The girls LOVE our advent calendar. It was the first thing every single morning that they asked to do when they woke up. I love that some of the things are fun, like drink hot chocolate, do something with snow, eat a piece of candy, etc. but there are also some service things in there, such as say "Marry Christmas" to someone, and hold open the door for someone, or give someone a compliment, etc. It really helps with the Christmas spirit everyday in December.
I got the girls some Christmas stickers and they made Christmas cards for all of their grandparents (which didn't actually end up all getting sent- sorry). They loved it!
This little stinker knew where some candy was that I told her she couldn't have. Next thing I know, I am in another room and hear the kitchen chair moving around. Little stinker got up on the counter and got what she wanted. Caught red handed!
These two have been WAY into dress ups. They love pretending like they are princesses and asking me to take their picture. I love seeing their imagination with it all!
Our Elf on the Shelf came back again this year, of course. We kept telling the girls that they couldn't touch the elf ever- just had to look. Elf rules- wouldn't want her to lose her magic. Lucy totally understood but the temptation was too strong for Claire. One morning while Lucy was at preschool, I saw Claire holding the Elf and showing her our train. It was too cute to say no to at the moment. Then, she wanted me to swaddle the elf, which was also adorable. I took these pictures not thinking much about it. The funny thing was that Lucy was randomly looking at pictures on my phone a few days later and asked me if Claire touched the Elf. When I said I didn't think so, she hurried and showed me the pictures! Haha! Couldn't fool her! We made sure to nicely remind Claire not to touch the Elf. We also made sure she was out of Claire's reach for the rest of the time.
Her favorite accessory. She seriously just walked all over the house like this one day as if it wasn't even on her head or anything. I think once I laughed about it, questioned her on it, and took a picture, she realized she was being silly.
Lucy needed a new coat but we weren't having much luck finding a good one anywhere. So I found this cute one on sale at Old Navy and she didn't want it. When I told her it was cool because it was like a BYU blue colored coat, she quickly changed her mind and wanted me to text a picture to her dad too, who she was certain would be proud about that little fact. :)
These were Ryan's co-worker gifts this year. Ryan often comes up with creative ideas and will even look things up on pinterest and carry them out. But I think it's funny because his team at work will love the ideas but always gives me the credit for them until Ryan really sets them straight. It really is Ryan's thing!
Just trying to get a cute picture of the girls in their Christmas dresses. Claire was certainly not a happy camper about that fact this particular morning. At least Lucy was willing to cooperate. She always asks for me to curl her hair and thankfully we had a little bit of extra time to do it this morning because she loved it and I thought she looked so cute, too.
Ryan tried to help get Claire to calm down but even that didn't work. So obviously no family picture was happening either. And we were late for church at this point.
When these two are in good moods, they love to roll around and wrestle and play with each other. It's so cute to watch them giggle and laugh about it the whole time. And thankfully for me, they aren't too rough, so there aren't injuries. Hopefully baby brother doesn't change that. ;)
70 degrees in December?! Yes, please!! The warm December weather this year proved to me that I could live somewhere warm year-round and not miss having a white Christmas. All of the fresh air was very welcome!
Rain boots, a diaper, and a blank. She's low maintenance and loving it. ;)
Doing their favorite afternoon activity- checking the mail!
And here's my 24 week baby bump, thanks to Claire. She snapped these while we were picking up our basement one day and since I have no other bump pictures, I kept them!
This is a blurry picture but I wasn't to remember about our daily dance parties. The girls will put on dress up clothes, lay all the couch pillows down on the floor, and turn on music to dance around to.
