After we got home, Baylor took her afternoon nap and I cleaned up in the house and got dinner ready. Nate and Paige went outside and worked together cleaning up the yard for a couple of hours. They love doing this together and Paige is my outside lover. She cleaned up the trail through the trees all by herself and did such a great job. It was cute seeing them both of the roof after they cleaned the gutters out just talking together. Nate is a pretty amazing dad and Paige is a pretty amazing daughter.
We decorated for Christmas right after we got back from Idaho and I love it. Paige had so much fun helping me and we are ready for the Christmas season.
Baylor loves to stand on chairs which can be scary but she really loves this little chair. She climbs in and out of it though she always wants help down. She was pretty proud of herself when she realized she could stand to reach this little nativity.
Here are some photos of the latest creations by Paige-
My little super hero!
She created a "drive through" in our kitchen. She created a menu first with the window to order through. She had prices for snacks that we had around the house. Then she went even bigger and had a sign on the other side of the fridge for her store and this big menu on the fridge or order from. She is one creative little girl!
Another creation for another day.
She also made her own Christmas tree out of a cardboard box. She spent the time and drew it and had Nate cut it out. Then she painted it and outlined it with a sharpie. Nate helped her with the base so that it would stand on its own. She has decided that she wants Santa to leave her presents under her own tree this year. :)
The first Saturday of December, Nate had to work most of the day for the Covington tree lighting event. The girls and I went to Maple Valley to see all the nativities at the Stake Center there. We have done with for quite a few years now and I love it. We did the little scavenger hunt through all the nativities. Paige then did a couple of crafts. I got this cute picture and then we enjoyed some cookies.
We then went and parked our car for the tree lighting and went and got some dinner and stayed inside a warm building until it was time for us to walk over. We found Nate and watched the tree lighting. We got to meet Elsa and Anna and have a sing along of "Let it Go". Then Santa came on a fire truck. It was a really fun Christmas day and a great way to start December.
The next weekend we did something on my Christmas bucket list. We went to see the light display at Bellevue Botanical Gardens. It was absolutely beautiful. They are so creative with their displays and how they put the lights together. We walked through the displays twice because we loved it so much. I am so glad we went and I would love to go every year if it works out. We took Addison with us and Paige loved having a friend to tag along with us. It was cute listening to them talk about school in the back seat and on the way home we sang some Christmas carols. It was a perfect evening!
Pictures really don't do it justice. This garden scene was so pretty to look at and there were so many fun details.
This was one of Nate and I's favorites- a slug light display. :)
They also had this beautiful gingerbread display to look at.
This past Saturday was our ward Christmas party. They did such a great job and it was really fun. They focused more on the Elf theme. It was in the middle of the afternoon so had dessert waffles and a hot cocoa bar. The kids could make an elf hat out of paper. Paige didn't want a hat but she loved the craft room which had a cute elf to create out of paper and three different popsicle stick ornaments- a Santa, Christmas tree, and snowman. Of course crafty Paige wanted to do all of them. Then in another room we go to put together a kit to have in our car to hand out to a homeless person or someone who we though could use it. They also took donations to take to Mary's Place which helps homeless people. The Monday before the party for family home evening we went to the dollar store and I let Paige pick out some of the items on the list to take and donate. And the last area at the ward party were pictures with Santa. I LOVE how these turned out. They look so good and I have always wanted a crying baby Santa picture and Baylor gave us a priceless one.
At the beginning of the party they had name tags that you could put your elf name on. Paige's was the best- goober icy socks. :)
Then after the ward party we went and got something to eat and gathered up our warm clothes and headed to Wild Waves. We still had our three free tickets from doing the summer reading program. When I got them it was my plan to use three for the summer and three for the lights display in December. Saturday was actually not raining so it was the perfect day to go. The lights were very pretty. There were a lot of people and so we only went on two rides. Going into though I wasn't planning on going on very many rights and mostly planning on enjoying the lights so that is what we did. I loved going to Bellevue Botanical Gardens so much and it was way better than Wild Waves in my opinion but I am glad we went and got to experience it. It was fun to be together and enjoy seeing the lights together as a family.
