Christmas Fun

On Christmas Eve we headed to my parents house and got everything set up for our family tradition of eating on our pretty china dishes. I wish I had gotten a picture of all of the kids at the table. They did a great job using the china and I think they liked being served all of their food. Here are the tables though....

I did the Christmas story for the table centerpieces. The wise men following the star, the angel telling the Sheppards of Christ's birth, and of course the nativity under the star....

 

 

My sister Sarah made the cute pine cone trees and roses to make the tables look all pretty. We enjoyed some yummy dinner my Mom made and four different flavors of cheesecake yum! After dinner I read The Night Before Christmas to all of the kids and someone special rang the doorbell...

 

That sneaky Santa left a bag of goodies for everyone. The girls got some pretty cute necklaces!

Then the kids got all dressed up for their part in the nativity play. Sophie and Lydia were angels and we made them some fun wings out of paper plates...

 

Sorry they are not very good pictures I couldn't get them to hold still. Toodles even had a part. She was a good little sheep...



The kids did such a great job and they only got to practice once before dinner. Here is the whole cast!

 

 

We ended the evening with the white stocking and writing down our gifts to Christ.

 

Christmas morning was nice. The girls slept in (Merry Christmas to us!). Sophie was excited that Santa remembered exactly what she wanted! (Which Lydia wanted too)...Princess walkie talkies!

 

Lydia was a bit cranky since we had to wake her up but she got into it once she saw Sophie stacking the presents in front of her...

They had fun opening all of their gifts...

and enjoyed playing with their toys the rest of the day until we headed to my parents for a potluck dinner.

One more thing Santa left....

Their very own Bow and Arrows! They were pretty excited once we told them what they were. Now they are just like Princess Merida form Brave (which Sophie quickly informed us of ).  Sophie will go out and shoot with Chad for a long time and she is getting really good at loading the arrow herself and shooting it with Chad helping her hold the bow. Lydia likes the idea of it and will shoot a couple but then she is done.

 

 



Mini Vacation

On Friday we headed to Phoenix and hung out at some play areas while we waited for Chad to get off of work. Then we took turns going to the Temple and took the girls to see the temple lights again...

They wouldn't cooperate for the picture but they really did have fun. We stayed at a hotel which the girls just think is the coolest thing in the world. On the way home we stopped at the Rooster Cogburn Ranch to feed the animals. They had donkeys...

and really cute deer....

and goats. They had some of the goats in a pen high up in the air. The goats really like it and it was fun feeding them.

You had to put the feed inside the yellow cup and then crank the handle and send it up to the goats. They had other goats you could hand feed too. Chad saw on the sign that they will eat it out of your mouth. He picked a long piece of food and fed a goat...

 

 

Then he convinced me since his goat didn't even touch him. I hesitantly agreed and Chad picked out one shorter than his was and I got licked three times before the darn goat took the food. Chad thought that was pretty funny... thanks Honey. 

We fed ostriches too. They are a little scary though I kept thinking they would peck Lydia's hand off for sure...

The coolest part was feeding the lorakeets. Right when we walked in and were getting instructions they swarmed us...

They take off the lids to the nector and drink out of your hand...

Lydia was insistent on doing it herself but freaked out when the bird landed on her hand and dropped the cup. Then we fed some ducks...

The girls loved feeding all of the different animals and it was nice to get away for a little bit.

Happy 2nd Birthday to our Lydia Bug!!

Lydia turned 2 on Friday!! It was kind of funny I had a doctor's appointment at the same time she was born 10:32 am. So she got to see Dr Ighani at the same exact time two years later.

Grandma and Grandpa Clayton stopped by and gave her a present....

It was the perfect gift for our little girl who just loves to clean!!

and the apron is adorable!! They took the girls out for some fun too! Then when Chad came home she got to open her present from us...

She is so excited to finally have her own bike!!

Saturday she had a Minnie Mouse party...

We played some Mickey Bowling...

And they colored bows and played Pin the Bow in Minnie....

Happy Birthday to our Sweet Lydia Bug!!

Zoo Lights

Tuesday night we went and checked out all the fun Christmas lights at the Zoo! The one year we went it was okay but it was a just a small loop of lights but this year was pretty awesome!

They had a lot more lights and it went all the way down to the new elephant exhibit...

The girls loved all of the lights. They filled the old elephant exhibit with moving Christmas Lights which was fun. They also had a really cool steel drum band playing music. The girls thoroughly enjoyed dancing. And they had a "snow" machine (they were really foam bubbles).

After the zoo we headed home and enjoyed some yummy hot chocolate!

Baby Boys

Since my sister has gone back to work the girls and I get to watch her adorable little baby boy. The girls are completely in love with him. They call him Baby Jackson no matter what. Chad and I have told them several times his name is just Jackson but they say "No! Its Baby Jackson!" Then I asked Sophie what his name will be when he is not a baby anymore. "Big Jackson" she replied...of course why didn't I think of that?

they are such big helpers and are always making sure he is okay. They get excited to bring me diapers, wipes, his blanket, and binky. I am thinking maybe having a third kid may be pretty awesome. Sophie was showing Jackson how to draw yesterday....

They are really excited to have a baby brother of their own!! While we tried to make it a surprise there was no denying.....

Its a Boy!

When we were leaving the ultrasound I asked Sophie what we should name him..her choice? Boomer. Which I just thought was hilarious because that was my brothers nickname growing up which I don't think she has ever heard. Then I asked her again and she insisted on Jackson. We know his middle name for sure so for now he is Baby Roc Clayton.