decorating galore

Now that we had our tree we could really start getting ready for Christmas!

Ava proudly puts the first ornament on the tree

Don't you wish you had HER help at your house?! : )

Kate was excited too


Daddy and his girls

Ava was really fun to decorate the tree with. We put the twins to bed and let her stay up late helping. I realized pretty quickly I had a choice to make: care about where the ornaments went or just enjoy the time. Let's just say the front 1/3 of our tree is about a full foot lower than the rest from Ava's grouped decoration. But it manages to make me smile every time I see it.

Decorating for Christmas this year was pretty sentimental. I kept pulling out pieces that my Grandma Maibach had given me specifically (like a Hummel angel I have) or the many ornaments we were given by Grandpa and Grandma each year. They remain to this day my favorite present every year. They felt extra special this year as I put them up and thanked God for the special Grandma I was able to enjoy so many precious memories with. This year, she truly knows the meaning of Christmas as she celebrates with the Savior Himself.

Ava loves all the ornaments herself and kept exclaiming how pretty they were.

Then on to the baking. Ava loved helping me with these turtle candies. They're the perfect kid friendly holiday treat.

My parents dropped in for 24 hours for the Christmas program. My mom brought along her gingerbread houses and the girls were all thrilled.

Let's just say there was A LOT of this.

Which brought about even more of these. : )

Ava and Grandma hard at work

Olivia was all smiles until I told her to show me her finished house. It was fun to see how hard both Kate and Olivia worked on their houses. They're growing up fast!

Ava's finished house