Saturday Part 2 - Pioneer Christmas Show & Lights on Temple Square

 On Saturday afternoon, we headed up to the Church History Museum to see a Pioneer Christmas show that my friend Michelle and her children were in. It was really neat. We learned all about how the Pioneers celebrated Christmas.

Here they are showing us the children's dance.

They invited all of the children up to sing "Jingle Bells" and dance around the Christmas tree. My girls are in the very back so I couldn't get a picture of them. It was funny that as soon as they announced that all the kids could come on stage Aubrey and Brooke bolted up there as fast as they could. The little hams!

Here they are coming off the stage after the dance.

Here's my friend Michelle, her Mom and her 4 children.

Afterwards they got to visit with Father Christmas (what the pioneers called Santa).

Aubrey happened to have gone to a Pioneer themed birthday party that morning and was excited that she could wear her pioneer bonnet to the pioneer show.

Then we headed up stairs to the children's museum. It's seriously awesome. Tons of hands on stuff to do.

Here the girls are doing a Spanish Dance.

Brooke making me some dinner.

Building their houses.

I thought Aubrey's house was so cute.

Brooke's lean-to was cute as well.

Havin' fun fishing.

 It was really hard to catch a fish. Aubrey worked and worked at it until she finally caught one! 

 Then we headed over to Temple Square to see the lights.

I love hearing the Nativity story while watching the life-size Nativity scene.

I've never noticed the star above the stable at the end. Either it's new or somehow I've missed it. But, either way it was cool.

I love the Christus. It's a shame it was so crowded up there. It would be nice to take the girls sometime when it's less busy.

We also got to watch the short Luke 2 movie in the theater. The whole time Brooke asked, "Where's baby Jesus?" I answered, "He's in his mommies tummy." Brooke then replied, "His mommy Mary?" I was impressed that she remembered Mary's name!

What a fun filled day! The girls certainly enjoyed all of their adventures on Saturday!

Saturday Part 1 - Family Christmas Party

 Jeff's work had a fun Family Christmas party Saturday morning.

First the girls ran off with Daddy to play games while I stood in line for the crafts.

 

 

 

Just as I got to the front of the line, I saw the girls running up. And guess who just happened to be coming up the line right then - Santa Clause.

They have tons of really cute crafts to choose from. Aubrey picked the charm bracelet.

And Brooke choose the Christmas wand. Daddy helped Brookie make hers.

Other than me tying the knot, Aubrey did the rest on her own. She made a really cute pattern.

Brooke's finished wand.

Aubrey's finished bracelet.

Then the girls had a treat and we watched some performances.

It was a quick visit to the party because we had to get me to a baptism and Aubrey to a birthday party. It was lots of fun! We sure do love to party!

Week 26

I lost 2 pounds this week, so that makes a total of 44 pounds!  If I can make it through Christmas without gaining weight it would be a first for me! It will be a little bit tricky because we'll be visiting family for some of it and I won't have my own food. But, it will also be a good test at how well I can make it work when I'm not at home and in my own kitchen!

I just looked up a height/weight chart and for my age and I am only 1 pound away from getting out of overweight status! Of course that is the very top end of healthy weight and I would like to get to the bottom end. But, it's nice to see that I am that close to being in the range of healthy weight for my age and height!

We made gingerbread houses yesterday and I was completely surrounded by candy and frosting. There were so many times that I almost licked my fingers, out of habit, but I didn't do it even once! Even when I was cutting out the gingerbread dough (all day) on Friday I never succumbed to sneaking a taste. And it smelled pretty enticing! I feel that everyday I am gaining more and more control over what I eat and less and less controlled by the food around me. It's always been hard for me to see yummy food and not completely over indulge. I think this complete lifestyle change was just the ticket for me to see that I can overcome the temptations and I can CHOOSE what I eat and not let it choose me.

More Christmas Fun

 The girls were so happy to get to do a little more decorating, when I got out the dollar store window clings!

Then they asked, do you have any more Christmas things we can do? Thankfully the answer was "yes" because I had also bought some ornaments they could make at the dollar store. They are those melty stained glass ones that I used to make as a kid. So fun. They loved them!

Aubrey's finished Penguin ornament.

Brooke's finished Candy Cane.

Then we wrote their Santa Letters.

 I never was that into writing Letters to Santa - I think it's because I don't like the idea that they are telling Santa what they want instead of being happy with whatever he gives . . .

 

 . . . But when I heard about the "Believe" mailboxes at Macy's a couple years back, I decided it was OK to write a letter. Especially since Santa asks them what they want whenever they see him anyway.

If you mail a stamped letter to Santa in the mailboxes at Macy's they donate $1 to the Make A Wish Foundation. It's such an awesome foundation and such an easy way to make a contribution. Plus my girls think it's really fun to mail their letters in a special mailbox!

Off go their letters!

Outside of Macy's is a little pond and the girls saw money in it. They asked what it was for. So, I gave them each a penny, told them to make a wish and throw it in. They thought that was super fun!

Then we went and saw Santa! (They didn't let me take my own picture this year :(. They seem to change their rules every year.) But, the girls loved seeing him and Brooke wasn't scared a bit! So fun!

And what's a trip to the mall without a visit to the play area!?

The girls were so excited to get to start their Advent Calendars yesterday!

What kid doesn't love a piece of chocolate first thing in the morning! Thanks daddy for getting these for the girls!

Christmas Dance Recital

 Monday was Aubrey's Christmas Dance Recital. My little performer was so excited to get to dance on the big stage again!

Here's the video of her dance. (During one part you'll see her trying to do toe touches while everyone else is doing hugs. The toe touches were supposed to go first but I'm guessing the teacher who was queing them from the front mixed it up on accident. It was still very adorable!)

 Aubrey's cheering section!

 Esther, Bryan and Isla were able to come too.

Aubrey was so excited to have baby Isla there!

 Me and my girl!

Here she is excited for the show to begin!

Such cuteness!

Aubrey's teacher Christina even danced in the show. It was really fun seeing her do her thing!

Such a fun night seeing my little girl do her thing!