December Photos

Here are our pictures from the month of December. :) Enjoy!

Lila was all ready for ugly Christmas sweater day at school. I personally think she looks adorable.

Sarah sent this really fun Texas snow globe to the kids for Christmas. They LOVED it, but because they LOVED it SOOO much, they of course immediately dropped it and chipped the black part of the snow globe. At least they didn't break it completely. It now sits on a shelf for them to view. :) Thanks so much Sarah!

This was the kitchen set that Brighton got for Christmas, with Lila's new tea set in front.

 My mum so sweetly brought us Christmas dinner leftovers a few days after Christmas. I added the broccoli, because all of the vegetables from the meal were eaten on Christmas day. Thanks mum! It really made our day. 

Brighton broke his original "B" ornament, so after Christmas I went to Target and got him a new one. I really like it, so I'm okay with him having to get a replacement. It's a really pretty glass ornament.

The kids chillin' out with each other. It's nice when they get along.

As per tradition, my family went caroling before Christmas. Well, Lila, Brighton and I were sick so we didn't actually go out and carol, but we had been cooped up in our house for most of the month, so  we went to grandma's to enjoy soup and hot chocolate with the family. They then went caroling and after we hung out and had cookies. It was still really fun.

Me, pretending to be part of the caroling group.

Here's our Christmas card. Originally I wanted just the kids on one side and our whole family on the back. It ended up being WAY cheaper to do it the other way and I like how it looked, so that's what we went with. I love making cards and I was pretty proud of my creation. I'm definitely going to do it again next year.

That's it from me for the 2016 year. Here's to another great one!

Christmas 2016

We spent Christmas Eve and morning at home. We did our traditional reading of The Polar Express, and the kids got some new pajamas. I hadn't been feeling well since Thanksgiving (super annoying) so my energy level was less than normal. We used leftover gingerbread dough for cookies for Santa, and a prepackaged soup mix for our traditional soup feast. The cookies were great, but the soup was subpar. I'll definitely have to go back to making my own soup next year. Despite my illness, we had a great time!

Our Christmas Even dinner setup.

I got the poinsettia from doing the play A Christmas Carol at my school... it was a great!

The kids loved their new pjs. 

All ready for bed!

Before the kids settled down for their long winter naps, we read from the gospel of Luke and discussed what Christmas really is about. I love these opportunities to teach the kids about the true meaning of holidays and about their Savior.

Christmas morning was so fun. The kids were very enthusiastic about their presents (of course) and were very polite and happy. 

I love the looks on their faces. :)

My absolute favorite gift from Micah. I love it so, so, so much!

Aren't these ponies that Santa's elves made, so cute? 

After gifts, we headed to grandma's house. We were there long enough for opening gifts, but then Brighton very suddenly got sick. He had a fever and was acting really strangely. We missed out on dinner (sad face), but we knew we needed to get home. It's a good thing we did, as he threw up later that evening. 

It was an interesting ending to our holiday, but it also seemed to fit in with the rest of the month. We had all been pretty sick the whole month. Good thing we're incredibly blessed and have no reason to complain. It was still a wonderful Christmas.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

School Christmas Sing

One thing that is so great about Lila coming to my school is that I get to see her participate in all of the fun activities. Every December my school does a Christmas sing. We used to invite parents to it, but then our student body grew to be massive and there just wasn't any room for parents anymore. We've since had a split in our school and we're smaller again, but we've kept with the tradition of no parents, so that the focus is more on the students spending time together. Luckily, I don't have to worry about the no parent rule, seeing as I'm a teacher. :) Yay, perks!

The kindergartners sang the song "Hot Cup of Cocoa". I was so happy when I heard that Lila was singing that, because I sang that song when I was in elementary school! Oh, memories!

Anyway, I was pretty far away from Lila and my hands shake like crazy when I try to take pictures on my phone, but I still wanted to get what pictures I could of Lila singing this adorable song. Isn't she the cutest? It was so fun!

Cousin Christmas Party

Each year the cousins get together and have a Christmas party. This year, Emma hosted at her house. There were lots of fun games and activities to do, including making a snowman out of toilet paper... Lila's team dominated mine... and decorating real gingerbread cookies. So yummy! It's always fun to have the cousins get together. They really love each other, even though there is such a wide age range. Thanks, Emma for a great time!

(This post is going to be mostly pictures)

Playing some Christmas bingo.

Some of the winners!

Time to decorate!

I think this was Brighton's favorite activity.

Addie decided she'd rather color.

Lila, of course, loved the candy, but she seemed particularly fond of the sprinkles this time around. They were everywhere!

The hosts.

Here was the snowman game.

 The winning team.

The losing team. I think there was a bit of size disadvantage for my team. ;)

Don't they look like they're having a great time?