My true loves

Merry Christmas!
May our hearts be full of love for one another and our Savior.

Great start!

I can't even say how excited I am to have Lily home from school for two weeks! Aaron only works two days next week. We are going to have so much fun together! We started our Christmas break off great! We played at the park, then ate dinner at Culvers (kids' choice), then drove around to see Christmas lights.

My beautiful girl. When Lily gets home from school she changes out of her uniform into regular clothes. I love to see her choices. Today it was an orange shirt, a turquoise skirt, and a brown sequined vest tied together with her native american shirt tie. Luckily it sort of blended in with the turquoisy sequins and skirt. :)

We love teeter-totters. Uh, I think Carter and I make a pretty balanced pair, don't you?

Aaron makes everything so much fun. The kids can't get enough of him.

Carter played with Harold the helicopter in the sand almost the whole time at the park. He used to not like the sand because it was dirty...but now he loves it!

My honey. He's the greatest husband in the world.

Ummmm, yes, I still have six weeks left.

The not-so-great part of our break, which I won't even mention, includes being up with Lily for an hour in the night cause she didn't feel real well and some exciting times with Carter's diapers. I'll say no more.

Aaron is such a dream boat. He let me sleep in until 8:00!!! I don't know when that last happened. When I got up he had made pancakes for us all.

Carter got a train pancake. He thought it was the greatest thing ever.

Lily got a butterfly. Notice her lovely lipstick.

My dreamboat, right there.

More fun pancakes: a snowflake, a saguaro cactus, a circle, and a swirl.

My special pancake was baby Hazel all swaddled up tight.

After breakfast we worked our tails off to clean up the kitchen and family room. See, what a great start to our Christmas break!

Star of Bef-hem

We had fun decorating our Christmas tree. Lily has been dying to get the ornaments out. She asked me several times in the weeks before we got our tree if she could just get the ornaments out and look at them. Mean mom said no because if we did, we'd have ornaments and tissue paper all over the place until we got the tree.

We put our tree up the week after Thanksgiving. The kids were so excited. With every ornament she pulled out, Lily gasped and made a comment like, "This is so beautiful," or "I love this ornament because...." Both kids had a great time identifying their own ornaments and hanging them on the tree.

Carter has learned a lot this year about Baby Jesus' birth and the new star that Heavenly Father put in the sky at Jesus' birth. He calls it the Star of Bef-lem. It sounds so cute when he says it!

The ritual of putting the star on top of the tree has always been Lily's privilege. However, Carter is old enough to do it now too. Both kids wanted to be the one to put it on the tree. So problem-solver Lily came up with the great idea to do it together.

Voila!

Jolly old St. Nicholas

Jolly old St. Nicholas, lean your ear this way....

We got to see Santa Claus at our church Christmas party last night. Santa was so jolly and nice. Lily told him she would like a family of Lambies. Lily has mentioned a few different things this year when we've asked her what she'd like Santa to bring her. For several years she's wanted a castle for Lamby to live in. She asked for it a month or so ago but hasn't talked about it much since. She has also mentioned clothes for her stuffed animals to wear and a big white teddy bear as big as her with a red rose in its hand. She saw one like that at a yard sale a couple of years ago and loved it. Do you blame me for not buying a big used teddy bear to add to our already huge collection of stuffed animals? Well apparently, that teddy bear made an impression on her because she's talked about it since! We'll see what Santa decides to bring for Lily this year.

When Carter saw Santa walk into the room he ran straight to him! He's been excited about Santa this year. He says often that he would like Santa to bring him a train for Christmas. Unfortunately, Carter doesn't understand that he has to wait until December 25th to receive his presents. He was so disappointed last night that Santa didn't give him a present. However, I have a suspicion that when Carter wakes up on Christmas morning he will no longer be disappointed!

Our ward Christmas party was great, of course! Santa was a huge hit. Aaron was photographer and took photos of all the kids with Santa. He'll email them out to ward members later. Our dinner was headed up by Chef Cameron so it was delicious! He made his unforgettable potatoes dauphinois, for the third year in a row. Those potatoes had the effect on Aaron and me that the huge teddy bear had on Lily. We talk about and anticipate them all year long! After dinner we listened to some music selections and a reading from Luke chapter 2. I enjoyed singing Candlelight Carol, a sweet favorite of mine.

Sensitive little man

You may know how a gal feels during the last trimester of pregnancy. Tired, not enough energy to do what needs to be done, and uncomfortable in a variety of ways. (I'm not complaining, mind you.) Yesterday Carter and I were sitting at the table together finishing up lunch when I let out a big sigh. Carter turned to me and said, "What are you feelin' like?" It was the sweetest thing and actually took me by surprise. I didn't even realize I had let out an audible sigh and I certainly didn't expect my two year old boy to notice it and tune in to the fact that it meant I was feeling something other than great. What a sensitive little guy. I replied with a smile that I was just tired, but happy too. Then I asked if he was happy and he said "yes" with a big smile. Life doesn't get much better than this, does it?