Festivities

 The day after Thanksgiving the ornaments that my Grandma sends each year arrived in the mail!  Yay!  Christmas is here!  Daci was so excited, she remembered this from last year and couldn't wait to open her ornaments!

The babies were pretty interested in Daci opening the package

"It's a princess!"

Then Daci helped the babies open their ornament

"Woah! Check it out!"

2012 Ornaments from GGO (Great Grandma Overstreet)

 The next day we pulled out the Christmas decorations and Daci had so much fun helping me decorate. We decided not to put a tree up this year since we will be in Utah for Christmas and because I ddin't want to worry about the babies touching it.

"Ta da!"

We hung just the kids ornaments from the garland

I decided I wanted to make stockings this year for the kids.  I made one for Daci her first Christmas but the colors didn't really go with everything else and I kind of wanted all of the kids' stockings to go together so I asked my awesome friend, Ashley, if she would teach me how to sew and quilt some stockings.  I am really happy with how they turned out and had so much fun doing it!  Thanks, Ashley!

I may have a new addiction, I absolutely LOVED shopping for the fabric I used!

After piecing Daci's stocking together

Sewing Liv's stocking

At 1:30am, after 7 hours of sewing, they were done! I also have enough for another stocking for when we have another little munchkin, but I couldn't find the energy to make it that night :)

The complete decorations

All the ornaments hung down the banister

And the stockings hung across the top.  Rick and I also have stockings up, our moms made them for us when we were kids! PS I know only half of my wall is painted right here...hopefully that will be fixed soon :)

 We got to go to our Ward Christmas Party on Saturday.  It was so much fun and they did such a great job!

Miss Liv

My main men

This is Daci's reaction when Santa walked in the room :)

She was really giggly and excited as he walked across the room :)

She was a little more timid this year than last but she sure wasn't shy about asking him for a Cinderella Blow Dryer and a Cinderella Curling Iron. Uhhhh...anyone know where I can get those? Haha!

Love this!  Totally shows their personalities. Daci the cheeseball, Livvi has major stranger anxiety right now, and Street is very pensive and curious about the whole thing :)

They h ad this cute back drop and fun accessories to take fun pictures with

Love my little family!

 The ornaments from my mom came Saturday and Daci was so excited to open it!

"Princess Ariel, Mom!!!"

She loves it!

 The next morning I had the babies open theirs.

Playing with their boxes

Daci got impatient and started helping :)

Liv was pretty good at unwrapping hers :)

Street got Winnie the Pooh

And Liv got Princess Jasmine.  Daci was pretty excited about Liv's also :)

 Some more fun things we have been doing this month:

Walking around Downtown Naperville and looking at the Nativity scene

I made a Buche de Noel

Daci made an advent calendar where we fill up the beard with cotton balls each day

I found my favorite childhood Christmas book at our local bookstore and was so excited to bring it home and read it to my kids!

We went on a Sunday drive to see the lights in Downtown Naperville

My mom made and sent me this adorable advent calendar with pull out paper drawers

Daci made a reindeer puppet and many other Christmas crafts

Thanksgiving 2012!

We did Thanksgiving with just  our little family this year and it was so fun!  The day before Daci and I made our pies.  We made pumpkin (my favorite) and banana cream (Rick's favorite).

My little sous chef

Ready to go in the oven!

She loved lining the bottom with the bananas

Thanksgiving was very low key and relaxing.  We played with the babies when we woke up and then when they went down for their first nap, Rick, Daci and I did a gratitude thanksgiving craft.  We each got five feathers and we wrote down the things we were grateful for.  Daci drew pictures of what she was grateful for.  Once we finished, we attached the feathers to an empty toilet paper roll and added eyes, a beak and a gobbler :)

Daci was grateful for her home, her mom and dad, church, the park, and food

I did the feathers on the left side too low :-/

After the babies' naps Rick played with them while I made food!

They have so much fun with him

Rick tried to play with Liv by herself and Street got pretty jealous/mad :)

So Rick gave him some alone time too :)

Working on the gluten free biscuits

Daci and dad snuggled up watching a movie . Daci was so over pictures by this point :)

All ready to eat! "Quit taking pictures, Mom! We are hungry!"

Rick didn't want the traditional turkey and mashed potatoes this year.  He requested his favorite meal...ham with cherry sauce, funeral potatoes and brussel sprouts.  I made gluten free biscuits and they were a flop...but the kids enjoyed them :)  I also had to make our Pedersen Traditional Slush. MMMM!

Street going to town on his biscuit

Daci with her food

Liv lovin' her grub too

Me with the meal I slaved over ;)

Yum!

Carly and Micah came over for pie after their meal

Street liked hanging out on dad's shoulders

We set up the camera to get a family pic....this is the best we could get :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, fun and food!