It Feels like Christmas!!!!! Because it IS...well WAS!!!

A few momentous things happened in December...This picture is the first picture that I ever took with my iPhone! It was time to renew contracts and I replaced my Dumbphone with a Smartphone! I am loving the convenience and fun. :)

Our fancy ghetto cute little Christmas tree. :) The girls just wanted a picture by it. Some of he branches are literally tied in place and others are hanging by a thread! Next year Santa may bring a new tree! 

In the middle of December I got to go up and visit some of my Edmonton friends in Red Deer! Maren was in town for a week so we planned a get together and it worked out that I could go. We had so much fun and I attended my first "favorite things" party. It was so much fun!! Especially at Christmas time! I miss those girls and had a great time catching up. Thank goodness for good friends and good roads in December.

I love pigtails. :)

And cheesy grins. She is having fun with the iPhone too. She likes that she can see herself in it.

Crazy baby! 

She is seriously the best baby in the world! Well toddler now I guess. She is so sweet, funny, knows tons of words, and songs. Her favorite right now are Jingle Bells, We Are--From Ice Age 4, I love to See the Temple, and E-I-E-I-O! Super easy going and completely squishy and lovable!

That is UNTIL you try and take a cute Christmas Sunday Dress picture...that girl. She doesn't love to take pictures. 

 I should have stopped here. This was one of the first and unbenounced to me, the best it was going to best of the 4 of them together.

And the fun begins...

I wish I could say these are the outtakes...but they are just the pictures!! ALL outtakes!! Oh well! Definitely captured real life!

She knew EXACTLY what she was doing and EXACTLY who is in charge. I wish I could say it is me. :)

 

We tried one more time in a new location...nope!

 

 

Ha ha!! She looks so mad here. It was all a game to her though.

Fine! We will get a cute one WITHOUT you! Yes, that IS possible. ;)

Oh, you coming back to say sorry?

Gives me one...

Then she is OUTTA there again, laughing in my face!

Merry Christmas Adaleigh.

That Sunday night we went to the Dahl extended family Christmas party. They acted out the Nativity  and Zach got to be the donkey!

The girls were angels! They didn't even need to dress up! ;)

During the readings Addie kept wrestling Zach to the ground! She was just hugging him and saying "Awwww!!!" the whole time she was doing it. She did end up knocking him over and laying on him though! Connor (Justin's cousin) said Addie was really kicking some 'donkey'! ;)

 

Addie got something on Christmas Eve...a gash to the chin. :( She was walking in Bama's living room and tripped on a rug that was on the carpet by the fireplace and fell right into the rock hearth. :( My poor baby! Justin went into the ER and got the stuff we needed to clean and glue it shut. Perks of having a doctor hubby and grandpa! Actually, we had also invited the Resident that has been in Cardston over for Christmas Eve Dinner since he had no where to go so there were 3 docs there to help out. :) She was SO calm and good as we cleaned it out. She looks agitated in this picture because I made them re-enact the moment where they glued it again. We tried to clean it out, but it didn't work, it was ground into it like road rash. Now it's healed black. Boo!

Christmas Eve we went to Papa and Bama's for dinner and a Christmas program. Addie brought the rocking chair all the way from the living room to sit in it and play the piano with Robbie.

We were going to do the program and I quickly grabbed some towels so we could 'dress up.' Here is Mary on the donkey.

Robbie got demoted and Justin took over the piano. Let a real man do this job, Rob. ;)

Addie just kept riding the donkey all around.

Addie the shepherd.

Kate the wise man.

And now the Star? Her own idea!

This was one of my favorite parts of Christmas Eve. The kids drew names about a month before and were so excited to give their present. It was fun to see them be so thoughtful as to what their sibling would want. And it was fun watching them try to keep a secret for that long and then "trick" the others about who they had. If they were paying attention they all could have easily figured it out. Everyone REALLY had the only one that they never claimed to have!

Addie got a "We Are" stuffed animal. Her favorite!!! This was Kate's idea. I thought it was perfect for her!

She loved it!

And Zach gave Kara the pink dolphin she has wanted for 4 months! She was thrilled. Look at that beautiful sibling love!! True happiness! Glad I captured it so I can remember that they really do love each other!!

And Kate got the pink unicorn SHE has wanted for 4 months! Dreams do come true. Especially when they thought they were sold out at the store they saw them out. They were! But luckily this mama was smart and bought them when she saw them. :)

 

And Addie got Zach a blue basketball!! How'd she know?

Another Low tradition is new jammies on Christmas Eve. Here they all are!

(they are all the same size in clothes now! Grow, boy!)

Addie didn't get NEW jammies because she had a million already, but she is in her matching Christmas jammies that match(ed) my (late) awesome Christmas jammies from 1997. :)

(Sad story of those, they match my sister Carries...she has a green pair...so I brought them to California so we could be hot twins, but our suitcase was lost and never returned. :( Stupid LAX and Delta. No more vintage red onesies for me. :( )

 

I surprised Justin with new jammies too! Except they  gone. Well, luckily he didn't bring the sweats with him (which I actually could have replaced because I bought them very recently not on clearance) But his handsome blue baseball t-shirt is gone forever too. :(

Merry Christmas Eve 2013!

My little twin!

That night we finally got to the girl's birthday cake. (Another Low tradition--DQ Ice Cream Cake and taking a picture in this very spot.) On their real birthday (the day before) we went to see Frozen in Lethbridge and didn't get home until late and the others had stayed back to finish shopping so there was no one to party with. We decided to sing to the girls on Christmas Eve! They had already blown out candles on their waffles on birthday morning.

I can't believe they are5! They have grown up so much this past year!

 

Grandma and Grandpa French came by too!



Cynthia and her mom. :) Cynthia's sporting her new "Muffy" t-shirt Rob and Cammie gave to her. :)

THE WHOLE GANG!

And then we saw, that SANTA CAME!!! So magical.

Addie was pretty excited at what Santa brought her.

Candy cane and a horsie ride? Yes please. :)

Addie has a shoe fetish. SHE LOVES SHOES! We got her some dress up shoes and she loves them. I wish I got the picture of her holding her baby with her high heels and crown on all while riding her horse. It was adorable.

The spoils!

She was pretty much on this horse all day long.

 Here's what Santa brought me! A Cardston, Alberta temple canvas. I love it. I picked it out. :) But Santa paid for it.

And those painted spots on the wall are the new color of the wall now!! I love that too! It is fun settling in.

Santa brought Justin ice fishing stuff (a sled, tent, heater, scooper, and ice cutter...all that stuff in the bottom corner). And lots of it. He is obsessed with it now. It is really cool! Especially if you have all of the gear.