December Fun!

For a week or so, every time I tried to snap a picture of my two girls together, Olivia would hide. She is a VERY caring big sister, but didn't want to be in the pictures. Every time Kenzie isn't with me, Olivia runs in every few minutes to check on her, then loudly yell whether she is awake or asleep. This is fairly effective at ensuring she will wake up soon :). O is also totally interested in all the 'mommy' aspects of having a new addition. She has started asking if she can help me do things 'so I know how when I am a mommy'. This is one of my favorite things to hear, and always ensures that I let her watch and/or help. She is just so curious, and has always insisted she wants to be a mommy when she grows up, so I love seeing her interest in learning new things.

On December 10th, at less than a month old, Makenzie had her first acting gig! Amber's ward at church was in need of a baby Jesus look-a-like, and Kenzie fit the bill :). I was very glad to listen from another room and let my friends Chrissy and Doug be Mary and Joseph, It was very sweet, and Kenzie played the role perfectly *insert overly-proud-of-a-small-accomplishment mom look here*

We got our tree all finished the next day, a big improvement on last year's tree (see the last picture on this post). We did have a broken bulb - which may have been from a responsible adult - but the decorations stayed on their branches for the most part. I'm just glad that we have so many more ornaments this year, we are trying to do one or two major decoration costs per year, so we have had a sad tree every year until this one.

Call me crazy, but I always have very grand ideas about what we will accomplish during the month of december, There are so many fun crafts, opportunities for service, and family activities that we can't ever fit everything in. We did pick a few that were important, one of which was decorating Christmas trees with the kids. It was a super simple Pinterest activity, and the trees worked out wonderfully. You can tell how much fun the kids had!

On December 14th, Makenzie turned one month old!  These pictures look a little funny, but are the start to a fun collage I will be doing of every month her first year. As most picture times do, our solo shot turned into a sibling picture, but I never mind when the kids ask to hold her and play with her.

Probably my favorite picture of these three..so perfect for their personalities!

These next few pictures are totally random, but most of our days feel random and uncoordinated, so it's a more accurate look at our lives. The kids LOVED having presents under the tree this year. We have left them all up high until Christmas Eve in the past, but I love  the look of presents under the tree, so we decided to do that this year. We had ZERO instances of intentional unwrapping, and only a couple tape repairs needed.

This is how I know Carter has been holding her hand in the car. He was totally covered in chocolate before this time, but K licked it off and was quite pleased with the taste of chocolate.

We also have been slowly making changes to the decorations in the kids' rooms.

Falling asleep at the wheel tonight...see you tomorrow!