Christmas is Coming!

We had Christmas Eve with my extended family, nativity and all! That was a highlight of Christmas growing up and I've wanted our girls to experience it and have good memories like mine. I think it was a success!

"Mary" riding Austin the donkey

the wise guys

The girls got to open their Christmas jammies and made sure to show them off to everyone.

have tutu, will dance

Then it was cookies for Santa. Emma is such a sweetie, "Mom, since Santa does SO MUCH for us, we should do something nice for him. So I'm going to leave food for his reindeer TOO!"

Snow day

The girls LOVE to play in the snow. I could take it or leave it. Mostly leave it. I hate how long it takes to bundle them up, I hate that it's such an ordeal to come in and out of the house with all that gear and tracking in snow, I hate worrying that they're too cold and will get frostbite, I hate that after I spend all that time bundling them up they spend 5 minutes outside and want to come in...only to want to go out again 10 minutes later!

BUT...they have such fun and I love to hear them giggle and laugh when they are out enjoying the cold stuff. And they love love LOVE to eat snow. Good thing this stuff was fresh and clean. That's about where the "good" ends. I had to shovel the driveway. Now, I'm not complaining too much because we used to have to shovel THIS:

And that was just the front half of the driveway. But that was before I had surgery on my wrist (still not fully recovered) and I wasn't pregnant. So the combo didn't make for a happy lady. Dave works such long hours so I bit the bullet and shoveled. Two days later I couldn't understand why my body was so achy and my shoulders hurt so bad. I was reminded very quickly when I crunched over the pile of snow that had solidified into ice at the base of the driveway and worried that my tires were going to be punctured.
But, anyways. Here are the cute pictures of the munchkins enjoying the snow. At least someone at this house needs to enjoy it.

Bree turns 4!

When I asked what kind of birthday party she wanted she was quick to say BARBIE! She and Emma didn't really play with Barbies previous to this, but the party must have sparked something b/c they love to play Barbies now!

I had fun with the invitations and the little poster for pin the bow on the Barbie. I even put together a new birthday banner to match. Bree just wanted to have fun and play, so that's what we did! I painted their nails and they had a little lunch and cupcakes and CANDY, and we played musical chairs. Then it was BARBIE TIME in the basement! They just played and played. All the little girls got along so well even though some of them didn't know each other! Just goes to show that every little girl has one thing in common-BARBIES! For a party favor I made some Barbie silhouette t-shirts. They turned out pretty cute, and my girls love them!

Christmas Programs

It was that time of year-the Christmas programs! Bree's preschool program was in the evening. Poor Dave got stuck at work and didn't make it, but Grandpa Allan was able to see our little B. She looked so pretty and was so happy to be there! She was an angel in the story part, then hammed it up the rest of the time. I sometimes wonder if she has attention problems. If they were ever supposed to just stand still and sing, she was the one bending over and checking out the carpet, looking behind her at the tree, trying to see if there were presents under the tree, losing her "halo". I'll just call it comic relief.

not looking at the teacher...

still not looking...

making silly faces...

seriously?? look how well-behaved everyone else is!

needs to know what's going on over THERE

being a tree...

...that gets chopped down.

Ainsley, Kumora, Bree and Emma P.

so glad Grandpa made it!

I'm sad to report that we didn't get quite the photo montage with Emma's program. But then again, they only sang 2 songs. The auditorium was PACKED, and where did they stick the shortest kids??? IN THE FRONT. The people sitting on the chairs in front of them were taller than they were! Dave and I booked it up the side aisle and sat on the ground so she could see that we were actually there (we weren't going to be accused of not attending!) and to get a shot. And she dressed herself that day-she was so proud of how festive she looked. She loves her skinny jeans, and even more than she loves those, she loves to wear her knee socks on top of her skinny jeans.

Ice Skating!

Ann-Marie's family came for Thanksgiving week, and while we did a LOT of fun things, we only have pictures of ice skating-the dads took all the kids while we shopped. I'm not quite ready to put on a pair of skates just yet :) We had big plans for the week that got squashed because of FREEZING temperatures. But we were still able to go see Savior of the World at the conference center. That was such a great introduction to the Christmas season. We had a fun day at the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point-the water/sand stuff always uses up a good hour so AM and I got to relax and chat while the kids (well, let's be honest, just Bree) got drenched. We also got to see the Scarlet Pimpernel at the Hale Center Theater in Orem-SO AWESOME! I'd love to have that soundtrack-the music was beautiful and the acting was great for such a small theater! We were able to bring Emma for that show and she had a hard time at first but ended up liking it. She especially liked meeting some of the cast outside afterwards. We also took the kids to see Tangled, and that is now my favorite movie :) We made a ton of food for the big Packard Thanksgiving day. We made rolls and salads and mashed potatoes and DESSERTS! And, of course we did a little shopping. We didn't do any crazy Black Friday shopping-none of us needed anything badly enough to lose sleep :) Such a fun week!

Collins was so nice to help out with the girls!

Apparently Bree just liked to go limp noodle and glide along. Dave's back didn't appreciate it.

They had a GREAT time!