Christmas

I love Christmas especially with kids. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday and there is even more magic seeing it all through your children's eyes. I have loved all the fun holiday things we have done this month. Christmas Eve and Christmas day were quieter this year with just our little family and Nona and Pops but still so fun and joyful.

Annual Sunday before Christmas pictures- these two are so beautiful on the inside and out.

Christmas Eve we kept busy until the night time festivities. The day before we made some cinnamon salt ornaments and the girls painted them. I decided to hide them throughout the yard and made a little scavenger hunt for the girls to find them. 

Also for the part of the day and for the past week, Paige has been super busy with making presents. I love the sign that she put on her door. She is one that truly has the Christmas Spirit and loves to give.

Then we also made some chocolate chip cookies for Santa. Paige pretty much did it all and Baylor was happy to be the taste tester at each stage of the mixing.

Then it was finally time for the Christmas Eve fun to begin and it started with the lighting of this awesome Santa candle that we found at the thrift store a little bit ago.

Then it was sandwich time! I love this tradition and it is something I look forward to every year.

Signing the board

Sandwich making

This year we did a zoom with everyone else in the family to see their sandwiches and sing the traditional song before each of us carrying our own sandwiches around the house. I wish we could be together and hopefully next year at least some of us will be able to get together.

Paige created this invitation and gave it to us a couple of days ago. After dinner, Paige planned a fun little party for us in the back room.

First Paige created this pin the ornament on the tree. We each created two ornaments that we got to pin on the tree.

Then we had a special treat which was the cookies we made earlier and the surprise was Paige played two Christmas songs on the piano that she has been practicing for the past month.

We then watched the video the "Christ Child" which is amazing and then it was time for what Baylor has been waiting for all month- opening presents. We opened some of our gifts from each other and we also opened gifts from Nona and Pops. We felt very loved and it was fun to see everyone's reactions. Baylor loved everything about opening presents and would say the cutest things and have the hardest time waiting her turn. Paige was happy with everything she got and was excited about all the details of the night. Paige and Baylor then opened up their Christmas pjs, we had an eggnog toast, the girls sprinkled some glitter on the front yard to help the reindeer see our house better, and we set out milk and cookies for Santa.  

Paige created the cutest gift for Baylor that was Peppa Pig themed. She has been searching every time she goes to the thrift store with Nate. She found a Peppa Pig t-shirt, a Peppa stuffed animal, she made the cutest paper doll Peppa Pig with three different outfits and also this idea that she came up with months ago. She has been collecting tags since Baylor loves the tag on her blanket and created this Peppa and Suzy square with lots of taggies for Baylor to enjoy. 

Two cute girls in their new Christmas pajamas.

Then it was finally the big day! Christmas morning was so much fun. The girls were spoiled by Santa and they loved opening all of their presents. 

Baylor

Baylor again had a hard time waiting her turn and made the funniest faces when we said she had to wait or had a hard time ripping wrapping paper off a gift. She is one funny girl with the best expressions. 

Paige

Christmas chaos and mess but oh so much fun!

The rest of the day was spent playing with toys and I did some food prep for Christmas dinner. Baylor loved her sink that pours out water. She loves to play in the water and having cups and dishes to pretend wash added even more fun. She also tried out her painting sets and was just in Christmas heaven. The next day she asked if Santa was going to come again that day. :) Paige was content setting up and organizing all the things she got and doing some of the crafts she got and also just loved the whole day. 

I made a raspberry pretzel salad for dinner and knew the girls wouldn't like it so I made these layers Jell-O cups for the girls It took a lot of time but they turned out so pretty and the girls thought they were so fancy. 

Our Santa candle after the two days.

We ended our day with a video chat with Grandma and Poppy to open the presents from them. Then we took some pictures of all the gifts we got. We sure were given so much and feel so grateful for family and for our Savior at this time of year.

Nate and I's gifts

Paige and all of her gifts.

Baylor and all of her gifts.

Merry Christmas!

