Christmas Day 2012

Christmas Day is always a day that we really look forward to.  We love Christmas!!!  Jacob got home around 8 and I was able to keep the girls upstairs so we could both watch them come down the stairs.  Then, before presents, we had the missionaries come over for a yummy breakfast.  After they left, we were finally able to open presents.  The girls loved this part, of course, but we really enjoyed seeing Makenna figuring out that presents were fun to open and she tried to open a lot of them.  There were a lot of pictures of opening presents so here are just a few of them.  After that, we were able to go to Grandma's house for dinner with the rest of the family.  The dinner was one of the best that I can remember and it just turned out to be a really wonderful Christmas!!

Christmas Eve 2012

We spent Christmas Eve the way we do every year, at MB and Nathan's house.  We love to go and enjoy family but we really just go for the yummy brisket and cinnamon rolls that Nathan makes.  :)  When we got home, the girls opened their new pajamas and Jacob read them "The Night Before Christmas".  Then, they put out the letters they wrote to Santa and went to bed!! (I love the letters so much!!  I will be keeping these ones!)

Family Christmas Pictures

I always love to take family Christmas pictures the Sunday before church.  It is a lot of fun to go back and look at all of the past pictures.  Enjoy!

Dance Recital

This year we have had a lot of fun watching the girls enjoy their dance class.  This week, they performed in their first dance recital.  It was a really informal dance recital for just the little ones and it was so great to watch! The pictures are not great since we couldn't use the flash but at least it is something to show.  We were able to video tape it and have watched it many times since! Emma was supposed to wear long sleeved pajamas and Maddie had to wear a Christmas dress.  The last two pictures are what I got when they decided to "pose" for the camera.  Funny girls!

Emma - Emma performed first and was so shy!  This was her first big performance at a place like this and she spent most of the dance looking around and trying to find where we were sitting.  As you can see in the picture, she gets a little nervous in front of crowds.  She got braver towards the end and did a few moves but this picture pretty much captures the essence of her performance.  I loved it all the same!

Maddie - Maddie is definitely going to be our performer.  She got up there just fine and did as many of the moves as she could remember.  My two favorite parts were when they tapped their little feet with the jingle bells on them and when they jumped up and shouted "Hey!" during Jingle Bells. Loved watching her and can't wait to see what she can do in the future.

Emma's Kindergarten Christmas Program

This is our first child in school so I was pretty excited to go to our first school performance.  All of the Kindergarten  classes at Emma's school sang three different Christmas songs for us.  Jacob and I helped with the program by making the 90 jingle bell bracelets that they are all wearing.  Yes, 90!!!  But it was so worth it to see them shaking their bells during the song Jingle Bells.  So cute!!  Emma doesn't love being in front of a crowd but we got to see her singing here and there. She looked so adorable in her red dress and reindeer hat and I couldn't have asked for anything more!

Christmas Lights

As a family we love to go and look at Christmas lights.  Here are a couple of the destinations we visited:

Bainbridge Falls - This is a really cool community in Temecula where the entire street participates with lights that flash along to some music on a radio station.  It was our first time there and we totally loved it!







Mission Inn - We go here every year and enjoy all of the lights that are there.  However, I really go for the yummy cupcakes you can find there and this year the girls and Jacob found some delicious homemade donuts that I think they will get again next year!  We usually love going with MB and Nathan but unfortunately they were sick this year.  :(  But both grandmas stepped in and enjoyed the time there with us.

Chino - We like to go and look at the Chino lights every year with Spencer and Amber's little family.  The girls love to play with their boys, Gavin, Grant and Parker.

Gingerbread Houses

It's not Christmas unless you make a gingerbread house!  I am a little lazy though and instead of each of the girls getting a house to decorate, I only let them each decorate one side.  I love to see the difference though! (Look closely and you'll see what I mean!)