Christmas Eve

3 of my favorite people flew in on Christmas Eve and it was so wonderful to have them here for Christmas! Art, Jenene and Sophia arrived in the afternoon and then we had Christmas at my Mom's house that evening. Art + Jared sharing beers over a discussion about beer. Art pretending to crash Haley's tea party with his beer. You can see the Costco pizza on the table, which was our tasty Christmas Eve dinner. My Mom's Christmas tree

Cousins with zero resemblance to each other ;D

"Let's all pile on top of Uncle Art!" Watching these 2 play together was so sweet Reading the Christmas story about Jesus Kiera got a Frozen Lego set

Haley with her Elsa magnetic wooden doll

As always, a new Lego set!

Sticker Dolly Dressing books which are her favorite

Haley got an Anna dress from Uncle Art and Aunty Jenene <

Lego set #2

I bought Sophia a Rapunzel shirt when we were in Florida

Haley also got a Rapunzel dress

I got Jenene a bottle of dairy-free butter olive oil (the "butter" is from a plant that tastes like butter)

Jared's gift from Art

After 10 years of marriage, I got some new towels!

Art showing his gifts at opposite ends of the spectrum: books about beer and a Hillsong United c.d.

Jenene + I both bought my Mom some puzzles which is a hobby of her's

My Mom bought me a bike helmet, so now I don't have to use Jared's anymore!

Jared got 2 beach chairs which he was pumped about!

The kids ended off the evening with dominoes

It was a really fun evening and a great way to kick off our Christmas week together! More Christmas fun to come!

Mid-December

Since my full-time baby-sitting job ended at the end of October, I've started going to Kiera and Blake's school assemblies which are every other Friday and I take Haley with me. I like to see what's going on at school and since this is the first year I'm not volunteering in Kiera's class, I get to see her teacher and her classmates there. Kiera and Blake came home that day and said, "Fake Santa came to visit each of our classes." That made me laugh! They have never believed in Santa and I'm perfectly happy with that. On December 18, Haley had her Preschool Christmas program. It was supposed to be on the 17th but was postponed one day due to bad weather and school being cancelled. I was glad that they were still able to have the program. When I arrived, my friend was sitting in the 2nd row and there was room next to her, so Jared and I got good seats this year. :) I think this song was to the tune of "B-I-N-G-O and Bingo was his name-oh" except it was "J-E-S-U-S...." Cute little angels! Haley showing off one of her new outfits

Kiera let me use my old waver on her hair, so she had "curly" hair for Christmas this year. :)

I was going to start posting Christmas Eve pictures but there are so many that they will get their own post! Until then, Happy Valentine's Day! ;)

The First Half of December

Right after we got back from Florida, we went for family haircuts. I got one 2 days before the other 4 got one. This was Haley's very first haircut!

Blake picked out a pirate set at Dollarama, which Haley enjoyed trying on.

We had our first Christmas gathering in early December and the kids got chocolate treats.

I first saw these blue and white icicle lights on Target's website a few years ago and REALLY liked them. Fast forward to a year ago in December, we were in the States for our anniversary and had measured our house beforehand, in case we found those lights at Target. It turns out that Target was having a Christmas lights sale and they had a bunch of them in stock but not quite enough. We bought all of the boxes they had in Fargo, then stopped in Grand Forks on our way home and bought a few more boxes. Jared only put them up on the garage that year since it was right before Christmas. This year, he put them up in fall and I was delighted with our full set of Christmas lights this year! We had never had Christmas lights on our house since we got married, so I definitely enjoyed them! The sky at 9 a.m. on December 9, my Dad's birthday. Kiera was a "Who" (one of many) in their school Christmas program (How the Grinch Stole Christmas).

Haley's favorite song this Christmas that she loved to listen to over and over and dance to over and over was "Light of the World" by Lauren Daigle. She wanted me to take pictures and videos, so I did.

Our first snowman of the season. We have since built 2 more.

We had an incredibly mild December (until the day that Art, Jenene and Sophia came on Christmas Eve), that we still had geese that hadn't flown south on December 14! For me and probably many others, the mild weather was a gift from the Lord as I have a really hard time when the weather drops down to the -20's and -30's.

Many more Christmas photos to come!