More Christmas fun

Christmas was so much fun this year. Up until this year, we have always traveled to one of our parent's houses for Christmas. While those years hold wonderful memories, we decided it was finally time to be a big grown up family and stay home and start establishing traditions of our own. (Also I was getting really sick of hauling presents back and forth, it is so much easier to be at home for all that.) Jon caved and let me get a real tree since we were staying home. It smells wonderful. Definitely brings back memories of Christmases from my childhood. Also it was so fun for my kids to go and pick it out together.

We were lucky enough to have my fabulous sister Beth spend Christmas with us as well this year. My kids love having visitors and they love Aunt Beth, so they were extremely excited that she spent the week with us. She was their favorite to sit by, read stories with, play with, etc the whole week.
On Christmas eve we started by Beth having the girls open one of the presents she had for them. It was a gingerbread train kit. We spent some time working on that together...Grace mostly just sampled the candy throughout the process.
 

Then we had a Shepherd's dinner (which is a tradition that we adopted from my family). 
We prepared food that the shepherds may have eaten and sit on the floor (that is my kids favorite part I think) and think about how the shepherds may have felt on the night of the Savior's birth, how they would have reacted to the angels telling them the news, how they must have been righteous men to be told to go welcome the Christ child. We had some good food...although it is probably a stretch to say it is all food they may have eaten that night. I would call ours more of a multicultural shepherd's dinner this year. We did have grape juice, cheese and crackers, hummus and bread, figs, and other nuts and fruit (all which may have been somethings they could have eaten). But since Jon's family traditionally does mexican food on Christmas eve (along with lots of other Arizonans might I add), we decided to have some fresh tamales that a sweet Spanish lady named Dora made for us, (they were delicious by the way). And we may have had some focaccia bread with fresh rosemary and balsamic dip too. Oh and a fabulous salad we wanted to try from the new Our Best Bites cookbook. Delicious.

After our lovely dinner we started a new tradition that Beth had learned about from one of her close friend's families. Each of us took a piece of one of my nativity sets, and then we took turns telling about that person, their significance to the Christmas story, how they may have felt, etc. And we sang some songs that went along with different parts of the nativity. It was really neat and the spirit was strong. I was surprised how well it worked even with my small children. We hope to keep that tradition going for years to come.

We let the girls put their mattresses on the floor and sleep next to each other on Christmas eve, they thought that was so fun. Christmas morning was super exciting for the girls as well. You can see by the joy on their faces in these pictures. 
We of course made them come wake us up and then wait until I put our Christmas caramel rolls in the oven and took a picture of them lined up on the stairs in youngest to oldest order.  We all got very spoiled and the girls continued to get spoiled throughout the day as Jon's family came over for Christmas dinner.
Grace and Addie got tons of princess dressups and Grace has lived in them from morning until night since that moment.

Addie wants to be a doctor  when she grows up so she got lots of doctor stuff and a pediatrician barbie. 

I am the only one who reads instructions I found out. So here I am reading the instructions on how to put the song castle together, apparently Santa's elves dropped the ball on assembly on Christmas eve. 

It was my first time cooking a turkey and really my first time cooking a big holiday dinner. It went well though I think, with lots of help from Beth and others. I brined the turkey and followed this recipe and it turned out yummy. Jon and his Aunt did find the giblets that I missed taking out of the cavity when they were carving the turkey...oops, but I am sure I am not the only one that has done that before. ;) Anyways overall it was delicious and the company was fantastic. We spent time opening more gifts and playing my new present from Jon, Just Dance 4. It was so fun, even Jon's parents got up at one point and danced to Rihanna, wish I had a picture to post of that but I was having too much fun watching and playing to take any, but I know others did...anyone want to send me any to post here?

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas filled with family and friends and most of all felt the true spirit of Christmas this season. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that sent his son Jesus Christ down to the earth as the greatest gift he could have ever given each of us. 

Christmas activities

Here are a few pictures of a few of our fun Christmas activities.
Mesa Temple Lights

We went to Mesa last weekend to have an early Christmas with Jon's sister Angela before she left on her mission. 

Making Christmas Pizza...I had to freehand the dough so they aren't perfect, but my kids thought they were cool and that was all that mattered, oh and they tasted yummy!

We made Rudolf gingerbread cookies!

Christmas dresses for church,
We still have more to come tonight and tomorrow, hooray. We are lucky to have my sister Beth here to spend Christmas with us this year, and Jon's family will be up for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Wish you all a wonderful holiday!

You better not pout...

At our ward Christmas party this weekend. Santa came. Addie was so excited to tell Santa just what she wanted. Grace was excited about the idea of Santa, but when it came time to sit on his lap, Jon had to take her there and set her on his lap as she protested.

 She just sat the whole time with this pout on her face looking straight forward and ignoring his questions. It was hilarious. When we came home I asked her if she told Santa that she wanted a princess castle like we had practiced. She replied, "no, I just pouted". But she wrote her requests in the letter she is clutching in her hand in the picture. So I am sure he will get the memo. I am glad my friend Kelley was there with a camera. This picture is classic.

