Oh, What fun!

Some more pictures from our Christmas season this year...

Sierra made a halo for her beloved princess bear, and then donned one for herself. So precious!!

Visiting Santa

At the mall downtown by the gigantic Christmas tree

Wonder where they store that thing!?

Getting creative with photos trying to entertain myself while in line for an hour...

The scratch on this bulb landed right on Mike's nose! ha ha!

The girls trying to keep themselves entertained.

Gigantic tree

The Girls with Santa

We realized we hadn't gotten a picture of Sierra with Santa - maybe ever?

She wanted to be with her sister - so they took a normal and a silly version.

We had to do some retakes because the first time Lily's eyes were half closed on one of the pictures and then, trying to fix it, they accidentally left one of the poses off our package - 3 times. The other people in line probably thought we were super picky! The first silly version Sierra was dabbing across Santa's face - definitely turned out to be a memorable experience!

Gingerbread House Decorating

Sierra, Elsie and I teamed up on one house.

 

Lily wanted to do one all herself.

This is my probably my favorite picture - silly kid!

She just kept licking it!!

Close up of Lily's

Silly faces!

Such concentration

Notice the little Santa feet sticking out of the chimney! So creative :)

It's been different being a working mom, but we've managed to squeeze in a little fun, and I'm so lucky to be able to take some time off during the girl's holiday! Almost Christmas!!

Decorating for Christmas

I wanted to share some of the pictures I took this month for our family. We started decorating at the end of November this year because these two just couldn't wait. 

How could you say no to that excitement!?

Finally a real mantel to hang our stockings on!! So exciting :)
(Check out the mantel re-do Before/After)

Our tree -  majority of the ornaments are hand made

(First fire since building our new mantel)

Ornament Making...aka Glitter disaster of 2018

A yearly tradition, but not always with glitter.

A new family tradition - The Advent Calendar

The girls are taking turns each day - we put in a scripture, a treat of some kind, candy, stickers, or other small things, and some Christmassy family activities, but mostly just for the weekends when we have time for them. It's been fun. Before their Christmas programs at school we painted their nails candy cane striped - because I could only find red and white nail polish the day I went to the store for it.

Just a couple random pictures

Always nice to get a picture of the kids helping out with chores. This is how the girls unload the dishwasher :)

Mike actually took the initiative to snap a picture of us baking cookies.

Decorating at Grandma's

A family tradition

Grandpa Blaine hanging his one favorite ornament on the tree. He lets everyone else hang the rest.

Mike with the prune doll he made as a Christmas gift for his parents in school when he was five and they were living in Germany. Goes up on their mantel every year. Pretty sure they replace the prune hands from time to time.

Selfie with me and my baby

I helped with a few more ornaments than Grandpa, but my back was hurting so much I spent most of the time on the couch instead of decorating!

Trying to get the girls to pose by the tree...

Started off a competition with them each trying to be taller than the other - it is crazy how high Sierra comes up to next to Lily when there is 4 years difference between them. She is a tall 6 year old! She's gonna beat you one day, Lily!

Mike and his parents dog Jackpot

And finally a little treat - decorating the cookies we made to eat!