2019 Family Pictures

Back in November, we had our annual family pictures taken by Mae Kufahl Photography. She was a delight & I'm so pleased with how they turned out! I can vividly remember the year we had family pictures taken when Hadley was three, and she was in a mood the entire time. ;)  We had fun reminiscing about that during this photo session! Thankfully, Brady was so pleasant & cooperative the entire time, but natural smiles aren't really in a three year old's skill set, ha! We did get a few really good ones though!

2019 Christmas Card & Santa Visit

Christmas cards are one of my very favorite parts of the holiday season! I love sending them & receiving them! Here's a peek at our 2019 card--I love how it turned out this year!!

And our annual visit with Santa Claus! Brady was NOT excited about going to sit with Santa, but thankfully the girls talked with Santa for a few minutes before the picture which gave Brady time to warm up to him! So no tears this year! Brady even gave Santa a high five afterward!

And just for fun, here's a look at the Christmas list Hadley created all on her own this year. The night before we went to see Santa, we told the girls we'd probably be going to visit Santa in the morning. When Hadley woke up, she worked on this list & brought it down to show us when she woke us up at 7am. ;)  I know it's probably hard to read it all, but my favorite part of her list is how she listed a quantity in parenthesis after many of the items, ie. "anklets (20)." I also particularly enjoyed "bed for teddy bear (royal)."

Shelby, on the other hand, didn't really ask Santa for anything specific. She told Santa to surprise her & said that he often knows better than her what she likes!

Christmas Day 2019

Our Christmas Day was spent entirely at home just the five of us. We all stayed in our jammies all day long until it was time to take baths/showers & change into fresh jammies!

We opened stockings & checked out what Santa left for us, and then Dada made French toast for breakfast. After breakfast, it was time to unwrap everything under the tree!

The picture below is probably one of my favorite memories of our Christmas Day. The girls' school has a Scholastic Book Fair in December, and the girls each spent their own money buying a book at the Book Fair and wrapping it for their sister to put under the tree. They were each so genuinely excited to give their gift, and they even gave each other big hugs of gratitude--completely unprompted by parents! It was the sweetest gift exchange I've ever witnessed!

{checking out their new Shutterfly calendars for 2020..a highly requested gift!}

{we were still in the whirlwind of unwrapping, and I looked over and spied Shelby reading and it kind of caught me off guard how grown up she looked}

{another highly requested gift..Melissa & Doug "make a face" sticker sets}

The unwrapping was finally done, and the fun began!

{the girls love to create faces & then on the back of each page, they write a whole story about who they imagine this character to be...they spend hours doing this!}

The big gift Santa brought to our house was this climbing dome for our backyard! Thankfully we had wonderfully mild temperatures for Christmas Day, so we spent a lot of time outside climbing & playing with their new stomp rocket from Grammy & Grampy.

And last but not least, we ended our day trying out the new swing Dada built for our front yard. We had our family pictures taken back in November on our photographer's property, and they had a similar swing in their yard that Hadley was quite smitten with. Derek told her if she liked it that much, he could make one for us. And the time finally came! It turned out great! The kids have really enjoyed it so far, and there's something about a wooden swing just looks so sweet in front of the house.

It has been such a blessing to have so much uninterrupted family time this Christmas. Derek has been off all week long, and it's been the best week!

Christmas Eve 2019

We had a delightful, low-key Christmas Eve! The kids stayed in their jammies all morning playing & decorating sugar cookies for Santa.

We did baths/showers after Brady's nap and went to our church's 4:15 candlelight service. After church we came home for a viewing of the original Grinch movie, a quick dinner, opening presents from Grandma & Granddad, and getting ready for Santa!

And last but not least, we did our traditional unwrapping a Christmas book under the card tree every night during Advent + we added reading one chapter from the book of Luke each night before playing with the train. Some nights I reluctantly participated in these activities because it typically delayed the kids getting to bed, but it really is one of my favorite Christmas memories that I hope the kids look back on fondly one day.