Pre-Christmas festivities.

I feel like I missed a lot of pictures of the Christmassy activities we did this year, but this is a sampling:

Cutting down our Christmas tree.  I love this tradition!  This was the first Christmas tree we saw, but we kept looking anyway to see if there was something even better.  We ended up coming back to this because it really was pretty perfect!

It looked huge in our living room!

This was the first year we did lights on the outside of our house.  Brian did such a great job with them!  I loved seeing them every night and the girls were thrilled with them.  I told him a while ago that I thought a star like this would look nice on our house, and I came home from a girls night one night to find he’d made it—I love this about him and I really love the star!

Ward Christmas party.  Santa fail again this year.  I actually thought Elna would sit on his lap because she talked about it all day and really wanted to tell him about the stroller she wanted.  I showed her about 15 pictures of happy children sitting on Santa’s lap before we went to the party, but when it came down to it, it was a no-go.  And Harriet wasn’t a huge fan either.

Gingerbread house.  Yeah, I totally bought the kit.  Next year I’d like to buy the molds and bake the pieces, but this year that wasn’t happening.

Santa was at Home Depot this year too, and Brian really thought they’d do it this time, but even as close as they got seemed a little too close for Hattie.

We made a birthday cake for Jesus.  This might have been my favorite activity this year that I did with the girls.  They loved it too!

A little chalkboard art--Oh Come Let Us Adore Him—a good reminder for our family this season.

We sang “happy birthday” to Jesus and blew out the candles, making wishes/promises of things we want to work on as gifts to Jesus next year.  New tradition!

Christmas dresses.

I bought these dresses months before Christmas when I saw them and fell in love with them.  I was so looking forward to the Sunday before Christmas so they could wear them!  They were so cute in them!

Elna is such a doll in the pictures above and I love how Harriet looks at Elna in so many pictures I take.  She adores her sister!

Wouldn’t it be great if they could both look at the camera at the same time?  Harriet is too cute in these!

I love having two girls to match…and for other reasons, of course!  And I love how their little baby hands are holding each other.  This is one of my favorite pictures of these girls!

Hot cocoa date.

Brian gave us a gift card to Starbucks that he had gotten from work, and we really needed to get out of the house one morning.

The kids were pretty thrilled with whole excursion—donuts and yummy hot cocoa.

I love Hattie’s face in the photo on the left—Elna really needed to tip that cup back a bit more.  I love seeing them work together!

Donut-filled smile.  Love this girl of ours!

We love to see the temple.

We had to pick up a Christmas gift at the Woodburn outlet stores almost an hour away.  It was a very rainy day, but the girls were great little travel companions and we had a fun afternoon.  The girls went on coin rides (I don’t get the thrill, but for a little body it must be exciting) and then we had some Mexican food for lunch before heading back home.

On the way home we were listening to the LDS Primary music CD and happened to be listening to “I Love To See the Temple” (Elna’s favorite on the CD), when I looked and saw the temple coming up on the right.  What are the chances?  WE took that as a sign, quickly crossed 3 lanes of traffic and had a lovely little detour at the Portland LDS temple. 

It looks like she’s running, but she’s actually just full of energy and moving more quickly than the camera could really catch.  They were actually pretty reverent and in awe!

The girls loved it!  We are all so filled with the spirit and joy that I love to feel when I go to the temple.  It shone out of them!  We love to see the temple

When quiet time is a little too quiet.

You can’t tell here, because she did so well, but she got both her upper and lower lashes pretty perfectly, with just a few smudges.  I wasn’t thrilled, but I was impressed!

A side-by-side of when she did the same thing a few years ago.  She’s almost mastered those fine motor skills.

Dress-ups all day, every day.

For most of December Elna wore her Snow White dress every day.  Harriet also loves dress ups.

We got about 8 pairs of high heels like these from a friend a few years ago—the girls love them!

Hattie’s face in these pictures!

Snow White x 2

Pointy ballerina toes.

My bread-making helpers.  (Tiptoes and tutus!)  I love this picture!  I love these girls!