Tis the season...

First things first. The kids got their trees up and decorated to kick off this Christmas season.

Now that we have some dogs, we got to decorate their room! Jared felt very strongly that this was unnecessary and would be unappreciated, but look at those cute little pups! You can totally see how happy this made them.

We put up our family tree and were also able to dig my mirror that Jared made me out of storage and hang it up. A double happy night!

We got to see Santa and dance the night away at the school's Holiday Sock Hop

I love Christmas trees! And I love my beautiful Christmas girls!

The weather finally turned cold! We enjoyed the jingle bell mileage club before the snow came. We were so excited when the first snow finally fell on December 8th! Little did we know that would be the beginning of A LOT of snow that winter. It just kept coming and coming clear through February.

The ward party was a great night as usual. Jared sang in a group number, and we got to see Santa. Mackayla still likes to keep her distance from St. Nick though. :)

We kept getting a lot of snow! We had several 2-hour delays, and Caitlin's preschool Christmas concert had to get canceled because of the inclement weather.  They had a make up concert the next week during her regular preschool time, so the other kids weren't able to come see it with Jared and I. Grandpa made one of his first trips out of the house, though, to come with Grandma and see Caitlin's performance. Later that week, we saw Santa walking around Walmart! Exciting times!

Bradley had a super cute Christmas performance with his class. They also got to go perform at a nursing home.

We got to go to our first ever band concert as parents. It was wonderful! It really sounded much better than I was expecting. Mackayla is a lovely flutist!

We brought the stuff and frosted our cookies at Grandma's one night and had a sleepover just for fun.

A family Christmas selfie

We had a fun night at the Holt's acting out the nativity, eating yummy food, and hanging out with Grandpa Santa. Since he already had the Santa beard, he had to dress the part at least once.

As a special Christmas present, Mackayla's orthodontist (Bishop Christensen) let her get her braces off just a couple days before Christmas. It's so nice to see that beautiful smile complete now with both of her front teeth.

We enjoyed a night out to see Uncle Jim's Christmas lights. This year we got to go on a hay ride, drink hot chocolate, and see the magical display of lights.

Making wreaths

We were heading to Arizona for Christmas, so we had an early Christmas with some of our gifts before we left. We started out with a dinner and treats, and then opened the presents. VR goggles and a karaoke machine were some of the highlights.