december stuff

Our little guy turned 18 months old at the start of December. He's not so little anymore!

Evan did a pretty good job at not re-decorating (or, rather, un-decorating) the Christmas tree.

We love it when these two play together.

Brooklyn did this painting and Austin thought it looked like a fantastic modern art piece.

The big hit this year was the group solar powered dancing Christmas toys that both of the kids'  grandmas contributed to.

Anytime we would let Evan draw he would ask us to draw the same thing for him. "Foo-bah? Foo-bah?" (He's now moved on to being obsessed with basketball...)

We have a handful of yearly Christmas traditions that we enjoy in our area. One is the church Christmas party. We were pretty impressed by the decorations -- it's tough to make a basketball gym feel cozy but they pulled it off.

Someone was excited!

Brooklyn was happy to see Santa and tell him what she wanted for Christmas.

Evan... not so much.

After striking out on the classic Santa photo last year, we finally got one to rival Brooklyn's gem from 2012.

Hey Evan -- wrong holiday, buddy.

Another yearly tradition is Redmond Lights -- thank goodness it wasn't sub-freezing temperatures this time around.

We also went to Snowflake Lane in Bellevue...

...as well as the nativity display at the LDS church adjacent to the temple.

We enjoy seeing all the nativity sets from around the world -- from Central/South America...

...to what looks like Africa, and more. Next time we'll have to check and see exactly how many countries have a set on display.

Another yearly tradition is going to the carousel and/or train ride at the Redmond outdoor mall. We missed the train ride this year, which we were bummed about, but Evan enjoyed the carousel.

Austin got an early Christmas present -- a quick trip to Las Vegas to meet up with his dad and Braden. They went to go see Star Wars...

...followed by Shake Shack (Austin's favorite place to eat when he lived in NYC back when there was just the one original Shake Shack in Madison Square Park)...

...Mmmm....

...followed by the blowout-turned-near-win in the BYU-Utah bowl game (the primary reason for the rendezvous in Las Vegas). Despite the result, it was a lot of fun and a special treat to get to see family and the Cougies again after having seen both of them in September.

Christmas packages!

The closest thing we could get to a serviceable Christmas Sunday best photo with the kiddos. At least they like each other, right?! :D

So Austin wanted to get Brooklyn a small Lego space shuttle for Christmas. But it was sold out on Amazon and in-store at Target so he tried ordering it via Target online. Except he had it shipped to our old address. And he ordered it literally seconds after the make-it-there-by-Christmas-guaranteed shipping window. So he panicked and ordered the big space shuttle set from Amazon, only to find no less than a dozen smaller space shuttle sets at Toys R Us (see photo above). Oh well -- once you go big shuttle there's no going back... :D (Oh, and Austin ended up being able to get the small one from our old place before Christmas Eve and wrapped it in case the big one didn't come (it did), so we had all kinds of space shuttle fun for Christmas!)

Christmas Eve morning it was gingerbread (er... graham cracker) house time!

These two made a pretty good construction and decoration crew.

Ta-da!

That night we decided to do pizza for our Christmas Eve dinner. We think we've done this before so we're going to call it tradition. Brooklyn was on sauce duty...

...while Evan was the pepperoni man.

Voila.

And a goat cheese, caramelized onion, and sundried tomato pizza for Mom and Dad. :)

We got word that Santa was trying to hit a weight loss goal so we only left out a couple cookies. Santa let us know that the white fudge covered Oreos were fantastic and that he wouldn't mind it if that becomes a yearly tradition as well.

Christmas morning! These still-somewhat-sleepy kiddos are ready to go see their presents!

Yay! Brooklyn got a dollhouse and Evan got a race track and a barn. And lots of other stuff. Too much stuff!

We love watching the kids' faces light up when they open presents.

Cars were definitely a theme for Evan this year.

Inside that package? More cars. :)

Austin, Brooklyn, and Anna hard at work putting together the space shuttle...

...and we are GO for launch! Totally worth it. Brooklyn had said earlier in the year that she wanted to be an astronaut and Daddy wanted to fuel that dream -- as well as rekindle some nostalgia for Lego space shuttles of Christmases past... :D

We had a great Christmas -- we love the traditions and the toys and the treats but most of all we love celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and the impact his gospel has on us as individuals and as a family. It's easy to photograph the "fun" stuff but sometimes the "important" stuff is harder to catch through a lens.