jolly ol st. nickolaus

the kids saw santa at separate times this year. addie sat on santas lap in our neighborhood.....

and callie and walker at our church party.....

christmas is upon us!



pictures in front of the tree before church

                                                    

our christmas card

i really loved our christmas card this year.

can you blame me??!!
i sent it off with a family picture and i just adored it all.
i have a print of the picture on the far right, the one with all three of them with wide sugar plum eyes. it will be up every year, even when they are old with kids of their own.

have a happy weekend.
xo

last year of his 20s

it was my hunnys birthday yesterday. he is 29!

{photo by ashley madsen}

i love this guy so much.

he is so selfless,

so supportive,

so loving,

so encouraging,

so helpful,

so positive,

so perfect for me.

i love you babe.

addies school christmas concert

so i didnt get any pictures of addie in her concert.

i did get some footage, but wow is it shaky and all over the place.

 they sang I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas and another little Christmas jingle.

she did great. when we were walking to the car she announced, " i didnt even get stage fright!"

she is a natural. we love her. :)

we headed over to the ice cream store.

both the girls chose bubble gum.

if you havent noticed, we do like our ice cream. runs in the family.

such a great night to dress up and go out on the town with the family.

temple lights.

things to remember about this night...

+ i was super chill about the girls walking and not riding in the stroller this year. they didnt even get lost. :)

+ it was unusually warm.

+ seeing the statue of jesus christ at the visitor center and being reminded that he loves me and wants me to

    follow him.

+ having that wow moment when seeing all the lights around the temple.

+ callie wanted to hop every fence to see the statues and baby jesus.

+ remembering the time when we took my grandma to the temple when she was really sick. we pushed her   

   around in a wheel chair and i have a memory in my mind of looking at her and feeling so much love, and being so grateful for eternal families.

+ we went with marks brother, scott and my sis in law, miss and their kids, sam, ethan and rileigh.

+ we went to baskin robins afterward and i had a 2 scoop cone. i loved watching the kids pick out the perfect flavor.

+ walker screamed the WHOLE way there. they all fell asleep in the car on the way home. bliss.

visions of sugar plums danced in their heads

can i just tell you how awesome ashley madsen is! i love her and her amazing eye and talent for photography. she asked me to bring my kiddies down for a fun christmas photo shoot. it was so fun, except for the workout i got chasing walker around the bed making sure he didnt fall off. that kid was all over the place. i had to hold him while ashley got in position and the girls got ready, set him down and quickly move out of the way so ashley could jam out a million pictures while he held still for 2.5 seconds. then he was off again. but im so amazed at the awesome pictures she got. i will forever adore these pictures of my little ones with that christmas twinkle in their eyes.  thank you ashley, for giving me these memories.

enjoy.

                                                

 

merry christmas!