Christmas!!

Here's Emma putting baby Jesus on the advent tree on the morning of Christmas Eve... she was quite excited...




We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Ben's family and had a great time. We played games, many of which being the kids games they got for Christmas, watched movies (including going to see Sherlock Holmes, which was awesome!!), and ate lots of yummy food. On Christmas Eve we had our traditional Advent celebration of reading the Christmas story in Luke 2 and singing lots of Christmas hymns. The kids attempted to follow along with the story by acting it out with a nativity set... I think the most successful part of that was the hee-hawing sound effects of the donkey.






Just as we finished up Advent, Santa Clause showed up! (We had to tell Becca that it was really just daddy dressing up to be funny, so she wouldn't be so scared... still, she refused to sit on his lap).



Emma enthusiastically raising her hand when Santa asks 'Who wants to sit on my lap first?'






My mother-in-law made the most amazing Christmas dinner, which included three types of puddings - a savory butternut squash and sun dried tomato pudding, Yorkshire pudding, and an egg nog bread pudding to die for - all accompanied by a delicious Christmas roast. It was quite the festive feast!

Grandma making Santa Lucia bread for Christmas breakfast
For Christmas, the girls got matching bedding and cute little pink chairs from Ben's parents. We have matching twin beds ready to use for Emma and Becca, but now we just need mattresses to go with them. I hope to get that all put together in another month or two, at which point I'll be sure to post pics of their newly decorated bedroom. Santa got Jake curtains for his bedroom (because he doesn't know any better yet, so good ol' Santa went with practical, yet fun for me!), and Ben surprised me and got our botanical prints framed. We've had these prints for over 4 years with the intent of framing them for our master bedroom, but the project got put on the wayside, till now. It's so nice to finally have some pictures hung up in our room, since it's literally been the only room in the house without any.


Other presents included plenty of great clothes for all of us, a trunk we got the girls for all their dress up clothes, games, some jewelry for Emma, Beatles Rock Band from the Lee's to us (which we've already played quite a bit), puzzles, new crayons, books, and other little fun odds and ends to keep the kids busy for quite some time... at least hopefully through January. :)













A really BIG puzzle

Becca posing for the camera in a new outfit



Playing Cootie with Daddy


We played an intense game of Operation...




I spent much of the day after Christmas sorting through all the Christmas loot and finding places for it all in the house, while also purging old toys... luckily the girls didn't see me throwing anything out because they were still too busy enjoying their presents and being silly...



There's nothing better than 2 cute little girls in footy pajamas

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Here's to a happy New Year!

Oh man...

I still need to post about Christmas... which I will do... later. But for now, I really wanted to update on Jake and how awesome he is. :)

He just recently began crawling up the stairs (which makes me incredibly nervous and I will only let him do it if someone is following up behind him)



And, look at this! He recently started standing unsupported for like 5 seconds at a time... he also walks along the furniture. My guess is he'll be all out walking in a few weeks - he's still a few days away from turning 9 months old, so I definitely anticipate an early walker! *sigh*

Visitors!

So, Ben wasn't able to travel with me to and from Utah since he was busy with work, but luckily for me I was able to avoid making the trek alone - on the way up, my sister-in-law, Emily, and her son, Adam, rode with me (since they were wanting to attend Grandma D's birthday party... she then flew home with her parents). Somehow I also convinced my brother and sister that it would be really fun to drive home to AZ with me and then fly themselves back to Utah after a short visit in the land of the sun. mwa ha ha! ;) It was a nice LONG 12 hour drive home with whiny, crying kids... but we made the best of it and we even got to stop to say hello to Taya and family in Vegas! I even got to see Ryan, who was just off an 18 hour shift at the hospital. What a cute family they are... I miss you Jones Family! We also stopped briefy at the Hoover Dam... the talented Aaron took some pics... you see how the bridge is actually nearing completion - that will most definitely speed up the drive to and from Utah once it's finished. We were in awe of the mammoth construction in progress... the bridge is huge!





We spent much of our time over the weekend playing games at home, like Rock Band, Cranium, and Phase 10



One evening Aaron made us his movie-theater style popcorn for a movie night



We also made a late night trek to the McCormick train park in Scottsdale to see the Christmas lights... it was CRAZY busy, and we opted against riding the big train with the 2 hour long line... instead we found an alternative and rode the smaller train with the not to impressive light display... however, it was fun enough, and it appeased the children from thinking we didn't do what we came there for.



We stayed up late many nights and woke up early when the kids did... so we got tired...



On the last morning of Aaron and Sarah's visit, we went to the zoo just before taking them to the airport... the weather was awesome and it was a really nice last outing before seeing them off.























Please come visit again!! And to any other family members and friends that want to come stay, we even have a guest room with a real bed (recently upgraded from the air mattress)... and I will make you nice breakfasts and provide you with clean towels. :)

Captured in the moment...

My brother and sister were here in Arizona visiting this past weekend (more posts and details coming later...). Aaron has turned into quite the talented photographer and took a bunch of pics of the girls over the course of his days with us while they played and while we were on outings together. He really captured the spirit of my little kiddos quite well. These are some of my faves...