Santa Baby (10 Months!)

I got a few good pictures of my SUPER wiggly baby this month! I can't believe that we're just a few weeks away from her first birthday. I'm trying VERY hard to be ok with her growing up but in reality I want to cry anytime I think about it. Ems has had another big month. She is very mobile and can crawl like a champ. She is also pulling up and taking a few very tentative steps holding onto the furniture. Based on her current mobility she might be our earliest walker yet.

Another big milestone this month is that she will eat almost anything we give her. She is doing great with table food which has simplified my life. Her favorite foods as of right now: PB&J, Pasta of all kind but she prefers marinara sauce, quesadillas, grapes, oranges, peas, corn, green beans, meats of all kind, yogurt. She still loves her salty snacks - pretzels, rice cakes, goldfish & veggie straws are her favorite and she really doesn't care for sweets (other than ice cream, which she loves).

She has the funniest laugh and it cracks people up whenever they hear it. She has uncanny timing and will begin her deep, throaty belly laugh at the most inopportune times (almost always in the middle of the sacrament on Sundays). It's so cute and unique to her.


She is still nursing twice a day and I've been hoping she would start getting less interested but I think the opposite is true. I'm starting my hard-core diet the second she is one so I need to have weaned by then. It could be a rough few weeks!

She is still very, very attached to me (and I still love it) and she can be heard calling mama all over the house until she finds me. It's adorable.

She is increasingly difficult to photograph. To get one good picture of her, I have about 20 shots that look something like this:

Of course our love for her has only increased over these last 10 months. The kids still fight over her every single day and even beg to wake her up in the morning. Emery is a joy to us all!

Dashing Through December

Are you guys surviving? This has easily been the busiest December on record for us! I feel like I’ve barely had a second to sit down the entire month. I knew I had to make time to blog early this week or I would never document what we’ve been up to this month and would feel sad about it. My mom and dad are arriving on Thursday and my brother on Friday to spend Christmas with us and we are all so excited (seriously, we don't need a Santa countdown, we need a grandma/grandpa countdown). We are saving some of our big traditions for when they get here so we will be busy the rest of this week!

I’ve had to simplify some of our traditions this year just due to time constraints. We’ve still had lots of fun but a lot of it has revolved around reading our Christmas books each night, watching holiday specials, running holiday-related errands and listening to music all day long. I don’t think the kids have minded one bit!

We have a ton of traditions that start December 1. The kids get their chocolate advent calendars for the month. They also get to open a new pair of Christmas pjs to be enjoyed all month long (daddy picked these out this year and the kids love them. Sadly Carter is getting too old to have jammies that match his sisters but he still gets a new pair!) Finally, we start our Christmas book tradition. I wrap up all our Christmas books and we unwrap and read 1-2 every night all month long. I am up to 45 books so pretty soon we will be able to do two every night. Last year I raided my mom’s collection and got to bring a few books from my childhood home for my kids (quite a few out of print!)

A few days later we had a snowstorm and the kids had a snow day. I took full advantage of being at home all day and had a fun time with my kids. We started the day with snowman pancakes:

For dinner we made a couple snowmen pizzas and made snowmen cookies afterward.

We watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional and had oreo peppermint milkshakes as a treat. I really loved the devotional the year. For the first time ever my kids were really reverent and attentive. We loved the movie clip they showed from the new video series on the life of Jesus Christ and really felt the spirit (can’t wait to see more).

We attended and helped at our ward party. This year we had a traditional Hawaiian luau that was AMAZING. We had yummy authentic food (way better than the food at the luau at the PCC!), great entertainment and a visit from Santa. Allen was the MC this year and did a great job (do you love his outfit or what?) and the youth performed several traditional Polynesian musical numbers and dances. It was one of the most fun and memorable ward Christmas parties ever! I got to help make a lot of the food and learned a lot about Hawaiian cooking!

For teacher gifts this year I found this cute idea. This was the outside packaging and inside we placed gift cards to Pei Wei along with a few fortune cookies. Easy, original and adorable

I took the kids to the local tree farm where they have a bunch of fun activities. There is an entire village set up for the kids to play in. They can write a letter to Santa, make an ornament, play house or play in the corn feed pit (always a favorite for my kiddos). There was also a petting zoo and a few games to play. It was a bit chilly so next year I will make sure we go on a warmer day but we still had so much fun!

