Holiday Season 2015

I figured for simplicity I'd combine our holiday season into one blog post this year (already shared a lot of our early holiday activities in the Mum B. post)...so here's the rest of our events - get ready for a lot of pictures of our lives in late November-December!

Jayne was SO excited for the first snowfall of the year. She wanted to go outside in it immediately so, 8am?, why not! She loved touching it and eating it ;)

  

We tried to make a snowball but it the snow was too dry and powdery to pack. Jayne loved the idea of it all the same

Jayne is really into dresses and is super excited whenever Sunday rolls around because she gets to wear one of her special church dresses. She also is obsessed with her "bwack shoooze" and wears them any chance she gets. I only let her wear them out of the house when we go to church so she loves Sundays a lot! 

Sister love! 

I organized a roommate get together for my freshman dorm-mates. Its crazy to see where all our lives have gone, but then chat and visit like no time has passed. Love these ladies!

 Christmas was magical this year. We had visits with Santa, christmas carols and decorating the house to help us lead up to the big day. Jayne was all about the Christmas season this year. She asked Santa for a dollhouse and a Barbie and knew it too. She'd tell you what she wanted from Santa when we asked her. 

We stayed at my parents house on Christmas Eve this year. Christmas Eve evening it started snowing and it didn't stop! It was beautiful and made for a cozy night.

We opened traditional PJ's and snapped some photos of our cuties, laid out our stockings and snacks for Santa and then it was bedtime for the littles!

We put the girls to bed and the adults watched "A Christmas Story". Afterward we started a new tradition of gift card BINGO. You win, you get to chose a gift card. Simple as that. It was a fun way to spend time interacting as a family and it only got slightly competitive :)

We woke up to a foot and a half of snow, and it was still coming. It was prefect for Christmas!

Santa was kind to us this year and Jayne got the dollhouse and Barbie she asked for. She was excited but was exhausted and pretty run down with a cold (we'd been up a lot that night with her). I think she was somewhat overwhelmed too and didn't really comprehend what was going on :) We still made it fun though and loved seeing her realize that Santa brought her what she asked for.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) we didn't take many pictures of the action because we were just too busy enjoying the fun!

The beloved "dowlhousss" Jayne told everyone she wanted. Christmas is magical with kids!

Even though Jayne was sick Christmas Eve/Christmas, it made for a fun week as I feel like she truly enjoyed her presents slowly throughout the days after Christmas so I guess that was good. November and December were fun and a great end to the year and holiday season. It seemed to zoom right by! Here's to 2016!

Elle - 6 months

Every day is so much fun with this little munchkin around. Elle is our easy-going and calm little girl who just observes everything and takes it all in. Her cheeks are practically edible and her smile melts my heart! She makes people (other than Mom, Dad and Jayne) work hard for those smiles but once she gets going its almost like her whole body smiles and she can't contain her happiness. We love our little Elle - can't believe its been 6 months already!

Elle's 6 month stats:

• Dancing is her new trick. She lights up and bobs her upper body back and forth to music or when we say "dance, dance, dance". Her favorite song is when daddy sings the "Peg + Cat" theme song, just like Jayne :)
• Getting more stable with her neck and head control - learning to sit pretty well
• Sleeps through the night, 8pm - 7 or 8am
• Got her first real cold/cough this week (that's why her photos are a bit more serious than usual today)
• Not interested at all in rolling over...she's just so calm and content where she is!
• Less "spitty" these days - we're looking forward to the day when we don't have to constantly have a burp cloth around :)
• Liking her bouncer and toys more and more these days. She concentrates and moves her cute little fingers to grab toys we hold out for her

  

Happy 6 months Elle!

Mum B. Visit - 2015

We were lucky enough to have Mum B. come spend time with us for two and a bit weeks throughout November-early December. It was great for her to spend time with the girls, Jayne was in heaven being able to play with Grandma all the time and Mum got to meet baby Elle. She came bearing gifts which Mum had told Jayne about prior to coming. Jayne was excited about getting earrings (and lots of other fun things) from "Grandma B!"

We saw and did a lot of things while she was here but we also had relaxing days where we just spent time showing Grandma B our normal life.

Bedtime stories

One thing we like to do is take walks along the river on the trail down the road from our house. One day Mum took Jayne and Koda herself and Jayne was especially excited to feed the ducks this time. They walked and walked down the trail abut there weren't any ducks to be seen. So Mum, being a great example, suggested that they say a prayer and as Heavenly Father for at least just one duck. And as she tells it, they hadn't even finished their prayer when they heard "quack, quack" and about 40 ducks showed up! What a great little miracle!

Mum came at a perfect time as she got to experience her first Thanksgiving and then see the real Christmas holiday swing get under way. Plus we had decent weather and some snow! What more could you want!? :) 

Thanksgiving

Museum of Natural Curiosity

Drive-thru Christmas light display at Thanksgiving Point

We let Jayne take the wheel for a bit - she thought it was the best!

After the lights we stopped in for the famous brownie sundae and met the reindeer too

Visited our favorite Christmas house...the lights there are amazing!

We went to the lighting of the Riverwoods, which was beautiful! There are so many fun things to do in Utah this time of year!

On our last night Mum treated us to Chuck-a-rama before we visited Temple Square to see the lights.

Joseph Smith Memorial Building

  

There was plenty that we did that we didn't capture on camera as we were just enjoying being in the moment, rather than take pictures of it all :) We showed Mum Phil's work, went bowling, Phil took Mum to the movies, walks, shopping, eating yummy food and playing games together. We had a great time together. Thanks for the visit Mum!