Christmas Eve 2012

The highlight of Christmas eve is always reading and acting out the Nativity.

Teya played the most precious little Mary, and her Daddy was the perfect Joseph.

 Brinley was a lovely angel. 

 And Cam lasted about 2 minutes as a wiseman before he ripped his costume off.

At least I got one picture of the "wisemen" before he disrobed.

After his costume was off he still didn't want anything to do with family pictures. This is the best one we got. "I'm outta here!" Little stinker!

Brinley was the perfect angel, flying around the living room proclaiming good tidings of great joy.

 Then she had a costume change and made an adorable shepherd, with her little sheep, Monty.

 The nativity cast (minus Grandpa the narrator, and me, the wise man who was taking the picture)

 Once the kids were in bed, Santa's helpers got to work.

 Lots of setting up to do, but it was nice having extra helpers on hand. 

Soon the magic was finished! Merry Christmas to all! And to all a Good Night!!

Our first Chicago visitors!

 We were so lucky to have Mom and Dad Rigg come spend Christmas with us as our first guests in Chicagoland.

 They got to see Cam in action with his speech therapist. 

and Cam taught Grandpa how to use the iPad. 

 We took them to Grahams (the best chocolate shop in the world)

 Grandma Karen loved the homemade strawberry ice cream. 

Cam loved it too.

We showed them the cute shops on 3rd street in downtown Geneva.

We also hit the mall for a visit with Santa, last minute shopping and a carousel ride.

 Cam rode with mommy. Weeee!

 The kids stopped for a photo op. Brinley is cracking me up as the little reindeer.

and the main event at the mall, SANTA!! 

One more with Santa, the Riggies, and Cam's "I just woke up from a nap" space face. 

Classic Christmas memories :)

My photography secret weapon: Mini Marshmallows

 One day I actually did all the kids hair and they were looking all cute and adorable so I decided we should take some pictures. 

Unfortunately, Cam didn't want any part in it. 

"I hate pictures"

 "I WON'T say cheese! Let me go!"

"Why are you doing this to me?"

Luckily I have a secret weapon for times like these. 

Mini Marshmallows. 

I handed him a fistful and things started turning around. 

 "Hey...these are good!"

 "My tummy feels happy!"

"CHEESE!"

And that my friends, is the secret to a happy picture. 

Never underestimate the power of sugar. 

December pics from my phone

I love phone pictures because they show more spontaneous snapshots of our life since I pretty much always have my phone nearby. So here are some of our December snapshots. 

 Driving to the zoo the girls fell asleep in the car holding hands. I love that they love each other so much.

 Brinley drew this adorable picture of herself, Santa, and Sneaky, our elf on the shelf. I love that she included the elf, and her pigtail antennae. So cute!

 I got to sing in a Stake Christmas musical fireside/sing a long so I brought Teya with me on a special Mommy daughter date and she loved it. Sweet girl belted her heart out during the Alleluia chorus. I think we may have another singer in the family. 

My kids really love to dress up. 

Sometimes they have dress ups on before they've even changed out of their pajamas.

You can't really blame Cam for wanting to join them. (although I should probably invest in some superhero dress ups so he has more options besides princess and a fairy.)

 One Sunday Brinley saw me curling my hair so she asked me to do hers too. Twinners!

 A few days before Christmas I told they kids if they cleaned they playroom they could open one of their Christmas presents. They've never cleaned it so fast or so well AND they treasured and played with those bears all day, which the wouldn't have done had they opened them with everything else on Christmas. Best bribe ever. 

 Window shopping at Petsmart. Keeps the kids entertained and out of the cold. and it's free!

 Cam building an epic tower with two of his favorite things, blocks and Brinley. 

 We did A LOT of baking in December which contributed to an impressive 12 lb holiday gain for me. 12 lbs!! I think that's a record. 

Did a cookie swap and white elephant gift exchange with the ladies in my neighborhood. Lots of fun and lots of yum.

Also discovered Grahams, the best candy/chocolate store in the world and ate lots and lots of chocolate.

Christmas eve shopping with my mini me.

Got to sub in primary and the kids were pretty excited about the nativity costumes I brought. 

and Taber and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary with dinner and a movie date to see the Hobbit! Love him :)

Gingerbread house and making new Christmas memories...

It's not really Christmas without the annual gingerbread house making tradition.

Daddy was the froster and the girls put on the decorations.

After an hour or so of gooey sticky fun the masterpiece was finished!

Looked so good we could eat it! 

And since we were in the mood for making Christmas memories, Taber and were feeling brave and decided to take the kids downtown for the big Christmas tree lighting festival. Apparently it's a Geneva tradition and everyone and their dog (seriously, there were tons of dogs) goes and they close off 3rd street and have chestnuts roasting on open fires, hot cocoa, carolers, cookies, frosting shots, homemade candy canes and all sorts of fun Christmasy stuff.

It was a little more effort than we had envisioned due to the freezing cold temps and the fact that SO many people came that we had to park 8 blocks away and walk in the cold. The kids were pretty good troopers though and I think it was worth it once we got there.

The beautiful tree lit up in front of the courthouse. It is so so tall I have no idea how they decorated it!

Taber and the girls

One of the highlights was watching them make homemade candy canes at the candy store. The girls were pretty riveted.

And we actually convinced a kind stranger to take a pic of the whole family to document our adventurous outing. In the end it took a lot of effort but it was a lot of fun and I'm glad we got to go out and make some new memories with the fam.