gingerbread houses

We made gingerbread houses for family night a few weeks ago.  The kits we got were kind of duds, but we had fun anyway!

Next year maybe we will try to make them from scratch, but they all had fun giggling about the houses falling apart and snitching bits of the sweets.  Holidays are the best with little ones around!

grandma heidi

 My sweet grandma Heidi passed away early this morning.  I have spent most of the day feeling grateful I had her in my life for 35 years and that two of the girls were able to meet her.  We had planned on visiting her next year when we fly out her way for Jeff's graduation and I am so, so sad I wasn't able to see her one more time and have her meet Caimbree.  I loved my grandma so much.  She always made me feel better about myself and was always excited to hear from me. She was so thrilled when we named Heidi after her. I love you grandma and I know you will be my angel cheering me on from above.

getting ready for christmas

We have been having fun getting ready for Christmas.  We love all of our fun Christmas traditions.  We had our ward Christmas party last Saturday.  It was really fun!  The girls got to be angels in the nativity.  I had so much going on I didn't have time to really plan their outfits until the day of. Savanna ended up in a white swim cover up and Jeff made halos out of pipe cleaner while I was at a birthday party with Heidi!  It was a funny, hectic day, but everything turned out well.  Jeff smoked the meat for the party and it was delicious!

The girls have been busy working on Christmas gifts to give each other.  I has been so fun. Savanna and Heidi decided to make little books about each other.  They turned out so cute and I know there will be lots of smiles when they read the reasons why they are loved!  We have been focusing on service and Christ as much as we can, and it is really paying off.  They have not been focused on themselves at all and are so incredibly excited to do surprise other people.  It has been so great!  I love these tender hearted little girls.  

babysitting and carriage rides

 When we lived in our rental house while we were building, one of my neighbors became one of my best friends.  She had her first little baby in August.  We had the chance to babysit last week and oh my were the girls in heaven.  They were doting on this darling little guy and making sure he had more attention than he knew what to do with!  It was so cute.  He is the best baby and it was fun to have a little one in the house again...and nice to hand him back when it was bedtime haha.  Hopefully we get to watch him again because we had a great night!

Last Saturday we had a fun night at "Christmas in Downtown Dickson".  They light the tree downtown, all of the shops are open with cookies and hot chocolate, and there are free carriage ride and a live nativity.  It's a fun little tradition and we had just as much fun this year as we did last year!  We love our town!

light the world

We have been having so much fun getting in the Christmas spirit!  We have some traditions that we absolutely love like our little manger that we add hay to when we do something kind, our elf, advent calendar with scriptures about Christ's birth, and extra fun family nights.  This year, we have also been having the best experiences participating in #lighttheworld.  Lighting the world with service in 25 days in 25 ways.  The second day was serving your parents.  Savanna came up with writing he dad a secret sidewalk chalk message all on her own.  It was so cute and she was covered in chalk from head to toe.  She wanted to draw pictures to go with "Grandma got Run Over by a Reindeer" because she thinks that is Jeff's favorite song.  This little girl absolutely loves to serve and make others happy so this 25 day project has been right up her ally!

gingerbread houses

Heidi's class was making gingerbread houses so I signed up to volunteer to help out!  I try so hard to take advantage of opportunities to be involved in her class, even though it gets a little challenging with the other two! The little girls had fun watching Heidi make her house and Heidi was sweet enough to let Savanna help a little.  Heidi is having a great kindergarten experience, but we sure miss her all day long!

getting ready for christmas

 Saturday morning we put up the Christmas tree!  Oh how I love having the girls this age!  They are just so excited about everything and the tree was no exception!  They were so cute putting up the ornaments.  They loved that my parents and sister were still here to be a part of the fun.  Caimbree was especially fun to watch this year because it was the first year she really got it.

Now that the tree is ready, the girls spend a lot of time reading around it.  We had our first Christmas family night last night and the girls are so excited about the #lightTheWorld challenge this year!  They are already planning ways to lift others this holiday season and I love their excitement about it.  Today Savanna and Caimbree were playing with the Nativity all day and telling each other the story of Jesus' birth.  It was so sweet.  I love how tender their sweet little spirits are at this age.  They are such wonderful examples to me.  It is going to be a great Christmas season!