December

Sometimes I am so lame! We did so much this month and if I had taken the time to document it all along I would have probably remembered more details. Oh well, let's see what I can remember about December. It's always easier when I have pictures to refer to for reminders. I'll try to redeem myself for my lack of posting.

Reading Christmas stories with the kids (actually I don't know if this is even really a Christmas story, but we'll just say it is, it's a better story that way, and we DID ready Christmas stories this month afterall :)

The best photo I think I got of Mya in front of the tree all month! I am laaaaame! (word of the day by the way) snotty nosed and blurry. awesome. What I do remember though is that cute little ornament with all the silver balls on it you can see on the left? Well she is holding a piece of it in her hand, by the end of the month, that ornament was completely gone! Stinker.

We looove eating raspberries off our fingers in this house. It has actually turned into a tradition. She did this all on her own. Look how pleased she is with herself!

Oh the joy!
It just never gets old!
We made homemade pizza sometime this month according to my pile of photos.

The chef's

And Heidi is still posing for the camera....

Heidi's Preschool Christmas party

They did a cute presentation for us to watch!


And presented their mom's with a handpainted gift! I LOVED it!

Santa even came!

I volunteered in Jadyn's classroom for her last day of school too, which was the Christmas party. I forgot my camera but the camera phone pulled through for me somewhat!

Jadyn and her buddy Avi (it was pajama day at school by the way, I don't typically send Jadyn to school, in her nighty!)

One of the mom's made this for the class party, I was so impressed I had to take a picture!

Santa came to the school and visited all the classrooms

Jadyn with her friend Isabelle who just moved to Idaho so she wont be seeing her anymore. So sad! they were such buddies!

Every year the Saturday before Christmas we get together with Josh's side of the family and book the church for a family Christmas party! We have Christmas lunch/dinner, a talent show/program, white elephant exchange, gifts for the kids, and this year even a pinata! So fun! The kids were so pooped by the end of the day and so was everyone else!

I can't remember why I took this picture, I think Abby was feeding Mya food off the floor or something. Classic.

Issac playing his violin in the talent show. He is really talented. He also plays the piano really well and he is only 5 1/2!

Heidi and the pinata

some of the kids lined up

Go Ben go!

This photo is blurry but I love Jame's face!

They have their game faces on, really, they were having so much fun!

And then after church the next morning Grandma Taylor asked me to take some photos of the girls in the Christmas dresses for her. They whined and complained about going back out in the cold but when we go out there they were posing for the camera (threats may or may not have been involved :) Just kidding.




We visited Karen, Brad and the boys for a few days and went swimming with them and cousin Hailey and her kids, made gingerbread houses, and Mya burned her entire hand on the fireplace, which ate up a whole morning of crying. It was so sad.

Heidi hard at work


The masterpiece!

Josh building the girls kitchen set on Christmas eve. He stayed up until 2:00am! (at the time, I didnt realize he was also up setting up my new studio lights for me. SURPRISE!!!

Besides Jadyn's awesome face in this, I love how Heidi is reading the barcode on the skirt Santa gave her. For a second I wondered if I was found out. I think I am safe...

After exchanging their gifts with each other. I made them give hugs of course.

Then we went over to my parents house later that day and opened gifts with everyone else. Eliza opened one gift and loved it so much they had to force her to open the rest and she was not very happy about that! We try so hard don't we?

Heidi and Grandma and Grandpa Tagg

Jadyn opening a gift sporting her new "hair" she got from Santa. She has been asking for those hair things for months. Heaven help me.

She just realized what she is opening. The coveted gift is these pillow pets that she saw at a kiosk in the mall a month or so ago. She cried the whole way home that day when I didn't buy it for her and talked about them every day after that and was saving her money to buy one. Luckily grandma came through and got one for both her and Heidi. Heidi wasn't as attached, but every time she was asked what she wanted for Christmas she always said a "unicorn" as in the unicorn pillow pet. They have slept with them every night since. Thanks you mom!

Heidi opening her unicorn pillow.

The girls in the matching PJ's grandma Taylor got them. They LOVE them!

And a little photo shoot I did of the girls with a new backdrop. This was before Christmas and before studio lights came into play. I love these girls!




Other things we did that I didn't document with photos are:

- an ornament exchange with my cousins ( we made some foam ornaments from a kit from Michaels and they turned out really cute, but the ones we received were way better, don't tell the girls I said that!)
-tobogganing on Christmas day
-dance parties (we turn on Barbie music almost daily and dance around the basement, it's our favorite family activity lately!)
-primary Christmas party at the pool
-celebrated our 7th anniversary!!!!! We took the girls to "Tangled" in 3D which was so cool and we all loved it! Then we got my sister to come over to babysit and we went out for dinner at moxies! Simple but perfect!
-almost sold our house. There was an offer, and we went house shopping and got so excited, but then found out the buyer couldn't get financing and we are back on the market. You guessed it. LAME!!!