesn't she look so grown up in this picture? I am so bummed that she had that little bruise on her forehead...oh well. The other day she was dressed up all cute and I gave her the moo cow, put her up on the bed and took some shots of her playing with it.
Grandma Burch gave her this cute stuffed animal cow one day and she fell instantly in love with it.
Whenever she wanted it, she would wander around the house calling "moooooo, moooooo" it then acquired the oh so creative name of MOO COW.
It is without a doubt her favorite stuffed animal, she sleeps with it every night and drags it around with her every where that we will let her.
One night I was putting her to bed and I took the cows arms and opened them wide and let out a loud moooo in an opera voice with lots of vobrato. 
She laughed so hard she could hardly breathe.
I had her try to do it and she copied my opera mooing sound in her little voice when I opened the cows arms and then stopped when I closed them. Soon it became a silly nighttime ritual which had spread through the family. 
Hunter has tried hard to be inventive with his moo sounds including: "granny moo," "monster moo," "sleep moo" etc. etc. Her affection for this little stuffed cow is really endearing, and it cracks us up.
I wanted to make sure that I recorded this so that I wouldn't forget it... little Missy Moo. 
What is that word you ask? Well if you think about it phonetically then you'll have it. 
The word is AGENT and now here is the story behind it. For about six months now Hunter has developed a love for 
He never ceases to amaze me with the things that he can create with them. I would much rather buy he 
It is so neat to watch him build different vehicles and set them up into various play scenes. Well one day about six months ago we were at Target in the LEGO aisle and he saw the LEGO AGENTS mission series and he was hooked. They consisted of Mission #1-#6 each mission providing more and more excitement agent action. 
We told him that maybe he would get some for Christmas we would have to see. From that point on there was all sorts of secret missions happening around the house and one day he came and handed me that piece of paper. "What is it" I asked him, "Mom, it is your agent card." It cracked me up and it was so cute I had to take a picture of it. 
Needless to say for Christmas he got the first two LEGO missions from Santa including this mission which has alligators with microchips in their heads that lets the bad guy control them by remote. Sweet.
Having a 
So here is Hunter's note to Santa sweet and to the point. Here they are waiting to go out and see the tree the next morning. Yuck, sorry bad lighting in those pictures. 
This year was so cool with Hunter we really spent a lot of time in Dec. filling it with Christmas activites.
We went to the temple lights, playing in snow, visiting Santa, making S'Mores, reading Christmas stories, watching every Christmas movie, baking all kinds of goodies and so forth. 
Hunter was so excited about Santa this year and made a very sweet list for him of things he hoped to get which mostly consisted of Legos. About the last six months he has wanted nothing but to play Legos and this year he was hoping to get some Lego Agents.
The set consists of six "missions" and so for Christmas he recieved Mission #1 and #2. Both of which have led to much secret agent play and "bad guy" evading. I will post on this most recent stage with him later. Including the details on the backpack that he never takes off.
Hunter had a hard time settling in on Christmas Eve and kept thinking that every noise he heard was surely Santa on the roof, and he was bound and determined to catch him as he came down the chimney. 
After much convincing that Santa would only come once he was sleeping he finally gave up the fight. 
When they woke up the next morning they ran out to the tree and Avery excited exclaimed, "WALL-E mommy!"
She was so excited about her pillow she carried it around all morning. Aren't they CUTE??
She like all of her baby stuff, but her actual favorite thing about Christmas morning was the shoes for her baby doll and the fact that mom let her eat a candy cane for breakfast!!
It was really fun to be with my mom and the girls this Christmas and do some of the traditions that we grew up doing. 
Hunter and Avery love Grandma sooooo much and have so much fun getting to go to her house and spend time with her.
It is hard to live what feels like so far away sometimes but we enjoy every minute of our time with her.
One such things was reading the "spider story" it is a very sweet Christmas story that we always read when we were little girls and this year my kids got to read it and we got to make a little spider for our own family. There is a cute but little blurry shot of Hunter's hand putting it on the tree.
We had a great Christmas and are ready for a great new year!!!!
This year we headed for San Diego to spend Christmas. Hunter was so excited, he had made a card for Grandma Tobar and could not wait to give it to her. For two days he carried it around everywhere with him and almost had a meltdown when he accidentally set it down in some water on the counter top and blurred the marker. He even fell asleep holding it on the drive to San Diego which was so precious and hilarious that I had to get a shot of it. We had so much fun playing pictionary, talking, watching movies, seeing the sights and having sister time. Okay so it is a yearly Christmas tradition in our family to do a gingerbread house contest. It has also become a tradition in our family for Deke's team to wipe the floor with the rest of the teams with his house design and structure...this year was no different.
Team 1: Kimbre and Marley were teamed up and did a wonderful design of Big Ben and looking over the city. 
I thought that there ferris wheel was so creative it was adorable.
I also liked that the view was as if you were looking over the top of the city from an airplane. 
Team 2: Okay those pictures of us, yes we are dorks but by that time we had had waaay to many gumdrops :) 
Me and Mom did a creative rendition of a Japanese house complete with symbols and a gum peaked roof.
I especially love our little gong and green gummy bear "buddy idol" as well as our gum drop lanterns hanging from licorice string. The noodles in gum drop are our sad attempt at bamboo. 
Team 3: Deke and Brenn did a sweet multiple level castle with cut out windows, a draw bridge, gummy bear guards, and cool sugar dyed water. 
Yes Brenn is using an exacto knife, they are hardcore. :) So yeah we will never let them be on the same team again :)
I have to admit it was really good. I really have to start a few weeks early and make my plan this next year so I can squash team Deke :) Oh by the way notice the king and queen with gum wrapper hats and the guard up top carrying the noodle.... it's all about the details. 