Drive Thru Nativity

Our ward did a drive thru Nativity on Friday and I had the opportunity to help set it up and be a part of an amazing committee to make this vision come to life. It all started about 3 weeks ago when I was substituting for our young women president and went to Bishop Council Meeting. The Relief Society President came with the idea of doing a drive thru Nativity for our ward and I thought it was a great idea and that I would be willing to help. The two of us together came up with what we wanted and it was so much fun to see our ideas come together and to create this wonderful event. 

Here's the amazing invitation that was created.

The set up was a little bit tricky and took longer than we wanted because we had to deal with wind that kept blowing over the canopies. We ended up having to move the canopies a lot closer to the church building in order to be able to stake them into the dirt and use trees to stabilize them. We decided that we wouldn't have a lot of talking parts since we weren't sure how many people would come and we didn't want any back up on the road. So I painted scripture signs that followed the story of the Christ Child that they could read as they drove from station to station.

The first stop was this talented young lady singing some Christmas hymns and the first scripture sign about a decree going out which led to Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem. 

The next station was the wise men. We had to be careful because of Covid and make sure those that would be standing together were from the same household. These wise men were awesome. They had a little thing to say about seeking the Christ Child and were really witty and fun about it. They made it fun but also really special. For this station I created the star out of some cardboard, had the scripture sign about the wise men, and made the three gifts for display. 

The next stop was the full inn. I had so much fun painting and creating this. Nate was able to get a mattress box from a store for free and so I just had to get a little bit of paint and created this by seeing some picture ideas online and put together my own scene in my head. I absolutely loved the creative process with this one and loved having this idea in my head and seeing it turn out just as I imagined. Dale was also kind enough to make a stand for me and then I had the scripture sign about the inn being full to finish up this stop.

Next stop was the shepherds and angels. Another couple in our committee created this station and also the Nativity scene. For this one the only things I had to do was create the scripture signs. It had a scripture about the shepherds abiding in the fields and also what the angel said to the shepherds. Paige and Baylor really liked this stop since they recognized the shepherds and angels. :) Eliza was a very cute angel and Brett had fun "feeding" their sheep some hay. They even had some names for their sheep and one was Leroy.

This was the stop right before the nativity scene. I had this idea as I was reading the scripture account and deciding what I wanted people to read as they were driving through. We came up with the theme of "Seek Him" and the things the shepherds did as they went to seek the Christ Child inspired me to have these sayings based off the scriptures. I wanted people to have some questions to ask themselves towards the end that were more inward and helped them think about Christ in their own lives.

Then was the amazing Nativity. This amazing stable and manger were built and it looked just picture perfect. I had the scripture sign that I had created for this but I just loved driving past this scene. It was so peaceful and was absolutely stunning.

The last stop was our Bishop handing out candy canes and this cute little handout about the legend of the candy cane. It was a sweet little way to end the drive thru. I loved seeing this vision that our committee discussed come to life in such a perfect way. The Relief Society president did so amazing at leading this and making sure we had all the canopies, lights, people to direct traffic, all the amazing costumes, the music, and much more. We had an awesome little committee and help from others in set up and take down that made the event possible and it turned out just as we imagined.

I am so grateful that I got to be a part of this. We haven't had that many ward events this year due to Covid so this was a nice way to end the year and I loved helping and use my creativity and have a project that brought me such joy.

A Butterfly Birthday

Paige has been planning a birthday for her doll, Lucy and we celebrated last night. It was a lot of fun and Paige loved every minute of it. She decided on a butterfly themed party and put on the invitation that if we wanted to buy Lucy a gift she listed what brand she is and that you get can get gifts at Walmart. :) Nate was wondering why he hadn't thought of this as a kid and that he should have had birthdays for all his toys so that they could get presents. Paige is a smart kid and also very giving and kind and also loves to plan parties. It was a fun little party!

We started off with a butterfly hunt. Paige had cut out three butterflies for each of us to find. She had different colors for each of us and had decorated envelopes and had one in it so we knew what to look for. She even hid some for her dolls that she helped them find. 

