Daddy Daughter Dance

This was posted before, but it bears repeating in its own post.  The girls loved their Daddy Daughter Dance so much.  How lucky they were to have not one, but two handsome dates.  The same could be said for the guys as well.  What a special night.

 

Makeover Madness

Normally, my sisters-in-laws and I like to do our makeup at the kitchen table when we’re together so we don’t have to miss out on quality time while we get ready.  Or at least that’s what I tell myself.  So our daughters see this and, of course, want in on the primping and preening.  We made them over and voilà – a pretty, yet slightly awkward look into the future.

 

Ari was trying so hard to perfect her kissy face.

 

Four gorgeous, overdone little girls.  I know I’ve got my work cut out for me with the one in the red. 

Ari took her cues on how to pose from her cousin, Madison.  She is such a girlie girl at heart.  But then again, they all are.

Snowy New Years

We spent a wonderful New Years at Grammy and Papa’s house in Holbrook with most of the cousins.  We weren’t expecting snow, but we were lucky that we came prepared, because it snowed hard and all at once.  We didn’t have to go far at all to play in it either.  They boys had snowball fights and made some type of bomb out of snow.  They shot paintballs at snow targets too.  Bella helped me make her a snowwoman.  Even the little ones had fun.

  

Ari did not like to wear her gloves, and then she realized that she didn’t like how the snow felt without her gloves on either. 

 

Sweet Traditions

Baking Christmas cookies is one of my favorite traditions of the season.  It goes without saying that it is possibly the favorite Christmas tradition for my kids.  It is, after all, an entire weekend devoted to cookies and Christmas movies (movies in case, you know, you need a break from eating cookie dough and frosting cookies).  Each year, we assume that the process will get quicker and more efficient, because we have one year more experience, but it just never works out quite that way.  And that’s okay, because our memories of these days are something that I always want to remember.  Truthfully, I would love to think that this is something that we will repeat in our home for years to come, even when our kids come home from college or have chubby cheeked children of their own.

This year, we added our new favorite chocolate chip cookies to the standard sugars and ginger molasses cookies.  I already have a couple new recipes in mind of cookies I want to add in 2015 (thumbprints and snickerdoodles, in case I forget).  The schedule is that we spend Friday night making dough, Saturday baking and usually making more dough, Sunday decorating and bagging, and Monday evening delivering to our friends and neighbors.  Tempting as it is to eat 500 Christmas cookies, our favorite part of the whole ritual is making the deliveries.  In a small but significant way, we are getting to celebrate with each of our friends.  The kids take turns walking up to the door and personally making the deliveries.  This is one errand they never complain about running, no matter how cold or dark it is outside.  The chance to present their friends with a treat that they helped to make all weekend long is an honor that they compete for at each stop along our route.

These are the tiny things that make up our season.  It’s these tiny things, these everyday things, that I appreciate so much.

    

Welcoming Christmas

This year marked the second Christmas that we celebrated since moving to our new home.  When Christmas came last year, we had really only been living in this house for a week or two, so everything was rushed and many of our traditions didn’t happen at all.  This was okay with me, since we were just so relieved and feeling so grateful and blessed to be in our house that nothing else seemed to matter at the time.  This year, settled in as we are, we were ready to welcome the Christmas season into our home with wide open arms.  We took our time putting up decorations, watching Christmas movies, bringing home maybe a few more new decorations that I normally allow myself each year, sending out Christmas cards, drinking hot cocoa, enjoying the company of our elf ‘Jingle,’ having company and bonfires, and baking and delivering Christmas cookies to our friends and neighbors.  In our own little ways, I think we made merry pretty well, and this Christmas was for us one of those treasured ones that really feels like it’s Christmas.

   

We Wished For Winter

It doesn’t always snow in the desert Southwest, but when it does, it draws a crowd.  This snow storm was hosted by Jake’s sister’s HOA in the neighborhood park and was made with a few tons of shaved blocks of ice.  We all had an amazing time having snow ball fights and “sledding” down the hill.

Liam was a little confused initially, but it didn’t take him too long to decide that he was having fun.

  

Ari was not a fan of having cold hands, but she loved sledding and hanging with her cousins.