christmastime festivities

i had hoped to get these pictures posted before christmas (mainly so i wouldn't feel so behind on blogging), but christmas has come and gone. so before i post those pictures i had to share some of the fun things we did leading up to the big day.  i love that christmastime is a "season" and we get to celebrate for a whole month!

meeting santa

our kids got to see santa and mrs. claus at our ward party at church. visiting the "big guy" went much better this year (although i love last year's pictures. they're classic and doesn't every kid need a "crying picture with santa?!)

in fact it went so well we decided to do it again. we braved snowy roads and slow traffic to get there, but i thought it was totally worth it. emma wasn't so sure about it the second time around, but logan told santa he wanted toys. specifically cars and trucks (no trains). he was also pumped about the candy cane he got (this kid has been buzzing with all the sugar he's been eating. he is his mother's son)!

annual white elephant party

every year our friends throw a fabulous white elephant christmas party. i look forward to it each year and people go all out (last year there was a mouse and a hermit crab. this year a goldfish). it seems like without fail every year dave ends up with some teeny-bopper item. one year it was a high school musical nightlight, last year he got a twilight poster (which turned out to be a hot item at my young women's white elephant party) and this year he got a twilight and new moon card game. score for him! he was also number one choosing his present (yes, out of a huge pile of presents this is the one he picked. almost like he is drawn to adolescent items). needless to say, no one stole from him so he was stuck with it.

me being the good wife i am used my turn (number 17, a much better position to be in) and stole him this denver PD trauma shooting kit. just so you know, we're now prepared for a gunshot wound (you never can be too prepared). 

the nutcracker

a few days before christmas we had a girls night at the nutcracker. i don't know the last time i saw it and it was magical. i am amazed at how the dancer can do such physically demanding things and yet make it look effortless and graceful (it reminded me of a quote from the killer movie, centerstage, "i want to see the movement, not the work behind it." it's something like that). we walked out to find lots of snow falling which made it seem even more like christmas.

snowy day

the snow storm mentioned above resulted in about a foot of snow at our house. this is the beautiful view from our bedroom window. clearly we have some gutter draining issues, but it made for incredible icicles!

and on a snow day like that, if you have to get out of your pajamas, the next best thing to be wearing is a fleece sweatsuit. if only one would look as cute on me as they do on these two!

decorating sugar cookies

dave and i were really excited to decorate sugar cookies. but i must admit by the end of the experience we were feeling a lot less enthusiastic. here's i think why: after making the dough, rolling it out, cutting out the cookies, baking the cookies, making the frosting, dividing the frosting into separate bowls and coloring it, it is FINALLY time to decorate the cookies (note: i did make the dough the day before). logan lost interest shortly after we began to decorate. in fact, he was much more interested in eating the sprinkles and licking the frosting off the knives. and of course there were still TONS of cookies to decorate. i don't have a lot of patience for decorating in the first place (at least making them look cute. i lack the skills and the patience). i just slap on some frosting and a few sprinkles. my brother was the one that made the cookies look like masterpieces growing up and dave is now the one in our family to make them look good. but by the end, even he was done. and then after all that there is a huge mess to clean up. whew! here's what i've decided for next time: we'll break it up and cook the cookies and decorate on separate days. plus, maybe next time we'll do it with friends. a little extra manpower and of course a chance to socialize! after that big rant, i have to admit that i did enjoy the fruits of our labors for days after as i ate a lot of cookies. they may not have been particularly cute, but they sure tasted good!

logan liked cutting out the cookies more than decorating

providing some moral support

feeling the christmas spirit while chewing on a wise man

enjoying a healthy amount of frosting...2 knives at once. it was the follow up to a healthy amount of sprinkles!

growing up

recently logan and i were talking about how old he is. he knows he's 2, but this day he decided he was 4. and then he said, "no mom, i'm twenty." and i thought to myself, i'm still coming to terms with you being two and a half. slow down kiddo! this was only made more clear as i was listening to taylor swift's song, "never grow up" while driving and i got teary eyed and had to reach into the back seat and squeeze logan's leg. i'm know, i'm tearing up listening to taylor swift. i really need to pull myself together! watching my kids grow up is bittersweet. i want them to stay little and sweet and mine forever. i want to protect them from anything that will hurt them. but obviously growing up is part of life and man is it fun watching them grown up. life just gets sweeter and sweeter. a few weeks ago logan moved into a bed. it made him instantly seem so much older and less and less like my baby. i had to take a picture of him in his crib on his last night.