First Tooth

Addie lost her first tooth last week. She was thrilled. She couldn't wait to go to sleep so the tooth fairy could come, and so she could go to school the next day and tell all her friends.
I was happy it finally came out because my little drama queen couldn't stop talking about the intense pain of her loose tooth. Luckily for me, she and her dad worked on it every night together, because he is way more patient with that stuff than me. I forgot to take a picture with the tooth, so we settled on one with the tooth fairy's reward.

Thankful for my blessings

Today Addie helped me make a lot of food for tomorrow. While we were making the blueberry jello I told her that it was my favorite part of thanksgiving. Without skipping a beat, Addie replied, "Thinking of all my blessings is my favorite thing, but blueberry jello is a close second." Yep, my 5 year old is a better person than me for sure.

Halloween 2012

Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween. We had a good one. We went to the celebration and trick or treating that our tiny little town puts on every year. They have a costume parade and our friend's little boy got 2nd place and got $20 for it. Guess I will work harder on a unique costume for the girls next year, didn't know there were cash prizes involved.

I was so sick of my kids eating candy and acting crazy by the end of the day, that I made them cut trick or treating short and go home and pass out candy to trick-or-treaters instead. They had an equally fun time doing that. We only got a few dozen trick-or-treaters, so the girls were having a grand time giving each one handfuls of candy. I was all for that though, the less candy left at my house the better. Addie was so excited to hand out candy she was making up songs to entice people to come to our house and singing it at the top of her lungs and nearly chasing kids down and telling them to stop by. It was hilarious.

Grace (Belle) was not excited to take pictures, she was on a sugar high and just wanted more candy and to go trick or treating. So most of the time she was trying to run or hide from my attempt to get a picture of them to document the occasion.

Running Away

Conversation at lunch:
G: I am going to run away from this house Mama (I had refused to give her more goldfish until she finished the nutritious parts of her lunch)
M: Oh really where are you going to run to?
G: Well, Grandma's house
M: That pretty far away, how will you get there?
G: (long silence) Ok I will stay here, can I have some more goldfish please?

This is the second time recently she has threatened to run away, where does she get such ideas and really, the girl is 2! Sometimes I get really worried about how I am going to survive her as a teenager.

She loves to be contrary. So if I say no, she will reply with yes. If I say stop she will say go. So I taught her the "Hello Goodbye" song and Jon let her watch it on you tube. Might be the cutest thing in the world to hear her singing it during the day. "The 'Needles' sing that song Mama", she tells me. Oh man I love that girl. I really hope she doesn't run away!

This was her first time at the dentist, she did awesome. Let them clean her teeth and everything. 

It is strange to not really need my double jogger when I go running these days. Grace thinks it is pretty handy to have a place for all her dolls to sit though, so I guess it works. 

Deep Sleepers

It is 11:30pm, just went in to check on my girls and to turn off their lamp before bed, and found that Grace was poopy. How does one poop in their sleep? Or if she pooped before, how is she ok with falling asleep poopy...who knows. I proceeded to lower the crib side, I know, I know those things are banned now-a-days you say; but I still like the feature...so I am keeping it. Came in handy tonight, I did the whole diaper change and she snoozed right through it. Both my kids and my husband, as a matter of fact sleep like they're dead. Can't help but be a little jealous...light sleep is the curse of a mother.

Stinky

Addie came home from school and insisted she need to change her clothes because she was stinky, I didn't disagree, but asked her how she got so stinky. Here is her logic, "Well school kids stink you know, and then it seeps into the walls of the school and then it seeps into me and my clothes." Lol, love her. Poor teachers in Arizona with children coming in from recess after playing in 100 degree heat. That was one thing I did not like about teaching elementary school...sometimes it was unbearably stinky.

Auntie

Today was the first day Grace was actually excited for Addie to leave to school. As Addie pulled away Grace ran up the stairs as fast as her two cute short legs would allow and retrieved something special from Addie's hiding place. 
                                           

See these two girls of mine have been fighting over this silly doll since Addie brought her home yesterday from school. She got it from the "Prize Box" at school for being well behaved, but it certainly brought out her worst side here at home. She wouldn't hardly let Grace hold her new doll all day and night. So I was perfectly happy to let Grace have it all day today while Addie was at school. And look at how happy it made this sweet little thing?

She calls herself Auntie, well because of course Addie is the mommy. Grace said to the doll, "Auntie will babysit you all day long and take good care of you."

Too cute. When she tried to feed her breakfast and got raisin bran and milk all over her face, Grace said "Momma, Addie sister is going to be so angy wit me for getting her dirty." Grace was waiting at the bus stop to pick up Addie, doll cradled in her arms, ready to hand over her charge for the day. Seriously she was the happiest little 2 year old today. I can't decide if this doll really is that cool, or if it is just the fact that she knows she isn't supposed to have it that make it so thrilling.
                                                       
I love this last pic of Grace because it showcases her crooked smile...which she got from me.