{december stuff}

We headed into December in full swing. Our days and weekends were full of all those things that we look forward to most and help bring the holiday spirit into our hearts and home.

 

Our church puts on a beautiful Nativity exhibit every year. Many volunteers and hours upon hours are dedicated to transforming the church into rooms full of nativities and lights and trees and a quiet spirit that makes us reflect on the true reason for the season. It is lovely and we look forward to it every year and are so grateful to those who can dedicate so much time and hard work for making it happen.

 

 

To help advertise the Nativity our church puts together a float complete with a live Nativity scene. The girls were asked to be the angels in this year's float and they were thrilled to be able to participate. It ended up being freezing and although we bundled them up as best we could under their costumes they still froze. We all did :) Brooklyn told me she never wanted to do this again!  Haha.

 

Although I froze my booty off as well I loved being able to talk and walk alongside friends and other church members. Here's my good friend Steph who is in charge of putting on the whole thing - she does a great job!

 

I was supposed to walk alongside our preschool's float as well and luckily for me it was placed in order right behind our church one! It worked out perfectly as I was able to walk back and forth between to the two floats.

 

The day after Thanksgiving we headed up to Frankenmuth. This is a tradition of ours and we look forward to it every Christmas time. We meet my dad, go out to eat and one of the famous chicken restaurants, and then head to Bronner's where the girls get to see Santa and each pick out an ornament for our tree.

 

 

(I must really like these shirts on my girls because they've been showing up in an awful lot of pictures lately!!!)

 

It's the largest Christmas store in the world I believe and we are all in awe as you walk around and see every Christmas item imaginable!

 

When we saw this one we knew it was perfect for Elle this year!

I tried talking the girls into picking out a soccer ball ornament or a piano ornament or something that represented something new about this year for them but they couldn't be swayed. They both came home with ballerinas :) You don't want to know how many castles, ballerinas, and princess things cover the tree!

Some of first friends from when we moved here to Midland and been in Texas for the last couple of years. Lucky for us both their extended families are here in Midland so they get to come up fairly often. While they were here for Thanksgiving they came over for dinner and hanging out. We ate yummy food, chatted, and the kids had a blast playing together all night long. We were all sad to see them leave and look forward to getting together next time! Maybe in Texas this time ;)

 

Elle received this toy for her birthday from her aunties and she can be found zooming all around the house with it. That toy, along with the other push toys we have are going to be the sole contributing factor to that girl walking! She can't get enough of them ;)

I busted out a craft this month as well. Having a one year old doesn't lend itself to crafting much and boy do I miss it. It is by and large one of my absolute favorite things to do - it really makes me happy :) So when I saw this tutorial or a ruffle (no-sew) tree skirt I checked it out and found it was totally cheap and doable. I enlisted the help of my friend Talai and together the two of us made our tree's a beautiful skirt for this Christmas. It turned out awesome and I love the final project - now I can throw away that scrap piece of fabric I've been draping underneath it for I don't know how many years ;)

December was a month of firsts for this little one. One being the fact that she got her first Meijer cookie. For those of you without a Meijer I am sorry. It is by far my most favorite place to grocery shop. For kids they give out a free cookie at the bakery so this grocery shopping day I decided we let Elle have at it. Since it was December the cookies happened to be covered in red sprinkles. Either way - she loved it - as you can clearly see by her face!!!

Each month we switch off a night of babysitting with our friends in exchange for a date night once a month. The kids come over in pj's, eat dinner, and then play together all night - it's a win-win for us! This month when it was our turn to watch all the kiddos we made gingerbread houses and the kids had a blast :)

 

Here's Brooklyn posing with the whole village -

 

And the one she made at school -

Right before Christmas and then into January I get the urge to clean and organize every inch of our house. I did the girls closet one day. Brooklyn and Addy share a room (and can really share a bunch of clothes as well) and so as I was purging some and putting everything back in I started with the dresses first - - HOLY SMOKES!!! No wonder I can barely fit anything else in there when the dresses take up 70% of the space! Can you tell I have princesses ?!?!

 

Addison asked for an American Doll girl for Christmas - specifically Kit. Kit has blonde hair that is cut into a short bob. One day Addison let me know that she wanted hers cut and she wanted it all the way up to her chin! So I took her upstairs and we went at it. When I'm in the middle of it I always tell myself not to do it again - to just go take them to a salon. But in the end I think it turned out pretty cute :) So cute in fact that I'm really, really, really tempted to go chop mine off as well!

 

 

We saw Santa a lot this month! We saw him at Bronners. Preschool. And the Santa House. Where all the pictures are I have no clue. Maybe I will add them into this post as I find them :) Here's the one from preschool.

 

 

Elle had no reaction to Santa at Bronners. At the other two she cried and cried and we didn't even make her sit on his lap - she wanted nothing to do with him :)

 

Finally - this beauty. One morning as I was driving Brooklyn to school I noticed this fine piece of furniture at the curb of my neighbors house. I had to help out at preschool that day and was so disappointed I couldn't hurry and get the black armoire without making us all late. So I sadly drove by and prayed it would be there when preschool was done. So at preschool I asked my good friend Lyndi if she would follow me home in case the furniture was still there. My dreams came true when we drove to my house and it was still sitting there across the street! So we got out to go use our muscles and get the thing in my garage. Haha. I think we are both pretty strong but there was no way we could get it ourselves. Luckily for me there was a nice man in a Consumer's Energy truck parked on our road waiting and saw us. So I went and asked for his help and he gladly help us get it into our garage. I'm so happy and love the thing! It now resides in our basement where I am filling it with my craft stuff rather than it all being stored in our guest room. At age 12 I would have never believed you if you would have told me I'd be taking things out of people's trash but I do, and I love, and so many of my greatest treasures have been found that way!

 

If you made it this far...congrats! That was one huge post :)