Our New Temple.

This morning we had the privilege of taking the girls through the open house at the new Gilbert Temple. It was absolutely breathtaking inside. I hope it will be something they will remember forever. Well, Kennedy and Lucy at least. Violet kept calling it a castle and was asking where the princesses were.

Their favorite part was walking into the celestial room and seeing that gorgeous chandelier. It took my breath away as well. It was made with over 140,000 crystals. After walking through, we took some pictures around the beautiful temple grounds.

We are all so excited for our turn to go inside again.

The girls when they turn 12 and Rex & I after the dedication.

I am so grateful for my eternal family!

Christmas!

The girls were up bright and early but opted to sneak downstairs rather than wake up Mom and Dad. However, their excitement got the best of them and they couldn't resist running back upstairs to tell us what Santa brought them.

The definite highlight was Kennedy and Lucy getting iPod touches.

Once Kennedy realized she could FaceTime her BFF, 

that was pretty much what she did for the rest of the day.

Lucky kids! 

V loved Lucy's castle and her new big slide

Rex got us all a Nerf guns and probably had the most fun running around shooting everyone. These little guys created hours of entertainment, a few tears, and so many squeals & giggles. 

The only thing I wanted was a new bag as a reward for potty training Violet. 

I have been in diaper bags for 7 years and I'm so over it!

I'm going to live this up while I can.

We had a great December!

Feeling a bit depressed it all over and Rex is back to work.

Christmas Eve.

We had a very low key but wonderful Christmas.

It was short lived but oh, so fun!

Rex worked half a day on Christmas Eve then was back to work the day after Christmas.

We decided to go out to eat on Christmas Eve since we were not playing hosts to anyone this year. 

That was so nice and relaxing for me!

After dinner we had our tradition of opening Christmas Jammies and

unwrapping our gifts from the family name drawing.

The best gift went to Mom for getting a fish for Kennedy.

She named him Finn Rider and was pleased as punch with her very first pet.

Kennedy picked Dad and got him a Star Wars Lego set.

Very fitting. He had fun putting it together the next day.

And has continued to put it together over and over again 

because V likes to destroy it regularly.

Lucy got a few animal sets from Violet.

She can never have too many animal sets!

Lucy gave V a pillow pet of her own.

Kennedy and Lucy both got one for their birthdays earlier this month.

It has been torture for her. 

She kept pretending the most random things were her pillow pet.

And for the 3rd year in a row, Dad got stuck with Mom.

He was a good sport about it though and gave me a beautiful strand of pearls.

It was a long rest of the night for Santa's helpers.

Mostly because we put off getting this done for Violet until that night.

Rex was ready to kill me for this brilliant idea.

In the end, it turned out pretty cute.

By Midnight, everything is ready to go!

Polar Express.

Immediately following Kennedy's class party, we dashed down to Williams to catch a ride on the Polar express. As we were pulling into town, there were a few snow flurries coming down. This caused the girls to squeal with delight. It was been several years since they have laid their eyes on snow. Did I mention it was cold? Living in the desert and turned me into a wimp!

We spent the night in Flagstaff and took advantage of the snow the next day.

The only thing Kennedy and Lucy wanted to do was build a snowman with Dad.

So, we spent about an hour hunting down snow gear at Target for maybe 20 minutes of fun.

Or in Violet's case, 2 minutes of fun.

She was not a fan of the cold.

I quickly volunteered to stay in the van with her.

In my defense, I had zero snow gear.

And no boots.

Kennedy's Class Party

I volunteered to co-host the winter party for Kennedy's class again this year.

We decided to go the snowman route since the movie Frozen was such a big hit.

Darn Pinterest had too many cute ideas! 

I just couldn't resist going a little overboard at the last minute.

Which, I deeply regretted later. I made four of these tin can snowmen.

I didn't have empty cans so I used full ones. 

I carried them in a laundry basket all at once into the school from the back corner of the parking lot.

This dumb move caused a muscle tear in my shoulder.

The injury plagued me for the next 4 weeks.

She get's so excited, it makes all that last minute scrambling worth it. 

But maybe not the shoulder injury....

This little bug was a trooper! 

We hit so many stores that week,

I couldn't resist getting her this little kitty one week before Christmas.