Christmas Season Highlights

December is flying by as usual. I cannot believe we have less than 2 weeks until Christmas! My kids are counting down the days and we just keep inching closer to the big day and the end of the year. I am loving the Christmas season this year. Weston and Davin totally get it and totally love it. I love all of our decorations. I love the pine tree smell and the treats covering my kitchen counter. I love wrapping presents and listening to Christmas music. I love singing the beautiful music of Christmas. And I love the overwhelming love and peace I feel when I reflect on the gift of my Savior. I am so blessed.

Highlights of the last week or so include making our magic fireplace! The boys did all of the fire strips. I just manned the glue stick. I had to emphasize the magic of the fireplace this year because the day we went to the store to get the posterboard for our project Weston was questioning it's purpose. On our way to the car from school he said, "Mom, I wonder how Santa really gets in our house to leave presents cause that fireplace is totally fake!" I have a feeling his belief in Santa is not going to last much longer, but in my house growing up, if you didn't believe then you didn't get presents!
Last week I hosted a super fun cookie exchange/Bunko party. I participate in a ladies' bunko group that meets once a month to play, eat, and talk. I hosted this month and turned it into a cookie exchange as well. It was great fun! We might have to make it our December tradition. :)

Another highlight was our ward Christmas party. I say highlight because it took up a lot of my time and energy last week, not because it was my favorite part of my December. I made several Sam's Club trips buying pies, lasagna, and salad. I spent an evening with the bishopric putting together the gifts (a Jon Schmidt Christmas CD for each family and treat bags for the kids). I gathered decorations from ward members and went early to decorate the tables and the hall. While busy decorating I found out from my husband, who was the bishopric member in charge of the party, that the pianist who was supposed to play for the group caroling was not going to make it. So as soon as we were done decorating I snuck off to practice the piano.

It was a busy evening, but the party was a success. There was plenty of food, it looked nice, the singing was fun, the gifts were appreciated, and everyone had a nice time visiting. Oh, and the coloring was a big hit. We covered the tables with butcher paper and put out Christmas coloring pages, word searches, and crosswords and cups of crayons (Ian's idea). It was good to have something to keep the kids (and adults!) occupied during slower moments of the party, and to provide conversation starters. Ian and I came home afterwards and put our feet up! Whew!

Talia the day of the Christmas party

The other HUGE highlight of December so far was Talia's 1st birthday! We celebrated with friends last night, but that will be it's own post tomorrow. Hope you all are enjoying your Christmas season as much as I am!

One Year

One year ago today I spent the day having contractions every 10 minutes. After a late afternoon walk things picked up and later that night, one year ago, our sweet baby girl, Talia Christine, was born. The first year of a baby's life is so amazing. They grow so much. Change so much. And so do I.

Just 1 day old

4 months

That first year flies more quickly with each child. I can't believe that it has been a year already since Talia has been a part of our family. We love her so much and can't imagine life without our girl. Happy Birthday Miss Talia!!!

Santa

On Monday I took Weston out of school early so that we could go visit Santa. We just didn't have any free evenings to go, so Weston played hooky for an afternoon. We ate lunch in the food court then met up with Ian and headed over to Santa's corner. It was great. There was no line. The Santa was adorable (not the sketchy glass-eyed Santa from years past). Weston and Davin just lit up when they saw him.

Weston had a whole list of things he asked for and Santa seemed a little overwhelmed. :) Davin, on the other hand, only asked for a Webkinz frog. He's so adorable. Talia didn't ask for anything except to be back in my arms. I thought their picture turned out really cute and I gave in and bought it for the first time. Davin's face is my favorite.
Santa is conveniently located right outside of See's, so next we went in and bought our pound of Christmas See's, which consists mostly of bordeaux(s), of course. Despite the three, yes three, trips we had to make to the mall bathroom in the course of our hour and a half mall outing, it was a success and I can now return to avoiding the mall like the plague for the rest of December.

Writing!

Weston is very into writing these days. I told you about his writing practice with his 3 page long Christmas list . . . well he also wrote a story book this weekend about his school. A monster attacked West Kearns Elementary and kidnapped the principal, but the monster was just misunderstood. All he really wanted was to be let into school. Pretty cute.

