Winter Wonderland

Snow pants, sledding, mittens, building snowmen, snow angels, and snowball fights are all a part of the white Christmas experience.

My brother, Tyler, is 6ft 2in tall, but this snowman still towered over him! Lizzie was very excited about this giant snowman!

Julie is not a fan of the Chicago weather so besides a quick picture with Great Grandma we have kept her snug inside a warm house!

Brandi and Allison built a mini snowman of their own!

Julie 5 Months

Julie has passed the 5 month old mark just in time for the Christmas season! She is such an interactive little girl now. Lately, she has had some stranger danger issues- crying when people besides mom and dad hold her. However, the continual presence of other people over the holidays has had a positive impact! She is looving her Grandma, Great Grandma, and everyone now! She's a little social butterfly!

She has been loving her new Christmas toys. She seems to be grabbing at everything lately! She is always trying to stuff something in her mouth. Her big achievement this week has been that she rolled over for the first time!! She rolled from her back to her stomach twice in a row!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I am so grateful to have and be able to spend time with family. It is such a treat to be able to fly all the way to Chicago and have the whoole family congregate for the holidays at my parents house. Adam and Lisa from Champagne; Tyler, Brandi, and Grandma from Utah, and us from Seattle!

Lizzie and cousin Allison donned their matching homemade gloves and hats from Grandma to go see the Christmas tree light show. The tree sparkles, glows different colors, and flashes lights all to the tunes of various Christmas songs.

We stopped by "that house" where some random family has decided to entertain the

neighborhood with their elaborate Christmas decorating!

This was a special day for Julie, being her FIRST Christmas! She seems to sense the cheery mood and has been such a good girl. Always happy and smiley!

Santa came early Christmas Eve night due to some jetlag...I mean sleighjag. Lizzie had trouble sleeping that night, though, so Dave brought her downstairs for a little while, carefully covering her eyes as they passed the "Christmas Tree Room" only to have her sneak away a couple minutes later and get a sneak peak of all the presents and balloons. I've never seen her eyes get so wide!

On Christmas Eve we had our annual program where each person participates in some form of entertainment whether it be singing, piano, reading a story, etc. Then, we had the kids act out the nativity story.

All the kids are so little that we had a hard time getting them to participate at all! There was a lot of fussing over having to wear anything on their heads. Lizzie refused to wear any part of her costume and wanted to sit on the couch and she was playing the part of Mary! But the show must go on! Her understudy, Julie, was willing to step in and did a lovely job!

We ate so much good food! Homemade caramel corn, cookies, truffles, cinnamon rolls, and much much more.

We kept the program short due to small attention spans, but Lizzie and Jared both performed by singing a Christmas song!

Then Christmas morning came! It was the usual tornado of presents, kids squealing, fun, chaos, giving, and love.

This was Julie's first Christmas and she's already a pro at tearing open wrapping paper.

Another highlight of Christmas is the tradition of sitting around and staring at the telephone!!

Well, only while Trevor's on his mission in Russia. We called him up, put him on speaker phone and all took turns asking him questions and listening to his stories and adventures about Russian missionary work.

Gingerbread Houses

This year we are spending Christmas in Chicago, but that didn't stop us from celebrating with the Stevens Family too! We had an early Gingerbread House Party!

Kids and adults, alike, constructed delicious candy adorned gingerbread houses!

The cousins had as much fun as they always do, playing together and stuffing themselves with Christmas candy. We joked that it was the adults doing all the building while the kids just took the opportunity to chow down on candy.

After the houses were built we watched Elf! While, Mike and Jessica took the opportnity to deliver some Christmas goodies.

We had a lot of fun. The best part of Christmas is always just being together as a family.

Christmas Ruined?

"Santa Clause is Coming to Town" is our favorite Christmas song right now because Lizzie gets so excited by the words, repeating the title/chorus over and over again.

The other day, we hear a loud CRASH!!! And we run to find Lizzie had pulled over our little mini Christmas tree. She was fine. The tree was fine, too. But, Lizzie was still very distraught, so Dave asks, "What's wrong, honey?" To which she replies, "Daddy, I ruined Christmas!!!"

Christmas Season!

Christmas is fast approaching and the Stevens Family is ready! We may have spent our decorations budget ALL on Halloween, I fear (our house seriously lacking in decorations), but we more than make up for it in spirit and Christmas cheer!

We have been spending time as a family for some Christmas stories, advent calendar countdowns, movies, Spanaway Christmas lights, making Christmas treats and goodies, sitting on Santa's lap, and more! Julie loves to hear stories and read books with her big sis. Lizzie especially likes baking in the kitchen and insists on wearing her little apron just like her mom!

This Christmas season has been especially fun for me, since being called to work with the sweet little children in Primary, at church. We set up a Santa room for the kids at the ward party and I loved seeing how excited the kids get about sitting on Santa's lap! We had fun making these chocolate "scriptures" for another upcoming activity for the kids, too.

These chocolate scriptures were sitting on our table and the other day Lizzie came up to me with chocolate all over her hands and face saying, "It was an accident, Mama!" "Where did you get chocolate?" I replied. So she led me to the table where the "accident" happened and pointed to a pile of wrappers under the table, where she been hiding and accidentally stuffing her face with Hershey Nuggets.

Matching Misty

When Lizzie wears this dress she will show and tell all who will listen, "Look at my dress! I so pretty!" Yes you are, Lizzie. You are so pretty in your Christmas dress!

She was even more excited when she saw that her cat, Misty, was wearing a matching dress!

Lizzie and her kitty were looking so cute that I had to get some quick pictures of them. She quickly grew tired of sitting and posing, but continued anyways!Its always worth it for a sweet jelly bean reward in the end!