Pre-Christmas

One of my new years resolutions is to get back into blogging.  I don't know what has gotten into me lately.  I think I get behind and then the thought of catching up overwhelms me.  We had a lot of fun this year preparing for Christmas.  We bought an Elf on the Shelf for the kids and they had a lot of fun with that.  Here are some of the other things we did leading up to the holidays.

We went on a triple date with Stacie and Drew, Chrissy and Dave.  We tried Johnny Garlics, which is one of Guy Fiori's restaurants.  I didn't have high expectations because it seemed like it was going to be very chain-like to me, but it wasn't.  It was really delicious and the menu had quite a few options I would have liked to try.

We found a dry day to go and help pic mandarins.  Chrissy and I each picked 3 buckets (which probably barely covered what my kids ate while we were there).  It was fun and the kids loved "helping".

Our primary put on a breakfast with Santa.  Ollie wrote a letter to Santa.  All he asked for this year was "a big flashlight".  He played with a Maglite once in Jason's truck and has wanted one ever since.  

We learned after our last experience not to force the kids to sit on Santa's lap, so this is as close as he got.

Ollie had birthday parties to attend three Saturdays in a row.  They were all a lot of fun.  At this one they did a dinosaur dig.  I thought it was such a cute idea and the kids loved it.

We had a lot of rain, which made it hard to find a time to cut down a Christmas tree.  Finally we had a dry three hour stretch on a Saturday so we hurried out and cut down a beautiful tree.  I am thisclose to becoming a total sell out and buying an artificial tree, but it didn't happen so the tradition will live on for now.

Another rainy day.  It was raining harder than I have ever seen.  It was like someone was spraying a hose against our window.

Ollie and I used that rainy Sunday afternoon to decorate the tree.  He was such a good little helper, and more than willing to climb the ladder to hang up the ornaments.  Since we try to buy an ornament at each place we visit, it is so fun to decorate our tree and remember the places we have been.

 A few weeks before Christmas the young women in our ward had an activity where they babysat so parents could go Christmas shopping.  Jason and I jumped at the opportunity and went to Chick-Fil-A and Costco.  It was awesome!

One lazy afternoon the boys and I were watching the Grinch and they were both cuddled up to me.  It is moments like this where I just feel so content with my life.  I love these sweet boys.

Ollie had his preschool Christmas performance.  Ollie gets really shy and nervous (to the point of tears sometimes), so I didn't expect him to sing and I knew we would be lucky if we could just get him to stand up there.  It wasn't looking good a first, but he stood up there and while he didn't sing, I did see him almost want to a few times.  I'm sure he will warm up to these sorts of things as he gets older.  Side note: it is not looking like this will be a problem for Max.  He loves singing.

 We also went to Auburn's Festival of Lights parade.  It was fun.  A little talked up in my opinion, but still fun.  

This goofball made shoes out of oven mitts :)

 Max LOVES helping daddy with his projects.  Jason hears "me do it" all the time.  He wants to do everything like daddy.  Good thing he has some tools just like Jason's.