New Tree Ornaments

I love carrying on the tradition my parents started of giving each child a new Christmas ornament each year. It's been so fun for me to find something special that they are into at the time, and even better to see their reaction and excitement when they open it and find the perfect spot on the tree. 

Olivia loves to try on any and all shoes. She is often found with Eden's dress up shoes on too. This year, she got a glittery, golden high heeled shoe.

Bentley always gives the best expressions. No surprise that his new Darth Vader ornament was the perfect choice for him.

He was just as excited to see that Eden got the character "Joy" from the movie Inside Out. Eden loves that movie, and also lives with so much joy inside her so it was the perfect choice for her.

Bentley's collection of cool ornaments over the years.

And Eden's collection from previous years. Olivia was definitely fond of the Elsa princess so Eden had to keep her up very high on the tree.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Decorating the Christmas tree is always such an exciting thing to do for the kids. I couldn't get the lights up fast enough, so as I worked from the bottom up, they began hanging the ornaments. I love having cute little "helpers".

It's so fun when the kids come across the ornaments they received in previous years. It's usually just as cute of a reaction as it was the original time they received it.

Even Olivia was way into it. She, of course, couldn't actually hang them but she did a great job shoving things between branches.

And this is exactly how the tree stayed this year. The top half was completely empty, but the bottom half was packed full. They went to bed so proud of their work, and when I came downstairs and considered moving things around a bit, I couldn't bring myself to do it.  I'll have plenty of years to have a fancy tree, but for now - I cherish the childhood touch in my home. 

I love these three so much! Christmas is just so magical with small kids. So fun!

Miscellaneous Pictures from November

Mom: "Bentley, take off your mask. You can't eat dinner like that. " Bentley: "I'm Darth Vader, I can't take off this face."

My kids are major hot cocoa fans...

She's just so cute. This picture makes me want to snuggle her.

I love that Eden likes to read to Bentley, she just can't seem to get him to sit still long enough for her chapter books though and that frustrates her a little bit.  :

Olivia got to borrow Eden's rain boots and splash in the puddles. She thought that was pretty fun.

Bentley and I have been using the alphabet train to practice his lowercase and uppercase numbers. He is a pretty smart little dude.

One can never be too prepared for inclement weather while watching TV.

Bentley also loves to play this spacial, shapes game where he has to match the blocks with the way they are built in the pictures. It's fun to watch him learn and figure things out.

Who needs a real hot tub when you've got a big tub in the bathroom? Pretty soon we need to make room for another sister!

Little book worm made herself a cozy seat out of my couch cushions.

A quick picture request from the Darth Vader knight. He always has some kind of battle going on in his head, complete with loud sound affects.

Justice Thanksgiving in Colorado!

This year we traveled out to Parker, CO for Thanksgiving with the Justice family.  Matt and Heidi even came out from Tennessee which was a super long drive for them. It was so awesome to have everyone there though. The kids especially loved having so many cousins to play with.   Greg and Stephanie were great hosts, and we all enjoyed each others' company so much.

A couple weeks prior to us coming out, Keegan came home from his mission in Alaska and was scheduled to speak in church on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. So Saturday afternoon we made the drive out and we were able to be there at church with them when Keegan spoke. He did such an amazing job. It has been so fun to see how much he has changed and grown in the past two years. He is such a great kid and we are so excited for what the future holds for him. His testimony is amazing and I'm so grateful for the example he has set for us, and for our kids too.

He showed us a slideshow of pictures from his mission and told us some of his favorite stories. It was fun to hear so much about what he had been up to for the last two years.

"Mom, take my picture" and immediately gets into his favorite pose.

This little doll stroller got a lot of use, except not really with dolls. Claire and Olivia took turns pushing each other around, and even the bigger kids would push them around. It became a great little entertainer.

Ella helped the girls with makeup, hair and outfit changes for the fashion show they wanted to put on for us. They were very cute.

When the girls were done, Wyatt, Bentley and Briggs decided they wanted to put on a show too. I'm not exactly sure what was happening, some kind of wrestling and acrobat moves, but it was definitely entertaining!

And of course, there was tons of board games throughout the week. We had lots of laughs, and intense strategizing too (as seen here in this picture).

The kids even found a couple games that they could play really well together (without adult help) so they played a lot too which was so fun to watch.

These two girls were so cute together. Claire is about 4 months older than Olivia, but to her, Olive was a baby so she was very nurturing and loving with her. It was very cute.

On one of the days, we ventured out to the indoor trampoline park and everyone had a blast getting some good exercise.

Except me of course... I wasn't doing any jumping - and unfortunately neither was Olive. She was very grouchy that day for some reason.

On another afternoon, Stephanie and I were able to take these girls out on a little shopping adventure. We went to the American Girl Doll store and then out for ice cream. It was very fun.

These two are such cuties! Maddie hit a growth spurt and is now taller than Eden!

Bentley was in heaven having all the TN Justice boys around to play with. There was lots of wrestling and battles going on. They all got along so well.

Not the best angle for sure... but there's the big pregnant belly!

Bentley adores Blake. Everything Blake did, Bentley wanted to do and he followed him around like a little shadow. Blake was so sweet and nice to him, even though I'm sure it must have gotten a little annoying at times.

Heidi's sister owns a bakery shop there in Parker so one afternoon she took a few of the kids to the shop. Eden was so excited to go, and they even got to make some sugar cookies while they were there. She had such a blast.

Love this boy - he is so cute.

For the actual Thanksgiving feast, it was just our family and Greg's family. Heidi's dad lives there and she had siblings over at his house, so their family joined her side for dinner, and then came back that evening and had dessert with us.  The food, as usual, was amazing. I was having horrible uterine cramps that day and was in so much pain so I was basically bed ridden so I was such a horrible helper. Thank goodness for Stephanie. She was amazing, as usual.

Our whole Thanksgiving group!

She is rockin' the bed head for sure.

This was Olivia's first real exposure to snow. Surprisingly, she didn't mind the intense bundling that came with snow clothes. She looked so cute. If she fell down though, there was no way she could get up by herself.

Bentley isn't as much of a snow bunny as the girls. He likes to go out, but never lasts very long. Eden on the other hand, loves to be out there and doesn't come in until she is literally freezing. Looks like Olivia is following in her footsteps with that.

Unfortunately, I couldn't keep gloves on her, but she didn't seem to mind too much. She just carried around a bowl and spoon and ate away while wondering around the yard. She loved it.

Oh, another pose from this cool guy.

These two were such good buddies this trip. I hardly ever saw them because they were always off playing something together. I'm so glad Eden can make these memories with cousins as she grows up. I hope these two will always be close friends.

Overall it was such a fun trip. I'm so grateful to be part of this amazing Justice family. We are so grateful for Greg and Steph hosting all those people in their house for a week. It was crazy, and we basically destroyed their house, but we had a blast and made many more great memories. Happy Thanksgiving!!