Lights

For family night on Monday we went to see the lights in downtown Ogden. This is honestly one of my favorite things about living here. They do such a great job with these lights!


The girls got to see Santa Clause. Hazel brought him one of our Christmas Advent candy canes with a little elf she made. He said that's the first time a little kid has brought him a gift!

(Isn't he the greatest Santa?)


 
 

Cutie tootie

We had a great night.

Christmas Time Fun

The last week or two before Christmas was so busy and fun! Diego and Rapunzel are tame enough now that the girls can pick them up easily. We get about five eggs a week!

 

  Look at how there's barely any snow on the ground in early December...

Lots of Christmas time crafts around here.

We spent quite a bit of time at the Treehouse together which is a wonderful way to pass the morning.













Hazel wrote a wish list for Santa.
  On the Sunday before Christmas, we all got dressed up and did a mini photo shoot in our front room. That's always an adventure...






 

I think this last one turned out pretty great. Love those faces.

That evening at Kevin and Vicki's, we made this "Phipps are kind" jar. My plan was for us to have a little bag of home-made snowflakes and each time someone did something kind for someone else, they got to put a snowflake in the jar. We didn't stick with it because we had too many other things going on, but maybe next year?

Love the swings.

You can always tell when a major holiday or a baby is coming because things suddenly get really clean!

We filled our happiness jar halfway! We started this a long time ago and we needed to give an incentive to get it filled a little more. So we took the girls out for ice cream once it got filled halfway. I remember this was a fun celebration except for the face that the ice cream was yucky. I have such a picky palate when it comes to my sweets.

Our good friends, the Garrison's, gave us this awesome picture of the prophet for Christmas. We decided to hang it up in the dining room where we tend to feel the most tension as parents...

Like I said, lots of cleaning and preparation for Christmas day!

More crafts and baking. I love this time of year!

A few days until Christmas!

Gymnastics

Last fall we joined Elite Gymnastics and both of my older girls are now in the same class. One of their favorite things to do is the bungee. They strap them into a harness and pull them forward and let go! I have some funny videos of this. Their faces were priceless.

What a fun day!

Bath Time

I love bath time pictures, especially with a tub full of sisters. Bath time is one of my favorite times because the girls play pretty well together and giggle a lot. Then once they start splashing in each other's eyes and spill water onto me and the floor, we call it quits.

Oh I want to kiss the cheeks.







Haha, Hazel's face kills me. Nice background shot.

Cute little tushie.

I love Ellie's face in this one.

A Wedding

On December 10th (Ellie's birthday!), my cute cousin Dan married a beautiful young woman in the St. George temple! David and I drove down and stayed with my mom over the weekend. We were lucky enough to have a willing neighbor of my mom's with teenage girls take our girls while we went to the sealing. We sat across my Uncle Pete, Dan's father, during the sealing and had the privilege of seeing how proud he was of his son. I whispered to David that Hazel will be up there in white, getting sealed before we can even blink. He shook his head and even got a little teary-eyed. So wonderful to be parents!

The reception was lovely with lots of great music to dance to! Who said a six month pregnant woman can't break it down on the dance floor?

Here's my husband flirting with my gorgeous mom.







The cute bride and groom.

My uncle Jay and his lovely wife, April. (And they are the only couple who's honeymoon I was privileged to attend...!)

Tired baby.







Sweet Bailey.

Dancing with the boys.



Aleah was rockin' out with the girls.

Ah, Doug we love you.





Right before this picture we were playing SCUM!What a great trip. I love my family.