Then we played don't step on the butterfly playdough. It was so cute watching her cover her dolls eyes and have them walk around and watching her have her dolls "accidently" step in the playdough a few times. We all took a turn and Pops had shoes on and one of the butterflies stuck to the bottom of his shoe. Another fun game for the party!

Then Lucy "opened" presents- Paige had bought her a present with her own money a few weeks ago and Nona and I also bought her a present. It was fun to watch Paige's excitement and watching her help Lucy open them. Baylor wanted to open a present and has been asking about opening a present under the Christmas tree for the past few weeks and so Paige was kind enough to let Baylor help open the last one.

Then Paige made the most delicious and rich chocolate cake. She made the cake and frosting all by herself and it turned out amazing. She also decorated it so cute!

We ended our little party with singing to Lucy and blowing out the candles. It was a fun little evening for a very creative girl and her doll.

When I put Paige to bed, she was so happy and excited about her party and the little gifts that she got. I told her how I was impressed with her cake and how fun the party was and she did such a good job at planning it. She then gave me a giant hug and it just warmed my heart. I love Paige and all her creativity so much even when it requires me to buy a gift for her doll which is really for her. :)

Fall and Thanksgiving

It has been awhile since I posted so here are just a few fun pictures from the past month. In late November, we had one day of bad wind and all the leaves fell off the trees. It was sad to see the bare trees but the advantage was a big pile of leaves that Paige loved and Baylor hated :) and a cute fall photo shoot.

This past summer, Paige completed the summer reading program through the library and her name was put in for a drawing for a stack of free books. She got lucky and won! One of the books to choose from was an America's Test Kitchen Baking for Kids Cookbook and she absolutely loves it and has found a love for cooking. She loves to do it by herself and she has cooked up some delicious treats. She is a messy cook and takes over the entire kitchen but it is fun to see her create. She made these delicious chocolate crinkle cookies for FHE treat one night and had to present them all fancy. 

Then there is this silly girl and just a few of the many silly faces that she makes.

Paige loves to go thrift shopping with Nate. They both love coming home with treasures and one day they went up to Seattle and had a little lunch date while they were out.

Bedtime is a hard time for me. It gets long and both girls are notorious for taking forever to get ready for bed and also I don't know how many times I hear "Mom" after I have put them to bed and left their room. I go back in at least 2 times each night either for another comment/question from Paige or for Baylor it is for a drink of water, she needs to say goodnight to someone again, or her blankets are messed up. It can get tiring especially at the end of the day when I am also tired. But I do love this special moments of reading them a night time story, family prayer, and singing them songs while rubbing their backs or rocking Baylor. They can sure tire me out but they bring me so much purpose and so much joy.

Thanksgiving was very quiet this year with just our family and Dale and Margaret. It was a quiet day but very enjoyable and we enjoyed a very delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

Margaret made a pumpkin pie, I made the blackberry pie, and Paige made yet another delicious recipe from her cookbook and made a cookies and cream pie.

Throughout the month of November we had a gratitude tree hung up on the front door. It sure got filled up and we are so grateful for all of our blessings. We have so much to be grateful for and on the top of that list is definitely family.

Winter Walks

We have had a couple of really nice Saturdays without rain so we took advantage and bundled up and went on some winter walks.

One walk was to Lake Wilderness. It was a beautiful day and we loved enjoying being outside and getting some fresh air together as a family.

Then another Saturday we went with Dale and Margaret to Kanaskat-Palmer State Park. It is somewhere that has been on my list of a places to go and explore. It was so pretty though it was cold. I definitely want to go back in the summer. We had painted some Christmas rocks and hid them all through our walk through the park. It was a really nice walk and we really loved exploring down by the river.

Baylor was very much not a fan of the cold. She usually loves throwing rocks in the water but there was wind and she was cold. She was very concerned about our snack bags blowing away in the wind. While everyone was skipping and throwing rocks and enjoying themselves, she stood back, holding tight to the packs with a very serious face. :) She is definitely my summer girl.

The river was beautiful and I can't wait to go back in the summer.

We love exploring all the beautiful places around us even when we are bundled up.