Twas the Month of December and crazy we were...

Amid all the crazy happenings in December, this little munchkin just kept growing and getting cuter by the day.

He started smiling and laughing for us in December!  He is showing off his shirt from his Aunt Marianne that she bought him in Spain.

One of the first Sundays in the month we took the kids to walk around the temple and see the lights.  Beckett and Dallas both fell asleep on the drive over so our "family" activity was kind of foiled.  I walked around with Rylynn and Carter while Garrett kept the boys warm in the car.  The kids loved looking at all the nativity sets from around the world in the visitor's center.  

I only brought my phone for pictures which doesn't have a flash so you can't see my kids but they had this cool nativity scene set up in front of the temple with MOTAB music playing and a little message from President Monson.  The kids loved it.

The next weekend my Grandma spoiled me rotten and took me to the play "Plaid Tidings" by the Forever Plaid people.  I loved seeing them the first time in high school in Chicago and it was really fun to see their Christmas show.  Then the next day she took Rylynn and me to the Nutcracker ballet.  Rylynn loved dressing up fancy and seeing the beautiful costumes.  We even got her this little nutcracker ornament to remember the event.  I loved going to the Nutcracker every christmas when I was growing up so it was really fun to share this tradition with Rylynn and my Grandma.

How beautiful is this girl's hair?!  Rylynn's best friend here had a birthday party in the beginning of December. For the party they got to go to the Paul Mitchell hair school and have their hair done and their finger and toe nails painted.  She had so much fun!!  I had to take pics of her hair because she loved it and says she wants it just like this for her baptism. 

 We also went to our ward Christmas party which was an amazing event.  They had the whole gym converted to the market in old Bethlehem.  We had to pay taxes by donating canned goods and then you got gold coins to buy your food.  They had all different booths set up for dried fruits and sweet breads, meats, veggies, and pitas.  They even set up a well in the middle of the gym for drinks.  I was pretty blown away.  We were all supposed to wear traditional Bethlehem attire and this was the picture booth they had set up.  They had a baby jesus in a manger but we had our own so we didn't need the doll:)

Just before school got out, Rylynn had a music concert at school.  It was just the 2nd graders and she did such a great job.  I again forgot my good camera so the pictures are terrible but I had to include them for the memories.

Can you spot Rylynn?:)  They sang lots of cute songs but my favorite was when they sang Silent Night and did the sign language to go along with it. (Only in Utah:)  Rylynn was so excited about the sign language and practiced for weeks leading up to the performance.  So that's the first part of the month.  Much more December fun to come!