It's kind of crazy-this is our 7th Christmas of having children, but the first Christmas of having one who really understands and participates in what's going on. And I love it! I loved it with Emily. We would sing songs, I would read her a Christmas book every night, etc. Our favorite was listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir together. The Christmas First Presidency Devotional just makes me miss Emily so much.
But Lily has a different level of interaction. It's just so fun to try to teach her about Santa Claus, and baby Jesus, and Jingle Bells, and the Christmas stories. Each night she wants me to sing to her "Baby Jesus." (Away in a Manger) I've tried telling her the Christmas story, so now she wants to hear about Baby Jesus on a trip! So I'll tell her Mary and Joseph had to go on a trip far away and there were no houses for them to stay in. Sometimes she'll add "To the beach!" (Since we went on a trip to the beach) and I have to tell her "No, not to the beach!"
We've had fun painting some presents, and she loves seeing Christmas trees. She loves the book Christmas Orange, about the little girl in the orphanage who doesn't get an orange for Christmas, so the other kids share. It's just really fun that she understands so much of it.
Lance rolls all over the place. He's trying to eat the tree.
Lance is a pretty big fella. When I carry him in the baby bjornn in the grocery store I get comments that he's about as big as me. After seeing this picture I can see what they're talking about!
Lance loves his bouncer, and Lily tries to sit on it. They're pretty funny. She loves to make him laugh. And when he wakes up she'll say, "Hi buddy; Hi happy. " Or "Hi handsome." It's so fun to hear her say it like we do.
Last Friday we took the kids up to the temple to see it at night. It was only Lily's 2nd time to the temple, and she loved it. She especially loved putting her hands in the top of this fountain! She tends to think lots of buildings and castles are temples, so I try to tell her that it needs an Angel Moroni on it to be a temple. I know that there are a few that don't have Angel Moroni's, but I figure we can learn that later!
On Saturday we ran in the 4th annual City Manager's 5K run. Robby pushes the kids every year in the stroller while I run it, and this year I won! I was pretty excited-it's only the 2nd race I've ever won-I never did in high school. My time was 21:09, around a 6:48 mile pace. I think pushing the kids in the stroller several times a week really helped me be in shape-its so much easier to run not pushing them! Lily was really cute; the rest of the weekend she kept saying "Mommy won a race-Yeah!" and then would clap. They had waited for me at a part on the race and cheered me on. Afterwards we went to the zoo, and on the choo-choo train, which Lily was even MORE excited about.
For Christmas we bought Lily a swingset, which Robby put together over the weekend. Lily loves it-this was after church on Sunday. The dress was one of Emily's though it hardly fit around Emily's little pot belly!
Isn't he handsome? I'm so baised. 
