December

December is one of my favorite months of the year.

i love all the fun things we do as a family. and everyone just 

seems to be happier and more excited and fun to be around than usual.

chase decorated our house for Christmas with the same zeal he had for Halloween.

he did paintings to hang on the wall, hung lights, re-arranged the ornaments daily, and

just loved having decorations up for Christmas.

jason and i are somehow 5 years behind as this was the first year we really got into

the elf thing. i can finally understand why people do funny things with him - it was fun!

every night we'd have to figure out something for him to do and we'd often

laugh and be funny together and have a lot of fun doing it.

we also had him write letters to the boys, have them do good deeds,

or do some sort of service or something good for someone else.

i wanted to remember this day. sometimes, after school, the boys will disappear for

hours. they'll come up with some game and play together and use their imaginagtions 

and have the most fun. here they are with their backpacks having a picnic in the front

yard all by themselves. it is so fun to watch. i love how well they get along and have fun

with each other. it makes me so happy.

one more of those moments....

so this is sort of a funny story. grant was asked last minute to be a shepherd in the 

background of an adult choir. they were like come dressed up (what?) 

and he'll just have to stand there. well, i don't know if they told us the wrong time

or what, but we threw this outfit together (thank you internet) and showed up.

and a few minutes later, we're in this auditorium, and grant is in the FRONT ROW of a

children's choir. um...ok. he didn't know any of the songs and all the other kids were 

dressed up nice. and because it was late he spent the entire time yawning. we were dying

laughing. i still don't know what happened but he's such a good sport for playing along.

chase had his Christmas preschool program. he's so handsome. this outfit is 

his idea. he loves to be dressed up. he was excited to go but sang none of the songs

and just gave the girl who was dancing next to him dirty looks for not behaving.

another entertaining night. 

our ward christmas party! the best part is seeing santa. (and yes, chase again is dressed up. 

when he found out it was at the church he said "can i wear my church clothes?" of course.)

everyone in our new ward got a total kick out of him and his outfit. 

at least i convinced him not to ask santa for matches.

the train house!

our tradition of decorating a gingerbread house

chase is so funny. he consumed so much sugar this night....
i mean why put the frosting on the house when you can put it straight in your mouth...

grant convinced us to actually eat the house, and i was surprised at how good it was!

how have we never done this? we're going to eat it from now on. it was so tasty!

chase loved this google santa game....

our tree! so pretty. i love our tree. i love the smell and how pretty they are.

i have the lights on non stop in december. i love it!

the little tree. this was the first tree we ever got. it was given to us the first year 

we were married living in a dumpy basement apartment in provo. for years 

we've put our advent calendar ornaments on it, and i love how we've had it 

for 15 christmas's. i love these memories.