Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve has to be one of my very favorite days of the year. 

Mostly because I am in love with what my family has for Christmas Eve dinner.

Seriously though you can ask Michael, I talk about it every day all year long.

I love the excitement and anticipation we all feel as we get ready for Santa to come that night.

And of course there aren't words to describe our excitement to talk to our missionary brothers Emerson and Matthew.

This year we had a very relaxing day.

Olivia and I made the traditional cut out sugar cookies.

She is such a cute little helper.

My mom and I prepared a lot of food for our Christmas dinner.

Homemade raspberry pies, cinnamon rolls, and a breakfast casserole. We figured it would be nice not to have to cook a lot on Christmas day:)

For dinner we had Raclette. Potatoes, mushrooms, bread, little onions, sausage, salami, tomatoes, olives, apples, and pickles drenched in melted raclette cheese.

My favorite are the little onions. Oh my goodness.

To drink was sparkling cider with pomegranate seeds.

I am already looking forward to next Christmas just thinking about it!

We watched the Luke II video and then Jingle all the way.

We set up mattresses downstairs in the basement so that everyone could sleep by the Christmas tree. 

(Except for Michael and I, we slept in the bedroom because little Clara still doesn't sleep through the night.)

Here are a few pictures...

Olivia was such a good little froster.

(Haha she mostly ate it!)

Uncle Winston sure loves these little girls!

The little dinner set up.

Haha notice the canned nacho cheese sauce in the bowl..that was Ryan's idea!

My plate.

Yum!

This sweet girl is beyond excited for Santa to come.

Happy Christmas Eve!

Pre Christmas fun in Utah.

Well we made it to Utah!

Flying with both girls was surprisingly not bad at all.

When we landed and were down in the luggage area the twins and Harrison and Sophia all came in to help us carry out our stuff. The second Olivia saw them run through the doors she took off running and jumped into their arms. It was the sweetest thing.

There is nothing like seeing the people you love most when it's been a while.

We were able to meet Jill (Winston's girlfriend) who will sometime in the near future be joining our family. They aren't officially engaged yet...:)

She is so perfect for Winston and I feel like Sophia and I bonded with her immediately. So we are definitely excited to welcome another sister!

I do take lots of pictures but not enough. One of the pictures I failed to take was of me, Sophia, Sophia's sister in law Eryn, and Jill all going to get our nails done. I got a nude colored shellac with a gold sparkly color on my ring finger. It turned out amazing! We also went to a couple family Christmas parties and I only managed to take 1 picture. But it was so fun to see everyone.

Here are a few pictures of our pre Christmas fun.

This is a little blurry but Michael and I can hardly handle how cute she is from the back view in her little snow gear.

Visiting Grandpa's work and playing with some of his Christmas decorations.

(She isn't crying even though it looks like it ha).

(Oh and that's Howard one of my dad's long time friends that is holding Clara).

Doing a little Christmas shopping!

Everyone was fighting over who got to carry Clara around in the front pack and Winston won!

Aunti Elizabeth and Olivia had some fun taking pictures on her I touch.

We went on a triple date, Michael and me, Ryan and Sophia, and Winston and Jill.

It was my first time eating at the Cheesecake factory and it was definitely amazing!

City Creek was so fun with all of the Christmas light glamour.

I sure love this guy more than I can say.

These girls are the best.

We all have matching coats!:)

What's Christmas without visiting Santa right?!

Olivia was very hesitant but when she saw that Clara was sitting on his lap and was totally fine, she decided that it would be okay. And especially after he gave her a yummy chocolate lollipop!

Oh and I just have to rant about how ridiculous it is that you have to pay like 17 bucks for 3 small pictures. I mean come on, can I not just take one with my phone? Or at the very least charge me 5 bucks or something and let me take my own photo!

I think Michael loves taking pictures of his girl:)

Uncle Winston loving on little Clara.

She was a little scared of him at first but after some effort and kindness on his part she decided that he was maybe okay:)

(Caroline, Sophia, Winston, Daniel, Joshua, Tessa, and me).

We had a family Christmas dinner/party at the Brown's house this year.

And these people are seriously my favorite people ever. Minus little Emerson:(

These cousins of mine are more like brothers and sisters than they are cousins. The memories I have with them are seriously some of my favorite.

Love you guys!

Okay 1 post down like 12 more to go haha.

But seriously I am so behind!

Family pictures.

These were taken just a little while ago, but better to post them late than never!

I love this first one because it is just one of those candid ones where it pretty much sums up our life at this moment...we're each always in charge of one child:)

And these are the kind of pictures that Michael likes to take.

It takes us a while to get him in a serious mood ha.

Okay for reals now here we are!

I'm sure in love with this cute family of mine.

Photoshoot for our Christmas card.

One day I decided to take these girls of mine out and do a little photo shoot in hopes of capturing the perfect picture to use for our Christmas card.

I of course fell in love with them all.

How could I not?!

These girls of mine could not be more perfect.

Our 2013 Christmas card.

This year I was quite proud of our Christmas card.

Thanks to my two perfect little beauties and of course the wonderful Tiny Prints. :)

(Don't mind the quality of these pictures, it's a picture of the actual card and it didn't help that I took the picture at 10:00 pm).

Stay tuned for more pictures from the photo shoot!

Lately...#2

Olivia is so good at making sure Clara always has enough toys!

I walked out to the living room and found this haha.

Olivia is the best!

Morning movie time!

Olivia decorating our itty bitty Christmas tree!

Clara is obviously not a fan of these garden vegetables...

She tried to be though because she loves food so much. She would take a bite and sort of gag and then keep going in for more haha. I only was a mean mom for a minute, and then gave her some bananas:)

My mom sent us a super fun Christmas package that included some yummy caramel apples!

Meet Toby, our little elf!

Olivia's face when she found him in the morning!

I can not get enough of this baby.

Perfection I tell you!

Look at those rolls!

French crepes.

My absolute favorite!

I love this picture of Clara, especially since I have a picture of me that seriously looks exactly like this.

Minus the bumbo of course, cause those weren't invented yet:)

We pulled out her little play gym. I can't believe she is old enough to play in it!

Making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

These cookies are to die for.

Olivia and I had a little tea party except instead of tea we had wassail.

It was Olivia's first time trying it and after taking a sip she said, "Ewww mom, this tastes like poop!"

Haha I am glad she knows what poop tastes like:)

Waiting for me to make her nightly rice cereal bottle.

Yum!

I left my glass of water a little too close to that baby, and she got it!

Her first of many messes to come, I'm sure:)

One night we found Olivia sleeping like this haha.

Here is a little peek at what story time is like at our home:)

Facetime with uncle Harrison. They like to dance together:)

Cutest thing.

Michael took the girls on a walk in our new double stroller! (Thanks mom!)

I had some errands to run in preparation for our upcoming Utah trip.

He's such a good daddy:)

Just another view so you can see that little baby!

Did I mentioned it snowed here?

It rarely does so we had to make sure Olivia got to make at least a few snowballs:)

How cute is she?

Daddy made sure Clara didn't feel left out while they were at the playground.

See the cute video below.

She was pooped and fell asleep on the way home

Daddy took Olivia to his school so that I could focus on packing.

She always has a blast!

Well I'm finally up to date which is perfect since we are leaving for Utah in just a few short hours.

I'm sure I'll have a lot of posts over the coming weeks:)

The next 2 1/2 weeks are going to be a complete blast and we can hardly wait!

(Olivia is mostly excited for the peanuts and pop she will get on the airplane.)