December - Part 1

December was filled with lots of fun Christmas-y things!

December 6
Ward Christmas Party

One of our fun favorites was our ward Christmas party.  The friend who put it all together did a really great job.

We were all dressed up in somewhat Christmas-y outfits and took the liberty of having a friend take a family photo for us, which we included on our Christmas cards we sent out this year. (I feel the need to mention that we've been married for 10 Christmases and this is the first year we've sent out Christmas cards.  I was quite proud of us for finally taking that step! Haha!)  I always hope to have professional pictures done, but I'm a little slow in that arena.
(Yes, the weather was that nice in early December that we were completely fine not wearing jackets outside)

This is Savy's "hold me" face when she's tired ;)

There was a kids table set up for the kids to draw pictures and play with Christmas stickers. It was a big hit with the kiddos.

He's such a good daddy!

We even got a visit from some special guests! Aurora wasn't too thrilled though and didn't want to sit on Santa's lap.  She just wanted Daddy to comfort her instead.

Savy was okay, but she didn't want to sit on Santa's lap either.



December 13
Decorating Sugar Cookies & Neighbor Treat Plates

My great aunt invited us to come make sugar cookies with them.  She makes sugar cookies with the grand-kids every Christmas for her sister who lives in Florida.  I was thrilled because Aurora REALLY wanted to make sugar cookies, but making an entire batch of sugar cookies can be kind of daunting sometimes, especially when you only eat about 2 each.  This way Aurora was able to get her sugar cookie fix, play with cousins, and everyone was happy :)  Thanks again for inviting us to help out this year, Aunt Sharon!  We loved it!

The girls serenaded us with their music before we really got into decorating cookies. Savy is pretty good with the drums! ;)

Jessy and Aurora played the piano
(Don't you love Aurora's curly pony tail? That curl is natural!)

Rori loves Nanny Sharon and loved that she got to her help cut out some cookies

Aeryka is a great helper/teacher too!


Miss Abbie "counting" chocolate chips :)

A cute Savy selfie

After some of the cookies were baked and cooled the decorating began!

Savannah got to help Aeryka out a little too :)

Then she started getting cranky because it was nap time.  She got mad at me and laid down on the floor to pout.  I think she's the cutest pouter ever, and this picture isn't even half of it! The best is when she's standing and slumps her shoulders with the cutest little pouty face ever!

She was okay again for a while once I gave her some sugar ;)

I wish we had taken a picture of the cookies Aurora decorated and that we got to bring home with us.  They were stellar!

A few days later the girls helped us make the treat plates we delivered to some of our neighbors and their teachers from church.

They're super good helpers! I love that they're getting old enough to participate and really experience the fun and joyful things about Christmas time!

Randoms
Our girls in December

And, as always, I have some random pictures of the girls.  I love to take pictures of them while they're sleeping.  They make me smile :)


I have no idea how that position can be comfortable.  Silly Savannah!

Playing in the tent


Savannah's new found love is Daddy's iPad.  Sometimes the girls have a hard time sharing it with Daddy ;)


More to come on December....Stay tuned!

Decorating for Christmas

Thanksgiving break is the best time for us to decorate for Christmas.  I have to confess that decorating is usually not my most favorite thing to do and Darwin ends up doing most of the work every year.  He is the best husband ever.  Period.  Thanks for being so awesome, babe!

Unfortunately, this was our 3rd year in a row with ants in our ornament box.  Gross!  We can't figure out what they love about it so much.  Darwin is a saint and thoroughly vacuums it out every time.  Third time is the charm and we decided to store them inside our condo from now on rather than out in our storage closet.  We're just hoping we don't get a condo full of ants by next Christmas!

The girls loved helping set up the Christmas tree

Rori cracks me up!  She was so serious about the pine needle she found that fell off the tree :)

 
 The star was a hot commodity this year.  The girls didn't stop fighting over it until after Daddy put it on the top of the tree!


Savannah hugged it tight and kept saying "Mine!" once she got her hands on it.

Rori helped Daddy put the star on top

 

 The poinsettia flowers were a big hit too :)

I'm glad everyone had such a great time getting ready for Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving this year was fun, as always.  My dad ended up having to work on Thanksgiving day so we missed them, but we were glad we got to see my parents the Sunday before.  We spent the first part of the day at home and then had Thanksgiving dinner with Darwin's family and made an appearance at my cousins house for our second dessert later that night.  Good times all around!

Thanksgiving morning I went with my friend, April, to a Thanksgiving day workout instructed by a friend in our ward who makes a living helping people get fit.  I wished I had worked up to that workout that morning because I could hardly move for the next few days.  Darwin teased be because I groaned every time I stood up or sat down.  It was killer, but it felt so good at the same time! It was definitely worth it.  Haha!  Thanks again for inviting me, April!

After I got home from my workout, Darwin went to run a 5k put on by some of our friends.  He loved it, and got a trophy for coming in 1st (he said he only came in first because the young whipper snapper who would have won took a wrong turn).  He had a good time and we were both glad to get a good workout in before our yummy meal later on.

The weather was beautiful!  When we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house, Grandpa was working on raking up leaves.  It ended up being a party in the leaves rather than clean-up, but it was worth it for the cute pictures we got.  Please excuse my redundancy of leaf photos, but I'm a biased parent with cute kids so I can't resist!

She still has the most kissable cheeks ever! I love it!

There was some work going on...it wasn't all play ;)



Uncle Ryan got in on the fun and made the leaves rain on the girls over and over again.  The loved it!


Grandma got a canoe from BYU as her retirement gift so Daddy and Uncle Ryan helped put it in a safe place for the winter.

Our sweet Savannah!

Cuties!

My loves!

We ended up using a cropped version of this one on our Christmas card this year

And the leaves just kept falling!

Savy's silly face :)

Uncle Ryan practically buried them :)

Our Thanksgiving dinner crew

Saving a little on her face for later ;)

Some of our extra goodies

And Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving without a turkey coma ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!