Christmas Morning Pictures

I love this age at Christmas! The girls loved taking turns opening gifts and giving hugs. We loved talking with family members--especially Elder Earley and Elder Judd. Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Cookies!

I've decided the girls are old enough to start learning to how to cook and bake! That meant that we got to make Christmas cookies this year. I even went whole hog and made sugar cookies so they could cut them out and frost and decorate them! (I'm much more of a chocolate chip cookie gal myself.) We used a friend's family recipe, found HERE. They really, really enjoyed themselves. I also learned that I own no Christmas-themed cookie cutters. I'll fix that soon!

Ward Christmas Party

Our ward party was so awesome! It was set up as a pajama party so everyone was in casual attire and the food was breakfast stuff--hash-browns, pancakes, and sausage. Clark and I were part of a musical number at the end of the night.

So, funny story: our car didn't start.

So use your back-up, you're thinking.

Nope, Beepy died about a month ago.

So the girls are in their pajamas, I'm super pregnant, and Clark is trying to figure out how we're supposed to get to the church building. Somehow, miraculously, after about 15 minutes of fiddling, the engine starts. Clark drives us over to the church and helps me bring the girls in, then announces that he's going to run to the store to buy another battery so we can make it home later. Unfortunately, the car doesn't start and we have to ask someone from the ward to help jump the car. Then Clark leaves.

Even with the meal starting late and four musical numbers planned, Clark only made it back to the church with a couple of minutes to spare. We sang "What Child is This?" with the Samuelsons. I love that song and I love the arrangement we used.

Immediately after the Primary children sang a short program, it was announced that Santa was in the back and that everyone was welcome to see him. I was kind of a meanie and grabbed all our stuff and kids and booked it to the Primary room to get pictures because I knew that Clark had had a long, terrible day what with all the car problems and I didn't want him to add standing-in-the-church-hallway-for-45-minutes to the list.

Unfortunately (again), Azucena's anxiety about Santa manifested itself so she stayed as far away from him as possible. Thankfully, Adelaide was much more willing to sit on Santa's lap this time! The sweet Santa tried to coerce Azucena over with a bag of goodies, but it was a no go.

Oh, well!

Polar Express Christmas Party

Our local library is pretty awesome. They have lots of activities for children and families. They hosted a Polar Express Christmas party this year and we dressed up the girls and headed over. They had a conductor at the door guiding us, hot chocolate, face painting and, of course, Santa.

The problem is for some reason Azucena has been freaking out every time she sees a Santa in real life. I have no idea what on earth she thinks every time we encounter one, because she loves the idea of him! She gets so excited when she talks about Christmas and presents and the birth of Jesus. But Santa in real life? Screams, tears, and meltdown.
Tonight was no exception. As soon as we got to the front of the line for Santa, she started crying and repeating, "no, no, no Santa, please no." Poor thing! Because she was freaking out, Adelaide began to worry, too. In fact, we had to get out of line, go get hot chocolate and then get in line a second time to even get this picture:

::sigh::

Next year, right?

Christmas Dresses

Their faces are the best part about this picture. I can't wait until they're in high school and I can tease them about the expressions they (used to?) make for pictures.

Adelaide's 2nd Birthday

 Happy birthday, Adelaide! You've grown up so much in the last few months. You love trying to do the same things Azucena does, like counting and identifying colors. In fact, you're really good at the latter, and you're almost always right when you count up to five. You're running, jumping, dancing, skipping, and twirling up a storm. I can barely keep up with you! You're also incredibly loving--you're still a little mother to Azucena and to all the dolls in Nursery. You're going to be a great big sister.

 Her favorite gift is the baby doll she got from Grandma. She's been carrying it around all night.

 We made cupcakes for everyone to eat and put her candle in one. She was fascinated by the fire and Azucena helped blow it out. But she was in it for the sugar so she didn't mind.

Decorating the Christmas tree!

