Oh lovely December.

These girls are my very best friends.

We have had the most amazing, most hilarious times together.  

Meeting up for lunch was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Utah.

Shopping and caramel steamers made our sister date the best!

Olivia loves great grandpa and always wants him to hold her when he comes to visit.

It's beyond sweet.

We took Olivia to a local cupcake shop to meet Elsa and Anna.

She was of course freaking out.

And I was freaking out over my "better than what" cupcake!

We oftentimes found Clara sprawled out on the floor coloring on random sheets of paper. 

(Sometimes those sheets of paper were the kid's homework.)

Clara learned how to climb out of her portable crib so every morning or afternoon after nap time when we would go in her room (Harrison's room) to get her out we would discover quite the mess.
Toys/clothes/diapers everywhere.
Well one of the times I went in to get her after her nap this is what I saw.
She had that big smile on her face and seemed cozy as could be in the drawer.
Mostly she was happy because she was literally inhaling all of Harrison's Christmas candy!

I was able to go on a date with my grandpa.
We went to our favorite restaurant at Thanksgiving Point- The Harvest.
We spent hours talking and laughing.
I will forever cherish our relationship.

 I failed to take any pictures on New Year's eve but thankfully Sophia took a couple of us girls.
We had such a fun night eating raclette and playing games. But the thing that made my night was eating a slice of my favorite raspberry cream cheese pie.

Horsey rides on Pa were a definite favorite.

Olivia loved Sophia's new bunny Lily.

And surprisingly I am sure I loved her most.
One of the cutest things about her is how calm she is.
She will just lay on her back on your lap and not move a muscle.
Cutest bunny ever!

And a date with my man to the best pizza place in town was the perfect way to end a lovely December.

Snow fun.

Thankfully, we had a white Christmas which called for sledding and lots of fun in the snow!

Christmas Day.

Christmas Day was a lot like Christmas Eve.

Very relaxing and low key.

But we enjoyed every minute of it.

Olivia was so excited about everything and loved each one of her gifts.

Clara on the other hand had no interest in anything that was going on. Which is why this year we tried to not get a lot of toys but instead games and learning activities that we could all do together.

Since Michael has a new obsession with cooking I just had to get him a Gordon Ramsey cooking book.

And he was beyond thrilled.

My grandparents came over and that was a treat in and of itself.

My grandma gave my mom a picture of herself for Christmas.

I won't go into detail but I absolutely have to remember that!

Our favorite part of the day was talking to Emerson for hours.

I know a lot of missionaries have time limits but luckily Emerson's mission president gave them permission to talk to their families for as long as they wanted as long as the members whose house they were at were okay with it.

Yay!

Emerson is doing so well. I really need to dedicate a post just to him. 

And as sad as it was to say goodbye, we knew that we would be seeing him in just two short months!

So it wasn't too bad :)

Michael was also able to talk to Matthew as well who is serving in Brazil finally. 

We have been so blessed to have two brothers serving. They have such strong testimonies and definitely have helped strengthen ours.

But, we will be grateful when they're back home with us :)

And finally, our other favorite part of Christmas was all opening up a little green bag together (Emerson was on skype) and finding out that we would be going to Cancun in May!

Here are a few pictures of our day.

La vida es fresca forsure!

Merry Christmas.

Wishing everyone the merriest of Christmases.

We have so much to be grateful for, not the least of which is each other.

Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve was a little different this year because my mom was deathly ill.

And we all know how things go when the mother of the home is down.

Thankfully, we were still able to carry out our favorite traditions of making sugar cookies for Santa and enjoying our family's favorite dinner ever...Raclette.

Looking at this plate makes me crave it so bad. 

But seriously my favorites are the mini onions and the bread.

These girls sure know how to make us excited for Christmas!

They are the cutest!

Pre Christmas fun.

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the activities and traditions that lead up to it.

Between multiple date nights (thanks to my parent's for babysitting), and a wagon ride through Thanksgiving point with hot chocolate in hand to see the lights, we had a fabulous time.

Group date at Texas Roadhouse.

Our waitress was so confused cause she thought all six of us looked like siblings haha.

There were plenty of dance parties.

Mostly to Taylor Swift.

Another date to Chili's and then watching the movie The Holiday with Stephen and Emily.

I seriously love that movie.

Visiting Santa's reindeer at Thanksgiving Point.

We really struggled getting a good picture. Mostly thanks to my husband, who wouldn't stop making faces. 

We are loving every second we are getting with family!