Pre-Christmas partying!

Wow the past 3 weeks have been a blur! We've packed in so many Christmas festivities, I'm ready to drop! We've had tons of fun celebrating the season this month. We kicked things off with a bang with Grace's birthday party- a painting extravaganza! Daryn was so excited to be painting with the big kids. She didn't follow the instructions, but I think she did pretty good.

 

Reagan was very dedicated, and determined to paint hers just like the teacher was showing. She was very successful and proud of her work, but I don't have a picture of the final product. (A flag in front of a sunset).

 Sweetest birthday girl!

We left Grace's birthday party and drove straight to Heber for a trip on the Polar Express. The girls were so excited when we boarded the train!

There was hot chocolate and cookies on the trip, and then the big man himself made an appearance!

We sang lots of Christmas songs and rode to the North Pole and got special bells from Santa's sleigh!

A few nights later was the Festival of Trees! One of my favorite Christmas traditions. 

I had to get this picture of Daryn. She has a total love/hate relationship with the Abominable Snow Monster. She is "scared" of him, but always seeks him out, especially in our Rudolph book, so she can say "Ooh, he's so scary!" and cover her eyes. It's pretty adorable. 

The girls loved the trees and the treats and especially making crafts with Daddy. 

That weekend, we made time to stop by the mall for a visit with Santa and a ride on the new train they had! Reagan made sure to ask Santa for her own little computer, and Daryn asked very sweetly for a dolly. We'll see if St. Nick comes through...

 So fun that they added this! I hope they keep it. 

The next week, we made time to drive up to Ogden to see the Christmas Village. They have tons of lights/displays and all these little houses full of mini Christmas scenes. It's very magical. 

 They even had a little Frozen show going on while we were there. Lucky!

 And we stopped on the way home so Lance and Reagan could do a little ice skating. I'm not sure why he's carrying her in this picture- she can get around slowly but surely, until she gets tired. 

I knocked out all the Christmas cookie baking in one day, which was a huge relief, and pretty exhausting. Don't worry, I didn't eat all of these myself. We gave a lot away. 

 We had our ward Christmas party, which was very inspirational, and the girls had a great time running around the gym and sneaking lots of treats :).

We made gingerbread houses, thankfully from kits this time, so they stuck together pretty well. 

And it snowed! So much snow! We got about a foot over 3 days. The biggest storm in a few years! The girls were thrilled to pieces (so was I, if we're being honest). 

 Time to go play!

 What a wonderland!

 I thought I was being the coolest mom ever by building a slide down the stairs. We packed it in tight and the girls loved going down. It worked pretty well!

But Lance one-upped me a couple days later by adding their slide to the top of it for one extra long slide! It was super fun, but we were a little concerned about how fast it made them go, and them crashing off, so we moved it away after a few turns each. 

We decorated sugar cookies (some of us just ate frosting...) for FHE one night. 

Yummy!

Lance's mom came into town for a few days, and Lance, Reagan, Meagan, and Grace went with her to the Ballet West Nutcracker. Always a special treat. 

 

Meanwhile that night, Daryn got to come with me to a Primary activity with the big kids!

 

She was so so proud of this craft she made. And drinking her milk like a big kid. 

Joy came and spent a couple days at our house so Lance and I could go out. Thursday night we had a Christmas dinner with his work partners, and Friday night we went to the temple! It had been too long, and it was wonderful to be there. The girls had the best time playing with Gigi. I think they wore her out, and I got a nice break :).

Saturday morning we went sledding. The girls were big enough to go down by themselves, which was pretty nice, although Daryn did need some help getting back up. 

Then we went up to Park City to see Grace perform in the Park City Nutcracker! She was one of the little dancers that hide under the big skirt and pop out. She was so cute, and she did great!

Afterwards, we decided to check out the Christmas in Color display that we had heard about in South Salt Lake. It was definitely worth it- such a cool lights/music display!

 There were even light tunnels to drive through. The pictures don't do it justice.

 We stopped to see this beautiful tree that we noticed when we drive past. Just hanging out in a mortuary parking lot. It was gorgeous. 

The girls got to wear this Christmas dresses last week and this week. My little Christmas angels! Lance totally loves the glitter trail these dresses leave behind on everything they touch. 

My sweet girls and I this morning. 24 weeks pregnant!  

Besides all the Christmas fun, we've had just some regular fun in the past few weeks. 

Reagan and Daryn rocked their dentist trip. 

We ran into Mickey at the grocery store, which was very exciting. 

 The girls were just adorable, as always. Pictured doing their favorite activities: dancing, eating, playing with Legos, and doing art. 

Snuggles. 

Ad to finish it all off, a beautiful winter sunset. 

What a fun time we've had! Now we're all ready for the actual holiday. We leave for Colorado on Wednesday (weather permitting). We can't wait to celebrate with both of our families! We love Christmastime!