Winter Break Zoo Day

During Winter Break I had some time off so I met my sister and the kids at the zoo. We got there pretty early but it was not too cold. I heard it got really busy later in the day but thankfully we avoided any crazy crowds. We started with some donuts and the giraffes before heading out to see the dinosaurs. We are really getting full use out of our dino pass. Also, I believe we have created donut monsters. These kids can't go to the zoo without donuts now! Lou lou the rhino was out so that was cool to see and we also used some vouchers to see Rudolph in the 4D theatre. Everly and I have actually seen it before but she really wanted to see it again. We also got to see the tiger, baboons, prairie dogs and bobcats. I don't know if I have ever seen the bobcats walking around. They totally smell like cat piss. I love that we are members and get in early because the zoo was just starting to get busy as we were leaving. Yay for avoiding crowds!

Sephora Play: December 2017

I got my last Sephora play box for a while. I decided to cancel after my December box. I did not cancel because I don't love it anymore. I still love it, but I just have so many samples and trial sizes of items between the play boxes and the holidays so I decided I will cancel it for a while so I can go through and use them all. December was another good box. This month's theme was glam. I don't use dry shampoo that often but I am really excited to use the Dr. Jart cream. I have heard lots of good things about it. This box also came with a cute smashbox eye shadow duo and a Clinique eyeliner pen which I don't have and wish I was better at using so I am going to play around with that. I am going to miss these little boxes each month but I don't think there is a wait list anymore so I will be definitely be signing back up in the future!

Christmas Day 2017

Christmas Day we woke up and let the girls open up their presents from Santa. Aspen is still at that age where she is so excited by the first present she could care less about the rest, but it was fun. After that two of Justin's sisters and his niece came over. We had a delicious breakfast with lots of mimosas. I love just hanging out and catching up with everyone on Christmas morning. After that, we laid low until heading over to my sister's house for Christmas dinner. We had our usual honey baked ham and it was a good night. The kids played and we face timed with Mae in Nebraska. It was a good night and we ended with a game of bezzerwizzer which took me entirely too long to remember how to play. I also just finally got back the girl's Santa pictures so I figured this is the best time to share them!

I inherited this nativity that my Grandma hand painted and Everly made a cross out of wrapping paper for it.

Justin got me the maple candle we originally got on our honeymoon!

Aspen was not into this but we convinced her to hold Ev's hand and just take a picture.

Christmas Eve 2017

The night before Christmas Eve my sister brought the boys over along with stuff to make gingerbread houses. Justin was out with his sister that night so it was a fun thing to do with all of the kids. Teddy basically just wanted to eat his immediately and the same with Nora. Everly took her decorating very seriously. It was so cute. We finally convinced Aspen to leave the Mickey she was watching with Cameron to come and decorate hers. She was very meticulous about putting the candy on. The next morning we planned a ne little Christmas Eve tradition called Bagels and Bingo. I am not sure if this will be something we can do every year since I often work on Christmas Eve but it was fun to do this year. My sister had a Christmas bingo game and some candy canes as prizes and I picked up bagels and brought them over. It was a fun little way to start the day. Christmas Eve I was running late as usually and we barely got a seat but somehow I managed to sneak in and get a row for all of us. The kids were all actually pretty good during mass but part of that was because Teddy was sick. After mass we headed home for our Christmas Eve appetizers and presents from the cousins. The kids had a great night and it was fun to watch them open everything. Even Cam got really into ripping off the paper. It was a great night and we finally headed home to put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer!

Ted, "Can I eat this now?"

frosting everywhere

 

Missing Mae!

We clean up well.