DARWIN is on his 12th year of teaching, currently at Springville High School teaching astronomy, geology, environmental science, and physics. He also teaches physics at UVU for a 7 week STEM summer school program for junior high students. He also teaches teenagers in our church ward. He's super busy, but still makes time to be an awesome dad and husband.
Sunday, December 22
Our girls looked so cute in their Christmas dresses. Of course we had to take pictures! :)
The girls played while they waited for Mommy to finish getting ready
Vannah's face totally cracks me up in this one :)
Daddy and Rori tested out the position of the camera for us. Cuties.
Happy family!
Daddy and Rori tested out the position of the camera for us. Cuties.
Happy family!
Monday, December 23
FHE - Decorating Christmas Cookies
Instead of doing a gift exchange between friends this year we made it a point to get together and do something fun. So our favorite friends, the McSweeney's and the Hjorth's, came over for some yummy soup for dinner and decorating Christmas sugar cookies for dessert, with a fun game in between. We planned this the night before--and that's what I love about these guys--we can plan something practically last minute and it always comes together and we always have a great time! Savannah missed out on the whole thing though. She fell asleep at 4:30pm that afternoon and didn't wake up until almost 5:00am the next morning!
While we waited for our guests to arrive, Aurora chilled on the couch watching our favorite Christmas movie: The Polar Express :)
After a delicious dinner the real fun began!
Eating them is always the best part!
This is what she did when I told her to smile. Silly Rori.
Aurora and R took turns taking pictures of each other :)
Thanks again, friends! You guys are the best!
Tuesday, December 24
Christmas Eve!
One of our favorite end-of-year traditions is to watch all the home videos we've taken over the last year (or as many as we can get through, anyway). We started watching in the morning, and when the video of our traditional Christmas Eve swim from last year came up Aurora started putting all of our swim stuff together and wanted to go right then--she even grabbed some sunscreen, not that we needed it. Haha! :)
While Daddy went out to do some last minute shopping, Rori helped me make some yummy treats. She's such a great helper!
When nap time was over it was time for our Christmas Eve swim! Aurora was SO happy to be back in the water--we haven't gone swimming much in the last year, and if you remember our last attempt, it didn't go over very well.
I snapped this picture of Dar--it cracks me up that his eyes are totally not lined up. Funny how water distorts things :)
Savannah's last pool experience was a little traumatic for her, so she and I took things nice and slow. We even smoothed things over for her and let her have her bink in the pool. I think the water was the warmest it has ever been when we've gone swimming at the clubhouse. It was so nice, and I think it helped Savy ease into the water a little more.
No words necessary.
It took a few minutes, but Savannah slowly got more comfortable with being in the pool.
She was eventually okay enough that she let us put her in her floaty, and actually quite enjoyed it! She even got to the point that she didn't care so much about Aurora's splashing.
Aurora on the other hand LOVES the water. We love that she has no problems with being under the water. She thinks it's so fun to practice holding her breath :)
The best part about our swim was that we were the only ones at the pool for the entire 1.5 hours we were there! That rarely happens, and we loved every second of it just being our family in the great big pool!
After swimming we went home and the girls had baths. We ate our traditional clam chowder for our Christmas Eve dinner. I'm not a fan of fish/fishy food, but Dar was really proud of me that not only did I make the clam chowder (we're usually with his family Christmas Eve and his mom makes it, but they were in Pittsburgh visiting Dar's sister this year) but I actually ate it with the clams in it!! I gave him the big pieces of clams though :) After dinner it was time to get ready for Santa to come! Savannah went to sleep really quickly--it was a long, fun-filled day for her, so Aurora got a plate of cookies ready for Santa by herself.
She shared Santa's cookies with her nativity friends :)
During the night we went in to check on the girls--they frequently kick all their blankets off--and found Aurora like this:
My favorite part of the day was that Aurora kept saying to us, "Mom and Dad, this is such a wonderful day!" It made me smile every time she said it :)
Wednesday, December 25
Christmas Day!
When we woke up in the morning we saw that Santa came and the opening of presents commenced.
Such a cute little fairy!
Taking turns checking out each others toys
Vannah LOVES this tambourine she got from Santa--it lights up and plays music
Daddy got me a nice big mirror for the wall in the kitchen. Yay! The girls had a good time playing with it for a while.
Santa brought Savannah a princess tiara--she makes such a cute little princess! She surprised us by keeping it on for a really long time too. She usually pulls anything off her head as soon as we try to put it on. I think she's getting a little better though :)
I love for my house to be clean, but I do kind of enjoy the messiness of the aftermath of Christmas morning
Princess Savannah playing with Aurora's princess castle she got for her birthday last year. Savannah LOVES Aurora's princess castle!
She looked so cute with the tiara on and I couldn't resist taking a gazillion pictures :)
Our beautiful princesses--we sure love these girls of ours!
Silly Rori.
After opening presents our breakfast was finally ready. I gave it my first shot at making Dar's traditional family breakfast. It was my first attempt, and they didn't turn out as great as his mom's, but they still tasted pretty good. I was bummed that they exploded in the oven though. Haha. I guess I let them rise too long. Just a little more practice, right?
