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| Our outside Christmas lights. They definitely made me happy. :) |
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| So does this cute girl. :) |
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| My homemade wreath. :) |
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| So I thought we had more Christmas lights than we did - so you can see it's much brighter in the top half of the tree. Haha! |
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| Tried to get some pictures of our kids in their Christmas attire...yeah - FAIL (but there's a cute belly anyway). |
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| This boy was especially excited for Christmas this year. :) He loved ALL the traditions we did. Every morning he would check our advent calendar - spot Buzz the elf, move our Santa down a wooden pegged chimney, and place a piece of the Nativity on the felt. |
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| The Polar Express is a MUST read. :) We looked in to going and doing one of them - but it was all sold out and an arm and a leg for a ticket. The book is still nice though! :) |
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| Someone got in to a marker (dry erase thank goodness). |
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| Snuggle time happens less and less with how busy this boy is, but he'll usually sit for a bottle....for a while. :) |
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| This was my favorite paper Ross brought home! |
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| This girl LOVES her dance class. She always points it out whenever we pass it (or she thinks we've passed it). She's getting better at listening too...for the most part. ;) |
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| So sometimes you're partly a fool and come up with a great idea for your Sharing time lesson for Primary at 10 o'clock at night, and then stay up WAY too late finishing said idea. Giving gifts to the Savior. :) |
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| More Christmas ornament decorating. |
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| This kid enjoying pulling himself up on stuff. :) (Look at that double chin. Love it!) |
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| A rare snuggle moment! |
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| New glasses. Handsome boys! |
We also got a Christmas train to put around our tree from Grammy Joanne (a belated birthday present for me) :) Everyone loved it...and little fingers had a really hard time not touching it - which resulted in Mommy setting it back up every 2 minutes after it gets derailed....sigh. But it has real smoke and can carry things in its' train cars! Definitely a fun addition to our decorations.
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| Ross was the most excited about our train (which he quickly tried to manipulate into "his" train). :) Pretty fun though! |
Steve had a Court of Honor - their first for this troop he started up. He has a cute group of boys and it was fun to see them see the success of working for their merit badges.
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| Looking official started the Court of Honor |
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| Handing out merit badges. Our neighbor started coming to Scouts as well which has been a nice addition. |
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| Yeah for Scouting! |
We also had to make our traditional Shrinky Dinks. It never ceases to be entertaining watching them shrink in the oven. Before we know it, we'll have enough to do a Christmas with only Shrinky Dink ornaments!
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| This year's Shrinky Dinks. |
And then we got ready for our crazy weekend trip to Denver to see the new Star Wars movie with some friends that are pretty crazy about it. I think Star Wars is fun, but I am, by no means, crazy about it. Still, it's always fun to go do things with passionate people - they make the experience that much more enjoyable.
We headed to Denver Thursday evening after Steve got home from work. By the time we got to Denver we had ice forming on the windows of the car - even with the defroster on full blast! It was -1 degrees. Sheesh! We pretty much checked in to the hotel, grabbed food, and then I threw our kids in bed before my sweet friend stayed in the suite while I went with Steve and the rest of our friends' family to see the 10:30 showing of Star Wars in 3D. (We went all out). We thoroughly enjoyed the film - more like the original movies and way more funny!
We were dying when it ended at 1AM and dragged ourselves to bed (while our friends actually went to Village Inn for hot chocolate and to discuss all their theories and ideas to the unanswered questions in the movie). We scooted Ross and Ruby on to the floor and fell promptly asleep. Though, in the morning, I woke up to Ross and Ruby in the bed with me, and Steve on the floor sleeping. ???? Not sure how that occurred, but I guess the kids won that night.
Ruby also wins at dancing in stores. ;)
I got up early and went to the temple. It was cold getting there, but the warmth you feel inside as you focus on the Savior and remembering the covenants I've made was more than worth it. :) I love the temple. I love knowing that there is ALWAYS peace there, that I can find God and my Savior Jesus Christ there. Always a wonderful experience.
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| I just love the Denver Temple. :) |
We then ran a few errands and then got sucked into the world of Costco...I've found I have a Costco problem. Whenever we go, we eat there (when a hotdog and drink are $1.50 - you have to), and then shop, get gas, and by the time we're done it's been like 4 hours somehow. It seems to suck the life out of our trips. So, I've decided I can no longer plan on Costco trips every time we go to Denver or Colorado Springs.
We tried to find a Santa to visit as well - got lost trying to find a few, and ended up with a mall Santa (who seemed a little "over it" if you know what I mean). We can sum up the experience as a Santa fail this year. Ross pretty much just wanted to stand next to Santa and tell him what he was wishing for. Rowland was horrified that I would set him down on a strange man's lap, and Ruby was so afraid she clambered and clung on to Steve and would not let go for a second. She didn't even talk to Santa! We did it though. Whew!
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| Yeah - everyone looks thrilled to be there. ;) |
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| This is where Ruby camped out the entire time visiting Santa. |
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| Not even willing to look at the camera. Maybe next year?? |
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| Ross has gotten in to Spiderman - pretty much because he has the shoes. I guess super heroes are the thing at school these days. :) |
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| Sleepers. |
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| Love this sleeper. :) |
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| I need him to stop growing up. This picture made me think he was just a baby again...now he's almost 5! |
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| I love bubbly bath babies! |
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| Literally. :) |
Steve got to attend the temple the next morning, and then we headed back to good ol' Lamar so Steve could go see the BYU bowl game which was pretty incredible even though we lost.
Then it was gearing up for the week of Christmas. So many things to get done and do! We gave roasted almonds for our friend and neighbor gift this year and I think it was a hit. We LOVE roasted almonds - they always remind me of BYU football games. :)
