Christmas Portraits 2013

I managed to take nice photos this year for Christmas!  Having my iPhone means less and less photos with my nice cameras, but I'm working on it!  Here are our Christmas photos!

Christmas 2013

As the kids get older, Christmas gets more and more fun!  Rilo asked Santa for a "sooter" aka scooter for her and Collier this year.  Santa delivered and they are still getting great use out of them!  We had a really great Christmas and I feel pretty blessed to have such a great family!

Christmas Season

Leading up to Christmas, we visited Santa, saw Christmas lights, visited Temple Square, kissed under the mistletoe, decorated our tree and house, performed in a preschool program and all sorts of other fun Christmas related activities.  Here are some photos of a few of those!

Rilo in her role as Mrs. Claus for preschool.  I've never seen her so serious.  Her singing was loud and proud!

 Our neighborhood puts on the most amazing reenactment of the Christmas story.  It started with a full market with animals and food and peddlers.  Then we followed Joseph and Mary on a donkey to a small stable.  An angel appeared (shown below) to the shepherds.  We all sang Silent Night, and you better believe I got too choked up to finish.  It was beautiful and was the perfect way to get into the true Spirit of Christmas.

Christmas 2012

Just a few days before Christmas we moved into our new house.  We furiously unpacked our Christmas decorations, bought a tree and celebrated together in our new place.  These two had a blast and Rilo was especially excited for some of the presents she had asked Santa for.  A fridgerator for her and train tracks for Collier.

Christmas Card Rejects

Phew!  Rilo's party was yesterday and it turned out great, but I am sure glad that's all over with.  Sorry for the silence the last few days.  I spent every night getting ready for her party!

Way back in the beginning of December I tried to use self-timer to take family photos for our Christmas card.  Things didn't go quite as planned.  I got one that I almost used, but I just didn't love it and ended up going with our "cup of cheer" version instead.  Here are a few of grumpy-at-the-time Rilo and the one family pic we didn't use.

After the above picture she screamed for all the rest and need her pal Happy to be happy again.

Christmas Tree

Unfortunately this year we didn't get to go up to the mountains to cut down our own tree.  We still had fun finding the perfect tree in a lot.

Gingerbread Pt. 2

My favorite part about these photos is the Snoopy apron.  It was mine when I was little!  Rilo loved eating these cookies, as well as doing some decorating.  But mostly just eating!