Christmas Outfits 2017

We took a few pictures after church on Christmas Eve to remember our festive outfits!

Star Wars Christmas Party!

Christmas Outfits!

We didn't get to wear our Christmas outfits to church on the 25th because church was canceled. But our ward ended up having the Christmas Sacrament program today, so we decided to wear our special outfits today. (Two pictures for Austin so you could see the full outfit and the tie. :D

Christmas!

This year, we decided to stay home and have Christmas in our home. It was nice. We got several texts this morning letting us know that church had been canceled because of the weather. It was nice to take our time with everything. The girls slept in a bit (Clark was waaaaaay more excited about presents), we went through our stockings before I made chocolate waffles for breakfast. Then we took about two hours to slowly open all our gifts. The girls really liked seeing who all the gifts were from and reading their names on the tags. (Note to self: put labels on everything so the girls have more to read next year.)

Santa brought the girls umbrellas and PJ Mask costumes. They loved them! They were also given jewelry, books (LOTS of books), some new pajamas, and a few toys and movies. They were excited about all the FINDING DORY things they have now.

We're very grateful we could Skype and FaceTime so much family, too! The girls got to talk to Abuelita, both sets of grandparents, and their uncles and aunt.

Merry Christmas!

Harry Potter Christmas Party

Our library throws a themed Christmas party each year. This year was a Harry Potter Christmas! Clark and I dressed appropriately and Azucena enjoyed finding all the magical touches around the library. We also got to see Santa again! We love our local library and all the thoughtful family activities they host.

Ward Christmas Party

Our ward's Christmas party was so much fun! Santa was there before it all began. The girls were so excited to meet him. He was very kind and patient and gifted a clementine to each one.

The dinner was tasty and the program was delightful. The Primary sang "The Way to Bethlehem" and we watched a few LDS videos about Christmas and the "Light the World" campaign. Clark and I were blessed to be part of the live Nativity--that's what happens when you have a baby a couple of months before Christmas. ;)

Clark has a few more pictures on his phone that I will add later.

Christmas Cookies

We were able to spend Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa in southern Utah and the cousins were there! On Christmas Eve we had to make cookies to leave for Santa. The kids were good sports, helping make shapes and waiting for them to bake and then frosting them.

 

Abbigale wrote the letter to Santa on behalf of all the children. (The plate of cookies represented the "best of the best" because that's what Santa deserves!)

Christmas Dresses 2015

I had fun wrangling the girls, trying to get their pictures today. Crazy babies just wouldn't hold still! But here are some fun shots I was able to get.

Library Christmas Party

On the day with the worst snowstorm, our local library hosted a children's Christmas party. Santa and Buddy the Elf were there and I really wanted a picture of Aurora with Santa, since she'd been asleep at the ward party. Of course, when we had our first turn in line, she was sleeping in her car seat, but about five minutes later she woke up, so we were able to get this fun picture:

And even though it's not perfect, here is the picture of all three girls with Santa.

Meeting Santa

We went to our old ward's Christmas party (Chubbuck 2nd Ward) and were able to catch up with old friends that we don't get to see as often. It was wonderful! They had put together a fun program about the true meaning of Christmas (it's not about the decorations, gifts, or food!) and the children sang some lovely Primary songs. They had Santa and Mrs. Claus there to greet the children, too. The girls were so happy to say hi (YAY! FINALLY!) but the baby fell asleep about three minutes before we got to the front of the line.

 I love seeing Azucena actually getting close to a Santa! We've seriously been trying to get her to do that for her entire life! Hooray!

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?

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

 

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

 We drove around looking at Christmas lights so often that Azucena started asking us "go look at the lights?" every time we got into the car. She'd also use a few catch phrases over and over: "oh nice, very nice" and "look at the lights! They're beautiful!" :D In our ward boundaries, a whole row of houses gathered together to become "Santa Claus Lane" and those houses did such a great job!

 We also got a really good snowstorm (finally) which meant we had to try and re-create my baby picture from Utah. :D Unfortunately, Adelaide was much less cooperative than Azucena had been and we didn't get any decent shots. But here's a look at how I took the pictures (and proves how awesome Clark was, since Azucena kept trying to get outside). The snow looks gorgeous and really gets us in the Christmas spirit!