December and Faux Christmas

The month of December was so crazy.  Todd graduated from the University of Utah with his MBA.  It is hard to say who was more excited about that but we are so proud of him and all of the hard work he put in over the last two years.  He is pretty great, I won't write all about it here but if you want to know how great he is, just ask me.  Anyway, between graduation, and about a million work parties and even a wedding thrown in there we used our fair share of babysitters throughout the month.  We had a great time though!

I was once again, horrible at taking pictures through the month but here are a few of the random ones that I did take.

The girls got chocolate marshmallow candy of some sort at Emma's preschool.  I let Katelyn eat hers when we got home.  I think it is safe to say that she enjoyed it! 

We had our good friends the Simmons over for soup and to make gingerbread houses with us (even if I didn't take a picture of them).  We had a good time with them, and were great parents and sent the kids downstairs so we could decorate in peace.  Maybe next year I will be able to let go of some of my OCD tendencies and let Emma and Katelyn help.

We started the tradition this year that the girls got to open a new Christmas book each night before bed.  One afternoon it was really quiet and I didn't know what the girls were doing.  I walked around the corner to find them both happily reading books.  Cutest little girls if you ask me! (yes, Emma is almost always in a princess dress, let's not talk about it.)

I loved waking up to this scene one morning in December.  Todd went out to shovel and took a picture first, he knows how much I love the look of snow before anyone has driven or walked on it.  It is seriously so great!

We decided to celebrate Christmas with our little family early on the 21st because we were heading to Japan on the 22nd to visit my family for Christmas.  It was fun this year because Emma understood a little more and Santa and her parents were able to give her things that she really loved.  Katelyn is easy to please and likes almost anything but for some reason it was so rewarding to me to see Emma really love something that I spent time picking out for her.  Anyway, here are a few pictures from that.

Emma was so excited to get a real Belle doll.  She had been pretending that her Cinderella doll was Belle for about a month since she "only really loves Belle."

The aftermath, despite Todd's best efforts to clean up as we went.

Todd's only Christmas request, besides the new socks that he asks for every year, was a new BYU polo shirt.  The first time he wore it out of our house someone asked him if he coached at BYU, maybe it is a little too official looking or maybe that person just didn't know what they were talking about.

You know you have had a successful morning when the girl who never naps anymore falls asleep at 10:30.  Maybe that new princess pillow was just too comfortable to resist. 

We had such a great time celebrating with the girls! It wasn't a very extravagant Christmas this year but it was just what we needed and a good way to put us into the Christmas spirit.