December Festivities and Football Funnies

OK...just to warn you...this post contains so much. I have been slacking at posting our activities...so in order to keep our blog/book up-to-date I have posted it all here. Ha.

First of all - TREE DECORATING! We had such a fun time with it this year because Bella was actually old enough to understand the whole process. She loved putting the ornaments on the tree and wanted to know where each one came from and how we got it. (Our family tradition is to get an ornament from places we visit or fun activities we do...so that when we decorate our tree every year we can reminisce about all the fun memories!) We are pretty sure that the new CINDERELLA ornament is by far her favorite and of course it was the first to go on the tree! Poor Sophie fell asleep amidst the holiday decorating - so she isn't in our pictures. Tear. Maybe next year.

We also went to the Summerlin Christmas Party! It was sure fun - Bella saw Rudolph, Mrs. Claus, SANTA, and Frosty. She really didn't want to sit on Santa's lap so daddy had to hold her. What can you do...right? We went with a few friends and Bella loved every minute of it. She rode the train with Kylie and Peyton. And rode the ponies with Katherine. We also chowed down on free cookies and hot chocolate. Yummy!

We also had some pretty extreme weather this month. At the beginning it was really MILD. We had a few park days and thought how lucky we were taking the kids to the park in December!! Just a few weeks later - we thought we were lucky again - just instead of it being mild - it was freezing and SNOWING. So weird. We got at least seven inches over in Summerlin but I know the whole Vegas Valley got a lot! I guess it hasn't snowed like this in Vegas since 1979 - school was cancelled! WOW!

We also took some family pictures - thanks dad - he's my go to photog! These pics below are just some I took beforehand. It is quite hard trying to get a good picture of the whole family when you have a toddler who won't smile and a baby who won't look. We got maybe two good ones. Ugh.

We also decorated gingerbread houses. Ok so they are just graham crackers...not like my brother's and sister-in-law's REAL GINGERBREAD LOG CABIN! They are amazing. (They won the contest in their ward!) Nope - mine are lame - I even - this is a great idea - HOT GLUED the graham crackers together so that they wouldn't keep falling down when the kiddos decorated them. Ha. It worked. Nobody really eats the graham crackers afterward right? And the glue was covered by icing so no one would ever know! he he.

We also finished our session in our dance class. They did the Nutcracker this week. It was so cute to see them all dancing around in their little nightgowns! I think we are going to sign-up for one more session - she just loves it so much - and I love being able to talk to all the other mom's. We are all so different - but have become like a big group of friends! Love it!

We also just had lots of GIRL TIME!! Since Nate was in finals for two weeks the girls and I were quite domestic. We made new meals and even made a cute ADVENT CALENDAR - thanks to my mom who saw the idea while she was in Utah! It was so fun and quite easy to make!! Daddy got to spend a little time with us and Bella kept him occupied by having him read all of her library books. We have discovered the JOYS of the library! We go every week for story time and get new books, movies, and crafts. AND - it's FREE.

After Nate's finals - football has been on TWENTY-FOUR SEVEN! You know you have watched to much when your daughter comes up to you looking like this.... and says.... "LOOK MOMMY - I'M A FOOTBALL GAME!" Ha. We both died laughing. Of course daddy was very proud. Poor guy needs a son. Ha.

Here's OUR SNOW! Just a few more pics to document this monumental occasion! It covered our house, the streets, and the parks!! Amazing! The girls looked really cute all decked out in their warm clothes. Aren't their hats cute. My mom made them! Thanks mom! Daddy and Bella had a great snowball fight - I think Bella won! Good times!