Christmas Fun

Just a warning--->This post is going to be all over the place and long because there is so much I want to talk about.

I haven't posted since before Christmas so I wanted to back up a little and cover the past couple of weeks. I was a little sad because we weren't going to be around either of our families for Christmas, but this turned out to be one of the best Christmases I've had. We are still trying to figure out how we are going to celebrate Christmas as our kids get older but there are a few traditions that we started this year.

I wanted to decorate our tree themed and pretty but Jarrell had something different in mind. He wanted all the ornaments on ourtree to have meaning and purpose.

We decided that we would get picture ornaments and each year put pictures of each of the kids at Christmas and one of us. I was a little hesitant at first, but after I saw the picture of Moses from last year compared to this year, I was sold. We also decided that we will always open our Christmas presents on Christmas night, so that we can spend Christmas day focusing on the true meaning of Christmas and spending quality time together as a family. (This may have to change if we decide to throw a little Santa in the mix) We were excited to get Moses a big boy bed and he LOVED IT.

It was so fun celebrating Emery's first Christmas and being together as our own little family. Moses was extremely helpful in "teaching" Emery how to open her presents. Here is a picture of them in front of our tree. *Side note- I HATE fake trees but this year I was conned into buying one, so don't

judge our sad looking tree.

Emery opened her first present and was really excited about her tea set. (Much to Jarrell's dismay Moses enjoys this present as much, if not more, than Emery)

On Christmas Day we decided to take a family trip to the San Diego Zoo and we had such a blast. Moses loves animals and it is so fun to listen to him imitate them. The highlights of the trip were the Sea Lion Show, the Elephants, the chimp that tried to attack Moses through the glass, and Jarrell trying to take pictures of Emery that looked like she was eating theanimals.

The pictures directly below are examples of Jarrell trying to make Emery look like she was eating the camel. First Emery slowly approaches the camel looking all innocent, then out of nowhere she eats off his head :)

Moses hanging out with the "dirty" elephants

Brother and Sister Photo Op (you can tell Moses was less the thrilled about this)

The week after Christmas our nanny Kelly was gone, so Jarrell and I rotated working from home and at the office, which made for quite the hectic week, but we survived. There was a snow storm in the middle of the week, so it was fun to take the kids outside to play in it. It was nice to stay at home and do fun activities with the kids and it really made me miss being a stay at home mom (especially when Irealized how fast Emery is growing up, look at her stand up)

Moses showing off his cooking decorating skills

My little pink marshmellow