 and logan's move into a bed meant this little girl got to upgrade! the poor thing has been sleeping in a pack 'n play for 8 months. i know she hasn't cared, but it made me a little sad for her.

 logan was so excited for his big boy bed. he jumped on it, drove his cars on it and just thought it was the coolest thing.

however right after we took the picture below and were about to leave him for his first time sleeping in the bed (for his nap) i think it suddenly sunk in that we expected him to sleep in the bed. i can't get over how little he looks in the big bed!

for the first few days i had to go in multiple times when he went down for his nap to tell him to stop playing and get back in bed. i told him once he gets in bed he can't get out and he needs to make a good choice. he's really good now at staying in bed and has only fallen out once! he still calls for us to come and get him out of bed in the morning and after his nap. it rocks and i am going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts (the funny thing is he will get up and turn on his music and his twlight turtle and then get back into bed and call for us to come get him). without fail the first thing he says proudly is, "i slept in my big boy bed!" often it is followed by, "i didn't get out. i made a good choice!"  

 and sweet emma finally got a real crib! i forgot to take a picture of her before her first nap, but she looks so little in the crib after seeing logan in there (probably because he also slept with 7 of his "friends" and it was a full house in there)

beanie babies

one of dave's co-workers made these christmas hats for the kids. 2 observations while seeing the kids side by side in their diapers 1. logan suddenly looks very skinny next to emma. she's definitely a little chunk (and i love it) 2. these kids have different coloring. emma is much more fair (aka. pasty white).

 emma's face in the one on the right has given dave and i plenty of laughs

emma: 8 months

good at maneuvering around on her bum

scoots backward
she is close to crawling. she gets into the crawling position constantly, but has yet to actually crawl

is babbling a lot more. i love it!

grabs anything within reach and puts it in her mouth

loves paper

is content to sit and play with toys

has started getting upset when logan takes her toys

loves to eat! she pounds the baby food. she has also tried string cheese, raisin bran (a flake), captain crunch and an apple thanks to logan's generosity
she loves gerber puffs and is good at feeding herself

is finally sleeping in a crib instead of a pack 'n play!
loves to pull out and play with her binky. usually she can get it back in on her own.
went through a faze for about a week of sticking out her tongue
loves to look at herself in the mirror
she has her daddy's ears (and is looking more and more like him, although a prettier version)

she loves to be with her brother and play with him (as much as she can at this point)
lights up when she sees her daddy
is super smiley
is content to be held by anyone
 is social and loves to be with people
we know we're bias, but we think she is beautiful

i couldn't resist

dave is not going to be pleased seeing his son like this ;) this morning i put a bib on emma (to protect her black shirt from spit up, which later proved a smart move) and logan grabbed one he wanted to wear. then as i was putting on emma's headband he requested one too. it was too good of a picture to pass up. 

 

   

i love these two!

tis the season

i love this time of year! so far we've been...

 decorating the tree! 

logan "helped" and i love how all the ornaments he put up ended up in one little section. we've had to have multiple talks and "reminders" that we just look at the ornaments on the tree and don't pull them off. i love decorating the tree and reminiscing about memories associated with each ornament we put up.

 trying out some costume options for our reading of the christmas story (or just playing with daddy's scarf, but they do make cute shepherds or mary and joseph, right?!)

 unwrapping the book for our christmas book advent. i have loved doing this. logan gets so excited to unwrap his book and read it every night before bed.

 one night we read "the polar express." it started like this...

 but then emma needed to get a better look at her daddy...

 and it ended like this...

 nothing like a good snuggle!

this season has been even more fun since logan "gets it" more this year. he loves seeing the christmas lights and the inflatable characters in people's yards. as much as i don't like them, i love how excited he gets to see them. we go out of our way to see the santas on our street and wave as we pass by and he can't wait to see the snowmen and penguin on the way to the store and gym. i've loved getting christmas cards (although i don't know if ours are going to happen this year...it's not looking too promising since it's already the 13th), listening to christmas music (i love the polar express station on pandora) and the chance i've had to think more about the true meaning of christmas and try and teach it to logan. i've tried to make this season more meaningful and christ centered. 

still to come:

• taking the kids to see santa
• a girls night with my mom, sister and niece to see the nutcracker
• zoo lights
• making and decorating sugar cookies
• driving around to see the lights
• watching "the nativity story," "elf" and "white christmas"
• shopping for our giving tree gifts
• a couple of christmas parties