Christmas Morning

Thanks to wonderful family and friends, we had a great Christmas again this year! We feel so humbled to have such love and blessings!
We had church at 9:00 this year, and since Christmas was on Sunday, we decided we'd rather not get up at the crack of the crack of dawn to enjoy it. So, we celebrated everything on Saturday morning! Christmas was particularly fun this year because Tylie is at the age where she understands most of the things associated with the holiday: Christmas lights ("Look! Christmas lights! I see Baby Jesus! A snowman! Two reindeers!"), Santa Clause ("Mom, know what? Santa is coming!"), stockings ("That Tylie's stocking, Kaelisse's stocking, mommy's stocking, daddy's stocking), presents, candy canes, etc. It's so much more fun to have a child around who sees the magic of the season and reminds me why we celebrate and feel so much joy!

Anyway, we had a great morning. Here are the highlights.
The stockings set out, ready to be raided.

Kaelisse exploring her wonders.
Tylie saying "cheese" for me. It's getting harder to have a nice smiling picture of her....of course I was asking quite a lot out of her if I expected her to stop and look at the camera for me in the middle of all this excitement.

Fun memories of the day.






As a side note--One memo Brent and I must have missed somewhere down the line is this: A one-year-old is excited to open presents, tear wrapping paper, play with bows, climb in boxes, etc. At this stage, you can wrap each pair of socks separately, get them clothes and bathroom items, and anything else you want to get them because they are more excited to be opening so much stuff and they think they are having the most fun they could ever have in life. However, somewhere in the next year, all of that changes. Brent and I went ahead and got Tylie all kinds of things she needed, as well as a couple simple and quiet toys(for church and the tub). Well here's a lesson for all you first-child parents....two-year-olds aren't nearly as excited about opening the presents as they are about playing with new stuff! Tylie's excitement quickly faded as she opened more clothes.....more bath stuff....more socks..... Especially when she noticed baby sister opening toys and teethers and other bright, colorful, noisy objects. She stopped wanting to open presents because they weren't interesting enough!!! Brent and I looked at all the stuff we got her, and realized she had no regular, imaginative, exciting toys!?! Well, after wallowing in the guilt of our ignorance, and knowing she needed to have something fun, we realized that we were celebrating a day early, and all our parenting errors could be fixed!! We took back some of the stuff she didn't need much, and got her something she has been ecstatic about since then: a baby doll, car seat carrier, and pack-n-play. Phew! We had a happy kiddo, and still more than enough of the "necessities." Hope none of you ever make this mistake...learn from our errors...

By the middle of this grand production, Kaelisse pretty much looked like she needed to pass out. She was SO tired! Love this picture of her zoning out with the stuffed cow that Aunt Angie and Uncle Brennon sent.


Our annual family picture that will end up in a tree ornament for next year.

Sisters being a little silly on the couch in some of their new pajamas....they got so many cute pairs this year!


This was on ACTUAL Christmas morning. We didn't go out and get the girls new Christmas dresses...both of them had these in the closet already (hand-me-downs from generous ward members in South Carolina...love and miss you guys!). But, I thought they were perfect for our Christmas sacrament...and they looked adorable in them!

Tylie playing with her favorite Christmas gifts...and being the best "mom" ever!

Cute apron, Brent

Brent's department at work volunteered to ring the bell for the Salvation Army at the mall this holiday season. Lucky little Ty-Bug got to go along and help spread some Christmas joy...although you might not guess that's what she was doing by this look on her face!

December 16, 2011

Our Ward Christmas Party
Our ward served a delicious Christmas dinner this year. Many, many people came out for the festivities. After dinner was served, there were multiple musical numbers up on the stage. Tylie seemed transfixed on the singers and musicians...she sat in my lap SO still and quiet! Then, as she usually does, she found someone else's lap she would rather sit in. :)

Of course, nothing entertains kids forever. So eventually they found another way to keep themselves busy: Kaelisse crawling all over the place, and Tylie following her around laughing.

Then, of course, one of the highlights of the night was Santa Clause. One of the young girls in our ward, who absolutely LOVES Tylis and Kaelisse, asked if she could take Tylie to see Santa, and I was happy to let her fight the crowds of kids. :)

When they got close enough in line, I went up there with them to make sure Tylie wasn't too nervous about the strange man with the beard. Nothing to worry about...she had zero problem with him. I also threw Kaelisse in his lap for a second to get a picture of the two girls together. One of the ladies in the ward was taking pictures of all the kids, and I haven't gotten that one from her yet. Hopefully it's coming soon.


The night was a fun one. We always love the Ward Christmas Party.

Back to updates

December 6, 2011
We got an email from someone in the ward about free tickets to a play, so we went. It was a musical called "Scrooge" based on "The Christmas Carol" and it was done in a little playhouse about 20 minutes from here. I thought it was such a fun little place! The stage was in the middle of the room, and there were chairs on all sides of it. The characters came and went from all of the 4 corners of the room. It almost felt like we were in the middle of their cute little town.
The view from our seats.
Waiting for the play to start.Our family...awwwwww... We didn't get to finish watching the whole play...it didn't start until 7:30, and it lasted more than two hours. Needless to say, we had some pretty tired kids by the time intermission rolled around. On our way out the doors, a little girl (probably about 5 years old) stopped us and said, "You know, there's still more left." So sweet. This was a fun outing for us, and I think even the girls enjoyed the dancing, singing, moving people a little bit.

A short break from updates...

...for some "just-because-I-love-'em" pictures:
Pictures from December






Pictures from November






Pictures from October

....and on...

Very beginning of December...
Arlington Stake Nativity Display
Every year for many, many years, our stake has hosted a nativity display. They transform the stake center into an incredibly beautiful "museum" of nativities...usually displaying hundreds of different sets. It really was a phenoenal feat....I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are a few.

In addition to the nativities, they also had live music almost the whole time, free dress-up/photo op for families, a room with videos showing, missionaries available to answer questions, and a craft and storytime room for the kids.

Tylie got a coloring book, and a craft kit to make her own Baby Jesus ornament.The ornament never made it to our Christmas tree. Tylie played with it, took it apart, rocked Baby Jesus to sleep, etc.

Posing in front of the tree with her new ornament.

Being sweet sisters and holding still just long enough for the shutter to click.

Haha...funny looks on both faces.

The kids room had a variety of nativities that the little ones were allowed to play with. I think Tylie would have been happy sitting here all night.

We opted out of the family picture opportunity. The line was too long, and Brent and I were less than enthusiastic about playing dress-up. :)

We had a really nice time, and will probably come back every year. It was really beautiful, and the spirit in the building was incredible. It was a great kick-off for the month, and helped us start to feel the spirit of the holiday season.