Christmas Eve...day.

On Christmas Eve day, we headed out for the first time to test the awesome sledding hill just "down the road" from our house. It was a perfect day for this, and we all had a ton of fun. Lucy enjoyed it just as much as any of the others, but unfortunately I hadn't thought ahead and bought her snow pants. I had no idea that my little 1 year old would enjoy snow so much. When she watched the others sled down the hill, she reached her arms out and made her little "uh...uh...uh..." sound (translation "I want, I want, I want!") When I asked her if she wanted to try, she nodded her head in her serious and determined way. The first time she went down she laughed HARD. After that, if the sled was being used, she slid down on her bum. Needless to say, Her and I had to head home a little early because her pants were soaked.

Christmas Eve

I absolutely love having a fireplace with a mantle, it is like a dream come true for me! Never in my life have I been able to hang stockings over a fireplace. This year, like all others, we opened our christmas socks and were reminded of how practical we are. After all, why have stockings that you can only use once a year and that you can't even wear, right? Besides I love the look of the different sizes and the "clothes-line". Anyway, Hannah made sure that everything was labeled so that there would be no confusion on Santa's part. Gotta love that girl!

Merry Christmas!

It was a day I want to remember forever! Surrounded by the people who mean the most to me, celebrating one of the most meaningful events...ever. It was so sweet, but relatively simple. The kids loved their gifts, the John and I loved watching their smiles.

Snow cookies

Every once in a while my Mary Poppins streak shines through and I can pull fun activities out of the bottomless carpet bag of my mind. Of course this only happens once in a very great while. Even so, I think I'll enjoy the moment and call myself genius for the day.

I thought that Johnny was pretty creative. He used the measuring cups and spoons to make snow molds, then he stacked them on top of each other, largest to smallest.

I had to tell Maddie more than once not to eat the snow, of course they had to pretend just to see what I would do. And of course, my reaction would be to take a picture, will they ever learn?

Homework time!

Tonight, while Johnny was doing his homework, Lucy sat next to him and did her homework too. She has the studious pose down pat, resting her head on her arm while she writes. Every time Johnny read a word outloud, Lucy followed suit and read her own "words" outloud. Don't mind the mess, that is why we have a whiteboard table :)

I just realized that Lucy is writing with her left hand here, she switches back and forth. Who knows, we may have a Lefty-Lucy.

Pokey Bear

Lucy had the song for Family Home Evening tonight, so we sang her favorite song. It was so cute that I made everyone sing it again so that I could record it. The first time Lucy really got into the growl at the end, I wish I could have recorded that.


...And yes, our kids are crazy.

Let the countdown begin!

We, at the Loveless home, have been struck head-on by the Christmas spirit! I am pleasantly surprised that I have had so much energy this year. As I was trying to pinpoint what has made this year different from all other sluggish Christmas seasons, I came to an interesting realization. For eight of the past nine Christmas seasons, I have either had morning sickness or an infant waking up to be fed through the night. Some people are very good at functioning with these minor infractions of babies, but it leached the Christmas spirit right out of me. Not this year :).




The tree is up and ready to go...almost. I spent a full day during Thanksgiving break putting the tree up and wrapping lights around every branch. Shame on me for doing it before Thanksgiving, but I just couldn't wait. This is our first year with this tree, and I had to make sure it was all there (ksl classifieds, love them). It goes so well with the ornaments we have collected through the years. It is a blue spruce style, and it reminds me of the Christmas trees we had growing up--but fake. It has the classic, vintage look that I love so much, so to play off of that style I decided to try making a popcorn/cranberry garland. I have one more strand to make for the bottom of the tree and then it will be practically perfect in every way.

(It's a bit blurry, but I love this picture of Maddie taking a break from jumping on the couch to gaze at the tree. My real project should be teaching her that our couch is not a trampoline.)

Our neighbor made this countdown candle for us, my kids are loving it. We have never had a candle countdown before, and I already have plans to make my own next year.

And the other side of their heads, and their cute smiles. I love Hannah's new "chiclets" teeth.

And here is my attempt to make our tree look "Thanksgiving-ish" to ease my guilt of putting the tree up early. We wrote the things that we were thankful for on construction paper turkey feathers, and hung them on the tree. Finally, John admitted that he wouldn't be too hurt if we decorated before his birthday on the 15th. He didn't have to tell me twice, up the decorations went!