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!

Rice Everywhere!!

Lizzie is my little shadow. Whenever and wherever I am going, she is too. The other day as I was holding Julie in my arms, I noticed her drifting off to sleep. Just in time for nap time! So I'm wanting to go slip her into her crib for a nice nap, but I KNOW that Lizzie is going to be following close at my heels. And Lizzie's favorite thing to do lately is scream really loud around baby Julie just to get a rise out of her (and me usually). So I explain to Lizzie that I really need her to stay downstairs while I put her sister to bed. I assure her that i will be right back very soon! Liz responds with an excited "OK!" Then, to my amazement she actually does stay downstairs! (This is a VERY rare moment that she is ok with not being within my immediate vicinity, even for a minute. I often hear her desperately screaming, "Wait for me Momma!" if she feels I am heading upstairs too quickly for her pace.) So I'm quietly slipping Julie into her bed upstairs while thinking, "I'm so proud of Lizzie for listening!" A total of 2 minutes passes from the moment I leave Lizzie, run upstairs, lay Julie in bed, run downstairs, to the next moment where I catch her THROWING handfuls of rice as fast as she can into the hallway. She looks at me, looks at the rice on the floor, and then jumps onto her stomach and starts flailing her arms and legs saying, "Look Momma! I swimmin in the watey!!(aka:water)"

My reaction: Not happy and about to discipline harshly, but the swimming act is so amusing it disarms me. I am now seeing this situation in a more humorous light and what the heck...

the mess is already made so we might as well have a little fun with a whole lot of rice on the floor! So we did some more swimming...backstroke, breaststroke, the butterfly... that was the first (and hopefully last) time I have ever gone swimming in pool of rice.

Baby Lucy

Mary had her baby! Cute little Lucy is here! She is such a precious little baby and it was so fun to visit her.

Took a couple pics of the lil sweetie but I think this photoshoot will have to be continued at a later time! It was pretty crazy trying to get pics while taking care of 2 crying babies and 2 toddlers running around! We'll put that thought on hold til a day the husbands are around...

Thanksgiving

Here are a couple pictures from Thanksgiving! A lot of the family was out of town so Jamie, Jason, Mike, the kids, and the Clarks all got together for some turkey eating!

We had a great time and went to see the "Tangled" Rapunzel movie afterwards.

There are so many blessings to be thankful for... a wonderful husband and two fun little turkeys...to name a few!

Snow!!!

The snow came early and surprised us all! Lizzie was very excited to run around in the snow and help build a snowman!

Eventually a snow ball fight ensued...and then there was a lot of running and chasing!

The snow was absolutely perfect for building a snowman! There was no grass showing when we stepped outside, but as we rolled the snow into balls it stuck so well that it seemed to lift every last flake of snow in those areas! Five minutes later we had an amazing snowman! Then five min after that Liz was ready to go inside!

Julie opted to stay inside where its warm so Dave and I rotated watching her and playing with Liz.