Sunday night we pulled out our (sad, old) Christmas tree and set it up for decorating! Clark took care of the lights and the girls set up the ornaments. I'd sneak some of them to slightly higher branches when the girls weren't looking so the tree wouldn't look too bottom-heavy. In the end, the tree didn't look too bad although I was sad that the girls wouldn't hold still for a picture with the tree. :D

 

Temple Square Lights

 Luckily, before heading back to Idaho, we were able to continue the tradition of seeing the lights at Temple Square. This time we brought Grandma Gardner, too! I love the lights and the girls love seeing all the pretty colors (Azucena was most excited about the purple lights) and the temple, too.

Thanksgiving

We were able to go down to Utah to celebrate Thanksgiving. Clark had a lot of family in town so we were able to celebrate with a house full of family!

 The girls got to sit at the kid table! Hooray!

After the Thanksgiving meal, everyone got to decorate a Christmas cookie to welcome in the new holiday season. The girls loved it and there were some interesting costumes and facial hair choices. :D So fun!

Autumn Leaves

Since we have a house now, we have a yard. And since we have a yard, we have trees. And since we have trees, we have leaves that fall in the autumn season! Clark took a day to rake the entire yard and had quite the sizable pile for the girls to play in come afternoon. Adelaide loved being thrown but hated actually touching the leaves. Azucena thought it was hilarious to throw the leaves everywhere. But their favorite part was helping Clark put the leaves in the collection bags and crush them inside. It's the simple things, right? :)

 

Halloween

There was an elaborate plan for Halloween that went out the window when I couldn't find ANYTHING for my costume (Clark and I were going to be Pacha and Chicha from The Emperor's New Groove and the girls would be Disney villains). So instead, about a week and a half before Halloween, we found a Dorothy costume at a thrift store ($2!) and since she already had a basket and Toto and "ruby" slippers, we figured that was good enough for us and made Adelaide Glinda the Good Witch. She LOVED her wand!

 Pocatello has a trick-or-treat walk downtown (in "Old Town") where you just go down a few of the streets and different businesses have small pieces of candy to hand out to the children. It's right in the afternoon so we had gorgeous weather for the girls and they said "trick-or-treat" to everyone--in barely heard whispers. It was kind of ridiculously busy but the girls enjoyed themselves, Clark and I got exercise, and they enjoyed the candy that they did get.

 

The girls also went trick-or-treating around our block. They really liked walking around with Clark and I really, REALLY enjoyed handing out candy to the neighborhood kids. It's the first time since we've been married that we've had more than one trick-or-treater show up at our door. :)

Halloween Cookies

The store had some chocolate sugar cookie dough on sale so Clark and I picked it up so the girls could have a chance to make holiday cookies (when I make cookies, I never make sugar cookies--deprived children, I know). We pulled out the cookie cutters (thanks, Mom!) and showed the girls what to do. We even had chocolate frosting and M&Ms so the girls could decorate their creations!

Pumpkin Patch Again

While Mom and Dad were here, we decided to try the pumpkin patch again so Adelaide could enjoy it (for once). That, and both girls kept saying, "show Grandma and Grandpa the pumpkins?" which meant we really had no choice. :)

 There is a short, simple maze for the kids to enjoy. Azucena and Adelaide ran up and down each "option"--until they realized they could climb on top of the hay bales and walk around much easier. Stinkers!

 

 Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to buy some "giant pumpkins!" for the girls. They are now sitting on our porch and the girls say hi to them multiple times a day. :D

 

Apple Picking!

Since we bought our house, we realized that we have an apple tree in the backyard! When Dad came, we used his height to our advantage and had him help the girls pick the tree clean of apples. Thanks, Dad!

Waffle Cone Wednesday

It turns out a local place has a $1 waffle cone special every Wednesday night so we decided that if we were having a good day we should drop by as often as possible. The girls LOVED all the ice cream and made a fantastic mess in the process. :)

Pumpkin Patch FHE

For family home evening we took the girls to the Golden Pumpkin Patch that's pretty much down the road from us. Unfortunately, Adelaide fell asleep on the way there (it's only a mile away!) so we didn't get to do much but Azucena still had fun. :)

 This pumpkin was so cool looking! You don't find 'em like this at the grocery store.

 Azucena kept running up to pumpkins and asking for her picture to be taken. She also hugged just about every large pumpkin she walked past. The patch also had an adorable Olaf pumpkin man built and Azucena spent several minutes talking and singing to him. So cute!