After breakfast we facetimed with the fam in Pittsburgh so Grandma and Grandpa could watch the girls open their presents from them
Grandma and Grandpa got Aurora a strider bike! Now we just can't wait for the weather to warm up so she can ride it outside!
Checking out the handle bars :)
After a nice, relaxing day together, I made my first ham for our Christmas dinner. It was so easy! I'm surprised I've never done it before. Haha. I'll definitely be making ham again.
Savannah enjoying her first Christmas dinner!
And so tired after another fun day :)
Merry Christmas, everyone!
While we waited for our guests to arrive, Aurora chilled on the couch watching our favorite Christmas movie: The Polar Express :)
After a delicious dinner the real fun began!
Eating them is always the best part!
This is what she did when I told her to smile. Silly Rori.
Aurora and R took turns taking pictures of each other :)
Thanks again, friends! You guys are the best!
Tuesday, December 24
Christmas Eve!
One of our favorite end-of-year traditions is to watch all the home videos we've taken over the last year (or as many as we can get through, anyway). We started watching in the morning, and when the video of our traditional Christmas Eve swim from last year came up Aurora started putting all of our swim stuff together and wanted to go right then--she even grabbed some sunscreen, not that we needed it. Haha! :)
While Daddy went out to do some last minute shopping, Rori helped me make some yummy treats. She's such a great helper!
When nap time was over it was time for our Christmas Eve swim! Aurora was SO happy to be back in the water--we haven't gone swimming much in the last year, and if you remember our last attempt, it didn't go over very well.
I snapped this picture of Dar--it cracks me up that his eyes are totally not lined up. Funny how water distorts things :)
Savannah's last pool experience was a little traumatic for her, so she and I took things nice and slow. We even smoothed things over for her and let her have her bink in the pool. I think the water was the warmest it has ever been when we've gone swimming at the clubhouse. It was so nice, and I think it helped Savy ease into the water a little more.
No words necessary.
It took a few minutes, but Savannah slowly got more comfortable with being in the pool.
She was eventually okay enough that she let us put her in her floaty, and actually quite enjoyed it! She even got to the point that she didn't care so much about Aurora's splashing.
Aurora on the other hand LOVES the water. We love that she has no problems with being under the water. She thinks it's so fun to practice holding her breath :)
The best part about our swim was that we were the only ones at the pool for the entire 1.5 hours we were there! That rarely happens, and we loved every second of it just being our family in the great big pool!
After swimming we went home and the girls had baths. We ate our traditional clam chowder for our Christmas Eve dinner. I'm not a fan of fish/fishy food, but Dar was really proud of me that not only did I make the clam chowder (we're usually with his family Christmas Eve and his mom makes it, but they were in Pittsburgh visiting Dar's sister this year) but I actually ate it with the clams in it!! I gave him the big pieces of clams though :) After dinner it was time to get ready for Santa to come! Savannah went to sleep really quickly--it was a long, fun-filled day for her, so Aurora got a plate of cookies ready for Santa by herself.
She shared Santa's cookies with her nativity friends :)
During the night we went in to check on the girls--they frequently kick all their blankets off--and found Aurora like this:
My favorite part of the day was that Aurora kept saying to us, "Mom and Dad, this is such a wonderful day!" It made me smile every time she said it :)
Wednesday, December 25
Christmas Day!
When we woke up in the morning we saw that Santa came and the opening of presents commenced.
Such a cute little fairy!
Taking turns checking out each others toys
Vannah LOVES this tambourine she got from Santa--it lights up and plays music
Daddy got me a nice big mirror for the wall in the kitchen. Yay! The girls had a good time playing with it for a while.
Santa brought Savannah a princess tiara--she makes such a cute little princess! She surprised us by keeping it on for a really long time too. She usually pulls anything off her head as soon as we try to put it on. I think she's getting a little better though :)
I love for my house to be clean, but I do kind of enjoy the messiness of the aftermath of Christmas morning
Princess Savannah playing with Aurora's princess castle she got for her birthday last year. Savannah LOVES Aurora's princess castle!
She looked so cute with the tiara on and I couldn't resist taking a gazillion pictures :)
Our beautiful princesses--we sure love these girls of ours!
Silly Rori.
After opening presents our breakfast was finally ready. I gave it my first shot at making Dar's traditional family breakfast. It was my first attempt, and they didn't turn out as great as his mom's, but they still tasted pretty good. I was bummed that they exploded in the oven though. Haha. I guess I let them rise too long. Just a little more practice, right?
After breakfast we facetimed with the fam in Pittsburgh so Grandma and Grandpa could watch the girls open their presents from them
Grandma and Grandpa got Aurora a strider bike! Now we just can't wait for the weather to warm up so she can ride it outside!
Checking out the handle bars :)
After a nice, relaxing day together, I made my first ham for our Christmas dinner. It was so easy! I'm surprised I've never done it before. Haha. I'll definitely be making ham again.
Savannah enjoying her first Christmas dinner!
And so tired after another fun day :)
Merry Christmas, everyone!
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