Friday, December 27, 2013

Christmas 2013

I really enjoyed Christmas this year as did the rest of my little family. We carried on the tradition of a advent calender. I made this one last year and inside each envelope is a scripture about Christ and telling of his birth.
This year we also put up a Christmas tree in the girls bedroom, saying they loved it is an understatement. It was one of the main highlights of Christmas for them, they're going to be devastated when I take it down next week.
I had our tree up the day before Thanksgiving but it took me forever to finally decorate it. I decided to make a popcorn and cranberry garland for the tree and I loved it.
We had some colder weather every once and awhile so the girls could occasionally wear some of their winter gear. I love this hat of Savannah's, I wish I had one.
The girls brought home some awesome holiday crafts this year too. Savannah made this adorable card one day. When she realized one of the eyes was missing she said it was a Pirate Santa.
This ornament Olivia made was by far my favorite! I mean come on its hilarious and totally fantastic!
At church the Sunday before Christmas the primary put of a nativity during sharing time and Savannah's class were the angles, she just thought it was great.
Christmas Eve was such a great day! Jacob ended up having it off and we spent the day relaxing and baking, and just spending time together. Abby had so tummy time.
The girls and I made sugar cookies for Santa like we do every year.
Jacob got Abby down for a nap and followed her example by taking one himself.
I made homemade marshmallows using this recipe and I was really happy with how they turned out. We were suppose to put them in our homemade hot chocolate that I made which did not turn out the way I expected.
That night before the girls went to bed Jacob read the girls The Night Before Christmas which is something we do every Christmas as well. Jacob's dad would read this to his kids on Christmas Eve as well.
The girls were beyond thrilled and excited when they woke up Christmas morning and they loved all their gifts. Savannah is sporting her new shirt, skirt, fairy wings,and guns she got for Christmas.
The big present the girls got this year was a Barbie house from my parents, they've been playing with it everyday since they got it which is awesome.
Later that afternoon we had some good friends of ours come over for Christmas dinner where we ate tons of food. I actually ate all day long from all the snacks we had laying around like artichoke dip, cheese and crackers and these amazing little smokies, and muddy buddies to the amazing dinner I made. Yes I'm bragging about the dinner I made. This year we had turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, corn, brussels sprouts, stuffing, this jello salad, Jacob's killer beans, and this amazing cranberry orange relish from Trader Joes. For dessert we had rolo cookies, the sugar cookies we had made earlier, and homemade apple pie. I know tons of food people and it was all amazing! By the end of the night I was exhausted from all the baking and all the fun we'd had. It ended up being a great Christmas spent with some of my most favorite people.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

I love this time of year! I feel like since the girls are in school we've been a bit too busy to do all the fun Christmas things I'd like but we still find time for some of them. Abby has been keeping us busy and wearing herself out too since she started rolling over about a month ago. She's almost mastered rolling back onto her back from her stomach too. Its crazy that she's already 4 1/2 months, time is going by way too fast.  Back to Christmas fun though, A good friend of ours went with me and the girls to see the annual gingerbread house display they have in Prescott. It was so fun and the girls had a blast, after looking at everything we then got to decorate gingerbread cookies. Now I'm actually not a fan of gingerbread but these were AMAZING!!! The girls had so much fun decorating and about halfway into it Santa came. The look on Savannah's face was priceless, her jaw literally dropped and she was speechless. When she could finally talk again it was almost in a whisper and she informed me that Santa was there and she really wanted to talk to him.


Abby was fantastic and slept pretty much the whole time. I was smart and brought the stroller so I could just put her car seat in it and push her and Olivia around.

A few days later we woke up to this beautiful sight, this is my kind of snow people. It was just enough to make the view from the front of our house look beautiful and by the afternoon it had all pretty much melted. I loved it, the girls were of course a bit disappointed that it hadn't snowed a bit more.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Thanksgiving 2013

We once again headed down to Jacob's brothers for Thanksgiving this year.It was so fun as always! What can be better then great food, great company, and beautiful weather.




I love that these guys all get along and have so much fun together. I think that's been one of my favorite things about living here, That we and the girls have been able to get to know my brother in law and his family better. They're 5 kids are adorable and so much fun and my brother in law and his wife are fantastic. Spending time with them has and is a blast, it was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Zoo Fun

The zoo here in Prescott had an amazing deal going on one weekend. They had dollar admission days so we of course took advantage and took the girls. It ended up being so much fun! This zoo is so small but lots of fun. The girls loved looking around and seeing everything they could. We actually got really lucky and most of the animals were out and moving around. A fun thing about this zoo is that the animals are front and center so you can see all of them.



They have a petting zoo and kids area too.

The highlight was when we ran into our good friends and the kids got to watch the bears feeding time. It really was pretty cool.
Overall it was a great time and we were all glad we go out and have some fun.