Anyway, this morning after I took my shower and shut off all the screens in front of my kids I thought I should help Davin practice writing some letters. I have never seen him write, so I thought we would start with "D." I wrote his name at the top of the page and he turned it over and proceeded to write his name without any help from me. What?!? Where did this come from? I think I underestimate my little Davin. Just because he wants to be Spiderman at Disneyland (according to last night's dinner conversation) when he grows up doesn't mean the kid isn't smart! Go Dav!

Just for cute kicks . . .

Deck Them Halls

December 1st is tomorrow and we are ready! It took all weekend plus Monday to get the house and tree decorated, but we had fun. The house got mostly decked out on Sunday afternoon. It was fun to find new places to put my decorations. I have mostly always put things in the same places in this house, but since we now have an additional couch in the living room there isn't room for our tree in there, so the tree is in the den and that caused things to shift around a bit.

The Piano

The entry bookshelf

The doorway from the living room to the kitchen.

The shelves by the piano

Christmas book advent

My felt advents

I love this quirky, jingly Santa on the laundry room door.

We had planned to decorated the Christmas tree on Saturday evening, but ended up having friends over instead. Weston was pretty good about waiting even though he was SO excited to put the ornaments on the tree. Sunday night after dinner we got out all the tree decor, but when we went to plug the lights in when they were already on the tree the second strand wasn't lighting up. This time Weston couldn't contain his disappointment and there were some tears. I felt horrible that I had to put him off again.

Monday morning I picked up some new white lights for the tree and for FHE we decorated the tree. We decided it was Davin's turn to put the star on the top, but when Ian lifted him up he was terrified and cried, so Weston ended up doing the honors. I wasn't feeling too great, so Ian did most of the helping as the kids hung their ornaments. They each chose 10 ornaments to hang, then they went to bed and Mommy and Daddy finished decorating the tree and moved a few things around. I am very happy with how the house and tree look. It is fun to have our home festive and ready for the Christmas season.
***Please ignore the fact that my kids are wearing their Halloween pj's while they decorate the tree.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Our long Thanksgiving weekend was fantastic! Weston finished school on Tuesday, so on Wednesday we went to the aquarium and got our new memberships. We got to see the Caymans and the sting rays eat for the first time. It was fun to do an outing like that. I've kind of gotten out of the habit.
Thanksgiving morning was super chill. We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in our jammies and had coffee cake for breakfast. Ian cleaned up leaves in the yard while I cooked a little, then we gathered up and hit the road. We enjoyed another lovely, relaxing, delicious Thanksgiving in Ogden with the Davis's and the Bitton's.

We listened to Christmas music on the way home from Ogden that night and got everyone to bed at a decent hour. I didn't do any early morning Black Friday shopping, so Friday morning we all slept in again. We went and saw the Muppet movie in the middle of the day. It was so fun and cute! I loved it. Davin thought it was a little long, but they both liked the characters and it was totally nostalgic for me. I loved all the celebrity cameos too.

Friday afternoon I went to Kohl's and scored some pretty great deals on some clothes and birthday presents for Dav. It really wasn't that crowded, and I am glad that I ventured out. Friday night we went and got our Christmas tree! We picked one out at the Home Depot this year. I am really happy with it. It's still not decorated, but it will be after tonight.
Saturday we went on a family outing to the planetarium. We hadn't been in awhile and they had a couple new exhibits, like this cool cloud simulation. Talia was fascinated by it. We went and saw Born to Be Wild in 3D in the IMAX theater. It was a really interesting and sweet documentary about orphaned elephants and orangutans who are rescued and then prepared to return to the wild. I loved it. Davin refused to wear his 3D glasses, so I don't think he enjoyed it as much, but he ate almost an entire bucket of popcorn so he was still happy. :)
Saturday evening we had our friends over for dinner. They brought Thanksgiving food and I made some grated carrots and pumpkin spice pudding to round out the meal. It was delicious! As much as I love having Thanksgiving in Ogden, I sure miss having leftovers! Yum. The Bayles' stayed late and we watched Seinfeld stand-up and played Settlers.

Sunday was a busy day with church and tag team meetings afterwards, but when we all were home together we got out all the Christmas boxes and decorated the house. I am loving it! I had to put things in different places this year because of the new couches, but it's looking very festive and smelling so piney! I am so ready for the Christmas season this year. :)

It's a Beautiful Life

I married my sweetheart 8 years ago today. It was the best day ever! We have built a beautiful life together and I couldn't be happier. I love you Ian! Thanks for all the love, laughs, and our adorable children! Happy Anniversary!