Misc December

Misc December

I love to see my girls play nicely together.  This was a cute moment, Matisyn reading to Emilyn.  Totally unrelated, but I can't believe how similar their hair color is!

For the last few years we have had a Christmas party with my friends from Young Women's.  It's funny to think that my friend Amy put all of us together years ago, not knowing any of us at the time.  It was such a great group to work with back then, and I'm grateful they have turned out to be some of my greatest friends.  It was our turn to host, and Matisyn was very happy to help decorate.  She was pretty upset that she had to stay upstairs for the actual party.  I wanted to put names on the clear plates, and Matt had the idea to use vinyl and attach them to the bottom.  They turned out so cute, and everyone loved having their own special plate!  We had an Italian theme for dinner, with Italian sodas, appetizers, two different pastas, salads, and bread.  Everything was delicious, and we had a nice dinner eating and visiting.

We played games until late.  A record breaking thing happened, which is the girls actually won one of the games.  Sadly, this is not a common occurrence.  We were very proud of ourselves!

Emilyn's special picture for Daddy

The girls working on presents and notes for our elf, Harvey.  There he is in the pink car with Barbie surrounded by a syrup heart.

Our finished gingerbread house.  I think the girls did an especially nice job this year.

Our family by the Christmas tree before our ward Christmas party.  Turns out it was our last one together, they split our ward at the beginning of January.  (Emilyn still loves her fingers and her Fly and Pink Polka dot blankies.  She says she never wants to stop sucking her fingers...not sure how to handle that one!)

After the recital we went to the frozen pond to feed the ducks.  Matt had a ton of extra bread from a conference, and we love the ducks!  I had told Matt to hold onto Lucas because of the slant and the ice, but I guess he got excited and distracted by the ducks :), so he let go of him.  Right after this picture he slipped and hit his head on the ice.  So sad, the poor little guy got a big goose egg on his forehead, and it pretty much ruined the rest of the experience for him.  It's too bad because he was so happy, pointing, squealing, and smiling when he saw the ducks.

Emilyn still had a blast, even though it was freezing!

Emilyn's letter to Santa and his note to her from her down the street preschool.

Matisyn's new, very short hair cut!  It was shorter than we meant to go, but she has been liking her hair short this time.

Matisyn's Christmas card to her teacher.

She was very excited that she had put in some time and effort learning to draw a reindeer on her own.  It's pretty good!  She made this card for Grandma Barb.

We had an early Christmas with Grandma Barb before we left for California.  Those presents in the middle of the room with Emi were all from her.  The kids were very excited to get in some early present opening, and especially happy to have Grandma over.

Lucas seemed to remember what to do from his birthday, and started picking presents up, pulling paper out of bags, pulling on bows, and tasting wrapping paper as soon as he could!

Emilyn loved these light up Minnie shoes so much she slipped a pair into her suitcase to come to California with us!

Matisyn has enjoyed the challenge of learning how to create rubber band bracelets on her loom. 

Lucas would start opening and then get distracted by another present or wrapping paper!  He was pretty cute with his unwrapping.

Matt finally got his own minky blanket, handmade by his Mom.  It has become a favorite around here, and we all fight over it.  It is even softer than all of ours!

Lucas got his own set of Duplo legos.  They have been dumped out and played with often already.

Lucas's favorite were the Christmas bags that he got to pull tissue paper out of one at a time.

Lucas got a sock monkey :)

The girls got their very own pretty suitcases, and they couldn't wait to pack them for our trip.

We were so glad we got some time to spend with Grandma Barb.  It was a hard Christmas, being the first one without Matt's Dad around.  We were sad to leave, but glad that we are able to live close and have time together when we can.  The girls love their Grandma!

A couple of days before we left, we got together with the girls for breakfast for Kelly's birthday.  Where did December go?!!!

Here are a few misc pictures from this month from my phone:

 Emilyn, Lillie, and Mya, little buddies!

 Lucas loves to have the water trickling when he takes a bath. 

 This is the kind of destruction Lucas can reign down in a matter of minutes on a typical day!