That afternoon we also made it to the mall to see Santa. I was totally dreading this because I waited so long this year. We got to the mall (which was packed), found a super close parking spot and when we walked in there was NO LINE to see Santa (really not a single person in line). Emery was NOT impressed and started bawling immediately. And can I just say that you know you have a lot of kids when they can’t squeeze everyone into the picture!!!



Makenna and I went to see the Nutcracker with some friends this year. We had such a fun time. We went to lunch beforehand and then went to local ballet company’s production this year. She loved it as much as she always does and remembered so many of the specific performances. It was fun to get dressed up and spend most of the day together. Addison was really sad that she wasn’t able to come but I knew she would never make it through a 2 hour performance after the 50 minute Aladdin show at Disneyland could not keep her attention. Next year will be her first year!

In the midst of all this busyness I have also hosted book club and a busy bag swap at my house this month (more on those later), attended class parties and a few other parties, got packages and cards mailed AND I was called to serve as the 1st counselor in the primary presidency in my ward! I am so excited to serve with an amazing group of women but this is the busiest time of year for Primary since we have to get everything ready for the new year. It has just added to the general craziness of the month! It has been nice to slow down a bit this week and enjoy having my kiddos home!

Holiday Home

If I had to choose a theme for my holiday decorating this year it would be “Make the old new.” I didn’t want to dedicate any budget to updating my Christmas décor this year and honestly, I couldn’t think of a single thing I wanted to add anyway so it worked out perfectly. I did make one purchase, which you will see in my porch pictures and did buy 2 rolls of ribbon but that is it! And I’m really happy with how festive and pretty the house looks this year! Allen is forever bugging me to weed out the home décor stuff I’m not using on a regular basis but I have held onto some of my Christmas things for years. This year that hoarding mentality has really paid off. I used a bunch of my décor that hasn’t seen the light of day in a few years in new ways, making them seem totally new. I’ve loved the challenge this year.

First up, the front porch. My one purchase was the trees on either side of the door. I’ve wanted a set for years and found a great deal on the pair early in the season! Close up (still LOVING my sign stand and how it gives some height to the area).

Living/Dining Rooms:

Same tree/theme but I did my ribbon and topper differently and I like it more this year than ever.

Tree at night:

Family Room:

Tree at Night:

I did add a stocking for Emery this year that my sister sent for my birthday. Love seeing them all lined up! (And I love the holders this year that I scored for 90 cents each last year after Christmas).

Jars:
Funny story this year. I keep my candy from year to year and replenish when I need to. I have had this Christmas candy for the past 3 years. Carter begged me for a Hershey kiss the other day and I warned him that the candy was old but he still wanted it. He popped a kiss in his mouth and got the funniest expression on his face and then went and spit it in the trash. I tried one afterwards and it was horrible! Chocolate definitely does NOT keep. At least it looks cute, right?

I love to add little holiday touches everywhere and this is in our half bath:

Kitchen:
Old ornaments but love them hanging in the window this year

Pantry Door:

Have had these wreaths for years but haven't used them for the past few Christmases but I love them hanging together

One really fun thing I made this year are beach ornaments. We collect a bit of sand from all of our beach vacations and I have been looking for a way to display our sand for years. I saw this idea to use clear ornaments and put the sand inside them with a tag of the beach it is from. BRILLIANT! Since our family room tree is our “travel” tree it goes perfectly with the theme. I have a few more to make but I love I have a place to show off our beloved beach vacations over the years. We also added three new travel ornaments this year: a new Disneyland ornament, a fluer de lis from New Orleans and a pink flamingo from our Florida trip.

The only thing I am sad about this year is that I don’t have a place to display all my nativities. Not only do we buy an ornament from our trips, but we try to get a nativity from them as well. I have some fun and beautiful nativities stored away for someday when we get into a bigger house. I’ve missed them the last couple of Christmases (I do have my main nativity out in my kitchen).

I have a bit more throughout the house but this is the main stuff. I'm happy have the house pretty and cozy and ready for the season!