Cookie Day!

Last week we had our traditionally cookie baking day at Grandma and Boppo's house. We love making (and eating!) the cookies but the best part is really spending time with cousins, aunties, and Grandma and Boppo!

First the kids rolled out the dough and cut the cookie shapes.

 Then it was time to decorate! I love the concentration on all the kids' faces.

 The sprinkle to frosting to cookie ratio was pretty hilarious. LOTS of sprinkles of used!

Cookie day is such a fun Christmas tradition!

Daddy's Train

One of the things the kids always look forward to doing this time of year is getting Jeff's train set out. They spent a fun afternoon yesterday building a track and taking turns driving the train. I love that they have this special tradition with Jeff.

Tree Trimming

(Just keeping it real!)

Random Cuteness

"Look at this celery, baby sister."

 That's some funny celery!!

                                         I'm sorry, but is she not the cutest thing, EVER!?!?

 A new way to play with her jumper...

 Grace getting all warmed up for dance class. She was taking the posing very seriously! :)

Love my kiddos!



Dedicated

A couple of weeks ago, Olivia was dedicated at church. It was a very special day for our family as we committed to raising Olivia the best we can to help her grow up knowing and loving Jesus. All of my and Jeff's family were there to take part in her dedication.

One thing that made the day even sweeter was that my niece, Emma, was dedicated on the same morning. Here are Kate and I and our girls. It's so fun having kids so close in age!

 Showing Olivia off to the congregation...

Our pastor, Jayson Turner, officiated our wedding and has now dedicated all three of our children.

 Praying for our sweet girl and our family.

 After church we headed to our favorite restaurant, Chipolte, for a little more time with our family. 

Such a special day!

So Thankful!

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Thanksgiving. We started the day watching the parade. The kids LOVE watching it, and Grandma and Boppo stopped by to watch with us for awhile which has become a fun Thanksgiving day tradition.

 We headed to Grammy and Bop's in the afternoon. Grammy is always so great about having fun things planned for the kids. We spent the afternoon making our own pilgrim hats. Olivia was quite happy to wear hers.

 Grace, always the crafty girl, loved this and made several hats.

 I have no idea why she looks like such a grumpy pilgrim! Every picture I got of her wearing it looks like this. Maybe I was disturbing her creative process. :)

 Funny boy!

We ALL wore our hats to dinner. (Yes, even the adults...at least for a few minutes!) We had a great time eating way too much food and enjoying being with family.

 On Friday morning we headed to Grandma and Boppo's to get ready for noodle night. Every year, my mom makes homemade noodles for turkey noodle soup. I appreciate so much that the kids still got to help make and eat noodles this year. It was not an easy task making homemade gluten free pasta, but my mom was bound and determined to make it happen!

That night we ate all of those yummy noodles and had a great time catching up with relatives. Sadly, I didn't even bring my camera, so I have no pictures of all those cute cousins having so much fun together.

Pure Joy...