Christmas Day And Round Two

Christmastime with Lola was SO much fun this year!! She was excited about everything- the snow, lights, Christmas tree (its decorations), and of course opening presents. By her second Christmas Eve she had the unwrapping down and insisted on opening all her own gifts (and others if they'd let her). It was a lot of fun to watch her excitement at all the presents under the tree on Christmas morning and her seeing what was in them. She's at the perfect age where pretty much any new toy is fun and exciting so every present was a success! I have always loved Christmas but being able to experience it with and watch it through Brooklyn and Lola's eyes has made it that much more awesome.

Santa brought Lola a pink horse ride on which she LOVES. Her favorite part- the little basket in front for her to store her silky, binky, and whatever else she desires while she's busy learning to scoot herself around the house.

Checking out her stocking goods

Her first (mini) kitchen play set!

Showing off her awesome gift-unwrapping skills

A new baby that makes drinking sounds and also coos and giggles. Buying for little girls is way too much fun!

Momma and Lolie reading her new alphabet books

Lola wearing 3 of her favorite gifts- a pink doggie shirt from Auntie Breecia, a ladybug backpack from Auntie Paige, and a sparkly tutu from Grammie. The doggie shirt was by far the best- as soon as she saw it, she grabbed it and sat down to put it on. Once on, she walked all around patting her shirt with this huge grin on her face. Super cute!

Bonka reading Lola one of her new books "Lola and Tiva".

Later that day cousin Landon came over to open some presents with us and he was just as adorable and fun. He would make the cutest faces and sounds at all the gifts and also loved everything (especially the Mickey toy that his favorite Auntie got him) :)

The cousins playing with their new toys. They were so cute together and played very nicely with one another. I wonder if it will be the same story 3 years from now?!Round Two-Our family Christmas with Brooklyn
We came home a few days after Christmas to celebrate with Brooklyn. She is also at a really fun age for Christmastime because she still gets all into it and wants to believe in the magic of it. We think this year could have been her last Christmas 'believing'' but I really hope it isn't... it just wont be same if so. I'm interested in seeing what she asks Santa for next year as last year it was $100 cash and this year it was an Ipod touch :) While Santa didn't think that the Ipod was a very practical gift for a 7 year old, he was still able to come through with a few other great gifts that she was pretty excited about. We saved a few gifts for Lola to open at home with Brooklyn and she was in heaven. Not only did she like her presents, she was also way excited about Brooklyn's and wanted in on playing with them. And surprisingly Brooklyn was a really good sport about it and let her. It was an awesome Christmas- we had a lot of fun and made many great memories. I'm definitely excited for next year but also really glad that we have another winter month behind us and are that much closer to warm weather... 4 months and counting :)

Lola helping sissy open and put together her new toys
Me with my cute girls

Our Christmas Eves

We had our (first) Christmas Eve with Brooklyn a few days early this year since we were leaving for Denver before the holiday. The girls liked their new ornaments and Christmas jammies.

Christmas candy cupcake ornaments! Lola was really hoping they were real. She gave hers a few licks to see if it was :)

Looking cute in their matching pjs. I'm going to be really sad when Brooklyn gets too big (grown up) for me to get away with putting them in matching clothes. It's really only cute with jammies, I think, which is probably why they already have 4 matching pairs. And you cant have too many cute pjs.

Christmas Eve in Denver. Since Lola had already opened her Christmas Eve present at home, Grammie gave her a small gift to open on the actual day- an ornament from Mexico (where Grammie and Bonka's recently vacationed). Lola was really excited for another present to open. She's realized how much fun it is to unwrap/open them and that there's also usually something fun or interesting inside!

Adding her new ornament to the tree.

My nephew Lincoln. Seriously, this kid gets cuter every time I see him. And he is always happy. He loves to just chill and flash these adorable smiles your way!

Snow Fun

We had another small storm come through a few days ago that left enough snow to take the girls out sledding. It was Lola's first time and she wasn't quite the fan I hoped she'd be but we had a lot of fun none the less :)

Lola watching the snow fall (the last week or two she's been obsessed with putting her hat on while inside and just hanging out in it)

The girls all bundled up and ready to go!

Daddy with his girls

Snow angles!

A Candleight Chistmas

This last weekend we went to Heritage Park for their 'Candlelight Christmas'. Everything was set up to show what a Christmas holiday would have been like in the late 1800's. What was neat was that some of the buildings there are the originals from when Utah was first settled by the pioneers. The state has restored them and built replicas of a few others to promote Utah's heritage and history. And since I'm a history major (=dork) and took a Utah history course in college, I thought it was pretty cool. But neither Luke nor the girls could have cared about all that good stuff, they just wanted it to be fun. And quite surprisingly it was! We got to see live reindeer, visit different cottages and meeting houses to join in the activities/crafts and see a Christmas play, saw a live nativity complete with goats and sheep (Brooklyn's favorite part), walked through a tiny elf village where you could see little elves working inside, took a train ride around the park and then saw Father Christmas on our way out. All in all (and despite the freezing cold) we had fun. Brooklyn never got bored or tired of it, just cold at the end and it wore both girls right out- they were asleep within 2o minutes of walking in the house. Another Christmas festivity success :)

Super sweet icicle ornaments! Do you love Brooklyn's hat?! We realized after leaving the house that we forgot hers so she had to borrow one of Lola's extras. She pulls it off well ;)

Daddy and B on the train ride

Petting the sheep and goats

Asking Brooklyn to show you her 'I had fun face' gets you this one

Lola's First Snow Day

Getting Dressed. Don't worry that I layered her up so much it was like in the Christmas story where the kid couldn't put his arms down. Didn't want my baby to be cold :)

All ready to go out

First thing she did was slip on an icy patch. Since she wasn't crying I took a picture (but we all know I still would have even if she was)

She was pretty apprehensive about the snow at first. I had to show her that you could walk on it and touch it and nothing bad would happen before she was ready to test it herself with her boot.

By the end, she was having way too much fun and was very sad to have to come inside :)

Look at those cute pink cheekies!

Snow day was a success and I cant wait to take the girls sledding once it snows again!