We had the best December! I don't have the best blogging record lately, so I decided to try to throw the whole month into one post so it's pretty long and didn't include everything- but at least you'll get a sneak peek at our month!
My friend Mekensy and I got together and made an advent calendar that had a different activity for each day of the month. I found these cute wooden trees that had little doors to open for each day and we put a paper with the activity for each day inside. Baylor absolutely LOVED it! He looked forward to it each day and it was fun for me to watch his excitement. The first day he found out we had a visitor from the North Pole! He searched the house and found our elf downstairs with a book and movie. After reading the book, Baylor decided our elf's name was Elfie and she became a treasured member of our family. We look forward to her return every year. He would jump out of bed each morning and go look for her. The movie was also really fun and it helped him understand her "job" even better :)
One of the activities he found was to take a bath with glow sticks. I hope the little things never get boring for him! There is nothing I love more than to see him having fun.
Another fun activity that was a tradition from last year was to make a gingerbread house. I'm in charge of frosting and B does the rest. He's pretty creative! He made the house one day and the tree the following night.
For the tree I let him be in charge of frosting :)
Ta-Da!!!
We made hot cocoa and watched a Christmas movie...
Made a reindeer handprint project...
And in the meantime, Alexis got to model for me her 12 days of Christmas outfits LOL. She had so many cute Christmas outfits that I knew she would probably only get to wear once or twice so I decided to document them. I included a few :)
Baylor brought home a present and card from preschool. He was SO PROUD of it. It also had instructions to open it right away. It was the CUTEST little ornament with his picture and stickers that he had decorated it with. Something I will treasure forever.
One day the kids were supposed to open a new book... but it turned into more like 5 books haha. I have a problem with buying books...
We went to the Olsen family Christmas Party and this year we got to have it at the Stein Eriksen Lodge! We had the best food and party and everyone got to stay! So nice of my in-laws!
Each year we have a famous visitor and it has always been horrific for Baylor but much to our surprise- he got excited/nervous when he walked in and he yelled and waved "hi Santa!" And then when his name was called he eased his way over and started rambling what he and his baby cheetah wanted for Christmas and somehow Santa lured him into his lap. Hallelujah!!! That was my Christmas miracle!
Another activity, he got to paint ornaments...
Lex got to be fabulous :)...
love her to pieces
We made a reindeer by tracing his shoe and his painting his handprints for antlers. He thought this was so funny.
His preschool teacher gave him this fun sticker gingerbread house
Another highlight was having my mom bring the kids out to my school the day we made candy trains. You would have thought some big celebrities were there! The kids were so cute with them and all the little girls wanted to hold Alexis. B thought it was pretty cool to make a train with the big 2nd graders.
We got some adult/date time and went to an ugly sweater party with some of our good friends. Luckily my mom had these beauties for us.
We also had a get together with my friends and our families. We had dinner and brought some funny white elephants. We forgot to take a picture before Mekensy had to leave but her beta fish was the funniest present.
On the 23rd we went downtown to see the lights with some of my family. It was CROWDED but always wonderful to see the nativity and be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas.
Lex looked like she was straight out of Christmas story bahaha
And B had fun hanging out with Cole. The older cousins always take such good care of him.
Christmas Eve I tried a special breakfast and it turned out pretty fun
We always go bowling with my family. It's fun to get crazy and come up with funny bowling names. And please believe I WON this year :)
Then we head to my parents' house and make candy trains. (I brought the tradition from school and the kids always love it!)
That night we headed to the Olsen's and had more fun eating dinner and opening some early presents.
Christmas morning we woke to find out that Elfie had gone home until next year but she definitely told Santa how good the kids were!!!
Alexis had a fun princess Christmas
Lexi always hugs everything and says "aaaaah" and Christmas was no exception. She hugged everything and just loved it.
Baylor was happy to find that not only did Santa bring what he had asked for but the stuff for his baby cheetah too! Notice the little stocking by his- filled with the star wars toys B asked for, for his cheetah, a brush, and even some clothes. Santa rocks :)
Wahoo!! The Lego zoo he had hoped for!
And Santa even found some hard to find Higgly Town Heroes stacking dolls...
Russ and I got lots of presents too, but we just aren't quite as fun.
A while later we headed to my parents' and were spoiled there. Russ got his Green Day cds and his Book of Mormon on cd.. We got quite the laugh about the combination
Baylor got the Batcave and had an expert aka Braxton to teach him all about it.
My mom gave all the kids Angry bird pajamas and luckily I knew beforehand so I worked hard to find some for her too :) Aaah Henny Ha...
And then we headed to the Olsen's for more fun. We all got spoiled again and it's always fun for Baylor to get to play with Brooklyn. And one of my favorite moments of the night was Alexis loving Braden. She kept hugging him :)
And that was most of our month in a nutshell. There were a ton of other fun activities we did but you get the idea that we know how to party! I love all the little moments with my kids, it's what I live for. We had a great Christmas celebrating the birth of our savior and making memories with each other. I'm grateful for families. My own little family and the amazing families we were born into. I hope the holiday season found all of you well too.
